" We were answered by the loudest howls,
and by the town muskets, which must have carried the charges of
old chambers. Mr. Tippet, an intelligent coloured man from the
States, who has been living thirteen years on the Gaboon, since
the age of fourteen, and who acts as native trader to Mr. R.B.N.
Walker, for ivory, ebony, rubber, and other produce, escorted me
to his extensive establishment. At length I am amongst the man-
eaters.
Chapter IX.
A Specimen Day with the Fan Cannibals.
At 5 a.m. on the next day, after a night with the gnats and rats,
I sallied forth in the thick "smokes," and cast a nearer look
upon my cannibal hosts. And first of the tribal name. The Mpongwe
call their wild neighbours Mpangwe; the Europeans affect such
corruptions as Fanwe, Panwe, the F and P being very similar,
Phaouin and Paouen (Pawen). They call themselves Fan, meaning
"man;" in the plural, Bafan. The n is highly nasalized: the
missionaries proposed to express it by "nh" which, however,
wrongly conveys the idea of aspiration; and "Fan," pronounced
after the English fashion, would be unintelligible to them.
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