1 10 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



and active traders. But they complain of the keen rivalry of 

 another dark people, the Judeos Pretos, or " Black Jews," who 

 call themselves Ma- Vambu^ and whose hooked nose combined with 

 other peculiarities has earned for them their Portuguese name. 

 The Kabindas say that these "Semitic Negroes" were specially 

 created for the punishment of other unscrupulous dealers by their 

 ruinous competition in trade. 



A great part of the vast region within the bend of the Congo 

 is occupied by the Baluba people, whose numerous branches 

 Basange and Basonge about the sources of the Sankuru, Bashilange 

 (Tushilange) about the Lulua-Kassai confluence, and many others 

 extend all the way from the Kwango basin to Manyuemaland. 

 Most of these are Bantus of the average type, fairly intelligent, 

 industrious and specially noted for their skill in iron and copper 

 work. Iron ores are widely diffused and the copper comes from 

 the famous mines of the Katanga district, of which King Mzidi and 

 his Wanyamwezi followers were dispossessed by the Congo Free 

 State in 1892. 



Special attention is claimed by the Tushilange nation, for our 

 knowledge of whom \ve are indebted chiefly to Capt. 

 C. S. Latrobe Bateman 1 . These are the people 



Bhang- whom Wissmann had already referred to as "a 



Smokers. 



nation of thinkers with the interrogative ' why ' 

 constantly on their lips." Bateman also describes them as 

 "thoroughly honest, brave to foolhardiness, and faithful to each 

 other. They are prejudiced in favour of foreign customs and 

 spontaneously copy the usages of civilisation. They are the 

 only African tribe among whom 1 have observed anything 

 like a becoming conjugal affection and regard. To say 

 nothing of such recommendations as their emancipation from 

 fetishism, their ancient abandonment of cannibalism, and their 

 national unity under the sway of a really princely prince 

 (Kalemba), I believe them to be the most open to the best 

 influences of civilisation of any African tribe whatsoever 2 . 



2 11 



1 The First Ascent of the Kassai, 1889, p. 20 sq. See also my commu- 

 nication to the Academy, April 6, 1889, and Africa (Stanford's Compendium), 

 1895, Vol. II. p. 117 sq. 



a Op. cit. p. 20. 



