August 17, ign] 



NATURE 



217 



are repeated in the work in question alongside the 

 degraded Bantu dialect now spoken by the Bushongo. 

 It is at once evident that the Lumbila is not a Bantu 

 language, though it undoubtedly possesses a few bor- 

 rowed words of Bantu origin. So far as I have been 

 able to compare the fragments of this tongue with 

 other groups of African speech, I find the only clear 

 indications of relationship to be with certain languages 

 of the Shari Basin, and perhaps with that vague group 

 of Sudanese tongues to which belong the non-Bantu 

 languages of the Upper Mubangi. Mr. Torday points 

 out on p. 43 that the Lumbila name for river is Chari 

 (in modern Bushongo, Nchale), which certainly recalls 

 the widespread term for lake or river which we find 

 in Shari, Chade, Chada (both of them terms for Lake 

 Chad and for the River Benue). 



I have pointed out in my own work on "George 

 Green and the Congo," that this central Sudan word 

 for a great water has penetrated far into the Congo 

 Basin, reappearing in the name Nzadi, often applied 

 to the western Congo, and the Portuguese Zaire. 

 According to tradition, when the Bushongo arrived in 

 central Congoland from their northern home they 

 ivere a naked people, accustomed to eat durra corn and 

 other millet-like grains unknown to the forest regions. 

 Their ancient nudity would ally them more to the 

 central Sudan and Nilotic peoples, for. strange to say, 

 however barbarous and savage may be all the peoples 

 of Congoland, even the Pygmies, absolute nudity in 

 the male is almost unheard of, and is reprehended. 

 The word Bushongo, according to Mr. Torday, means 

 the people of the "Shongo," and " Shongo " is appar- 

 ently the name for the iron throwing-knife, which was 

 brought by the Bushongo with them in their immi- 

 gration, and which only pentrates into the more 

 northern half of Congoland. This throwing-knife in 

 its origin is only a modification of the wooden 

 boomerang, and in its metal form seems to have 

 originated in the Tibesti Mountains. _ Indeed, there 

 is a good deal in the work under review, as well as 

 in the reviewer's own researches, which tends to indi- 

 cate a direct southward migration into the heart of 

 Congoland from Kanem and Tibesti; and it is prob- 

 ablethat from this direction comes the slight Cauca- 

 sian infiltration of blood, which, as the Tibesti region 

 of the negroid Teda or Tibu peoples, was probably 

 Caucasianised from the direction of ancient Efrvpt, 

 would explain the striking outcrop of Pharaonic face 

 outlines occurring and recurring ever and again 

 amongst the more aristocratic tvpes in central and 

 southern Congoland outside the great forests. 



According to a Bushongo tradition, the first chiefs 

 of the Bushongo (who are at present settled between 

 the Sankuru and the Kasai) were white _ or semi- 

 white, but the term white is constantly applied by the 

 negroes to races of pale-vellow or reddish skin, like 

 the Arabs and the Fula. Mr. Torday thinks that the 

 southward march of the Bushongo may have been 

 part of the same series of racial convulsions as the 

 invasion of northernmost Congoland by the Azande 

 (Nyam-nyam). The Bangongo and Bangende tribes, 

 nowadays so much affiliated with the Bushongo,_ would 

 seem traditionally to have arisen from a mingling 

 north of the Sankuru River between the invading 

 Bushongo and the pre-existing Basongo-meno, and 

 there is obviously a relationship between the Bushongo 

 and the Bashilele. and even an infiltration of Bushongo 

 elements (the reviewer would add) amongst the Baluba 

 and Alunda. Perhaps even the civilisation of the old 

 Kingdom of Kongo, founded by a legendary hunter 

 named Kongo, may have a Bushongo origin. It is 

 interesting to note that a totally different Bakongo 

 people exists in the vicinity of the Bushongo territory 

 in central Congoland, several hundred miles separated 

 NO. 2l8l, VOL. 87] 



from the better-known Bakongo of the region between 

 the Crystal Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The 

 original word Kongo seems to have meant a metal 

 spear, and consequently a hunter, and may even be 

 related to the term Shongo, applied to the throwing- 

 knife. 



An interesting point made by Mr. Torday was the 

 apparent establishment of the fact that when the 

 pygmy Batwa, of the dense forests, have been estab- 

 lished for some generations outside these forests in 

 the open country under the protection of the Bushongo, 

 their stature sensibly increased, so that at last their 

 descendants were indistinguishable in physique from 

 the other short-legged, long-armed, prognathous forest 

 negroes of nearly normal stature. 



In a succession of chapters after the first (which 

 deals with the origin and relationships of the Bush- 

 ongo) is given a full account of the elaborate govern- 

 ment and administration of justice amongst the 

 Bushongo and allied peoples. The long list of court 

 functionaries reminds one of L T ganda and other equa- 

 torial African kingdoms. The social life of the 

 Bushongo, their morality (which in some respects is 

 very high — see the admirable moral precepts set forth 

 on pp. 85-6), their ideas of property and inheritance, 

 commerce, sports, dances, warfare, distinctions of 

 relationship, and forbidden degrees of affinity in mar- 

 riage, their sexual life, religion, magic, funeral cus- 

 toms, industries, and arts, domestic animals, agricul- 

 ture, building, costume, mutilation, skin decoration 

 (tattooing), folklore, and languages are fully described 

 and illustrated. A great deal of space is given up to 

 the description of the really wonderful arts and in- 

 dustries of the Bushongo and allied peoples — their 

 wood-carving and their beautiful woven cloths, their 

 metal-work (very elaborate), and pottery. The linguistic 

 information concerning the Bushongo, Bakongo, 

 Bangongo, Bangendi, and Basongo-meno languages, 

 will be of great interest to students of the Bantu 

 family. This work is, in short, splendidly complete, 

 with one exception. It is ethnological rather than 

 anthropological, and it would have been additionally 

 interesting if Mr. Torday had been able to include 

 photographs of the many types of skull that he has 

 collected, and other pictures, measurements, and de- 

 scriptions, showing more clearly the physical con- 

 formation of the various peoples he has otherwise 

 described so minutely. From the various numerous 

 photographs and pictures one is able to deduce to 

 some extent what is not actually described in words — 

 namely, the physical features of these races of central 

 Congoland ; and it is interesting to note here and there 

 a type of physiognomy occurring which is also met 

 with on the northern Congo and in the central Sudan, 

 namely, quite a Caucasian type of face amongst the 

 men, with a fairly abundant growth of beard and 

 moustache, very bushy head-hair (except where this 

 has been removed artificially), and little of the negro 

 but the dark skin. H. H. Johnston. 



THE FRENCH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 1 



ONE of the problems of most far-reaching import- 

 ance in the Antarctic is the nature of the 

 southern border of the Pacific, for while we remain 

 in complete ignorance of its structure no theory of 

 the formation of the Pacific, the greatest geographical 

 unit on the globe, can be more than a provisional 

 hypothesis. 



Cook's description of his ' view from his furthest 

 south in the Southern Pacific suggests that he had 



1 Instiiut de France : .VadOmie des Sciences. Rapports Preliminaires 

 sur les Travaux execute's dans 1'Antarctiqne par la Mission commandee par 

 M le Dr. Charcot de 190S a 1910. Pp. x + 104. (Paris : Gauthier- 

 Villars, iqio). 



