BAKALAI (BAIALE, BANGOUENS)  , a Bantu negroid tribe inhabiting a wide tract of French Congo between the river Ogowe and 2° S . They appear to be immigrants from the south-east, and have been supposed to be connected racially with the Galoa, one of the Mpongwe tribes and the chief river-people of the Ogowe . The Bakalai have suffered much from the incursions of their neighbours the Fang, also arrivals from the south-east, and it may be that they migrated to their present abode under pressure from this people at an earlier date . They are keen hunters and were traders in slaves and rubber; the slave traffic' has been prohibited by the French authorities . 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 substructure 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 . The villages, some of which are fortified with palisades, are usually very dirty; chiefs and rich men own plantations which are situated at some distance from the village and 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, with the exception of 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 machinations of a sorcerer, and the poison-ordeal is often practised . Of their social organization little is known, but it appears that nearly all individuals refrain from eating the flesh of some particular animal .