Chapters 35 to 40

One of the Bubis’ favorite occupations has been, for all time, the hunt. Truly, they have distinguished themselves in this with their exceptional skill and aptitude. It is not my intention to deal with the modern Bubi hunt, in these times when everyone possesses firearms, but only with the primitive hunt, when they were not familiar with such arms. Today the Bubi manages his firearm with confidence and is an excellent marksman, rarely missing a shot.

In hunts in days of antiquity, they used darts (bechika, mechika); traps (ekaso, sibèttèbèttè, boholo (N), siara, epeu, moholo (S); snares (riparu (N), rinchi, ekaso (S), etc.), and the creel (boatcho, moancho). The general name for hunting was ebeba and ebema, and they used to hunt individually, in society with an entire village, or in various assemblies. Hunters by trade, as some were established by chiefs, were called babeba, babema.

Hunting done in a common group they call bohotte, bohodde, bohonde, and this was undertaken some days before some grand celebration for which the village or district might be preparing. It began with the sound of a trumpet (botutu, mochuchu) that summoned the village to gather. They decided, as a group, where they would hunt and their hour of departure. When that hour came, the entire village set out, leaving only the sick, the nursing women, and the babies at home.

When the group arrived at the designated hunting place, they began to clear away underbrush and sweep the ground until the site was clear enough to form a spacious plaza. They encircled the cleared area with a barrier of stout stakes, then most of them headed into the woods armed with clubs, and the others, supplied with darts, remained in wait.

The first group formed a cordon and walked back in the direction of the cleared plaza. Using their clubs, they struck the brush, causing confused game to flee toward the prepared site. The animals would run themselves into the barricade and the second group of Bubis, armed with their darts, would finish them off. This brush-beating they named o boppa, o bobba, o choma, and it translates to English literally as: “to hit the woods.” With this method they hunted forest buffaloes (koppo mboho), deer (chou, nchu), antelopes (chechi, sibelo), porcupines (bipahá), pangolins (nkala), etc.

The old people say that in others times, in the ridges of Santa Isabel mountain, there were herds of forest buffalo. Those who distinguished themselves in the hunt of such mammals were the inhabitants of Otoikoppo or Batoikoppo, words that mean buffalo conquerors.

The Bubis pursued the buffaloes so cruelly and brutally, exploiting their meat and particularly their hides, that they exterminated them. The hides they made into large, strong shields, which darts, commonly, could not penetrate.

Buffalo hunting caused fights and bloody quarrels among the villages, as occurred on one occasion among the Basupuanos and Balveri (Botonós). Sharing the meat from the hunt apparently displeased them. They exchanged words, which went too far, and bloodshed resulted.

There were times when instead of hunting for game, they waited for it (ebechi). The Bubis have studied well the pastures preferred by antelopes and deer, and they know when, at twilight, the animals graze. Dawn they call ope, and dusk esaha. The Bubis arrived early at these times to wait behind a shrub or a trunk, or in the top of a tree. Then, when the beast was feeling most tranquil, he would feel a cruel dart thrown by a savage enter his body.

It is widely known that the Bubi arrow or dart is made of wood, without an iron point, and that they hurl it by simply throwing it with the hand, not using a bow. You will refuse, perhaps, to believe that a man can pierce an antelope or deer from any distance in this way, but it is a sure thing. There was a young man in a village who pierced a goat through and through from more than thirty feet away.

The Bubis also placed traps on paths or trails (boseka or moseka) that the animals frequently used.

So as not to make myself tedious, I will describe only one trap, the ekaso or siara. They dug a hole in the middle of a trail, planting four strong sticks in its bottom with two matching stakes in the middle. Two more strong stakes they drove deeply into the sides of the hole, and these they fastened to the two in the middle. They fixed a stout pole in the ground about six feet away, hanging a cord on its upper end that ended in a large lasso. The lasso they extended over the two poles in the bottom of the pit, attaching it to the bottom poles with a small stick. Thus, they forced the stick to bend, like an arc, held in a state of tight tension.

They cover the hole with leaf rubbish and a thin coating of fine dirt. An animal goes down the path, unwarily steps on the covered ground, where his paws collapse into the hole. At the collapse, off goes the small stick that held the tension on the stout stick, it snaps up, throwing off the open lasso and the beast is raised in the air, snagged by its feet. Into this lasso went antelopes, deer and some feral pigs.

The traps (boholo, moholo, epeu, etc.) they use to hunt small animals, such as grounpig[1] (nhoholo) and porcupines (epaha.) They catch small birds with the lasso riparu or rinchi, and with the creel boatcho or moancho, they gather smaller animals.

