on him,' meaning that the sauce had not been
to his taste."

The cannibals are generally tall and well made.
The Wabembe, says Captain Burton, on the
north-west shore of Taganyaka Lake, have
abandoned to wild growth the richest land; too lazy
to fish or hunt, they devour all kinds of carrion,
grubs, and insects, and like the Fans described
by Mr. du Chaillu, will eat the bodies of men who
have died of sickness. A tribe, living interior
to Coriseo, is said to come down to the shore to
catch people living near the sea, whose flesh they
suppose to have a brinier and choicer flavour.
On the other hand, the Pangwe tribe, interior to
the Gaboon, as we hang venison or pheasant,
bury the dead bodies of their enemies for a week,
to give them a gamy flavour before they are
eaten. The love of putrid meat, the want of
salt and other necessaries, bring on leprosy,
elephantiasis, virulent ulcers, and other diseases of
the skin; scrofula abounds, especially among the
tribes of the sea-shore. I have seen, says Mr.
du Chaillu, but two or three bald-headed negroes.
The Aspingi tribes, who feed chiefly on palm-oil
nuts, have many more children than other tribes.
Longevity is rare. Mr. du Chaillu saw but few
old men and women. There are considerable
differences in degree of intellect among the
several negro tribes, and also among the people
of the same tribe. Among the cannibal tribes,
the sugar-loaf head, often with a very receding
forehead, is most common. But they are skilful
in making iron implements, and otherwise intelligent.
The best heads, in every sense, as well as
the smallest feet and the most delicate hands in
Western Africa, appear to belong to the negroes
who speak the Mpongwe language. Among the
best, however, of these tribes of the interior—
where they possess a loom and weave palm
fibres into a good cloth—there is little achieved
by mental labour or forethought.

There is imagination, with astute power of
speech, sharp trading, and an ingenuity of lying
and cheating, that cannot belong to a merely
stupid people. Almost always, however, the lie
betrays itself on the man's face. But wherever
memory, or forethought, or a solid power of
reflection is required, the best of these people
fail; partly, perhaps, through laziness. Though
often treacherous, they are hospitable, and have
affectionate impulses. Their women show great
tenderness of heart.

Polygamy is the rule, but it is accompanied
with the most determined exclusion of blood
marriages. The tribes are split into clans,
almost always of the clan of the mother, and
descendants of one mother in any definable
generation, or the remotest ascertainable degree,
are forbidden to marry among themselves, all
such marriages being held abominable. But this
is the only recognised bar. A son inherits at a
father's death all his mothers-in-law as wives,
who must be useful to him if they have ceased
to be ornamental, the wife being bought, sold,
and inherited, and her position being, in West
Africa, a sort of slavery. In East Africa,
however, Dr. Livingstone tells of a tribe in which
it is a custom when a man marries a woman of
a neighbouring village, that he should go to her
house to live with his wife, and occupy himself
in carrying home firewood for his mother-in-law.
There, if a woman beats her husband, she is
brought to the market-place to be tried in the
Palaver House, and if found guilty is c
ondonned to carry him home on her back. This
is her triumph, because all the women along the
road rush out of their huts to cheer her, and cry,
"Give it him again! give it him again! give it
him again!" On the whole, even where the
virtual slavery of the woman is most certain,
and she is liable to the domestic whip, her
position is comparatively high. She has her way
in the household, and seems to be the happier
for the company of other wives. The husband
being accounted by his wives and neighbours a
bad man if he show partialities, the wives rarely
disagree among themselves, although they and
the women generally cause many wars and
quarrels among the men.

Their power of talk goes far. In nothing
does a negro so much resemble an Englishman
as in his skill at making long empty speeches,
and his patience in listening to hour-long
outpourings of words. In Africa, as in England,
the man is esteemed highly who can by his talk
rivet attention for an hour without saying
anything particular. But the "Hear, hear," of the
negro audience is more frequent. Let us quote
Captain Burton's account of the way in which
a Somali entertains a group of grave and
interested listeners, all seated about him with their
eyes fixed on his face, to receive the information
that he has been to the well. When everybody
is settled for the palaver, signal is given by the
inquiry, "What is the news?"

"It is good news, if Allah please!"

"Even so!" the listeners intone, or rather
groan.

"I mounted mule this morning."

"Even so."

"I departed from you, riding."

"Even so."

"There" (with a scream, and pointing out the
direction with his spear).

"Even so."

"There I went."

"Even so."

"I threaded the wood."

"Even so."

"I traversed the sands."

"Even so."

"I feared nothing."

"Even so."

"At last I came upon cattle tracks."

"Hoo! hoo!! hoo!!!"

A solemn pause follows this exclamation of
astonishment.

"They were fresh."

"Even so."

"So was the earth."

"Even so."

"I distinguished the feet of women."

"Even so."

"But there were no camels."