s not advisable to play with them, or to attempt to eradicate
them, because you regard them as superstitious; and
never, never shoot too soon. I have never had to shoot, and
ope never to have to ; because in such a situation, one white
alone with no troops to back him means a clean finish But
this would not discourage me if I had to start, only it makes
me more inclined to walk round the obstacle, than to become a
mere blood splotch against it, if this can be done without
osmg your self-respect, which is the mainspring of your
power in West Africa.
As for flourishing about a revolver and threatening
to fire, I hold it utter idiocy. I have never tried it, however,
■so 1 speak from prejudice which arises from the feeling that
there is something cowardly in it. Always have your revolver
ready loaded in good order, and have your hand on it when
things are getting warm, and in addition have an exceedingly
good bowie knife, not a hinge knife, because with a hinge
knife you have got to get it open-hard work in a country
where all things go rusty in the joints— and hinge knives are
liable to dose on your own fingers. The best form of
knife is the bowie, with a shallow half moon cut out of the
back at the point end, and this depression sharpened to
a cutting edge. A knife is essential, because after wading
neck deep in a swamp your revolver is neither use nor
ornament until you have had time to clean it But the
chances are you may go across Africa, or live years in it
and require neither. It is just the case of the gentleman
who asked if one required a revolver in Carolina ? and was
answered, “ You may be here one year, and you may be here
two and never want i t ; but when you do want it you’ll want
it very bad.”
The cannibalism of the Fans, although a prevalent habit is
no danger, I think, to white people, except as regards the
bother it gives one in preventing one’s black companions from
getting eaten. The Fan is not a cannibal from sacrificial
motives like the negro. He does it in his common sense way.
Man s flesh, he says, is good to eat, very good, and he wishes
you would try it. Oh dear no, he never eats it himself, but the
next door town does. He is always very much abused for
eating his relations, but he really does not do this. He will
eat his next door neighbour’s relations and sell his own
IN A FAN VILLAGE.
deceased to his next door neighbour in return ; but he does
not buy slaves and fatten them up Efor his table as some of