Oil of bitter almonds . . gtt. x.





Chapter IV.

The Minor Tribes and the Mpongwe.



The tribes occupying the Gaboon country may roughly be divided
into two according 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 Mbusha; the numerous and once powerful
Bakele, the Cannibal Fan (Mpongwe), the Osheba or 'Sheba, their
congeners, and a variety of "bush-folk," of whom little is known
beyond the names. Linguistically we may distribute them into
three, namely, 1. the Banoko and Batanga; 2. the Mpongwe,
including the minor ethnical divisions of Benga, and Shekyani;
the Urungu, the Nkommi, the Dongas or Ndiva, and the Mbusha, and
3. the Mpongwe and the tribes of the interior. Lastly, there are
only three peoples of any importance, namely, the Mpongwe, the
Bakele, and the Fan.