48 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
cleared line of yellow clay, and provided with three 
larger sheds — the palaver houses. The Fan houses 
resemble those of the Mpongwe ; in fact, the tribes, 
beginning at the Camarones River, build in much the 
same style, but all are by no means so neat and clean 
as those of the seaboard. A thatch, whose projecting 
eaves form deep shady verandahs, surmounts walls of 
split bamboo, supported by raised platforms of tamped 
earth, windows being absent and chimneys unknown ; 
the ceiling is painted like coal tar by oily soot, and two 
opposite doors make the home a passage through which 
no one hesitates to pass. The walls are garnished with 
weapons and nets, both skilfully made, and the furniture 
consists of cooking utensils and water-pots, mats for 
bedding, logs of wood for seats and pillows, and lumps 
of timber or dwarf stools, neatly cut out of a single 
block. Their only night-light — that grand test of civi- 
lization — is the Mpongwe torch, a yard of hard, black 
gum, mixed with and tightly bound up in dried banana 
leaves. According to some it is acacia ; others declare 
it to be the “ blood ” of the bornbax, which is also used 
for caulking. They gather it in the forest, especially 
during the dries, collect it in hollow bamboos, and pre- 
pare it by heating in the neptune, or brass pan. The 
odour is pleasant, but fragments of falling fire endanger 
the hut, and trimming must be repeated every ten 
minutes. The sexes are not separated ; as throughout 
inter-tropical Africa, the men are fond of idling at their 
clubs ; and the women, who must fetch water and cook, 
clean the hut, and nurse the baby, are seldom allowed 
to waste time. They are naturally a more prolific race 
than those inhabiting the damp, unhealthy lowlands, 
and the number of the children contrasts pleasantly with 
the “ bleak house ” of the debauched Mpongwe, who 
puts no question when his wife presents him with issue. 
In the cool of the morning Fitevanga, king of May- 
yaw, lectured me upon the short and simple annals of 
the F An. In 1842 the first stragglers who had crossed 
the Sierra del Crystal are said to have been seen upon 
the head waters of the Gaboon. I cannot, however, but 
