86 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



distinctly Negro tribe with pronounced prognathism, and al- 

 together a rude, savage people, trading chiefly in slaves, who 

 are fattened for the meat market, and when in good condition 

 will fetch about twelve shillings. On the other hand the Bandziri, 

 despite their Niam-Niam connection, are not cannibals, but a 

 peaceful, agricultural people, friendly to travellers, and of a 

 coppery-brown complexion, with regular features, hence perhaps 

 akin to the light-coloured people met by Earth in the Mosgu 

 country. 



Possibly the Bonjos may be a degraded branch of the Bay as 



or Nderes, a large nation, with many subdivisions 

 Natk>n Baya widely diffused throughout the Sangha basin, where 



they occupy the whole space between the Kadei 

 and the Mambere affluents of the main stream (3 to 7 30' N. \ 

 14 to 17 E.). They are described by M. F. J. Clozel 1 as of tall 

 stature, muscular, well-proportioned, with flat nose, slightly tumid 

 lips, and of black colour, but with a dash of copper-red in the 

 upper classes. Although cannibals, like the Bonjos, they are 

 in other respects an intelligent, friendly people, who, under the 

 influence of the Muhammadan Fulahs, have developed a com- 

 plete political administration, with a Royal Court, a Chancellor, 

 Speaker, Interpreter, and other officials, bearing sonorous titles 

 taken chiefly from the Hausa language. Their own Bantu tongue 

 is widespread and spoken with slight dialectic differences as far as 

 the Nana affluents. 



M. Clozel, who regards them as mentally and morally superior 



to most of the Middle and Lower Congo tribes, 



People*"* 1 tells us tnat the Bayas, that is, the " Red People," 



came at an unknown period from the east, " yield- 

 ing to that great movement of migration by which the African 

 populations are continually impelled westwards." The Yangere 

 section were still on the move some twelve years ago, but the 

 general migration has since been arrested by the Fulahs of 

 Adamawa. Human flesh is now interdicted to the women ; they 

 have domesticated the sheep, goat, and dog, and believe in a 



1 Tour (hi Monde, 1896, I. p. i sq. ; and Les Bay as ; Notes Ethno- 

 graphiques et Linguistiques t Paris, 1896. 



