nteresting, and the heat
and the humidity of the climate render it almost insupportable in
certain seasons and hours of the day. The repugnance to labor of
tropical people, whether natives or white immigrants, is proverbial.
Every one in the banana zone, therefore, seeks to shift his burden
upon another. As a first resort, he unloads it upon his wife, and she,
finding it grievous, cries out, and he then relieves her by procuring
additional wives. This kind of wife-slavery suffices for the support
of the population in this zone, but in the case of families of rank,
who have been accustomed to some degree of luxury, other helpers are
needed, and these form a class of domestic slaves. Now, in this zone,
the climatic conditions not only render labor disagreeable but tend to
curb aspiration, so that people do not acquire a taste or demand for
products which minister to the higher nature. Lassitude keeps the
standard of living down to a low level. Hence, in this zone the labor
of women suffices, for the most part, for the maintenance of the
population. Since land is free and no one will voluntarily work for
another, such additional workers as are needed must be obtained and
bound to the master by coercion.

In this zone two very remarkable consequences follow from the fact
that very few slaves are needed for workers. The first is the practice
of cannibalism, once universal in this zone, and still in vogue
throughout vast regions. The bountiful food supply attracts immigrants
from all sides, and the result is a condition of chronic warfare. When
one tribe defeats another the question arises, What is to be done
with the prisoners? As they cannot be profitably employed as
industrial workers, they are used to supplement a too exclusive
vegetable diet. Wars come to be waged expressly for the sake of
obtaining human flesh for food. The Monbuttu eat a part of their
captives fallen in battle, and butcher and carry home the rest for
future consumption. They bring home prisoners not to reduce to slavery
but as butcher-meat to garnish future festivals.

A second consequence of the limited demand for slaves is that war
captives are sold to foreigners. Adjacent to the banana zone are zones
of agriculture, where slaves are in great request, and, during the
European connection with the slave trade, the normal demand for slaves
in this zone was greatly heightened. Among the Niam Niam all prisoners
belong to the monarch. He sells the women