Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/36

 by the Cabindas, and especially the slave trade carried on either by the monks themselves or by the Portuguese and foreign dealers. The kingdom is kept together only by the mystic power of tradition, like the "holy Roman Empire" during the Middle Ages.

Although dwelling on the banks of the Congo, in the immediate vicinity of

the factories visited by the whites, the native communities lying west of San-Salvador have only to a very small extent been brought under European influences. The Mu-Sorongos, Mu-Shicongos, Bambas and others, have remained pure fetishists unaffected by any ceremonies borrowed from the Roman Catholic