SERVILE TRIBES. 203 



The chief Monbuttu tribes are as follows : — Meaje-Majo 

 (fifteen tribes), Maudu, Mabisanga, Majo, Bamba, Mab5de, 

 Mambere, Nyapii, Abarambo, Abre, Mberi, Bote, and Mayanga. 

 They now speak the same language, although perhaps different 

 dialects, but some of them at least have languages of their 

 own. The Mabisanga are credited with having been the first 

 to cultivate the oil-palm, which they introduced from the 

 south-west. 



The Bamba and the Mayanga have a special interest for 

 us. The former are found again in the Makraka district as 

 " Mundii," and there speak their own language, which differs 

 entirely from the surrounding Makraka idiom. The A-Zande 

 call them Abangba, and I am inclined to identify them with 

 Schweinfurth's Abanga. It is remarkable, however, that a 

 long residence in the Makraka district should have transformed 

 these cannibals into industrious tillers of the soil. The Ma- 

 yanga, too, are already known to us, for they are identical with 

 the Babiikur, who live on the western border of Makraka, and 

 in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district, and are still dreaded cannibals. 

 We have here, therefore, to do with two southern tribes, whom 

 the Zande invasion not only cut off from their kinsmen in the 

 south, but drove far to the northward, where, up to the present 

 day, they occupy an isolated position in the midst of other 

 tribes. 



The Momvu, who are smaller and considerably blacker than 

 the Monbuttu, are found as servants in the households of the 

 wealthier Monbuttu. Almost all agricultural occupations de- 

 volve upon them, and both sexes enjoy a high and well-merited 

 reputation as field-hands. They occupy large territories to the 

 east and south-east of the country, where agriculture flourishes, 

 but their possessions are plundered by the Monbuttu con amove, 

 especially when they are wanting meat. 



The constitution of the Monbuttu is an extremely simple 

 one. The great chiefs are hereditary dignitaries, the royal 

 power descending from father to son, whom the younger 

 brothers are bound to, and usually do, obey. If there is no 

 grown-up son, the brother or next male relation succeeds ; 

 this arrangement also holds good during the minority of heirs 

 proper. Instances are said to have happened in which the 



