THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 278 
and founded the great Congo empire, which was discovered 
by the Portuguese at the height of its prosperity, when 
its ruler’s sway extended far beyond the bounds of the 
Congo districts. Nowa small amount of territory between 
Sao Salvador and the river is all that remains of a once 
powerful kingdom. The King of Congo still reigns at 
Sao Salvador, and though he is not precisely a Christian, 
he vacillates between the teachings of the Baptist mis- 
sionaries at his court, and the dogmas of the Church of 
Rome, who-has once more tried to resume her bygone 
sway over the Congo peoples. The Ba-kongo tongue, or 
more properly the Ki-shi-kongo, is spoken in greatest 
purity at Sao Salvador, and also about Palabala, and the 
southern bank of the river opposite Vivi. It is one of 
the most beautiful and flexible of the Bantu languages, 
having all the softness of Italian, the precision of French, 
and the flexibility of English, three qualifications, by-the- 
bye, well represented in the Portuguese, a language which 
is for some reason much more easily acquired by African 
races than any other European tongue. Portuguese has 
considerably influenced the vocabulary of Kongo, as 
might be imagined from the four centuries of intercourse 
between the two peoples. All things of new and exotic 
origin are expressed by slightly altered Portuguese words, 
such as meza for “table” (Port., meza), di-lalanza for 
“orange” (Port., laranja), sabola for “onion” (Port., 
cebola), and so on. ‘This Portuguese intermixture is 
much greater at Sao Salvador and -on the coast, and 
diminishes in proportion as we advance into the interior ; 
still some Lusitanian words have strayed far into the 
continent from the western coast, and, like the four old 
muskets that Stanley met with in Rubunga, have taken 
centuries to enter the vocabularies of tribes to whom 
Portugal is utterly unknown. Thus, beyond Bolobo, the 
pine-apple, a Portuguese introduction from Brazil, is 
ealled bi-nasi or bi-nanasi, a corruption of the Portugo- 
Brazilian name, “ananas.” On the coast the pine-apple 
has been established a sufficient time for it to have 
changed and varied its name, but among the Ba-yansi the 
ea T 
