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Running the gauntlet of cheer and chaff from the noisy inmates of the many Bakele villages, and worried by mangrove-flies, we held our way up the muddy and rapidly narrowing stream, whose avenues of rhizophoras and palms acted as wind-sails; when the breeze failed the sensation was stifling.
The brightest spot in their character is an abnormal development of adhesiveness, popularly called affection; it is somewhat tempered by capricious ruffianism, as in children; yet it entitles them to the gratitude of travellers. The language of the Mpongwe has been fairly studied. Mr. Leighton Wilson, the others being Bakele, Benga, and Fan.
Further east the river, after being obstructed by rapids, broadens to a mile and becomes navigable they were probably above the "Ghats." It is supposed to arise south in a lakelet called Tem or N'dua. A Bakele village was seen near Ochunga, a large riverine island; and thence they passed into the country of the mountaineer Okandas. Village Life in Pongo-land. The next day was perforce a halt.
It has now died out this superstition, which corresponds with the carbuncle of Hoy and others of our Scoto-Scandinavian islands. Resuming our cruize on the next day, we passed on the right a village of "bad Bakele," which had been blown down by the French during the last year; in this little business the "king" and two lieges had been killed.
It stood in a pretty little bay, and the river, some 400 feet broad, was fronted, as is often the case, by the "palaver tree," a glorious Ceiba or bombax. All the people flocked out to enjoy the sight, and my unpractised eye could not distinguish them from Bakele. Above it, also on the right bank, is the now-deserted site where Messrs.
The Fan call the Mpongwes, Bayok; the Bakele, Ngon; the Shekyani, Besek; and the Gaboon River, Aboka. The sub-tribes of cannibals, living near my line of march, were named to me as follows: 1. A finely made, light- coloured people, of regular features and decidedly mild aspect, met my sight.
I then saw his intention was to take me across to that disreputable village, half Fan, half Bakele, which is situated on the main bank of the river opposite the island; this I disapproved of, because I had heard that some Senegal soldiers who had gone over there, had been stripped of every rag they had on, and maltreated; besides, it was growing very late, and I wanted to get home to dinner.
The characteristic difference of the Benga, the Bakele, and the Mpongwe dialects is as follows: "The Mpongwes have a great partiality for the use of the passive voice, and avoid the active when the passive can be used. The Bakele verb delights in the active voice, and will avoid the passive even by a considerable circumlocution.
Bowdich evidently speaks from hearsay; but the Brazil has preserved the old traditions of cannibalism amongst the Gaboes. The Bakele appeared to me very like the coast tribes, only somewhat lighter-coloured and wilder in look, whilst they again are darker-skinned than their eastern neighbours from the inner highlands.
The rocks, shoals, and stony bottom of the Ogobe reduced their rate of progress to three miles a day, and, after four wearisome stages, they reached a village of Bakele. Here they saw the slave-driving tribe "Okota," whose appearance did not prepossess them and whose chief attempted unsuccessfully to stop the expedition. They did not leave before collecting specimens of the language.
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