THE FANS.
LOCALITY OF THE TRIBE -- THEIR COLOR AND GENERAL APPEARANCE -- THE
KING OF THE FANS -- AN UGLY QUEEN -- A MIXED CHARACTER -- HOSPITALITY
AND CURIOSITY -- FIERCE AND WARLIKE NATURE -- THEIR CONQUERING
PROGRESS WESTWARD -- WAR-KNIVES, AXES, AND SPEARS -- SKILL IN IRON
WORK -- THE FAN CROSS-BOW AND ITS DIMINUTIVE ARROWS -- WAR SHIELDS
AND THEIR VALUE -- ELEPHANT HUNTING -- THE WIRE NET AND THE SPEAR
TRAP -- FAN COOKERY, AND DIET IN GENERAL -- MORTARS AND COOKING POTS
-- EARTHEN PIPE-BOWLS -- CRAVING FOR MEAT -- FATE OF THE SHEEP.
The remarkable tribe which now comes before our notice inhabits a tract
of land just above the Equator, and on the easternmost known limits of
the Gaboon River. Their name for themselves is Ba-Fanh, _i. e._ the
Fan-people, and they are known along the coast as the Pasuen.
That they are truly a singular people may be inferred from the terse
summary which has been given of them,--namely, a race of cannibal
gentlemen. Their origin is unknown; but, as far as can be gathered
from various sources, they have come from the north-east, their bold
and warlike nature having overcome the weaker or more timid tribes who
originally possessed the land, and who, as far as can be ascertained,
seem to have been allied to the curious dwarfish race which has been
described on page 482.
They cannot be called negroes, as they are not black, but coffee
colored; neither do they possess the enormous lips, the elongated
skull, nor the projecting jaws, which are so conspicuous in the true
negro. In many individuals a remarkable shape of the skull is to be
seen, the forehead running up into a conical shape. Their figures are
usually slight, and their upper jaw mostly protrudes beyond the lower,
thus giving a strange expression to the countenance.
The men are dressed simply enough, their chief costume being a piece
of bark cloth, or, in case the wearer should be of very high rank, the
skin of a tiger-cat, with the tail downward. They have a way of adding
to their natural heads of hair a sort of queue, exactly like that of
the British sailor in Nelson’s days, making the queue partly out of
their own hair, and partly from tow and other fibres. It is plaited
very firmly, and is usually decorated with beads, cowries, and other
ornaments. The beard is gathered into two tufts, which are twisted like
ropes, and kept in shape by abundant grease.
The king of the Fans, Ndiayai by name, was noted for his taste in
dress. His queue divided at the end into two points, each of which was
terminated by brass rings, while a number of white beads were worn at
the top of his head. His entire body was painted red, and was also
covered with boldly-drawn tattoo marks. Round his waist he had twisted
a small piece of bark cloth, in front of which hung the tuft of leopard
skin that designated his royal authority. The whole of the hair which
was not gathered into the queue was teased out into little ropelets,
which stood well out from the head, and were terminated by beads or
small rings. His ankles were loaded with brass rings, which made a
great jingling as he walked, and his head was decorated with the red
feathers of the touraco. His teeth were filed to points, and painted
black, and his body was hung with quantities of charms and amulets.
The women wear even less costume than the men. Unmarried girls wear
none at all, and, even when married, a slight apron is all that they
use. On their heads they generally wear some ornament, and the wife
of Ndiayai--who, as Du Chaillu remarks, was the ugliest woman he had
ever seen--had a cap covered with white shells, and had made tattooing,
with which her whole body was covered, take the place of clothing. She
certainly wore a so called dress, but it was only a little strip of
red Fan cloth, about four inches wide. Two enormous copper rings were
passed through the lobes of her ears, which they dragged down in a very
unsightly manner, and on her ankles were iron rings of great weight.
These were her most precious ornaments, iron being to the Fans even
more valuable than gold is among ourselves. Apparently from constant
exposure, her skin was rough like the bark of a tree.
Most of the married women wear a bark belt about four inches wide,
which passes over one shoulder and under the other. This is not meant
as an article of dress, but only a sort of cradle. The child is seated
on this belt, so that its weight is principally sustained by it, and
it can be shifted about from side to side by merely changing the belt
from one arm to the other. The women are, as a rule, smaller in stature
than the men, and are not at all pretty, what pretence to beauty they
may have being destroyed by their abominable practice of painting their
bodies red, and filing their teeth to sharp points.
