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CHAPTER XXL 



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 tliat inhabit this vast jungle. 



In these mountainous recesses man is what we 

 may call primitive ; he is surrounded by dense 

 I forests ; no trading caravan from the east or from 

 I 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 

 I 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 

 I 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. Tribes bearing different 

 names considering themselves different nations, though 