In eras long before ours, the main beaches of each region had a fishing village (roobé (N), roomé (S)) and its inhabitants were known as boobé (N) and boomé (S), which is to say, fishermen. The chief of the respective district required these men, just as tribute from vassals, to provide him with enough fish for himself, his family, and his servants. With any surplus, the fishermen bought their own fresh meat and game, yams, malangas, palm wine and oil, and other provisions.

These fishing villagers never planted fields nor hunted, but had the singular occupation of fishing.

Perhaps someone asks: “How is it that such villages have disappeared today, without even one remaining as an example?” There are still fishermen in the village of Ureka, and there, in 1914, I saw some Bubi cayucos with men in them heading out to sea. Another example is that Santa Isabel’s first residents named the village of Basupú of the East, or Basapo, “Fishtown.” This was where the fishermen of Rebola went, and in Bubi it would have been known as roobé and its inhabitants called boobé.

The principal cause of the disappearance of similar villages was the immorality that subsequently predominated in them. In the beginning, only the women went down to the beach to exchange palm oil, yams, malangas, etc., for fresh fish. Since Bubi law was so severe, punishing adulterers with such cruel and barbaric penalties, the men of the village ingenuously believed no one would be so audacious as to violate these laws.

The fishermen had their own women, but no one is ever content with what he has and will long for that which appears better than his own. The fishermen saw the extreme greed that the women of the besé had for fresh fish, and began to woo them with promises of better and more abundant fish. Greed and gluttony ruined them.

These crimes and abuses for a long time remained concealed, but as Jesus Christ said: Nihil occultum quod non scietur.[2] In time, the crimes became known and the chiefs of the mountain besés who had been most offended gathered in general assembly. The Bubi are jealous of their conjugal rights. They will relinquish them for no price. Outraged at this insult, and considering the boobé low and despicable, they decreed the general extermination of them all. Thus it was executed, all the guilty ones killed, and the innocents ordered to leave the beach and go to live in the besés.

A little after this bloody episode the Krumans came to the island, and they proved to be the greatest enemy of the Bubis and the downfall of their women.

To this day, families keep the name “Boobé” or “Boomé.” The verb “to fish” translates to o oba, and the gerund “fishing” to loobi.

When they were unfamiliar with fishhooks, they used darts or wood harpoons to catch fish, as well as for hunting. The darts were attached to very strong cords (besori) and they used them to attack large fish they found by heading far out to sea in their primitive cayucos (boato (N.) or boto (SW)).

They had an extremely poisonous liana or vine called luilo (N) and builo (S) that they used to catch fish. During low tide, they would dig a pool in the beach sand, surrounding it with rocks. When the tide went up, the pool would fill with water and, consequently, with fish. They quickly threw in pieces of the poison liana, and the fish would drop to the bottom as if drunk or anesthetized. When the tide again lowered, the fish were retrieved.

With palm tree branches, they built dragnets to snare sardines and other fish. This fishing system is still practiced by the Balachas in San Carlos Bay, and it they give the name losala.

The Bubi also use a net made of tight mesh (boatcho, moancho) with a wooden hoop, used like a large basket. They get into the sea with water up to their chests and use it to gather small fish and sardines.

They gather eels using much industry and an instrument called an ejó (N), hokó (SW), which consists of a stick with a lasso made of thin, strong fiber. As eels hide in the rocks of the beach, the fisherman extends the loop in the opening of their hiding place, putting bait in front of it to draw them out. The animal passes through the middle of the lasso to take the bait and the fisherman pulls the cord tight, holding the eel captive, unable to escape or slip away.

Today they fish with a fishing rod (boneha or moleha), with casting nets (lohotte (N), lohodde (S), and lohonde (SW)), and with baskets to gather river crayfish.

The Bubi possess very few domestic animals. From the bird family, only the chicken (kohe), and from the quadrupeds, only three species: sheep (choru, cholu, chelu), goat (mpori, mbori) and dog (mpuá, mbua). The quality of these animals is inferior to those on the Spanish peninsula. Their meat is flabby, less flavorful and nourishing, and their forms, proportionally, much reduced.

The sheep do not have wool, but hair, as goats, and their horns are smaller. Their udders are of an insignificant appearance and barely give sufficient milk to nourish a litter. Milking an animal is unknown to the indigenous. Some years ago they were greatly amazed when they heard that Europeans take nourishment from cow, sheep, goat, and ass milk. Their amazement raised another step when they learned milk was used not so much as a necessity, but for the pleasure of its taste.

