CHAPTER XXI. 



ETHNOLOGY 



Isolation of the tribes in the interior of Western Equatorial Africa — Scan- 

 tiness of the population — Divisions of tribes and clans — Patriarchal 

 form of Government — Comparison of customs between Western Equa- 

 torial tribes and Eastern — Laws of inheritance — Cannibalism — Migra- 

 tions always towards the West — Decrease of population — Its Causes — 

 The African race doomed to extinction. 



Now I must give a general outline of the numerous 

 tribes of men that inhabit this vast jungle. 



In these mountainous recesses man is what we 

 may call primitive ; he is surrounded by dense 

 forests; no trading caravan from the east or from 

 the west, from the north or from the south, has pene- 

 trated to him ; he has been shut up from the world 

 around him, and in the course of his slow migration 

 he has taken the place of others who had disappeared 

 before him. The individuals who leave the interior 

 country for the sea-shore never come back, to tell 

 their countrymen of the white man or of the sea. 

 The path is closed to them, there is a gulf between, 

 the sea and the interior^ but not between the interior 

 and the sea. 



What struck me in travelling through this great 

 wooded wilderness was the scantiness of the popula- 

 tion, and the great number of tribes speaking differ- 

 ent languages and dialects. Ti'ibes bearing different 

 names considering' themselves different nations, thouo^h 



