CHAPTER IV. 
THE MINOR TRIBES AND THE MPONGWE. 
H E tribes occupying the Gaboon country 
may roughly be divided into two ac¬ 
cording to habitat—the maritime and 
those of the interior, who are quasi- 
mountaineers. Upon the sea-board dwell the 
Banoko (Banaka), Bapuka, and Batanga; the 
Kombe, the Benga and Mbiko, or people about 
Corisco ; the Shekyani, who extend far into the 
interior, the Urungu and Aloa, clans of Cape Lopez ; 
the Nkommi, Commi, Camma or Cama, and the 
Mayumba races beyond the southern frontier. 
The inner hordes are the Dibwe (M. du Chaillu s 
“ Ibouay”), the Mbiisha ; the numerous and once 
powerful Bakele, the Cannibal Fa^ (Mpongwe), 
the Osheba or ’Sheba, their congeners, and a 
variety of “ bush-folk,” of whom little is known 
beyond the names. Linguistically we may dis¬ 
tribute them into three, namely, i. the Banoko and 
Batanga ; 2. the Mpongwe,* including the minor 
