IV.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO I II. 113 



Bantu or non-Negro characters. Burton, Winwood Reade, Oscar 

 Lenz and most other observers separate them altogether from the 

 Negro connection, describing them as "well-built, 

 tall and slim, with a light brown complexion, often T^forigS' 

 inclining to yellow, well-developed beard, and very 

 prominent frontal bone standing out in a semicircular protuber- 

 ance above the superciliary arches. Morally also, they differ 

 greatly from the Negro, being remarkably intelligent, truthful, and 

 of a serious temperament, seldom laughing or indulging in the 

 wild orgies of the blacks 1 ." 



The language also, says Lenz, is "entirely different from those 

 of the other Negro peoples 2 ." Yet many ethnologists have sug- 

 gested affinities with the Zandehs and Mangbattus of the Welle 

 region, chiefly on the ground of their common fondness for 

 human flesh. On this point the Fans certainly yield to none, and 

 although amongst the coast tribes the practice is now restricted 

 to solemn occasions, those untouched by European influences 

 abstain only from their "nearest and dearest," and even these may 

 be disinterred and bartered for others not coming within the pro- 

 hibited degrees of consanguinity 3 . 



Still the taste is too universal in the cannibal zone to serve 

 as a racial test, and we are not helped by it to a solution of 

 the difficult Fan problem. Were one to venture on a conjecture, 

 I should suggest that these mysterious hordes are not Fulahs, 

 as supposed by Bowdich, but "belated Hamites," lost like the 

 Fulahs in the seething mass of negrodom. If the language is 

 really not Bantu, as stated by Lenz, it will perhaps prove to be 

 an outlying member of the Hamitic Tibu or Masai group. 



In the Cameriin region, which still lies within Bantu territory, 

 Sir H. H. Johnston 4 divides the numerous local 

 tribes into two groups, the aborigines, such as the run^antS; 6 

 Bayongs, Balongs, Basas, Abos and Wuri ; and the 

 later intruders Bakundu, Bakwiri, Divala, " Great Batanga " and 



1 My Africa, n. p. 58. Oscar Lenz, who perhaps knew them best, says : 

 " Gut gebaut, schlank und kraftig gewachsen, Hautfarbe viel lichter manchmal 

 stark ins Gelbe spielend, Haar und Bartwuchs auffallend stark, sehr grosse 

 Kinnbarte" (Skizzen aus IVest-Afrika, 1878, p. 73). 2 Ib. p. 74. 



3 Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, II. p. 18. 4 Official Report, 1886. 



K. 8 



