A SPECIMEN DAY WITH TEE FAN CANNIBALS. 57 
murder of a villager, the suspected lover of a woman 
whose house was higher up the Mbokwe River ; he went 
to visit her, and was incon- 
tinently speared in the breast 
by the “ injured husband.” 
If he die and no fine be paid, 
there will be another “ war.” 
I made careful inquiry 
about anthropophagy 
amongst the Fan, and my 
account must differ greatly 
from that of M. du Chaillu. 
The reader, however, will re- 
member that May y an is held 
by a comparatively civilized 
race, who have probably 
learned to conceal a custom 
so distasteful to all their 
neighbours, white and black ; 
in the remoter districts can- 
nibalism may yet assume far 
more hideous proportions. 
Since the Fa n have en- 
FAN WARRIOR. 
couraged traders to settle 
amongst them, the interest as well as the terrors of 
the Coast tribes, who w T ould deter foreigners from direct 
dealings, has added new horrors to the 
tale ; and yet nothing can exceed the 
reports of older travellers. 
During my peregrinations I did not see 
a single skull. The chiefs, stretched at 
full length, and wwapped in mats, are 
buried secretly, the object being to prevent 
some strong Fetish medicine being made 
by enemies from various parts of the body. 
In some villages the head men of the same 
tribe are interred near one another ; the 
commonalty are put singly and decently 
under ground, and only the slave (Maka) is thrown as 
usual into the bush. Mr. Tippet, who had lived three 
THE DRUM. 
