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A priori this appears highly improbable. That a belief should sweep over all these specks in impenetrable forest, from the coast-tribes in contact with Europeans, and that this belief should, though the most recent, be infinitely the least powerful, cannot be regarded as a plausible hypothesis.

The favourite 'bunkum' is about 'baring the Christian negro's throat to the Ashanti knife. But the Fantis and other Coast-tribes were originally as murderous and bloodthirsty in their battles and religious rites as their northern neighbours: if there be any improvement it is wholly due to the presence and the pressure, physical as well as moral, of Europeans of Christians, if you like.

It is an insult to call one of them a liar or a coward; the coast-tribes would merely smile at the soft impeachment; and assure you that none but fools yourself included by implication are anything else. Their bravery is the bravery of the savage, whose first object in battle is to preserve his only good, his life: to the civilized man, therefore, they appear but moderately courageous.

One school is in operation, with an attendance of fifty scholars. Siletz Agency. The Indians at this agency are the Chasta Scotons, and fragments of fourteen other bands, called, generally, Coast-tribes, numbering altogether about 2,500.

There is not much tattooing amongst the men, except on the shoulders, whilst the women prefer the stomach; the gandin, however, disfigures himself with powdered cam-wood, mixed with butter-nut, grease, or palm oil a custom evidently derived from the coast-tribes.

The Coast-tribes under our protection are mere brokers and go-betweens, backed up and supported by the wholesale merchant, because he prefers quieta non movere, and he fears lest the change be from good to bad. I, on the other hand, contend that both our commerce and customs would gain, in quantity as well as in quality, by direct dealings with the peoples of the interior.