AND THE CONGO FOREST 



193 



their range over the 

 liigh mountains to 

 the west of Lake 

 Albert Edward. They 

 are, as a rule, a 

 personable lot of 

 negroes with not 

 particularly ugly 

 features, very like 

 the better - looking 

 Atonga of the west 

 coast of Lake Nyasa. 

 But the Banande are 

 of exceedingly low 

 appearance, and con- 

 stitute the ape-like 

 negroes to which 

 reference will be 

 made in the chapter 

 on anthropology. 

 The Banande do not 

 appear to have any 

 separate tribal 

 organisation, but 

 rather attach them- 

 selves to the Bakonjo 

 villages on one side 

 of the Sendiki,and to 

 the Babira settlements in the Semliki forests. They are generally charac- 

 terised by their stumpy legs, long arms, protruding brow ridges, and a marked 

 degree of prognathism. Very often their skin is of a dirty yellow-brown, 



A small Belgian station has recently been established on Lake Albert 

 Edward at the mouth of the Nyamukasa Eiver, near to P'ort George on 

 the British side; but at the time of my journey into this part of the Congo 

 Free State there was no station nearer to the British frontier than Karimi, 

 a large village of the Bakonjo, not far from the Semliki Biver. At Karimi 

 some fairly good buildings had been erected for the accommodation of 

 Europeans, and there was a garrison of negro soldiers (Manyema) under 

 a negro non-commissioned officer. These soldiers were very smartly dressed 

 in a becoming uniform of blue and red. They drilled in French, with 

 the same quaint travesty of the language as may be noticed amongst Sikhs 

 and other natives of India who drill in what they believe to be English. 

 VOL. I. 13 



WATKKBUCK OF LPrEll SEMLIKI VALLEY 



