Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/578

 476 WEST AFEICA. section of tlie Congo. Farther down the right bank of the U-Banghi, which is by- far the more populous, is held by the Ba-Ati, Mo-Nyembo, Mbonjo, and Mu- Tumbi tribes, whose villages follow in as close succession as in the Ba-Ngala country. In the morning, when the men start for their fishing-grounds, or accompany the women and children to the fields along the river banks, as many as two or three hundred canoes are at times assembled, preceded by a kind of admiral's war- vessel, on which is heard the roll of the battle-drum. No less populous are the banks of the Nghiri, between the U-Banghi and the Congo, where villages, banana and palm-groves, follow uninterruptedly for a space of over 100 miles. West of the U-Banghi, the Ba-Lohi (Ba-Loi), noted for their herculean strength and muscular development, are on the contrary scattered in isolated groups about the windings of the stream. All these populations of the U-Banghi basin are remarkable for their physical strength and beauty, and are distinguished from each other by their tattoo marks and different styles of headdress. Cannibalism is very prevalent, all captives being eaten. The Mbonjos wear a singular costume, made up of foliage and fishing-nets. In the region of the French Congo, by far the most numerous nation are the Bu-Banghi, who dwell in the U-Banghi valley, and who rival the Fans themselves of the Ogowaj^ basin in numbers. According to De Chevannes, these Negroes of Bantu stock cannot be estimated at less than one million. Amongst them are comprised tribes bearing various names, such as the Ap-Furu of the Alima River, and the Ba-Zanzi (Ba-Nyanzi), on the left bank of the Congo, all of whom certainly belong to the same family, for they speak the same language and practise the same usages and system of tattooing. Villages of two or three thousand inhabitants are by no means rare in the territory of the Bu-Banghi, who came traditionally from the north towards the end of the eighteenth century. They penetrated as far as the banks of the Lefini, where they were arrested by the king of the Ba-Teke, who vanquished them in a battle which lasted three days. Ever since that time they are unable to descend in canoes down to Stanley Pool without paying tribute to a Ba-Teke official, bearing the title of the " River Chief." Nevertheless, they still continue to advance southwards, and are generally well received, owing to the part they play as agents of the local traffic. The Bu-Banghi are a highly enterprising people, daring speculators and great newsmongers, so that on their arrival in a village they are immediately sur- rounded by eager listeners. They are also the leaders of fashion for all the surrounding populations, for they display great skill in dressing their hair in points and bars, in painting the body and covering it with tattoo patterns and raised seams or welts, produced by means of two bamboo twigs forming a seton. The women submit to the torture of wearing massive copper necklaces and leg ornaments, and some of the great ladies toil painfully along under a load of jewellery weighing a hundred and ten or even a hundred and twenty and a hundred and thirty pounds. The post of Nkiwjia, which the French had founded in the Bu-Banghi terri- tory, has had to be abandoned, for it stood on the left bank of the U-Banghi,