Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/597

 been regularly visited by Portuguese traders for the last three hundred years, and its markets have served as the intermediaries of traffic between the west coast and the uncivilised inland populations.

In the Upper Kwango Valley the dominant people are still the Kiokos of the Upper Kassai. Farther north follow the Minungos on both banks, savage marauders broken into numerous tribal groups without any political coherence. Under the influence of the Portuguese Catholics, to the national fetishes they have added wooden and copper crosses, and even crucifixes obtained from the white traders. Below the Minungo territory the western slope of the Kwango Valley is occupied by the Ba-Ngala, agriculturists and traders, who have long maintained direct relations with the Portuguese, from whom they have learnt to build large well ventilated houses with gables and high-pitched roofs. Slaves are no longer

slaughtered at the graves of the great chiefs, but the succession is still in the female line, to the eldest son of the eldest sister. The yaga or kassanjé, that is, the supreme soba, or chief of the Ba-Ngala nation, is elected by four dignitaries, whose choice is limited to the members of three families. According to the Portuguese traders, these electors mix a subtle poison with the cup presented to the new king, who is thus brought to the grave within a period of three years. The reigning sovereign, however, has dispensed with this inconvenient ceremony, preferring to be master de facto if not de jure. The Ba-Ngala capital takes the name of Kassanjé from the king, although better known to the Portuguese by the name of Feira, or "the Fair." Tere are effected the changes between the coast traders and the Kioko and Lunda merchants from the interior. Till 1860 the Portuguese commanded at Kassanjé; but in that year a revolution broke out, the warehouses were plundered, the orange groves cut down, and of twenty-one traders