430 ETHNOLOGY. Chap. XXL 



after the many inquiries I made among the Fans of 

 the interior, I learned that they and the people in the 

 north-east direction were the ouly ones who ate human 

 flesh, and that they did not know where cannibalism 

 stopped. Hence I mentioned that cannibalism had 

 migrated from north-east to south-west, and not from 

 south to north ; my last journey has entirely demon- 

 strated to me the truth of that hypothesis ; and it 

 shows how little they travelled, that no one has ever 

 heard of the Fans in the Southern country I have 

 visited. 



The fables of all the tribes were nearly alike, and 

 it is wonderful how they are handed down from 

 generation to generation. 



Their languages, though not the same, have great 

 affinities to one another, but they seem to have been 

 derived from two distinct sources, namely from tribes 

 of the north and north-east, and from tribes of the 

 south-east and east. On this subject I must refer the 

 reader to the Comparative Vocabulary given in the 

 Appendix (HI.) to this volume. 



The question naturally arises, how such a s^ate of 

 political disintegration as I have described has taken 

 place. 



We must come to the conclusion that Africa has 

 not escaped many political convulsions followed by 

 great wars and migrations ; that the same natural 

 laws which govern our race have prevailed in Africa, 

 and that migration has taken place from east to west. 



I could learn nothing from them on these subjects, 

 the past being a dark sea of which they knew nothing 

 and about which they did not care. Some of their 



