OUR JOURNEY UP THE UBANGUI 225 



arranged in two long lines forming a wide street. They are 

 well built, clean, and quite the best we had yet come across. 

 The huts are bee-hive in shape, with thick grass roofs 

 reaching to the ground ; they have small entrances but are 

 capacious inside with a diameter of about 12 ft. Some- 

 times one sees a square or oblong mud-built house, the 

 owner of which has come under the influence of the 

 white man and copied his style ; as a rule he is a time- 

 expired soldier of the French " Miliciens " who has settled 

 down in his home again after service on the coast. 



All along the river we found thickly populated villages. 

 Some are over a mile in length, and the appearance of the 

 people is extremely healthy and prosperous, a pleasing 

 contrast after the dirty little villages, with still dirtier in- 

 habitants, which we had lately come across tucked away in 

 the bush and standing corn. 



The Banziri, for the most part, inhabit a narrow strip of 

 country along the right bank of the river from Kemmo to 

 within a few miles of Mobbai. They are not a fighting race, 

 and do not venture far into the interior for fear of the bush 

 people, the Linguasi and Linga, who are akin to the Banda 

 whose cannibal tendencies they share. Their prolific nature 

 and healthy constitutions point to the fact that they are 

 comparatively newcomers in the land. Here they have 

 prospered in peace, for this is perhaps the only portion of 

 Central Africa which has escaped from the raids of Rabeh 

 and of the Arab razzias from the north. 



Their prosperity may partly be due to their avaricious 

 instincts and great love of trading ; it was most amusing to 

 watch how far their demands would sometimes go, quite 

 II p 



