Feb. 1, 1889.] 4:00 [Phillips. 



remote from coatact with the whites are more savage and more bellicose. 

 Some of these tribes are man-eaters, aad it is stated that, curiously enougli, 

 the people who practice this custom are iieitlier among the most ferocious 

 nor those the least amenable to the influences of civilization. With the 

 advent of the Europeans, their customs soon become modified, and it often 

 happens that cannibalism disappears, witliout any intervention on the part 

 of the whites, by mere force of contact. 



Barter is carried on with the natives, who are very skillful in trading 

 being full of subterfuges, and lengthy negotiations are necessary to obtain 

 from the merchants the greatest possible amount of value for the very 

 least equivalent. 



Agriculture does not flourish, except so far as concerns products abso- 

 lutely necessary for their daily life ; women and slaves alone work on the 

 plantations, the men but very rarely taking a hand in such labors, and 

 only when a great exertion is needed. 



Among the blacks employed by traders may be found types of all tribes 

 as far as Cape Lopez, and some few from the interior of the continent. 



The strongest and best workers are the "Krooboys" (from the coast 

 of Kroo, near Cape Palmas), whence they derive their name. All of 

 these blacks speak some English, and some few of them a little French. 

 They receive from five to seven dollars a month, and board and lodging ; 

 they are usuall}^ engaged for eighteen months, after which they are paid 

 their wages, either in goods or cash, as they may desire ; the majority 

 generally receive about two-thirds in merchandise. Like other black 

 workmen, they are fond of lieavy goods of cotton, and of various colors, 

 table and pocket knives, umbrellas, flintlock guns, powder, tafia, gin, 

 pearls, felt and straw hats, jewelry, second-hand military and naval uni- 

 forms, razors, soaps, combs. 



The Cabindas act as sailors and domestic servants. 



The Loangos are joiners, sliip and house carpenters, and coopers. 



The smiths, masons and brickworkers come from the English colony, 

 on the Gold Coast. 



In the employ of the Congo Independent State are also natives of Zan- 

 zibar, Haoussa and some from the head-waters of the Niger. 



The negroes have no religious belief, but are given to fetishes, of which 

 the chief are the good genius, or the Creator, and the evil one, or tlie Devil. 

 These are represented by rudely carved idols and adorned with shields 

 and tatters. Additionally each negro carries about his neck or waist small 

 objects of veneration, or talismans.* 



* According to a recent traveler, " A curiously-shaped idol, either female or fashioned 

 like a priapus, can still be found at all cross-roads. It is generally a foot in height and 

 stands on a round pedestal raised upon a pole a yard from the ground. In front a flat 

 stone supports a basket, into which passing market people and all who have concluded 

 a bargain make a point of dropping grain or other food, which any starving or destitute 

 person is at liberty to eat." 



The same authority states : On the Island of Kimeh, the sacred burial place for ages 

 of the Wabuma chiefs, were many fetishes, "figures of various sizes, all of them equally 

 hideous and obscene.' ' (Bateman.) 



