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Masks of Gabon: Fang LbNA #47553

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:May 25, 2009
Location:
City:???
County:Chester
State:Pennsylvania
Boxes:1
Planted by:Otis' Friends
Found by: Not yet found!
Last found:N/A
Last edited:May 25, 2009
Legend has it that the original Fang (pronounced "Fong") were fierce warriors who migrated from East Africa, killing and eating those they met along the way. The modern day Fang certainly do nothing to dispel the myths of a bloody and cannibalistic past (an historic reputation that also helped their ancestors avoid a lot of fights), but they are also anything but viscious. One fundamental principle of Fang culture is that strangers/foreigners are to be treated exceptionally well, and the Fang are very generous and welcoming to those they do not know. Not really a tribe so much as an ethnic identity including thousands of tribes, the Fang dominate Gabon's Woleu-Ntem province, as well as Equatorial Guinea and southern Cameroon. I spent about two years of my life with the Fang and still speak some words and phrases from their language.

Now for the clue. Everyone has seen the popular e-mail hoaxes about this, that, and the other. Check www.Snopes.com for more details. One popular variant reads:

Dear Friends,
Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.
Regards.
Name
General Manager Field Operations


(THAT'S A HOAX. IT'S NOT TRUE. IF FOR ONE SECOND YOU THINK IT'S TRUE, YOU SHOULD LOOK INTO GETTING A LEGAL GUARDIAN.)

From the southern trail head of the trail with the same Name, head away from the parking lot in a northerly direction, passing by two benches and then through a rock formation. The trail follows a contour around a stream valley, then begins a gradual but significant ascent with the creek visible to your left. When you reach an area reminiscent of a V.S. Naipaul novel set in Africa, stop. Sit on the bench. Take it all in. If there is a prettier spot in this area, I'm not aware of it. When you're done with that, continue along the trail for six paces. To your right is a beech with an "entwined" trunk, reminiscent in some ways of a prominent letterboxer's signature stamp. Make your way to the beech, taking care to give a wide berth to any ferns. When you reach the beech, look uphill, with the beech and the bench to your right. You should see two large oak trees bending toward and crossing each other. The box is behind the closer oak. Snap all four corners shut and be sure to cover the box so that it doesn't wash downhill. This is a nice place to sit and stamp if you don't want to go back and forth to the bench. Please snap all four corners shut so water doesn't get in.

Perhaps 150 foot elevation gain, all told.