Year: 1868

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The idea originated in France.


THE BLACK CANNIBALs.


NJ Du Chaillu, the celebrated African traveller
and hunter, in lecture delivered in New York re-
Gently, gave an account of his adventures among
the Faus, cannibal tribe of Africa, discovered by
him during his explorations of that continent. Du
Chailu is a smallsized, dark complexioned, gen.
tlemany man, and spoke with French accent and
nosvery fueutly, but in simple, direct and pleas
ing manner. After Introductory remarks, explain
ing how he came to visit the country of tho Faus,
he said:


II never before saw such wild men. They were
all armed to the teeth with poisoned spears arrows
and knives. Their bodies were tattooed all over.
their teeth were dyed black, and they looked more
like ghouls than men, On the ground were the
skulls of dead men, and bones were scattered all
through the streets. The women were the ugliest
T ever saw, and were much smaller than the men.
The King did not want to see me, being afraid that
he should die if he saw spirit The men did not
seem afraid, but the women did, saw one ofthe
latter run into one of the huts with the leg of a
man just cut off, This made me feel very uncom-
Portable, and my only consolation was that was
very thin and not worth much for eating. After a
time the King came to me, surrounded by his war
rors. Hewas dressed with the skins ofwild beasts,
and held spear in his hands He looked at me
with wonder, and did the same with him. He
said he was not afraid of me when surrounded by
his warriors. put bold face on it, and said spir-
its were never afraid also. They gave me hut to
sleep in, but did not sleep that night-the woman
with the leg depressed my spirits. In the morn
ing when I arose and went out at the back door, l
met with grand reception. Cannibals from every
part of the country had come to see me. They got
accustomed to me in time, and I to them, and we
became the best friends. After few days the
Queen came to see me. She was lovely creature,
teeth sharpened to point, body tattooed all over.
Cooked plantains were brought to me to eat. /
told them never ate cooked food; for was afraid
that mems flesh had been cooked in the same pot
before The cannibalism of the people is Of the
worst kind They eat the bodies, not of their ene-
mics only, but also of their own people. A man,
however, does not eat the body Of one Of his own
family, but families exchange their dead with each
other. In one case that I knew Of a corpse five
days dead, was sold for food. They like their game
high. They all agree that woman is tenderer
than man-not the heart merely, but the whole
body Boys also, are tender, but old men are very
tough. I myself could see no diferencein the ap-
pearance of the flesh of the men and the gorilla, ex
cept it was little finer in texture.


''But in spite of their cannibalism, they are in
many respects the finest tribe in that country.
Their houses are built low not more than five feet
in height, on account of the tornados. The walls
arc made-o the bark of trees; they have little
door in front and back door, but no windows.
Polygamy is common among them, and the more
wives man has the happier he seems to be. Slave
y Unknown, but is not much practiced, because
men are scarce and they prefer to eat them rath
er than make slaves of them. They work iron in
the most beautiful manner, make knives, spears,
and very sharp axes. They are exceedingly given
to fighting, hence their fondness of working in iron,
and their expertness at it. Nothing from the coast
reaches them, except few beads and pieces of cop
per. They cover the handles of their knives with
the skins taken from the bodies of men. On part
ing, the King made me present of one Of these
it had belonged to his father and was covered with
human skin.


Zone day as was lying in forest, got walked
up by an army of bashiquas strange kind of ant.
I was so much bitten by them that was half dead.
An antelope had been killed the day before by
King Bongo, which I had intended to eat but it
was now covered with, Oh millions of ants. They
are the most wonderful insects in the forest They
are the plague and dread of every living thing HI
they attack village the people have to light fres
pour hot water around, and strew burning ashes a.
round to get rid of these little beasts They are
really wonderful-always in single line, and some
times the line is miles upon miles in length. The
line is generally two inches in breadth, and there
are officers throughout the entire length keeping
watch, so that none of these ants get out of line
watched line passing one particular spot, and it
twelve hours before the last of those ants had
passed. And as they go through the forest, at
certain signal they spread themselves out and at
tack everything that comes in their way. They
are the most voracious little creatures you can i'm
agine. IF they found dead elephant on their line
of march they would attack it, and in very short
time nothing would be left but the bones. Some
times the chiefs will have man tied up to tree,
and in an hour or two nothing would be left of him
but the skeleton. They certainly are the most vo-
racious creatures Ieversaw. One singular circum-
stance connected with them is that they are afraid
of the sum- If they come to a part Of the forest
where the sun is shining, they dig tunnel under
the spot and pass it by that MEANS and so contin-
ue their march through the forest in single file, as
before"





A GAMBLING SCENE.


In lS49 was passenger on the steamer "Star
Spangled Banner" from New Orleans to Louis
VILE She was crowded with people and, an hour
after leaving New Orleans, found perhaps twenty
card tables drawn out and three or four score Of