LIFE AMONG THE CANNIBALS--CURIOUS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--COOKING
UTENSILS--A BLACKSMITH'S BELLOWS AND ANVIL--CANNIBAL DIET.
After we reached Ndiayai, I went back to my little hut, and found
everything I had left there. I had hidden my powder and shot in
different places, and had dug holes in which to hide my beads.
The news had spread among the surrounding cannibal villages that the
spirit, as they called me, was still in the village of Ndiayai, and
the people flocked to see me. Among those who came to see me, was a
chief of the name of Oloko. He gave me the long war knife, of which you
have seen a drawing, and explained to me how it had several times gone
right through a man.
Mbéné went away for a while, and left me entirely alone with these
cannibals. During his absence I studied the habits of these strange
people; and you may be sure that wherever I went I kept my eyes wide
open.
By the way, I see I have omitted to give a description of the town of
King Ndiayai. It was a very large town, composed of a single street.
When I say a large town, I do not mean, of course, that it could bear
any comparison as to size with London, Paris, or New York. I mean that
it was a large town for this part of Africa. It contained five or six
hundred men. The houses were quite small, and were all made of the bark
of trees; none of them had windows. They were nearly all of the same
size.
Strange to say, these Fans seemed to be very fond of music, and very
funny instruments they make use of. To hear some of their music would
make you laugh. They have not the slightest idea of what we consider
harmony in sound; but they evidently have a great liking for music
after their own notion. It is very much the same with their dancing.
They have not the slightest idea of the dances in use with us, such as
waltzes, galops, polkas, or quadrilles; and I am sure if they were to
see us dancing in our fashion, they would laugh quite as much as you
would laugh if you could see them capering in their uncouth style.
Like all the savage tribes of Africans, they are very fond of the
tom-tom, or drum. Those drums are of different sizes, but many are
from four to six feet in length, and about ten inches in diameter at
one end, but only six or seven at the other. The wood is hollowed out
quite thin, and skins of animals are stretched tightly over the ends.
The drummer holds the tom-tom slantingly between his legs; and, with
two sticks, he beats furiously upon the larger end of the drum, which
is held uppermost. Sometimes they beat upon it with their hands. The
people form a circle round the tom-tom, and dance and sing, keeping
time with it. They often invited me to hear them.
But now I am going to speak to you of a far more curious instrument.
It is called by these cannibals the handja; and I never saw it except
among their tribes.
Ndiayai was very fond of hearing the handja, and I often went to his
shed to hear someone play upon it. Sometimes, on these occasions,
Ndiayai would come out surrounded by Queen Mashumba and some of his
other wives, and listen for an hour or two to the music of the handja.
I give you a representation of the handja (_see_ p. 78), so you will
understand better when I describe it to you.
It consists of a light reed frame, about three feet long, and eighteen
inches wide, in which are set, and securely fastened, a number of
hollow gourds. The handja I saw contained seven gourds. These gourds
are covered by strips of a hard, red wood, found in the forest. These
gourds and cylinders, as you see, are of different sizes, so graduated
that they form a regular series of notes. Each gourd has a little hole
which is covered with a skin thinner than parchment. And what kind of
skin do you think it was? It was the skin of the very large spider
which abounds in that country, and from which I should not care to
receive a bite, it is so poisonous.
The performer sits down, with the frame across his knees, and strikes
the strips lightly with a stick. There are two sticks, one of hard
wood, the other of much softer wood. The instrument is played on the
same principle as a chime of bells, or an instrument used in France,
and which, perhaps, some of you have seen, composed of a series of
glasses. The tone of the handja is very clear and good, and though
their tunes were rude, they played them with considerable skill.
[Illustration: THE HANDJA.]
The Fans work iron better than any tribe I met with. They are very
good blacksmiths. Their warlike habits have made iron a very necessary
article to them. It is very plentiful in their mountainous country.
Before you is a picture of two Fan blacksmiths. Look at the curious
bellows they have. It is made of two short, hollow cylinders of wood,
surmounted by skins, very well fitted on, and having an appropriate
valve for letting in the air. As you see, the bellows-blower is on his
knees, moving down these coverings with great rapidity. There are two
small wooden pipes, connected with two iron tubes which go into the
fire.