From the accounts of those who have mixed with them, the Fans present
a strange jumble of characters. They practise open and avowed
cannibalism--a custom which is as repulsive to civilized feelings
as can well be imagined. They are fierce, warlike, and ruthless in
battle, fighting for the mere love of it, with their hand against every
man. Yet in private life they are hospitable, polite, and gentle,
rather afraid of strangers, and as mildly inquisitive as cats. Both
Du Chaillu and Mr. Reade agree in these points, and the latter has
given a most amusing account of his introduction to a Fan village.
He had been previously challenged on the Gaboon River by a Fan, who
forbade the boat to pass, but, on being offered a brass rod per diem
as a recompense for his services as guide, “grinned horribly a ghastly
smile,” which showed his filed teeth, and agreed to conduct the party
to the next village. He kept his word like a man, and brought the boat
to a village, where our author made his first acquaintance with the
tribe.
“I examined these people with the interest of a traveller; they hailed
me with the enthusiasm of a mob. The chief’s house, to which I had been
conducted, was surrounded by a crowd of cannibals, four deep; and the
slight modicum of light which native architecture permits to come in by
the door was intercepted by heads and parrots’ feathers. At the same
time, every man talked as if he had two voices. Oshupu obtained me a
short respite by explaining to them that it was the habit of the animal
to come out to air himself, and to walk to and fro in the one street
of the village. Being already inured to this kind of thing, I went out
at sunset and sat before the door. Oshupu, squatting beside me, and
playing on a musical instrument, gave the proceeding the appearance of
a theatrical entertainment.
“And this taught me how often an actor can return the open merriment
of the house with sly laughter in his sleeve. One seldom has the
fortune to see anything so ludicrous on the stage as the grotesque
grimaces of a laughing audience. But oh, if Hogarth could have seen
my cannibals! Here stood two men with their hands upon each other’s
shoulders, staring at me in mute wonder, their eyes like saucers,
their mouths like open sepulchres. There an old woman, in a stooping
attitude, with her hands on her knees, like a cricketer ‘fielding out;’
a man was dragging up his frightened wife to look at me, and a child
cried bitterly with averted eyes. After the Fans had taken the edge off
their curiosity, and had dispersed a little, I rose to enjoy my evening
promenade. All stared at me with increasing wonder. That a man should
walk backward and forward with no fixed object is something which the
slothful negro cannot understand, and which possibly appears to him
rather the action of a beast than of a human being.
“It was not long before they contrived to conquer their timidity. I
observed two or three girls whispering together and looking at me.
Presently I felt an inquisitive finger laid on my coat, and heard the
sound of bare feet running away. I remained in the same position. Then
one bolder than the rest approached me, and spoke to me smiling. I
assumed as amiable an expression as Nature would permit, and touched
my ears to show that I did not understand. At this they had a great
laugh, as if I had said something good, and the two others began to
draw near like cats. One girl took my hand between hers, and stroked it
timidly; the others, raising toward me their beautiful black eyes, and
with smiles showing teeth which were not filed, and which were as white
as snow, demanded permission to touch this hand, which seemed to them
so strange. And then they all felt my cheeks and my straight hair, and
looked upon me as a tame prodigy sent to them by the gods; and all the
while they chattered, the pretty things, as if I could understand them.
“Now ensued a grand discussion; first my skin was touched, and then
my coat, and the two were carefully compared. At length one of them
happened to pull back my coat, and on seeing my wrist they gave a cry,
and clapped their hands unanimously. They had been arguing whether my
coat was of the same material as my skin, and an accident had solved
the mystery.
“I was soon encircled by women and children, who wished to touch
my hands, and to peep under my cuffs--a proceeding which I endured
with exemplary patience. Nor did I ever spend half an hour in a Fan
village before these weaker vessels had forgotten that they had cried
with terror when they first saw me; and before I also had forgotten
that these amicable Yaricos would stew me in palm oil and serve me up
before their aged sires, if so ordered, with as little reluctance as
an English cook would crimp her cod, skin her eels alive, or boil her
lobsters into red agony.”
