The general
stature varied from six feet to six feet four inches; their
complexion was a light cafe au lait; their hair was ornamented
with cowries, strung so thickly as to suggest a skull-cup, whilst
long streamers of elephants' tails, threaded with the Cypraea and
brass rings, hung down from the head behind the ears, covering
the nape of the neck. All these, we may observe, are Congo
customs. In their manufacture of iron, dug by themselves, they
resemble the cannibals.
The Fan have now lodged themselves amongst the less warlike,
maritime, and sub-maritime tribes, as the (Ashantis) Asiante
lately did in Fante-land; now they visit the factories on the
estuary, and wander as far as the Ogobe. In course of time, they
will infallibly "eat up" the Bakele, as the latter are eating up
the Mpongwe and Shekyani. They have their own names for
neighbouring tribes: the Mpongwe, according to Bowdich, called
the Shekyani, and the inner tribes "Boolas, a synonym of Dunko in
Ashantee;" hence, probably, the "Bulous" of Mr. Hutchinson (p.
253), "a tribe on the Guergay Creek, who speak a different
language from the Mpongwes.
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