At Banza Nokki I saw the first specimen of a Mundongo slave girl.  The tribe is confounded with the Mandingo (Mandenga) Moslems by the author of the “Introduction to Tuckey’s Journey” (p.  Ixxxi.); by Tuckey (p. 141), who also calls them Mandonzo (p. 135), and by Prof.  Smith (p. 315); but not by the accurate Marsden (p. 389).  She described her tribe as living inland to the east and north-east of the Congo peoples, distant two moons—­a detail, of course, not to be depended upon.  I afterwards met many of these “captives,” who declared that they had been sold after defeats:  a fine, tall race, one is equal to two Congo men, and the boldness of demeanour in both sexes distinguishes them from other serviles.  Apparently under this name there are several tribes inhabiting lands of various elevations; some are coloured cafe au lait, as if born in a high and healthy region; others are almost jet black with the hair frightfully “wispy,” like a mop.  Generally the head is bullet-shaped, the face round, the features negroid, not negro, and the hands and feet large but not ill-shaped.  Some again have the Hausa mark, thread-like perpendicular cuts from the zygomatic arches running parallel with the chin; in other cases the stigmata are broad beauty-slashes drawn transversely across the cheeks to the jawbone, and forming with the vertical axis an angle of 45deg..  All are exceedingly fond of meat, and, like the Kru-men, will devour it semi-putrified.  The Congoese declare them to be “papagentes” (cannibals), a term generally applied by the more advanced to the bushmen living beyond their frontier, and useful to deter travellers and runaways.  They themselves declare that they eat the slain only after a battle—­the sentimental form of anthropophagy.  The slave-girl produced on this occasion was told to sing; after receiving some beads, without which she would not open her lips, we were treated to a “criard” performance which reminded me of the “heavenly muse” in the Lake Regions of Central Africa.

The neighbours of the Mundonoros are the Mubangos, the Muyanji (Muyanzi?), and the Mijolo, by some called Mijere.  Possibly Tuckey alludes to the Mijolos when he tells us (p. 141), that the “Mandingo” slave whom he bought on the Upper River, called his country “M’intolo.”  I have seen specimens of the three, who are so similar in appearance that a stranger distinguishes them only by the tattoo.  No. 1 gashes a line from the root of the hair to the commissure of the nose:  No. 2 has a patch of cuts, five in length and three in depth, extending from the bend of the eye-brow across the zygomata to the ear, and No. 3 wears cuts across the forehead.  I was shown a sword belonging to the Mijolo:  all declared that it is of native make; yet it irresistibly suggested the old two-handed weapon of Europe, preserved by the Bedawin and the Eastern Arabs, who now mostly derive it from Sollingen.  The long, straight, flexible, and double-edged blade is neatly mounted by the tang in a handle with a pommel, or terminating knob, of ivory; others prefer wood.  The guard is very peculiar, a thin bar of iron springing from the junction of blade and grip, forming an open oval below, and prolonged upwards and downwards in two branches parallel with the handle, and protecting the hand.  They dance, brandishing this weapon, according to the slaves, in the presence of their princes.