The pure Bubi dog never barks, but howls as a wolf. It is of a despicable appearance, thin, poorly fed and not much of a hunter.

During the day, domestic animals go as free as they please with no one watching over them. At dusk, they all return to spend the night close to the houses of their respective owners; the chickens, in the nearest trees, and the others, in the boencha or in their roosts. They go to graze rather far but, in general, one never loses a beast in the woods. The owners mark all of their animals, so there is no need to make a daily tally. In antiquity, theft and robbery were unknown, so respected were an owner’s rights.

From the right of vagrancy that the animals enjoy comes the law, or general custom, that orders high and strong fences to surround village neighborhoods and fields. In this contrary way, the beasts’ owners have no responsibility for any damage they may cause. If a local road passes through the middle of a yam field, the law requires that the yam field’s proprietor put doors in his fence, closed by means of a cord, or that he put in double stairs to give travelers passage. People are required to leave the fence closed, under penalty of fine should the animals cause any damage. In the same way, chickens wear marks by which their owners distinguish them.

Animals that jump fences into villages or fields are tied up outside and, the first time, a warning given to the proprietor. The second time, they boxed its ears. The third time, they called together the owner and two experts to calculate and appraise damages, which the animal’s owner must pay. If a beast continued this bad habit, they destroyed it.

To help animals leave behind a house of a previous owner, they give them salt water to drink or bring salt-saturated driftwood from the beach to occupy them. They cook yams or plantains with spices to fatten chickens. They prepared egg-layers (bileko) with dried herbs (raalo), which they change a little if they have lice. And when the little chicks cannot go up the roost (biopo), they place them with care under the wings of the mother so that they are a little warmer. Pip (eijo, hombe) in chickens is cured with water boiled with red pepper, and with that same water they treat small pox in chickens, anointing the part afterward with palm oil.

They cure ringworm and mange (korokoro) in animals by washing them with nearly boiling water and later adding an uncture of palm oil. They extirpate dropsy by giving the animals the cooked herb bileppa (N), bokari (S) and salt water, and they combat diarrhea by keeping the beast in the house and feeding it only dried herbs.

There were official castrators to castrate animals, and they were very well rewarded.

They rarely sacrificed sheep to the ancestors of their parents, usually only goats and chickens. Nor did they eat chicken meat or eggs. These times have passed; now they eat well.

As the needs of the primitive Bubis were quite limited, one understands that trade or commerce was scanty. It consisted only in exchanging goods, although at rare times they would exchange with Bubi money (chibo lôhô).

The goods for sale were transported by porters, who were the servants, the larger children of both sexes, and the women, who carried the cargo on top of their heads. The chiefs, if they carried any weight at all, would carry it on their shoulders. That would only happen if he did not have any servant or woman at hand.

At distances of fifteen miles there were public sites called bitobam (N), and bochimba or selano (SW), which we call markets. These were small plazas located in the shade of local roads, where they made commercial transactions. Joined to the extinct village of Riringó, between Moeri and Basakato of the West, there was a bitobam or selano, another in Bariaobe, and another between Relebó of Balacha and the village of Ureka. This last I visited in January of 1896 and 1898 in two trips that I made to the Urekano beaches; but it no longer existed when I returned in February of 1925.

It is known that the inhabitants of Biapa and Balacha of San Carlos supplied yams and wine gourds to the rest of the island and also to foreigners. It is also quite certain that every year, in the months of October and November, there came small sloops from Calabar and Douala to San Carlos Bay for yams that the Balachas sold them in exchange for other goods. Upon the arrival of these vessels to that bay, the crew members made gunfire salvos and throngs of Balachas came down, loaded with big metete or betete of yams.

The people of Biapa and Balacha worked huge yam and malanga plantations and had large herds of sheep and goats. In exchange, they needed palm oil and other articles. At first, commerce consisted only in exchange; later on it took place by buying and selling with Bubi money. The Bubi money was long and short strings of small pieces of shells from shellfish. Those of about five inches were valued in twenty-five hundredths of a peseta; but they counted by rionchila. The rionchila consisted of twenty strings, which was equivalent to a peseta.

The villages neighboring Santa Isabel were the first to obtain European merchandise, such as iron pots, machetes, knives, hatchets, salt, liquor, cloth, etc. These goods were transported to markets in the southern regions and resold at a good price.

