FROM THE SHARl TO THE UBANGUI 213 



line meanders marking the narrow course of the Gribingi 

 river. Eastward from the hill of Crampel, which is its western 

 limit, extends the low range of hills known as the Kaga that 

 forms the watershed of the Bamingi. 



The Munjia and Banda people are an unintelligent, 

 degraded looking lot, and so much mixed by intermarriage 

 that it is most difficult to distinguish between them, though 

 there are still two distinct languages. They are scattered 

 all over the country between this part and the Ubangui, 

 having been driven south by the slave-raids of Rabeh and 

 the Baghirmi sultans. They are inveterate cannibals and 

 worshippers of ju-ju, wearing the barbaric ornaments that 

 mark a low civilisation. The features of the women are 

 distorted with peleles of metal, and they wear thick copper 

 or iron rings in the nostrils and upper lips, and a profusion of 

 iron bracelets and anklets ; bunches of human teeth hang 

 from their ears and strings of beads around their necks and 

 loins. Both the men and women have their front teeth filed 

 to a point. 



Their huts are conical in shape, with the thatch coming 

 right down to the ground over a low mud wall which is 

 heightened inside by the floor being dug 2 ft. below the 

 level of the ground. Outside there is always a ju-ju shrine, 

 consisting of a small, straw shanty, covering a wooden 

 platform upon which are placed rotten eggs, and some- 

 times the jawbones and masks of wild animals decorated 

 with the wings and feathers of white fowls. 



The ju-ju worship of the Pagan tribes of Africa forms an 

 interesting study in the growth of the religious instinct in 

 man. The Pagans have no God, but show in a negative way 



