202 
Life at Banza Nokki . 
perse, and thus each hamlet is a 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 villages, 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, unaware that Central African 
people do not build cities. Professor Smith rightly 
explains it “a village, which with them means a 
paterfamilias, and his private dependants.” So 
the maligned Douville (i. 159)—“ On donne le nom 
de banza a la ville ou reside le chef d’une peu- 
plade ou nation negre. On lattribue aussi a 
l’enceinte 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 
wholesome, yet in a sheltered valley, an amphi¬ 
theatre opening to the south-east or rainy quarter; 
the glorious trees, here scattered, there gathered 
in clumps and impenetrable bosquets, show the 
exuberant fertility of the soil. Behind and above 
the village rises a dwarf plateau, rich with plan¬ 
tains and manioc. After the deserted state of the 
river banks,—the effect of kidnapping,—we are 
surprised to find so populous a region. Within 
