192 THROUGH ANGOLA 



and Muchicongo on the coast, and Zombo and 

 Bajacca in the interior. 



To the east of the Umlundu group and beyond 

 the Coango River live a people speaking the 

 Lunda language and more closely allied to the 

 Congos than the Umbundus. Their greatest tribe 

 is the Quioco. Lunda once comprised a great 

 kingdom, with a Chief called the Muata Yamvo, 

 whose court and customs were the subject of 

 great interest in the las; cent ry. 



In the south of Angola are a great number of 

 tribes whose speech is more akin to Umbundu than 

 Congo or Lunda, whose blood is much mixed with 

 that of the primitive Bushman, and whose char- 

 acter, with the exception of the Ambuella, has 

 been influenced by these primitive, hunting, and 

 nomadic tribes. 



One fact was obvious even to a traveller like 

 myself : the tribes of the interior plateau were 

 physically superior to those of the coast lands, and 

 appeared to be of less mixed Bantu descent. These 

 differences are due partly to the influence of the 

 healthy and bracing climate of the uplands, 

 affecting the native physique as favourably as 

 the unhealthy and enervating coastal climate has 

 deteriorated it. They are also due to the inter- 

 mingling of the earlier Bantus with the original 

 coastal and forest pygmy-like tribes, which has 

 produced racial types like the Ba Tclicmo and 

 Ba Twa in the north ami the Ba Cuanclo and Ba 

 Cuisso in the south, while the later Bantu arrivals 

 remaining in the uplands of the interior have 

 retained a purer racial descent. 