The Fans are a fierce and warlike people, and by dint of arms have
forced their way into countries far distant from their own, wherever
that may have been. No tribes have been able to stand against them, and
even the large and powerful Bakalai and Shekiani have had to yield up
village after village to the invaders, so that in some parts all these
tribes are curiously intermingled; and all these are at war with each
other. The Fans, however, are more than a match for the other two, even
if they were to combine forces, which their short-sighted jealousy will
not permit them to do; and by slow degrees the Bakalai and Shekiani
are wasting away, and the Fans taking their places. They have even
penetrated into the Mpongwé country, so that they proceed steadily from
the east toward the seaboard.
The progress made by the Fans has been astonishingly rapid. Before 1847
they were only known traditionally to the sea-shore tribes as a race of
warlike cannibals, a few villages being found in the mountainous region
from which the head waters of the Gaboon River take their origin.
Now they have passed westward until they are within a few miles of
the sea-coast and are now and then seen among the settlements of the
traders.
Every Fan becomes a warrior when he obtains the age of manhood, and
goes systematically armed with a truly formidable array of weapons.
Their principal offensive weapon is the huge war-knife, which is
sometimes three feet in length, and seven inches or so in width.
Several forms of these knives are shown in the illustration on page
558. The general shape is much like that of the knives used in other
parts of Western Africa. That on the left hand (fig. 1) may almost be
called a sword, so large and heavy is it. In using it, the Fan warrior
prefers the point to the edge, and keeps it sharpened for the express
purpose. Another form of knife is seen in fig. 2. This has no point,
and is used as a cutting instrument. Many of them have also a smaller
knife, which they use for cutting meat, and other domestic purposes,
reserving the large knives entirely for battle.
All these knives are kept very sharp, and are preserved in sheaths,
such as are seen in the illustration. The sheaths are mostly made of
two flat pieces of wood, slightly hollowed out, so as to receive the
blade, and covered with hide of some sort. Snake skin forms a favorite
covering to the sheaths, and many of the sheaths are covered with human
skin, torn from the body of a slain enemy. The two halves of the sheath
are bound together by strips of raw hide, which hold them quite firmly
in their places.
Axes of different kinds are also employed by the Fans. One of these
bears a singular resemblance to the Neam-Nam war-knife, as seen on page
437, and is used in exactly the same manner, namely, as a missile.
Its head is flat and pointed, and just above the handle is a sharp
projection, much like that on the Neam-Nam knife. When the Fan warrior
flings his axe, he aims it at the head of the enemy, and has a knack of
hurling it so that its point strikes downward, and thus indicts a blow
strong enough to crush even the hard skull of a native African.
Spears are also used, their shafts being about six or seven feet in
length, and of some thickness. They are used for thrusting, and not for
throwing, and their heads are of various shapes. There is a very good
group of them in the museum of the Anthropological Society, exhibiting
the chief forms of the heads. These spears, as well as the shield which
accompanies them, were brought to England by M. du Chaillu, to whom
we are indebted for most of our knowledge concerning this remarkable
tribe. Some of the spear heads are quite plain and leaf-shaped, while
others are formed in rather a fantastical manner. One, for example, has
several large and flat barbs set just under the head, another has only
a single pair of barbs, while a third looks much like the sword-knife
set in the end of a shaft, and so converted into a spear.
All their weapons are kept in the best order, their owners being ever
ready for a fray; and they are valued in proportion to the execution
which they have done, the warriors having an almost superstitious
regard for a knife which has killed a man. Their weapons are all made
by themselves, and the quality of the steel is really surprising. They
obtain their iron ore from the surface of the ground, where it lies
about plentifully in some localities. In order to smelt it, they cut a
vast supply of wood and build a large pile, laying on it a quantity of
the ore broken into pieces. More wood is then thrown on the top, and
the whole is lighted. Fresh supplies of wood are continually added,
until the iron is fairly melted out of the ore. Of course by this rough
mode of procedure, a considerable percentage of the metal is lost, but
that is thought of very little consequence.
The next business is to make the cast-iron malleable, which is done by
a series of beatings and hammerings, the result being a wonderfully
well-tempered steel. For their purposes, such steel is far preferable
to that which is made in England; and when a Fan wishes to make a
particularly good knife or spear head, he would rather smelt and temper
iron for himself than use the best steel that Sheffield can produce.
The bellows which they employ are made on exactly the same principle
as those which have several times been mentioned. They are made of two
short hollow cylinders, to the upper end of which is tied a loose piece
of soft hide. A wooden handle is fixed to each skin. From the bottoms
of the cylinders a wooden pipe is led, and the two pipes converge in
an iron tube. The end of this tube is placed in the fire, and the
bellows-man, by working the handles up and down alternately, drives a
constant stream of air into the fire.
