Up the Gaboon River. 191 
and there are fewer brass rings. The men, who 
still cling to the old habit of hunting, cultivate the 
soil, practise the ruder mechanical arts, and trade 
with the usual readiness and greed ; they asked us 
a leaf of tobacco for an egg, and four leaves for a 
bunch of bananas. Missionaries, who, like Messrs. 
Preston and Best, resided amongst them for years, 
have observed that, though a mild and timid 
people, they are ever involved in quarrels with 
their neighbours. I can hardly understand how 
they “ bear some resemblance to the dwarfish 
Dokos of the eastern coast,” seeing that the latter 
do not exist. 
The Dikele grammar proves the language, 
which is most closely allied to the Benga dialect, 
to be one of the great South African family, vari¬ 
ously called Kafir, because first studied amongst 
these people; Ethiopic (very vague), and Nilotic 
because its great fluvial basin is the Zambezi, 
not the Nile. As might be expected amongst 
isolated races, the tongue, though clearly related 
to that of the Mpongwe and the Mpangwe, 
has many salient points of difference; for in¬ 
stance, the liquid “ r ” is wholly wanting. Ac¬ 
cording to Mr. T. Leighton Wilson, perhaps one 
word in two is the same, or obviously from the 
same root; consequently verbal resemblances are 
by no means striking. The orthography of the 
two differs materially, and in this respect Dikele 
