BAKALAI, a Bantu negroid tribe inhabiting the French Congo. They appear to be immigrants from the south-east, and are perhaps connected racially with the Galoa, one of the Mpongwe tribes and the chief river-people of the Ogowe. Their women display considerable ingenuity in dressing their hair, often taking a whole day to arrange a coiffure ; the hair is built up on a sub structure of clay and a good deal of false hair incorporated; a coat of red, green or yellow pigment often completes the effect. The same colours are used to decorate the hut doors. Some villages are fortified with palisades. Chiefs and rich men own plantations at some distance from the village to which their womenfolk are sent in times of war. The Bakalai of Lake Isanga cremate their dead; those of the Upper Ogowe throw the bodies into the river, except those killed in war. The body of a chief is placed secretly in a hut erected in the depths of the forest, and the village is deserted for that night, in some cases altogether ; the slaves of the deceased are (or were) sacrificed, and his wives scourged and secluded in huts for a week. "Natural" deaths are attributed to the machina tions of a sorcerer, and the poison-ordeal is often practised. Nearly all individuals refrain from eating the flesh of some particu lar animal.