Chap. XXI. ISOLATION OF THE TRIBES. 425 



speaking the same language, and tribes speaking the 

 same language divided from each other by intervening- 

 tribes speaking another language. These tribes were 

 divided into a great number of clans, each clan inde- 

 pendent of the others, and often at war with one or 

 other of them ; in some tribes villages of the same 

 clan were at war with each other. 



Part of one tribe in some cases have no knowledge 

 whatever of the other part; the further I went 

 towards the east the less the people travelled, the 

 less they knew of what surrounded them, for they 

 had no trade to incite them to travel. I was never- 

 theless struck by the great affinities these tribes pre- 

 sented to each other. The patriarchal form of govern- 

 ment was the only one known ; each village had its 

 chief, and further in the interior the villages seemed 

 to be governed by elders, each elder, with his people, 

 having a separate portion of the village to them- 

 selves. There was in each clan the ifoumou, foumou, 

 or acknowledged head of the clan {ifoumou meaning 

 the " source," the " father "). 



I have never been able to obtain from the natives 

 a knowledge concerning the splitting of their tribes ; 

 into clans : they seemed not to know how it hap- ^ 

 pened, but the formation of new clans does not take 

 place now among them. 



Kings never obtain power over large tracts of^ 

 country, as we see in Eastern Africa ; the house 

 of a chief or elder is not better than those of his 

 neighbours. 



The despotic form of government is unknown ; I 

 no one can be put to death at the will of the chief, I 