Their anvils and hammers are equally simple; and yet, with such rude
materials, they contrive, by dint of patient working, to turn out
admirable specimens of blacksmith’s work. All their best weapons are
decorated with intricate patterns engraven on the blades, and, as time
is no object to them, they will spend many months on the figuring and
finishing of a single axe blade. The patterns are made by means of a
small chisel and a hammer. Some of their ruder knives are not intended
as weapons of war, but merely as instruments by which they can cut down
the trees and brushwood that are in the way when they want to clear a
spot for agriculture. It will now be seen why iron is so valuable a
commodity among the Fans, and why a couple of heavy anklets made of
this precious metal should be so valued by the women.
There is one very singular weapon among the Fans. Perhaps there is
no part of the world where we could less expect to find the crossbow
than among a cannibal tribe at the head of the Gaboon. Yet there the
crossbow is regularly used as an engine of war, and a most formidable
weapon it is, giving its possessors a terrible advantage over their
foes. The ingenuity exhibited in the manufacture of this weapon is very
great, and yet one cannot but wonder at the odd mixture of cleverness
and stupidity which its structure shows. The bow is very strong, and
when the warrior wishes to bend it he seats himself on the ground, puts
his foot against the bow, and so has both hands at liberty, by which he
can haul the cord into the notch which holds it until it is released
by the trigger. The shaft is about five feet long, and is split for a
considerable portion of its length. The little stick which is thrust
between the split portions constitutes the trigger, and the method of
using it is as follows:--
Just below the notch which holds the string is a round hole through
which passes a short peg. The other end of the peg, which is made of
very hard wood, is fixed into the lower half of the split shaft, and
plays freely through the hole. When the two halves of the shaft are
separated by the trigger, the peg is pulled through the hole, and
allows the cord to rest in the notch. But as soon as the trigger is
removed the two halves close together, and the peg is thus driven up
through the hole, knocking the cord out of the notch. I have in my
collection a Chinese crossbow, the string of which is released on
exactly the same principle.
Of course, an accurate aim is out of the question, for the trigger-peg
is held so tightly between the two halves of the shaft that it
cannot be pulled out without so great an effort that any aim must be
effectually deranged. But in the use of this weapon aim is of very
little consequence, as the bow is only used at very short ranges,
fifteen yards being about the longest distance at which a Fan cares
to expend an arrow. The arrows themselves are not calculated for long
ranges, as they are merely little strips of wood a foot or so in
length, and about the sixth of an inch in diameter. They owe their
terrors, not to their sharpness, nor to the velocity with which they
are impelled, but to the poison with which their tips are imbued.
Indeed, they are so extremely light that they cannot be merely laid on
the groove of the shaft, lest they should be blown away by the wind.
They are therefore fastened in their place with a little piece of gum,
of which the archer always takes care to have a supply at hand. Owing
to their diminutive size, they cannot be seen until their force is
expended, and to this circumstance they owe much of their power. They
have no feathers, neither does any particular care seem to be taken
about their tips, which, although pointed, are not nearly as sharp as
those of the tiny arrows used by the Dyaks of Borneo, or the Macoushies
of the Essequibo.
The poison with which their points are imbued is procured from the
juice of some plant at present unknown, and two or three coatings are
given before the weapon is considered to be sufficiently envenomed. The
Fans appear to be unacquainted with any antidote for the poison, or,
if they do know of any, they keep it a profound secret. The reader may
remember a parallel instance among the Bosjesmans, with regard to the
antidote for the poison-grub.
Besides these arrows, they use others about two feet in length, with
iron heads, whenever they go in search of large game; but in warfare,
the little arrow is quite strong enough to penetrate the skin of a
human being, and is therefore used in preference to the larger and more
cumbrous dart.
The only defensive weapon is the shield, which is made from the hide
of the elephant. It varies slightly in shape, but is generally oblong,
and is about three feet long by two and a half wide, so that it covers
all the vital parts of the body. The piece of hide used for the shield
is cut from the shoulders of the elephant, where, as is the case with
the pachyderms in general, the skin is thickest and strongest. No spear
can penetrate this shield, the axe cannot hew its way through it,
the missile knife barely indents it, and the crossbow arrows rebound
harmlessly from its surface. Even a bullet will glance off if it should
strike obliquely on the shield. Such a shield is exceedingly valuable,
because the skin of an elephant will not afford material for more than
one or two shields, and elephant-killing is a task that needs much
time, patience, courage, and ingenuity. Moreover, the elephant must
be an old one, and, as the old elephants are proverbially fierce and
cunning, the danger of hunting them is very great.
