I ARRIVE AMONG THE CANNIBALS—THEIR SPEARS, BOWS, AND BATTLE-AXES—THEY TAKE ME FOR A SPIRIT—THEIR KING SHAKES WHEN HE SEES ME—I GIVE HIM A LOOKING-GLASS—IT ASTONISHES HIM.
We were, at last, near the Fan country. We had passed the last Mbichos village, and were on our way to the villages of the man-eaters.
I remember well the first Fan village I approached. It stood on the summit of a high hill in the mountains. All its inhabitants were very much excited when they perceived we were coming towards it, through the plantation path; for the trees around the hill had been cut down. The men were armed to the teeth, as we entered the village, and I knew not whether hundreds of spears and poisoned arrows might not be thrown at me, and I be killed on the spot. What dreadful spears those cannibals had; they were all barbed. Each man had several in his hand; and, besides, had a shield made of elephant's hide, to protect himself with. Others were armed with huge knives, and horrible-looking battle-axes, or with bows and poisoned arrows.
Wild shouts of astonishment, which, for all I knew, were war-shouts, greeted me as I entered the village. I must own that I felt not quite at my ease. How wild and fierce these men looked! They were most scantily dressed. When they shouted, they showed their teeth, which were filed to a point, and coloured black. Their open mouths put me uncomfortably in mind of a tomb; for how many human creatures each of these men had eaten!
How ugly the women looked! They were all tattooed, and nearly naked. They fled with their children into their houses, as I passed through the street, in which I saw, here and there, human bones lying about. Yes, human bones from bodies that had been devoured by them! Such are my recollections of my first entrance into a village of cannibals.
The village was strongly fenced, or palisaded; and on the poles were several skulls of human beings and of gorillas. There was but a single street, about two-thirds of a mile long. On each side of this were low huts, made of the bark of trees.
I had hardly entered the village when I perceived some bloody remains, which appeared to me to be human. Presently we passed a woman who was running as fast as she could towards her hut. She bore in her hand a piece of a human thigh, just as we should go to market and carry thence a joint or steak.
This was a very large village. At last we arrived at the palaver house. Here I was left alone with Mbéné for a little while. There was great shouting going on at a little distance, at the back of some houses. One of them said they had been busy dividing the body of a dead man, and that there was not enough for all.
They flocked in presently, and soon I was surrounded by an immense crowd. Not far from me was a ferocious-looking fellow. On one arm he supported a very large shield, made of an elephant's hide, and of the thickest part of the skin, while in his other hand he held a prodigious war-knife, which he could have slashed through a man in a jiffy.