392 
NATURE 
(Feb. 22, 1883. 
explorers and their followers might obtain provisions and 
be allowed to pass ; but the repetition of the same story 
of petty troubles and difficulties becomes ere long some- 
The habits and dwellings, the imple- 
ments and weapons, the dispositions and superstitions of 
the people in this region are pretty much the same as 
those of the other Bantu tribes with which Pinto, Stanley, 
Cameron, and other recent explorers have made us | 
Among the Ganguella we find considerable 
what tiresome. 
familiar. 
Fic. 1.—A Muata of the T’chiboco, 
manufactures of iron, while Bihé is rich and fertile, and 
its inhabitant the greatest native travellers in Africa. In 
reference to the Bihenos the authors have some curious 
remarks on the well-known African prefix in its varying 
forms ma, da, &c. They seriously lament the ignorance 
of ethnologists who call the Kafirs “ Bantu,” a word, they 
tell us, which simply means “‘ persons.” This is in strict 
analogy with the customs of nearly all peoples, who almost 
invariably refer to themselves by terms which mean /é/e 
people, the men, &c. Bantu has come to have a well-defined 
ethnological significance, and is not likely to be displaced 
by the not too well-informed criticisms of our travellers. 
Among the people of this region we find the same 
elaborate methods of dressing the hair, so common in 
Central and Western Africa, and with which readers of 
recentAfrican travel must be familiar. We have some inter- 
esting details as to the history of some of the leading 
tribes of the region, from which it is evident that for 
centuries the various African peoples have been in a 
state of almost constant migration, that the so-called 
states are exceedingly unstable, and that even here it~ 
would be hazardous to regard any one race as unmixed. 
| Fic. 2.—Woman of Cangombe. 
| 
| We give here two types: Fig. 1, a Muata, or ruler, of the 
T’chiboco; and Fig. 2, a woman of Cangombe, 
The sources of the Cuango were found at a height of 
4756 feet, at about 114° S., and a little east of 19° E., in 
one of the most extraordinary watersheds to be met with 
anywhere. It is thus described :— 
“ An extensive tract of land, all hill and dale, marks 
this culminating point, a sort of St. Gothard of the 
African waters. On the north, running through a narrow 
and tortuous valley, appeared the Cuango, which, shortly 
after its birth, flows at the foot of the plantations of 
manioc and massambala, growing abundantly upon the 
slopes, and at that time filled with girls and women 
engaged in hoeing and other field labours. A bluish 
Fic. 3.—Ebande (Fish of the Cuango). 
streak of land was visible in a south-west direction, and 
on the western slope, in Cavica, appeared the sources of | 
the Caitieu rivulet, which constitutes the modest com- 
mencement of the great Cassai. To the north-east 
stretched out the T’chibungo range, on whose eastern 
slope were visible the sources of the T’chipaca at about 
twenty-five miles from the point of observation, and 
whose latitude was 11° 27’ and longitude 19° 11’ 30”. 
Finally, the eye took in at various distances, approxi- 
mately determined by the compass, an infinity of spring- 
heads, the sources of various affluents of the T’chipaca, 
the Cuango, the Cassai, the Lume, and the Loando, 
which, glittering in all directions, poured their ever- 
increasing waters to the Congo-Zaire, the Cuanza and the 
Zambese, till they were lost to sight in the valleys and 
ravines, where a denser vegetation still hinted at their 
sinuous course. ‘The aspect of the country was magni- 
ficent. In the east, extended as far as the eye could 
reach, the rich green valley of the upper Cassai, clothed 
with numerous senzalas of za-guioco and wa-cosa, indi- 
cated by the white patches of manioc flour spread to dry 
| upon the Zvandos or mats of the abu.” 
‘ es 
