112 THROUGH ANGOLA 



head with it, as was formerly done among some 

 of the Congo tribes of Angola. 



The burial rites of Bihe Sovas were similar 

 to those of Chiefs of other tribes, in that the dead 

 lay in state for many days. The body, however, 

 was not smoked or preserved, but allowed to 

 decompose and fall to pieces in the hut where it 

 lay. The Sova's death was not announced until 

 such time as the head of the corpse fell off the 

 body. 



The death rites were only then carried out. 

 The hut in which the body had lain was demolished, 

 and the body buried, wrapped in an ox hide, 

 under the floor of a hut in the royal enclosure. 

 The death rites in the old days included mal- 

 treatment of any strangers who were in the country, 

 and on the appointment of a successor to the 

 dead Chief, two heads, one of an antelope and 

 the other of a human being, were needed for the 

 coronation ceremony. 



r~* The Bihe people are practically vegetarians, 

 as they do not eat cattle, and there is too little 

 game in the country, especially since the outbreak 

 of rinderpest, for venison to bulk largely in their 

 menus. That they like meat is evident from the 

 relish they had for the buck meat which I shot 

 for them ; and they occasionally eat domestic 

 pig, even when the meat is putrid, and will eat 

 dogs, rats, and even lizards and ants on occasion. 

 They have never been ordinary cannibals, but 

 in earlier days at their ceremonial feasts, called 

 " guissunges," human flesh was eaten mixed with 

 that of other 'meat. 



