Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/599

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THE LOWER CONGO.
495

frequented trading places. Bolobo, with its suburb of Moye, is a large town of from five thousand to ten thousand inhabitants, and is succeeded 30 miles higher up by Tchumbiri, also a populous place. Here the dominant riverain people are the Ba-Yanzi (Ba-Nyanzi), akin to the Bu-Banghi on the opposite side of the Congo. Although a treacherous, insolent race, addicted to orgies and human sacrifices, they show great ingenuity and artistic taste in the decoration of their

Fig. 264. — African Explorations since 1875.

instruments, earthenware, and dwellings. Topaz mines are sid to occur in the neighbourhood of Bolobo.

The Lower Congo.

Hitherto the commercial and political energies of the Congo Free State have been mainly concentrated at two points, Stanley Pool above the cataracts, and the