Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/585

 western districts, where no Arabs had yet been seen. But in the cast, where these Semites had already made trading expeditions, all the villagers fled in terror, or entrenched themselves behind their palisaded enclosures. They even went the length of slaying the cattle which they were unable to drive away fast enough to places of safety beyond the reach of the strangers.

The Ba-Songe are a numerous nation, their territory being no less densely peopled than many of the more crowded parts of Europe itself. On all the interfluvial sections of the plateau are developed interminable villages, which have been compared to "black caterpillars crawling over the grassy surface of the prairies." Two or three parallel streets lined by houses and gardens wind along the crests of the escarpments, and but for the shape of the huts, the traveller might fancy himself in Upper Normandy between the river valleys flowing to the Channel. But the Ba-Songe villages are larger than those of the north-west of France, and the German explorers took no less than five hours to traverse one of the more elevated settlements from end to end. The population of the larger

groups is estimated by Wolf at nearly fifteen thousand, and the travellers were received by the village chiefs at the head of over a thousand warriors.

Each of these long lines of habitations forms a little autonomous republic, which however recognises the virtual suzerainty of a king, who resides in the Koto country, on the left bank of the Lu-Bilash. This potentate is a great fetishman, who enforces obedience through fear of his magic arts. But in Pogge and Wissmann he met more formidable fetishmen than himself, for having refused to let them proceed on their journey, the travellers spent the night in discharging rifles, sending up rockets, and burning Bengal lights. This produced the desired effect, and the king issued immediate orders for their departure.

Amongst the Ba-Songe, as well as in the M-Nyema territory, a few wretched villages are occupied by communities of those timid and dwarfish Ba-Twa (Vua-Twa) tribes, who are regarded as survivors of the aboriginal population. Other peoples along the banks of the Lo-Mami conceal their dwellings in the leafy