2"] 2 BANTU PLACE-NAM lis IN AFRICA. 



grant races, the trek southward must have been mainly along two 

 paths : ( I ) along the highlands between Albert and Victoria 

 Nyanza — where even to-day there is, so to speak, a " jam " of 

 population ( over 50 to the square mile, crowded, as it were, in 

 the gate to South Africa, whereas in the rest of native Soutli 

 Africa, it is under 50 on an average : a friend tells me there are 

 traces of a great prehistoric road to the east of Mount Elgon, 

 coming from Lake Rudolf and passing north of Victoria Nyanza) ; 

 or (2) brokenly along by the sea-coast, or skirting the mountains 

 to the east of Victoria Nyanza, where to-day there is a great 

 mixture of races. West of Albert the Congo forests stretch as 

 far as the Atlantic (leaving indeed an eastern edge of grassland 

 which Stanley rejoiced to emerge upon, and which the early Hot- 

 tentots may have followed), and these tend to turn immigrants 

 southward, along the eastern shore of Tanganyika. Here again 

 the river of ])eoples would find a gate and tend to pass west of 

 Nyasa toward the Zambesi. Except in early days, the pressure 

 along the east coast of the ])ioneer Bantu, whom the Arabs found 

 in the loth century as far south as Sofala. would forbid all ])uc 

 strong races returning eastward to that side. 



How, then, did the lower Congo become populated? I 

 assume that as the main paths became blocked, tribes would pass 

 between the smaller lakes north of Tanganyika down into the 

 forest, and down the tributaries of the upper Congo from Lakes 

 Bangweolo and Mweru ( so the BaLuba in modern times. See 

 Haddon, p. 105). It is, of course, quite possible that some tribes 

 passed north of Albert Nyanza and down or across tributaries of 

 the Congo, as the line to Stanleyville does now, but there there 

 was probably already pressure from the westward trek of the 

 pure negro. 



That the Basuto tribes arrived at the Central Zambesi from 

 the north-east, and therefore passed between Tanganyika and Ny- 

 assa is ])robable from the fact that their legendary place oforigin is 

 Ntsoana-Tsatsi, or " Sunrise." There is a Ntsoanatsatsi in the 

 Orange Free State (Tafel Kop, by Vrede), but the tradition is 

 too widespread and old for this to have been the original. That 

 they should have come from the East coast, tlicir (^thcr traditions. 

 language, features, etc., forbid, but that they marched with their 

 backs to the ecjuatorial sunrise in remote days is probable enough, 

 and might well be remembered in later days as they marched 

 south; till, on arriving at the Zambesi, they would tend to ascend 

 the river for a crossing,* again marching with their backs to the 

 winter sunrise (their treks would nattu-ally follow the 

 Kaffir corn harvest) and so southward again. Thus would the 

 north-east be kept in mind as their home, and it is looking to 



* Cp. M. Ellenl)erger. who say.s the Barolong (senior clan of Bevvana) 

 left the Great Lakes at the end of the loth century, crossed Zambesi in tlie 

 T2th, and settled Zeerust and ]\Iafekiiig, liaving adopted the baboon as 

 their crest in the Dwarsberg at tlie end of the r4th century. The Bahu- 

 rutse separated and extended over tin- l^-ansvaal. 



