546 



PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



the Bantu stock (which is an ancient blend of West African Negro and 

 Hamite) ; others connected with the Manbettu (Mombuttu), Nyam-Nyam, 

 and Madi — all these, again, being races variously composed of crosses 

 between the Nilotic and West African Negroes, dashed with Hamite and 

 Nubian. In language the forest Negroes of the Uganda borderland and 

 the adjoining territory of the Congo Free State belong to two unclassified 

 groups (Lendu and Momfu) — tongues very distantly allied to Manbettu 

 and Madi — and to two distinct divisions of the Bantu language family, the 

 Kibira section and the Lihuku (divided into two very distinct dialects, 



"H*. 



301. PYGMY WEAPONS, AND TWO TRUMPETS MADE FBOM ELEPHANT'S TUSKS 



Kuamba and Libvanuma, or Lihuku). The names of the tribes of forest 

 Negroes coming under this purview are the Lendu and Bambuba (or 

 Mbuba) ; the Babira (Bagbira, Bavira), with their different cognomens of 

 Basongora, Badumbo, Bandesama, Bandusuma, Babusese, Basinda, etc. ; and 

 the Baamba, with the allied Bahuku (Babvanuma). 



The Lendu form a distinct group somewhat by themselves, and so do 

 the Bambuba.* The last-named are closely connected in origin with the 

 Momfu tribe which dwell about the northern sources of the Welle. 

 Linguistically speaking, I have not as yet been able to trace marked 



* Or perhaps more properly the " Mbuba." " Ba- " is the plural prefix of their Bantu 

 neighbours. 