Usually villages agreed beforehand when they would be going to the marketplace for an exchange. If for some reason one party did not arrive at the meeting, the other party would not be angry or vexed. They merely would drop their goods at the market and returned home with no fear that their goods would be stolen. The late party would show up, take their merchandise that had been dropped there a day or two before, and leave behind their goods for exchange. When the first party was informed their goods were at the market, they would go pick them up. If they were not exchanging goods, but purchasing with money, they would leave the baonchila (N), maonchila or strings of shells at the agreed-upon price hung on the trunk of a nearby tree. I saw just such an exchange in 1896, in the market on the road from Balacha to Ureka. The baskets of yams from the Balachas were hung in the trees neighboring the road, which must have been picked up by the Urekanos.

The old ones told me that the first poto or foreigner who began to do business with the Bubis of San Carlos Bay was the now-deceased Guillermo Vivour. This black man invested in factories on many beaches, with the goal of stockpiling palm oil from different districts, which he obtained with salt, tobacco and other articles. As he treated the naturals with honesty and formality, he won their esteem and confidence. Likewise, he aided and helped exceedingly in the establishment of the Mission of Batete or Maria Cristina, in January of 1887.

The first European merchant who established his residence in San Carlos Bay was a Spaniard named Juan, who the Krumans called “John Pana,” which means “John Spanish,” and the Bubis of Batete gave him the name of “Vico.” He was most esteemed and respected by the Bubis, or at least the old ones of Batete spoke very well of him. He situated his house on the same point where now we find the House of Barcelona, and since that date the before-said point carried the name of “John Pana,” or John Spain.

All of the Bubis admit to ongoing and extremely cruel wars before the Europeans came. This continued while Spanish government policy mandated noninterference in local customs and practices. The peace that exists today dates from 1890, when Spanish missionaries established themselves in places most central to the island, which are Santa Isabel, San Carlos, and Concepción, and began visiting district villages.

In times before, private vengeances and attacks on others’ lives were the order of the day. It was quite dangerous for a person to cross a strange region alone.

It was noted before that to obtain the boita or moita title most honored among them, which was bohama (N) and bohabí (S), one was required to kill a personal enemy or outsider. He who sought to climb to the peak of Bubi nobility went to a remote place to wait in ambush by the road. When an unarmed man passed, he sprung out to kill him. Then he would cut off his victim’s right arm, put it in a pouch, and run to present it to his village botuku. The botuku would receive it with great displays of satisfaction and congratulate him for this heroic deed. They would either place the severed arm near the warmth and smoke of the hearth or put it in a container of oil.

The murderer returned to his house, his spirit filled with delight and happiness. He began working tirelessly to first provide himself with five biôtô spouses and later to prepare a grand banquet (siobe or siome) commemorating his feat. A huge crowd would attend and, once the feast was finished five or six days later, he was awarded the title bohama (N) and bohabí (S), which can be translated to “hero” or “illustrious man.” They go down in history, now, these evil treacheries and savage exploits.

Someone perhaps could have doubts about what I have just narrated. I cannot today confirm these stories. They were told to me by elderly Bubis, the majority of whom have gone to the other world.

Such were Bubi customs until the mochuku moote, called Moka, a man of gigantic stature, Herculean strength, and great power came to the throne. He was a very prudent ruler with an exceptional gift for governing, and was called mochuku m’oritcho omma omma — chief of the entire island.

While he held power, there was order and public security. When in his old age he began to decline, some villages resisted his rule. He sent his lojúa to repress their rebellion and punish them.

The primitive Bubis’ system of war is not clearly evident. Some claim that they would fling rocks with slingshots, to which they gave the names of pabula (N), mabola (U), mesisí and mesuisuí (S). Other say they fought with a club (toahá, choahá). A blow given with the haha (Bubi cane) to the head causes a wide and deep wound, as a wound with a machete. This I can assure you, for I have cured similar wounds innumerable times. On one occasion, a Bubi from the mountains came to me with six horrible head wounds that he had received in a dispute (roa, moloa) among neighbors from other villages. His wounds had him prostrate in bed with high fever for a month.

The skill in these fights is in delivering hard blows to the opponent’s head or wounding his arms to disable him. Such fights were common in the southern regions, and in the north they ultimately adopted boxing or pugilism (bakotto).

