Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/543

THE EUA STATE. 449 and salubrious country, perhaps destined to become a sanatorium for European travellers. Msiri's capital, Bunkeija {Unkea, Kimpata), a great ivory market near a small western affluent of the Lu-Fira, has already been visited by Reichard, Capello, and Ivens, who however were badly received, ;^[siri, who lives in a palace surrounded by human skulls, disposes of over two thousand fusiliers, whom he leads against the powerful Rua (Yua-Eua, U-Rua) nation, occupying to the north all the region stretching beyond Lake Lanji to the shores of Tanganyika. Msiri is a cruel despot bearing the curious Portuguese title of Maria Segunda ; and his brother, the governor of Kaponda, is a still more sanguinary ruler, whose palace is indicated from a distance by piles of human heads. The population of Garangaja, as Msiri's kingdom is called, comprises diverse elements collectively known as Ba-Yeke or Ba-Yongo, and specially noted for the great deference they pay to their women. The men are great hunters, always clad in skins, and armed with rifles from Angola and sharp-pointed assegais embellished with copper wire. This metal occurs in great abundance, generally under the form of malachite, the chief mines being those of Katanga, a three days' march to the east of Bunkeya. But contrary to the statements made by the Arabs to Stanley, there is no gold in the mining districts, although copious sulphurous springs are found in many places. The Rua Kingdom. Livingstone refers frequently to the country of the Rua people, giving fabulous details and a geographical relief of the land very different from the reality. Subsequent explorers have ascertained that the Lake Kamolondo mentioned by him as traversed by the Lua-Laba has no existence ; but the string of lakes forming the Lua-Laba takes the collective name of Kamolondo, and forms the eastern boundary of the Rua territory. This region, which was traversed from north to south by Cameron, forms the empire of the Kassongo, and comprises the whole space stretching north and south between Msiri's kingdom and the tract ruled by the Arabs north of Lake Lanji. The Kassongo's territory is bounded west and east by the Lo-Mami river and Lake Tanganyika, but does not include the TJ-Sambe (U-Sambi), who dwell west of the Lo-Mami, who, however, pay tribute both to the Kassongo and to their western neighbour the Muata Yamvo. But for all that they do not escape the raids of the Arab or half-caste Portuguese slave- hunters, who carry off their women and burn their villages. The kingdom is divided into districts, governed each by a hilolo, who is either a hereditary chief or a captain " appointed for a term of four years. If satisfied with their services, the king promotes them to a higher charge ; if not, they are mutilated, the royal usages being no less cruel here than in the neighbouring states. In IJ-Rua two punishments alone are recognised— mutilation and death, and near the king's residence are recesses filled with human heads. I^he sovereign is looked on as a god, and the most powerful fetish represents the founder of the dynasty. This fetish, kept in a forest, which not even the wizards may enter, is supposed to have for wife the king's sister, who with her brother has alone the