432 ETHNOLOGY. Chap. XXI. 



Shekiani and Fan villages are intermingled with each 

 other and often fighting with each other, for these 

 three tribes are the most warlike in this part of Africa. 

 The Bakalaj^and Shekiani are decreasing very fast, 

 and'^ the Fans in the course of time will take their 

 place, and also that of the Mpongwe. 



What the cause may be of the sudden migration of 

 these cannibals, I have not been able to discover. 



The migration of the Fans towards the western 

 board is but a repetition of the former migrations of 

 other tribes, the remnants of which we now see on or 

 near the sea-shore. 



p From the Gaboon to Cape St. Catherine the tribes 

 \ bearing different names, and the tribes inhabiting the 

 jOgobai as far as the Okanda, speak the same lan- 

 guage, with the exception of the Aviia, who are said to 

 speak the same language as the Loango people down 

 the coast. The MjDongwe, Oroungou and Commi 

 were once interior tribes. 



Quengueza pointed out to me the place where the 

 people of Goumbi had their village, and where he lived 

 when a young man ; it was about forty miles higher up 

 the stream. The Abogo clan of the Commi of the 

 Fernaud Yaz supply the hereditary chief of the sea- 

 coast tribe, on account of their having settled there 

 first. 



The Bakalai themselves were strangers on the banks 

 of the River Ovenga, and it is only of late years (about 

 twent^^* years) that they have settled thereby permission 

 of the predecessor of Quengueza. The Bakalai have 

 only of late migrated from the north to the Ashankolo, 

 and hence to the banks of the Ovenga ; they have 