Like other savages, the Fan has no idea of “sport.” He is necessarily a
“pot-hunter,” and thinks it the most foolish thing in the world to give
the game a fair chance of escape. When he goes to hunt, he intends to
kill the animal, and cares not in the least as to the means which he
uses. The manner of elephant hunting is exceedingly ingenious.
As soon as they find an elephant feeding, the Fans choose a spot at a
little distance where the monkey vines and other creepers dangle most
luxuriantly from the boughs. Quietly detaching them, they interweave
them among the tree trunks, so as to make a strong, net-like barrier,
which is elastic enough to yield to the rush of an elephant, and strong
enough to detain and entangle him. Moreover, the Fans know well that
the elephant dreads anything that looks like a fence, and, as has been
well said, may be kept prisoner in an enclosure which would not detain
a calf.
When the barrier is completed, the Fans, armed with their spears,
surround the elephant, and by shouts and cries drive him in the
direction of the barrier. As soon as he strikes against it, he is
filled with terror, and instead of exerting his gigantic strength, and
breaking through the obstacle, he struggles in vague terror, while
his enemies crowd round him, indicting wound after wound with their
broad-bladed spears. In vain does he strike at the twisted vines, or
endeavor to pull them down with his trunk, and equally in vain he
endeavors to trample them under foot. The elastic ropes yield to his
efforts, and in the meanwhile the fatal missiles are poured on him from
every side. Some of the hunters crawl through the brush, and wound him
from below; others climb up trees, and hurl spears from among the
boughs: while the bolder attack him openly, running away if he makes a
charge, and returning as soon as he pauses, clustering round him like
flies round a carcass.
This mode of chase is not without its dangers, men being frequently
killed by the elephant, which charges unexpectedly, knocks them down
with a blow of the trunk, and then tramples them under foot. Sometimes
an unfortunate hunter, when charged by the animal, loses his presence
of mind, runs toward the vine barrier, and is caught in the very meshes
which he helped to weave. Tree climbing is the usual resource of a
chased hunter; and, as the Fans can run up trees almost as easily as
monkeys, they find themselves safer among the branches than they would
be if they merely tried to dodge the animal round the tree trunks.
The Fans also use an elephant trap which is identical in principle with
that which is used in killing the hippopotamus,--namely, a weighted
spear hung to a branch under which the elephant must pass, and detached
by a string tied to a trigger. The natives are assisted in their
elephant-hunting expeditions by the character of the animal. Suspicious
and crafty as is the elephant, it has a strong disinclination to leave
a spot where it finds the food which it likes best; and in consequence
of this peculiarity, whenever an elephant is discovered, the Fans feel
sure that it will remain in the same place for several days, and take
their measures accordingly.
When they have killed an elephant, they utilize nearly the whole of
the enormous carcass, taking out the tusks for sale, using the skin of
the back for shields, and eating the whole of the flesh. To European
palates the flesh of the elephant is distasteful, partly on account
of its peculiar flavor, and partly because the cookery of the native
African is not of the best character. M. du Chaillu speaks of it in
very contemptuous terms. “The elephant meat, of which the Fans seem to
be very fond, and which they have been cooking and smoking for three
days, is the toughest and most disagreeable meat I ever tasted. I
cannot explain its taste, because we have no flesh which tastes like
it, but it seems full of muscular fibre or gristle; and when it has
been boiled for two days, twelve hours each day, it is still tough. The
flavor is not unpleasant; but, although I had tried at different times
to accustom myself to it, I found only that my disgust grew greater.”
Whether elephant meat is governed by the same culinary laws as ox meat
remains to be seen; but, if such be the case, the cook who _boiled_ the
meat for twenty-four hours seems to have ingeniously hit upon a plan
that would make the best beef tough, stringy, tasteless, and almost
uneatable. Had it been gently simmered for six hours, the result might
have been different; but to boil meat for twenty-four hours by way of
making it tender is as absurd as boiling an egg for the same period by
way of making it soft.