In wars of later times, they used javelins or throwing darts (bechika, mechika), which originally were intended for hunting deer. The old ones tell that the first man to make use of the bechika in battle was a certain Etataké, native of Bualatókolo or Ruiché ro Motéhé. The Bubi javelin is a wooden stick about five feet long, ending in a sharp point, its sides fat with tiny barbs in such a way that if thrust into flesh, one cannot take it out without tearing. To avoid such a tear they used to make two deep incisions on the sides of the wound with a sharp jackknife. As a defense against the bechika, they wore a cuirass of buffalo hide with its breastplate and backplate reaching the waist, protecting the chest, the stomach and back.

The Bubis of Batete tell the story of a woman of Balacha (molanchari) who was making her way to Bokoko. As she passed by Batete, the people there greeted her with affection, but when they drew near her for the accustomed hug, she hurled disdainful curses and insults at them, such as: Soohiñao, soó mbua ñao, that literally means: ”Go, dogs, to eat shit.” The enraged Batetes cut off her right hand and refused her passage.

From this date, according to the Batetes, they used machetes and other bladed weapons in war.

In more modern times, foreign blacks imported flint rifles, and the first use made of them was to kill the bapotó or foreigners. In San Carlos, the people of Rutoloeri de Boloko went down to the beach and killed all the bapotó who lived there. Much later, in July of 1910, they used them in the “Acts of Balacha.” In the operation of a flint rifle, the Bubi is quite dexterous.

The casus belli[3] most common were the murder of a village’s great man and the kidnapping, or flight, of a woman eôtô or legitimate spouse, with her being kept in another village.

In the first case, when word spread that a homicide had been perpetrated in another village or district, the victim’s village would send an ambassador to the offending village, who demanded to know the motives and reasons for the death of his countryman. If the motives and reasons were just, there it would end; but if there had been a grave injustice, the victim’s village would demand indemnification or reparation from the others. If the offender would agree to all the demands of the offended, relations between the two villages would remain intact. In the contrary case, the offended would declare war on the delinquent.

In the flight of a legitimate spouse, the husband would first ascertain her whereabouts. Once she was located, he would go to his own chief to tell him where the fugitive had been found and implore him to perform due diligence to return her to his hearth. The chief would send notice of what had occurred to the chief of the village where the fugitive had been found. If the fugitive was a boita spouse and had taken refuge in the house of a common sibala, she would be delivered to her husband. If the host violated the fugitive during this time, his own chief would embargo all his goods and he would be reduced to misery. In addition, the fugitive, for having made this flight from the conjugal domicile, remained defamed before the public and was the disgrace of her family. In supposing that she was violated, she was punished as an adulterer.

In the case that the fugitive took refuge in the palace of another district’s chief, her husband’s own chief ordered her reclaimed from the deforciant. If he immediately returned her, peace was maintained; but if he obstinately refused to return her, war between the districts began at once.

They made their war declarations with figurative terms such as: Olo bari to a jetasá lojecha lulé (Balacha): “Tomorrow we will dress ourselves in the same clothing.” Mbí ebari to a lahá nchobo nde (Batete): “Tomorrow we will eat together.”

Events having arrived at such a state, they first built large barriers or stockades of trunks (babeku (N), mabeku (S), meku (SW)). The suitable measures taken, they sounded the grand trumpet (mpototutu, mopotochuchu), summoning all able men to take up arms. They left on their campaign (lobotto (N), loboddo (S), lobondo (SW)) in tight squadrons, leaving behind a retinue of troops in the village outskirts in case of ambush. In each armed body there was a neloridorí or ñebbi, who harangued his people at the top of his voice during the skirmish to set their hearts aflame with courage. From time to time he repeated these words: Olib’o bosorio mbotelo momma: “Forward, brave men, face to face to capture a chief.”

In the event that they fought Batetes against Boloketos, and a Batete captured a Boloketo chief, the chief would scream: Elo boloketo nchiari!: “People of Boloko, I am a prisoner,” and the Batete warrior would cry out with all his force: Eno batete, mpasi: “Batetes, I have captured a fat one.” When this happened, disorder, confusion, and an infernal uproar would ensue, the Boloketos determined to free their imprisoned chief and the Batetes in keeping him. One could hear nothing but clubbing, curses, moans, and cries of desperation.

The signal to order capitulation was this: the chief raised his pole of command and gave some steps back, and the combat would end immediately. The victors imposed their conditions for peace and if the defeated ones rejected such conditions for very long, the fight renewed until one of the factions gave up and submitted without condition.

We made mention of the past wars between the first inhabitants of the San Carlos district called Batete, with the present-day residents. As these last defeated the first, they were expelled from their homeland and established themselves in the northerly region, comprised between the Ope River on the west, and Maputo River on the east.

