88 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
single house, with its patriarch for president and judge. 
When the population outgrows certain limits, instead of 
being confounded with its neighbours, it adds a settle- 
ment upon neighbouring ground, and removal is the 
work of a single day. The towns are merely big vil- 
lages, whose streets are labyrinths of narrow pathways, 
often grass-grown, because each man builds in his own 
way. Some translate the word “ Banza ” by city, un- 
aware that Central African people do not build cities. 
Professor Smith rightly explains it “a village, which 
with them means a paterfamilias, and his private de- 
pendants.” So the maligned Douville (i. 159) — “ On 
donne le nom de banza a la ville ou reside le chef d’une 
peuplade ou nation negre. On l’attribue aussi a l’en- 
ceinte que le chef ou souverain habite avec les femmes 
et sa cour. Dans ce dernier sens le mot banza veut 
dire palais du chef.” 
Our situation is charming, high enough to be whole- 
some, yet in a sheltered valley, an amphitheatre opening 
to the south-east or rainy quarter ; the glorious trees, 
here scattered, there gathered in clumps and impene- 
trable bosquets, show the exuberant fertility of the soil. 
Behind and above the village rises a dwarf plateau, rich 
with plantains and manioc. After the deserted state of 
the river banks — the effect of kidnapping — we are sur- 
prised to find so populous a region. Within cannon- 
shot there are not less than twelve villages, with a total, 
perhaps, of 2,400 souls. 
Banza Nkaye, as usual uninclosed, contains some forty 
habitations, which may lodge two hundred head. The 
tenements are built upon platforms cut out of the hill 
slopes ; and the make proves that, even during the 
rains, there is little to complain of climate. Ten of 
these huts belong to royalty, which lives upon the 
lowest plane ; and each wife lias her own abode, whilst 
the “ senzellas ” of the slaves cluster outside. The 
foundation is slightly raised, to prevent flooding. The 
superstructure strikes most travellers as having some- 
what the look of a chalet, although Proyart compares it 
with a large basket turned upside down. Two strong 
