OUR JOURNEY UP THE NIGER AND BENUE 31 



villages lie for the most part on the northern bank. These 

 have mixed populations, chiefly Hausa, Agatu, and Nupe 

 who have settled there for the convenience of the caravans, 

 that avoid the inhospitable country of the Akropoto and 

 Munchi tribes that inhabit the regions along the southern 

 bank. Of these the Munchi are the most interesting. They 

 are a wildly picturesque-looking people, black even for 

 Africans, and of hard and stringy muscular build. Their 

 clothing goes no further than a matter of form, and they 

 arm themselves with bows and poisoned arrows. In features 

 they are typical Bantus and bear a striking resemblance to 

 the Boobi of Fernando Po and the natives of the Cameroons, 

 who are other tribes of that race. No doubt at one time 

 they were all one people inhabiting the coast regions, and 

 were driven inland by the slave-traders of America, whose 

 vessels came raiding for their freights of human merchandise 

 up the Cross river. Perhaps their unfriendliness to the 

 white man to-day is largely to be traced to the traditions 

 of their persecution in those unhappy times and to the abuse 

 of native traders, so that ever since, their attitude has been 

 hostile to the white man and the trader, with the result that 

 the resources of this rich and fertile country, producing 

 rubber, gum, and ivory, are not yet opened to trade. The 

 supply of beniseed, which is an important product in the 

 trade of the Niger Company, is entirely dependent on the 

 Munchi, who bring it in or not as they choose ; the 

 same is the case with yams in the markets along the river. 

 Often these markets are held on the sand-banks in the stream 

 for fear of the possibiUty of a Munchi raid. The cry of 

 " Munchi ! " is quite enough to cause an assembled market 