The present-day Batetes endured many encounters with the Bokokos. In one of these perished Mai, the famous mochuku mo Motchè, and the Batetes were defeated. But they recouped, rushing the Bokokos beyond the Ndohá River, which serves as boundary nowadays between Batete and Bokoko.

The boundary line of Batete and Bokoko was in the older days the Oko River, which flows east to the Drumen property, inasmuch as Bokoko means inhabitants of the district east of the Oko River. In the present day they live to the west of the Ndohá. The terrain between both rivers is occupied by the Bachá or Biché Batetes, who before possessed the palm groves east to Balombe.

These same Batetes would lie in ambush in the old property of Guillermo Vivour, waiting for the people of Boloko to go to the beach for fish. A bloody and terrible slaughter would be executed. The inhabitants of Risule, Moeri, and Riringó verified this history, as well as the neighbors of Basakato of the West. On those whom the Batetes subjugated and enslaved, they imposed a shameful tribute of a certain number of young women each year.

We have noted before that the same western Basakatos argued and fought among themselves over the poor distribution of their palm trees. They quarreled and fought so much that the grandparents of the present-day residents of Basakato of the West threw their ancestors out of their country. They now live in Basakato of the East, between Basuala and Bariaobe. Thus the Basakatos, east as west, are brothers or form part of the same subtribe, but the eastern were expatriates or exiles of the Basakato of San Carlos.

We have indicated that the Batetes, primary inhabitants nowadays of Batikopo, Baloeri, Basupú of the West, Sampaka, Basile, Basupú of the East, and of Rebola, were forcefully ejected from San Carlos. Upon arriving at the banks of the Apú River, they found that region inhabited by other Bubis who, the old ones consistently tell, were the Baney and Basuala.

The Baney and Basuala were peaceful people, in those times, enemies of altercations and war. But they were antagonized by the recent arrivals, who were a most numerous army. They were at first able to fight off the invaders, defending themselves and their homes. But when the Batete realized they had lost, and that they were still refused permission to pass through the country, they threw themselves over the farms and homes with a concentrated rage, wrought from their shame and defeat. They executed a horrible slaughter on the poor indigenous.

That place still retains the name of the slaughter of the Baneba: Riorippuá ra Baneba.

The people of Meri, Risule, and other Baloketos in the same way carried devastation throughout the territories of Batikopo and Baloeri, even extending to Basupú of the West.

It has been some thirty years, the ancient Bubis recall, since the last foray carried out by Baloketos in Basupú. In that attack, the objective was the revenge of one of the main chiefs of that region, who had been insulted about his belongings and people. This chief, tell the old ones, was a true giant, so shrewd and such a brave fighter that in only one stroke he knocked down five of his enemies, and on one occasion confronted fifty of them alone.

The Baloketos went to Basupú secretly, lying in ambush in some underbrush near the farm of the giant, attacking by surprise and taking it without resistance, as they had found the man absent and only some women and children about. They took them out of the village and set it on fire. They cut off both hands of the old women and, as plunder, they carried away the children. The attackers withdrew and returned to their own region, the mutilated women filling the environs with painful howls and pitiful weeping.

The farm’s owner returned home to all of this. He bellowed with rage, like a wounded lion, gathering in a moment a staff of servants and neighbors able to bear arms. He ran in pursuit of the attackers and, overtaking them in Basakato between the Ope and Bioko rivers, rushed upon them like an enraged tiger. He routed them, put them in confusion, and stampeded them, taking from them the plunder they had captured.

The Batetes of the north, in the same way, frequently harassed and persecuted one another. The cause was that, even though they were all Batetes, they were divided in two branches, called Bariobatta and Baho or Rao. The Basupús, Baloeris and Batoikopos were Bariobatta, and the Barebola, Basupú of the East, Basilé and Banapá were Baho. There never was peace between the two. Night-time attacks, homicides, fires, and assaults followed one after another almost without interruption.

The Rebolanos also had made invasions into Bariaobe and Bakake, and the inhabitants of these last villages took up against the Bikos and eastern Baloketos.

From all of this, one gathers that for many years the kingdom of the Bubis was pandemonium. One can understand why the Bubi population became so reduced. This state of things lasted from the time many regions rebelled against the supreme chief of Biapa until the celebrated Moka once again subdued them.

[1] [Pigenglish for ground pig, a local name for bush rat. Trans.]

[2] [Latin: Nothing is concealed that will not be known. Trans.]

[3][ Latin: Act justifying, or regarded as a reason for, war. Trans.]