text: The rulers, irrespective of the stimulus which carried them into power, were symbols of divine power; they were intermediaries between the spiritual and material worlds. The states were religious in their sanctions as well as in character. Although European penetration may have altered their structure and weakened their political cohesiveness and influence, the death blow was not dealt to them by the Portuguese conquistadores but by African tribes. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries Central Africa was in a state of upheaval. During this period many tribes whose names have been insufficiently recorded broke into the interior, causing widespread dislocation of existing ethnic conditions: East African elements crossed the continent, finally settling in Angola, South African tribes appeared in the southern Congo region, groups leaving their previous homes in the Sudan pressed into the Congo Basin. Conquest followed conquest, until once powerful kingdoms were reduced to shadow existences. Thus the famous kingdom of Kongo was destroyed by Lunda conquerors in the sixteenth century, and after a short revival disappeared again at the end of the seventeenth century. The last king of this dynasty, when visited by Bastian in the middle of the last century, was hardly more than an insignificant village chief, although the traditions of the former offices, titles