THE CONGO IN 1863. 
109 
River. Of these many are erroneous : for instance, 
“ nova,” to sleep (ku-nua) ; “ sursu,” a hen (nsusu) : 
while “ fiua,” scarlet ; “ bayeta,” baize ; and “ fumu,” 
tobacco, are corrupted Portuguese. A young lad, 
“ muleche ” (moleque), Father Merolla’s “ molecchas, a 
general name among the negroes,” for which Douville 
prefers “ moleke ” (masc.) and “ molecka ” (fern.), is 
applied only to a slave, and in this sense it has extended 
BANKS OP THE CONGO. 
west of the Atlantic. In the numerals, “ wale ” (2) should 
be “kwale,” “ quina ” (4) “ kiiya,” and “ evona ” (9) 
“iowa.” We may remark the pen tenary system of the 
Windward Coast and the Gaboon negroes ; e.cj. , 6 is 
“ sambano ” (“ mose ” and “ tano ”14- 5), and 7 is 
“ sambwale ” mose ” and “ kwale ”) and so forth, whilst 
“ kumi ” (10), possibly derived from neighbouring races, 
belongs to the decimal system. 
The first attempt at a regular vocabulary was made 
by Douville (vol. iii. p. 261) : “ Vocabulaire de la Langue 
