198 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
de Pinto had also observed on the head waters of the Zambesi 
people with very light complexions, yet with features of the negro 
type. 
Another communication was made by another Portuguese, the 
Count de Brazza, who had been recently travelling on the Gaboon 
and Ogowa rivers. He vindicated the Pans from the charges made 
against them by Du Chaillu, who formed his opinion after a visit 
of a single day. The Count speaks very highly of these people, 
from whom he received much kindness, and found them a generous, 
courageous people. He admitted that they were cannibals, that 
they ate their prisoners of war ; but it was with them a religious 
idea, for they believed that in eating the heart of a brave man the 
courage of the eaten passed into and was added to the courage of 
the eater. This was followed by a strange discussion on cannibals 
and cannibalism. Major Pinto spoke of the wondrous bravery, 
loyalty and honour of the cannibal races, who were, he said, far 
higher in the social scale than the tribes by whom they were sur- 
rounded who were not cannibals. He had spent two years among 
cannibals, and the stories that it was but too common to relate 
about their ferocity and untrustworthiness were utterly untrue. 
Commander Cameron followed this up by saying that he always 
considered cannibalism one of the first stages of civilization, and 
that cannibals were always found to be enjoying a higher degree of 
culture than the non-cannibal tribes. He also stated that Living- 
stone's greatest friends were cannibals, and that the Maories of 
New Zealand, the bravest, finest race, were cannibals, and that 
cannibalism had generally been one of the stages of a race 
struggling for better things. Upon this, of course, the President 
(Mr. Tylor) could do nothing but suggest that after the glowing 
account of the loyalty, generosity, bravery, and other good qualities 
of cannibal races, it might be a question whether we should not 
feel it necessary to turn cannibals in the hope of sharing in these 
virtues. 
The Count de Brazza also gave a sketch of a race, which he 
found scattered up and down among different people, the Akas — a 
dwarf race, in height from three to four feet only. They seemed to 
occupy the same relations to the people with whom they were mixed 
up, as the Jews and Gypsies do in Europe. 
Papers and discussions on the antiquity of man also occupied 
the attention of the Anthropological Department. The most im- 