As to their diet in general, the Fans do not deserve a very high
culinary rank. They have plenty of material, and very slight notions of
using it. The manioc affords them a large portion of their vegetable
food, and is particularly valuable on account of the ease with which it
is cultivated, a portion of the stem carelessly placed in the ground
producing in a single season two or three large roots. The leaves
are also boiled and eaten. Pumpkins of different kinds are largely
cultivated, and even the seeds are rendered edible. M. du Chaillu says
that during the pumpkin season the villages seem covered with the
seeds, which are spread out to dry, and, when dried, they are packed in
leaves and hung in the smoke over the fireplace, in order to keep off
the attacks of an insect which injures them.
When they are to be eaten, they are first boiled, and then the skin is
removed. The seeds are next placed in a mortar together with a little
sweet oil, and are pounded into a soft, pulpy mass, which is finally
cooked over the fire, either in an earthen pot or in a plantain leaf.
This is a very palatable sort of food, and some persons prefer it to
the pumpkin itself.
The mortars are not in the least like those of Europe, being long,
narrow troughs, two feet in length, two or three inches deep, and seven
or eight wide. Each family has one or two of these small implements,
but there are always some enormous mortars for the common use of the
village, which are employed in pounding manioc. When the seed is
pounded into a paste, it is formed into cakes, and can be kept for some
little time.
The cooking pots are made of clay, and formed with wonderful accuracy,
seeing that the Fans have no idea of the potter’s wheel, even in its
simplest forms. Their cooking pots are round and flat, and are shaped
something like milk pans. They also make day water bottles of quite
a classical shape, and vessels for palm wine are made from the same
material. These wine jars are shaped much like the amphoræ of the
ancients. The clay is moulded by hand, dried thoroughly in the sun, and
then baked in a fire. The exterior is adorned with patterns much like
those on the knives and axes.
The Fans also make the bowls of their pipes of the same clay, but
always form the stems of wood. The richer among them make their pipes
entirely of iron, and prefer them, in spite of their weight and
apparent inconvenience, to any others. They also make very ingenious
water bottles out of reeds, and, in order to render them water tight,
plaster them within and without with a vegetable gum. This gum is first
softened in the fire, and laid on the vessel like pitch. It has a very
unpleasant flavor until it is quite seasoned, and is therefore kept
under water for several weeks before it is used.
Like some other savage tribes, the Fans have a craving for meat, which
sometimes becomes so powerful as to deserve the name of a disease. The
elephant affords enough meat to quell this disease for a considerable
time, and therefore they have a great liking for the flesh of this
animal. But the great luxury of a Fan is the flesh of a sheep, an
animal which they can scarcely ever procure. Mr. W. Reade, in his
“Savage Africa,” gives a most amusing description of the sensation
produced among his Fan boatmen:--
“Before I left the village I engaged another man, which gave me a crew
of eight. I also purchased a smooth-skinned sheep, and upon this poor
animal, as it lay shackled in our prow, many a hungry eye was cast.
When it bleated the whole crew burst into one loud carnivorous grin.
Bushmen can sometimes enjoy a joint of stringy venison, a cut off a
smoked elephant, a boiled monkey, or a grilled snake; but a sheep--a
real domestic sheep!--an animal which had long been looked upon as the
pride of their village, the eyesore of their poorer neighbors--which
they had been in the habit of calling ‘brother,’ and upon whom they had
lavished all the privileges of a fellow-citizen!
“That fate should have sent the white and wealthy offspring of the sea
to place this delicacy within their reach was something too strong and
sudden for their feeble minds. They were unsettled; they could not
paddle properly; their souls (which are certainly in their stomachs,
wherever ours may be) were restless and quivering toward that sheep, as
(I have to invent metaphors) the needle ere it rests upon its star.
“When one travels in the company of cannibals, it is bad policy to let
them become too hungry. At mid-day I gave orders that the sheep should
be killed. There was a yell of triumph, a broad knife steeped in blood,
a long struggle; then three fires blazed forth, three clay pots were
placed thereon, and filled with the bleeding limbs of the deceased.
On an occasion like this, the negro is endowed for a few moments with
the energy and promptitude of the European. Nor would I complain of
needless delay in its preparation for the table--which was red clay
covered with grass. The mutton, having been slightly warmed, was
rapidly devoured.
“After this they wished to recline among the fragments of the feast,
and enjoy a sweet digestive repose. But then the white man arose, and
exercised that power with which the lower animals are quelled. His look
and his tone drew them to their work, though they did not understand
his words.”