16 THE FERXAND VAZ. Chap. II. 



The clan of the Commi to which I was attached 

 (Aho^i2,-o) had several villages occupying the banks of 

 the river for a few miles near its moutli. Its present 

 chief — at least the chief of the river-side villagers — 

 was my old friend Ranpano, a slow, phlegmatic negro, 

 with a pleasant expression of countenance and good 

 honest intentions. The quality in Eanpano for which 

 he was most lauded by the negroes was his habit of 

 going to SiCep when lie was drunk, instead of quar- 

 relling. His authority in the clan was less, how- 

 ever, than that of Olenga-Yombi, the superior chief 

 or king of the Commi tribe, which inhabits the 

 Eliva, or Fernand Yaz district. 



The distribution of the population comprised in a 

 clan of these African tribes presents some curious 

 features ; for instance, the people under the imme- 

 diate authority of Olenga-Yombi live near the sea- 

 coast, about thirty miles to the south of the villages 

 of Ranpano ; thus they are separated, by numerous 

 villages belonging to other clans, from the rest of 

 their clan-relations. The head chiefship had be- 

 longed to the family of Olenga-Yombi for many 

 generations, and it shows the respect these primitive 

 negroes entertain for hereditary rank that they con- 

 tinue to acknowledge the sovereignty of the present 

 representative of the title, although the villages 

 under his immediate authority have declined greatly 

 in po[)ulation and influence. 



If I could succeed in preserving the friendship of 

 these two men and that of Quengueza, the powerful 

 chief of Goumbi, eighty miles further up the river, 

 my objects in coming to the country would most 



