with the Fdn Cannibals . 
199 
bamboos, and prepare it by heating in the nep- 
tune, 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, un¬ 
healthy 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 
Mayyas, lectured me upon the short and simple 
annals of the Fdn. 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 suspect that they 
are the “ Paamways ” of whom Bowdich (“ Sketch 
of Gaboon,” p. 429) wrote in the beginning of the 
century, “ All the natives on this route are said to 
be cannibals, the Paamways not so voraciously as 
the others, because they cultivate a large breed of 
dogs for their eating.” Mr. W. Win wood Reade 
suspects them to be an offshoot of the great Fulah 
race, and there is nothing in point of dialect to 
disprove what we must at present consider a pure 
