Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/582

 480 WEST AFRICA. the women in field operation*, and raising crops of manioc, millet, maize, sugar, ground-nuts, and tobacco. The women are much respected, being allowed to speak in the public assemblies, and making their voices heard on all important occasions. The group of habitations, well kept and usually perched on some eminence, has its cluster of palms, whose size indicates the age of the settlement. The foliage of these palms serves to manufacture the native loin-cloths, as well as the robes of larger dimensions worn by the chiefs. From other varieties they extract oil and wine ; but, like the Bu-Banghi and Ba-Yanzi, the Ba-Teke at last kill these valuable plants, which when leafless and of a sombre grey present the appearance of so many gibbets set up on the hillside. . The plateau whence flows the Alima is held by the Ashi-Kuyas, who also belong to the Ba-Teke confederacy, and whose great chief, Nghia-Komunghiri, shares>the temporal power with the Makoko. According to Jacques de Brazza, the Ashi-Kuyas are the most skilful -weavers in the whole of the Frencli Congo territory. Lions and leopards are numerous on the banks of the Nkheni ; but they rarely attack men, whereas on the U-Banghi these rapacious animals are much dreaded. The heron, here a fetish bird, builds in multitudes on the trees overhanging the river-banks. On the French side of the Congo the riverain tracts below the Nkheni con- fluence are occupied by a few stations, such as Ngatchu, on a I'ocky headland, which derives some importance from iis position a little below the junction of the Kassai and Congo opposite Msuata^ on the left bank. The chief station in the French Congo domain has received the name of Brazza- rille, from the bold and persevering pioneer who opened up this region to science. It was near this spot that Brazza " buried the hatchet," and made peace between the blacks and the Falla, or " French " whites. " We will bury war so deeply that neither we nor our children shall be able to dig it up, and the tree that shall take root here shall be as a witness to the alliance between the whites and the blacks." Thus spoke the chiefs, to whom Brazza replied : " May peace last until this tree produce bullets, cartouches, or powder ! " It was in 1880, fifteen months before any other Europeans effected a settlement on the opposite side of the Congo, that the French took possession of the port of JIfaa, since called Brazzaville. It was abandoned two years later, but again definitely occupied in 1883. This part of the French Congo is inhabited chiefly by the Ba-Lalli, a half- caste Ba-Teke tribe, wdio are still cannibals, eating the bodies of slaves and of the caravan people w^ho die in their territory. On the arrival of the Europeans the complaint was made that bodies were now buried instead of being exchanged for sheep, bananas, and manioc. All freemen, however, are buried by the Ba-Lalli themselves with many strange rites. At the death of a Mo-Lalli the corpse is placed in a long wooden cylinder, which is kept for a month in the house, as if it were still aiive. On the day of burial fetishes are placed on the cylinder, which is decked with feathers, foliage, and ribbons, and then wrapped in cerements until its bulk is about doubled. The lofty bier containing the coffin is then fixed on a pivot supported by three long parallel poles, the bearers of which start off at a