432 ETHNOLOGY. Chap. XSI. 



Stekiani and Fan villages are intermingled witli eacli 

 other and often fighting with each other, for these 

 three tribes are the most warlike in this part of Africa. 

 The Bakalai and Shekiani are decreasing very fast, 

 and the Fans in the course of time will take their 

 place, and also that of the MjDongw^. 



What the cause may be of the sudden migration of 

 these cannibals, I have not been able to discover. 



The mio-ration of the Fans towards the western 

 board is but a repetition of the former migrations of 

 other tribes, the remnants of which we now see on or 

 near the sea-shore. 



From the Gaboon to Cape St. Catherine the tribes 

 bearing different names, and the tribes inhabiting the 

 Ogobai as far as the Okanda, speak the same lan- 

 guage, with the exception of the Aviia, who are said to 

 speak the same language as the Loango people down 

 the coast. The Mpongwe, Oroungou and Commi 

 were once interior tribes. 



Quengueza pointed out to me the place where the 

 people of Goumbi had their village, and where he 

 lived when a young man ; it was about forty miles 

 higher up the stream. The Abogo clan of the Commi 

 of the Fernand Vaz supply the hereditary chief of 

 the sea-coast tribe, on account of their having settled 

 there first. 



The Bakalai themselves were strangers on the banks 

 of the Eiver Ovenga, and it is only of late years (about 

 twenty years) that they have settled there by permis- 

 sion of the predecessor of Quengueza. The Bakalai 

 have only of late migrated from the north to the Ashan- 

 kolo and hence to the banks of the Ovenga ; they have 



