Chap. XVI. SHYNESS OF THE OBONGOS. 323 



fines of the same country. They plant nothing, and 

 depend partly for their vegetable food on roots, 

 berries, and nuts, which they find in the forest; 

 indeed, the men spend most of their days and many 

 of their nights in the woods, and it was partly on 

 this account, and their excessive shyness, that I was 

 unable to examine them closely, with the solitary 

 exception of the young man above described. When 

 they can no longer find wild animals in the locality 

 where they have made their temporary settlements, 

 they are sometimes apt to steal food from their more 

 civilized neighbours, and then decamp. Their appe- 

 tite for animal food is more like that of a carnivo- 

 rous beast than that of a man. One day I enticed 

 the old woman, whose heart I had gained by many 

 presents of beads, to Niembouai, simply by promis- 

 ing her a joint of goat-flesh. I had asked her if she 

 was hungry — without answering me, she drew a 

 long breath, drawing in her stomach, to make me 

 understand that it was very empty. When she 

 came, I tried to put her ofi" with a bunch of plan- 

 tains, but she stuck tenaciously to my hut until I 

 had fulfilled my promise of giving her some meat, 

 repeating the word, etava, etava (goat, goat). Through 

 her and an Ashango interpreter I took down a few 

 words of the Obongo language, which I add in the 

 Appendix to this volume ; it will be seen that it con- 

 tains words of Ashango; indeed their dialect is a 

 mixture of what was their own original language 

 and the languages of the various tribes among whom 

 they have resided for many years past. I was told 

 that now and then one of them will leave his people, 



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