Chap. XV. PREJUDICP^S OF THE COMMI MEN. 307 



we had lately passed through ; she cooked for me and 

 gave plantains to my men. To gratify her, I made 

 her a present of a goat — at least, I was going to do 

 so, but Mokounga laughed heartily at the idea. " Do 

 you not know," says he, " that the Ashango and 

 Ishogo do not allow their women to eat goats ? " 

 This, indeed, was the fact, although I had not par- 

 ticularly noticed it in my passage through the 

 villages. Women or girls are not allowed to eat the 

 flesh of goats or fowls. I suppose they are prohi- 

 bited because the men wish to reserve such scarce 

 articles of food for themselves. It is only amongst 

 the Commi and Mpongwe that this prohibition 

 does not exist or has been abolished. I withheld 

 my intended present, and gave the young lady a 

 string of my best beads instead. 



To-day I gave a good lecture to my Commi boys, 

 especially to Macondai. These negroes of the coast 

 have an extraordinary contempt for the negroes of 

 the interior, and I had noticed a growing disposition 

 in them, as we marched eastward, to insult even the 

 elders and chiefs of the villages we passed through. 

 Some days ago I observed Macondai, whilst standing 

 near an Ishogo man, turn aside from him with an 

 expression of disgust and spit on the ground ; and 

 to-day, when one of the king's nephews took a seat 

 by his side, he got up and said he must get out of 

 the way of that slave, he stank so. Although this 

 was spoken in the Commi language, the Ashango 

 man understood it and was very angry, and un- 

 pleasant consequences might have ensued if I had 

 not interfered ; so I called Macondai aside and gave 



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