Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/562

 Negroes, with their European officers, either massacred or put to flight by the Arab slave-hunters.

The small European station of Ba-Soko, on the right bank of the Arawhimi at its confluence with the Congo, had also to be abandoned for motives of economy. In order effectively to protect trade in the Arawhimi basin, it would be absolutely necessary to maintain a strong garrison, and here Stanley established a camp to keep open his communication with the river during his expedition to the relief of Emin Bey. The Ba-Soko (Ba-Songo), wko have given their name to the European station, are a valiant and industrious people, and their arms, implements, and ornaments attest their artistic superiority over the surrounding populations. Their towns, one of which, Yambumba, is said to have a population of eight thousand, are distinguished by the pointed roofs of the houses, raised, like extinguishers, to double the height of the circular walls. The young Ba-Soko warriors also make a brave show on the water, manning their great war vessels, their heads gay with the crimson and grey feathers of the parrot, the long paddles decorated with ivory balls, every arm gleaming with ivory armlets, a thick fringe of white palm fibre streaming from the bows of the shapely and well-built barges. Yet these aborigines have not yet got beyond the cannibal state. Human skulls decorate their cabins, gnawed bones are mingled with the kitchen refuse, and Wester speaks of a local "king" who had eaten nine of his wives.

The projected station of Upoto promises one day to be a place of some importance. The site chosen lies on the right bank of the river at the foot of the Upoto hills, and not far from the northernmost point of the curve described by the Congo north of the equator. Farther down the point, where the river trends sharply to the south-west, is occupied by the station of Ba-Ngala (Bangala), so named from the inhabitants of the district, estimated by Grenfell at one hundred and ten thousand, and by M. Coquilhat at one hundred and thirty-seven thousand on both sides of the Congo. They have some very large villages stretching for miles along the riverain tracts, and Ba-Ngala itself, of which the European station forms part, is said to be scattered over a space of no less than 20 miles.

The Ba-Ngala nation also bears the same name as the Mongalla (Mo-Ngala) affluent, ascended by Grenfell and others to the head of the navigation in the Sebi territory. On the left bank dwell the Bo-Lombo, another branch of the Ba-Ngala, whose chief village takes the same name. They are generally a fine race, whose features would be agreeable, even to a European eye, but for their habit of eradicating the eyebrows and eyelashes, and filing the teeth toa point. Their national dress, made of palm-fibre, is being replaced by garments of European manufacture, still supplemented by the women with wreaths of foliage tattooed on the calves. The Ba-Ngala are a highly intelligent people, who, like the civilised Europeans, give way at times to incontrollable fits of frenzy or despair; hence, cases of suicide are far from rare amongst them. At the burial of a chief the women and children have been seen performing veritable dramas with dance and song representing death and the resurrection.

The station of Lu Longo (U-Ranga), which overawed the large town of the