The anvil, as you see in the picture, is a solid piece of iron. The
sharp end is stuck into the ground; and the blacksmith sits alongside
his anvil, and beats his iron with a singular-looking hammer, clumsy in
form, and with no handle; in fact it is merely made of a heavy piece of
iron.
The blacksmiths sometimes spend many days in making a battle-axe, knife
or spear. They make, also, their own cooking utensils and water-jugs.
These are of the shape you see in the picture before you. They also
make their own pipes, for they are great smokers. Some of their pipes
are not at all ungraceful in shape.
Besides the water-jug, they frequently use the calabash, as a vessel
to carry water in; and some of their calabashes are really pretty, and
very nicely ornamented. Some of the spoons, with which they eat their
human broth, are very beautiful. They are made of various woods, and
sometimes of ivory.
It is quite sickening to think what horrible people these Fans are!
Such inveterate cannibals are they, that they even eat the poor
wretches who die of disease. As I was talking to the king one day,
some Fans brought in a dead body, which they had bought or bartered
for, in a neighbouring town, and which was to be divided among them.
I could see that the man had died of some disease; for the body was
very lean. They came round it with their knives; and Ndiayai left me to
superintend the distribution. I could not stand this; and when I saw
them getting ready, I left the spot, and went to my hut. Afterwards, I
could hear them growing noisy over the division of their horrid spoil.
In fact, the Fans seem to be perfect ghouls. Those who live far in the
interior practise unblushingly their horrid custom of eating human
flesh. It appears they do not eat the dead of their own family, but
sell the corpse to some other clan, or make an agreement that when one
of their number dies they will return the body in exchange.
Until I saw these things I could not believe a story I had often heard
related among the Mpongwe tribe, which is as follows: A party of Fans
once came down to the seashore to view the ocean. While there, they
actually stole a freshly-buried body from the cemetery, and cooked and
ate it. Another body was taken by them and conveyed into the woods,
where they cut it up, and smoked the flesh. These acts created a great
excitement among the Mpongwes.
But you must not think that the Fans are continually eating human
flesh. They eat it when they can get it, but not every day. They kill
no one on purpose to be eaten.
One day Ndiayai took me to an Osheba town, the king of which tribe
was his friend; and let me tell you that the Oshebas were also great
man-eaters, like the Fans, whom they greatly resemble in appearance.
The chief of that Osheba village was called Bienbakay.
The Fans are the handsomest and most resolute-looking set of negroes
I have ever seen in the interior. Eating human flesh does not seem to
disagree with them, though I have since seen other Fan tribes whose men
had not the fine appearance of these mountaineers. Here, as everywhere
else, the character of the country doubtless has much to do with the
matter of bodily health and growth. These cannibals were living among
the mountains, and had come from still higher mountain regions, and
this accounts for their being so robust and hardy.
The strangest thing in connection with the Fans, next to their hideous
cannibalism, is their constant encroachments upon the land westward.
Year by year they have been advancing nearer to the sea. Town after
town has been settled by them on the banks of the Gaboon river. In
fact, they seem to be a conquering race, driving every other tribe
before them.
The colour of these people is dark brown rather than black. They feed
much upon manioc and the plantain. They have also two or three kinds of
yams, splendid sugar-cane, and squashes, all of which they cultivate
with considerable success. Manioc seemed to be the favourite food.
Enormous quantities of squashes are raised, chiefly for the seeds,
which, when pounded and prepared in their fashion, are much prized
by them, and I confess I relished this food myself. At a certain
season, when the squash is ripe, their villages seem covered with the
seeds, which everybody spreads out to dry. When dried they are packed
in leaves, and placed over the fireplaces in the smoke, to keep off
an insect which also feeds upon them. They are all suspended by a
cord, for, besides being infested by insects, they are subject to the
depredations of mice and rats, both of which are fond of them.
The process of preparation is very tedious. A portion of the seeds is
boiled, and each seed is divested of its skin; then the mass of pulp is
put into a rude wooden mortar and pounded, a vegetable oil being mixed
with it before it is cooked.
While on the subject of the food of the cannibals, I ought to mention
that they do not sell the bodies of their chiefs, kings, or great men;
these receive burial, and remain undisturbed. It is probable also that
they do not eat the corpses of people who die of special diseases.
[Illustration: NET-HUNTING.]