Abessinia and the neighbouring Countries. 277 



Of the language of these Dokos M. d'Abbadie states that he 

 possesses only twenty-nine words ; which is rather surprising, 

 when we consider that he says he had one of these people by 

 him as an interpreter for nearly two years. Its affinity with 

 the language of \Vor4tta is, however, asserted by that travel- 

 ler.* This will place it in the Gonga class, which is quite in ac- 

 cordance with its geographical position. The only word of the 

 language cited by M. d'Abbadie is elmos, signifying " bread ;" 

 which expression, however, I cannot connect with any word in 

 my vocabularies. Dr Krapf states,! that " the language of the 

 Dokos is a kind of murmuring, which is understood by no one 

 but themselves and their hunters." But he also mentions, that 



Mr Robertson, in his Notes on Africa (London, 1819), pp. 353-354, when 

 treating of the natives of the south bank of the river Congo, says : " The opinion 

 that these, or any other people on this [the west] coast, are Anthropophagi, is 

 ridiculous. One of the traders at Bonny did, indeed, once tell me so plausible 

 a story concerning the Quas eating those who fell into their power, that I was 

 half inclined to believe him. But subsequent inquiry convinced ine that there 

 was no truth whatever in it. . . . The Portuguese having taken so much 

 trouble to impress other nations with the dreadful effects of man-eating, they, 

 of course, consider this country of some value ; but from their not having been de- 

 voured themselves, it seems other animal food is plentiful ; or, perhaps, the 

 aboriginal inhabitants think the Portuguese rather coarse meat, and like cattle 

 or fish better." 



A similar tale of cannibalism is related in Shoa, and for a somewhat similar 

 reason. The wilderness of Gedem, a province in the north of that kingdom, 

 which I visited in April 1841, is " the place of refuge for all the fugitives and 

 bad characters of Shoa" {Joum. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. xii. p. 92). The Dankali 

 slave-merchants trading between Shoa and the coast take care to impress on the 

 minds of their slaves that the people of Gedem are cannibals, who will be sure 

 to eat them up if they run away. Hence, the poor children are content to remain 

 with their (often cruel) masters, rather than run the chance of being devoured 

 by the wicked man-eaters of Gedem ! 



To shew the little value, generally, of these stories of the existence of canni- 

 balism among unknown nations, I may cite, further, the following passage from 

 the interesting Notes sur les JUoeurs, Coutumes et Traditions des Amakoua of 

 M. Eugene de Kroberville, published in the Bulletin de la Societe de Geoyraphie, 

 3d Ser., vol. viii. p. 324 : — " Les traditions les plus effrayantes sont repandues 

 par toute I'Afrique orientale touchant le sort des esclaves transportes dans le 

 pays do8 blancs. Mes informateurs m'ont unaniniement declare que I'on croyait 

 generalemcnt que les blancs rnamjeaient les esclaves quails vieniient chercher en 

 Afrique." — .Mutiito nomine, de te fabula narratur ! — 22d November 1848. 

 * Bulletin, 2d Ser., vol. xix. p. 439. 

 t Prichard, Natural Hittory of Man, p. 556. 



