A ROMANCE OF BIHfi 109 



even to-day, may have grown to a city placed 

 on the great iron highway from the rich Congo 

 copper fields to the sea at Lobito Bay. 



The very history of Bihe and its people is a 

 romance. 



On a visit to a village of the sparse Ganguella 

 people, came a beautiful maiden from the Zambo 

 tribe, who live near the Loando River (the giant 

 sable country) to the north. Her name was 

 Cahanda, and her father was chief of the Gambas, 

 and called Boma. From the southern land of 

 Humbe, and in pursuit of elephants, which he was 

 following up the Cunene River, came a son of the 

 Humbe Chief, a mighty hunter called Bihe, with 

 his band of fellow- hunters. The two young people 

 met at the Ganguella village, and Bihe wooed 

 and won Cahanda. After conquering the Gan- 

 guellas, Bihe built himself a banza, and founded 

 a kingdom. The father-in-law, the Chief of the 

 Gambas, being won over, sent his people south 

 from the Loando to help Bihe. 



The race of the Bihes is thus a mixture of the 

 Humbes of the south, the Gambas of the north, 

 and the original Ganguellas ; but the great slave 

 traffic, which passed through the Bihe plateau, 

 has brought about a further mixing of peoples, 

 and the character and physique of the Biheno is 

 probably as much due to the vigorous air and pure 

 water of his uplands as to his racial descent. 

 There have only been some six generations of the 

 Bihe since the foundation of the tribe 150 years ago. ,/ 



The Portuguese obtained their influence in 

 this country in a curious mnmier. One of the 



