THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 377 



his house, and all public matters are gravely communicated to it, 

 as if his spirit dwelt therein ; his body was eaten ; the flesh was 

 removed from the head and eaten too ; his father's head is said to 

 be kept also. The foregoing refers to Bambarre alone. In other 

 districts graves show that sepulture is customary, but here no 

 grave appears : some admit the existence of the practice here, 

 others deny it. In the Metamba country, adjacent to the Lualaba, 

 a quarrel with a wife often ends in the husband killing her and 

 eating her heart, mixed up in a huge mess of goat's flesh ; this 

 has the charm character. Fingers are taken as charms in other 

 parts, but in Bambarre alone is the depraved taste the motive for 

 cannibalism." 



A GORILLA, OR SOKO, HUNT. 



FOR a period of eighty days Livingstone was laid up at Bam- 

 barre by the ulcerations in his feet. The only thing which 

 afforded the slightest relief was malachite, rubbed down with 

 water on a stone and applied with a feather. While he was suffer- 

 ing with this worst of all afflictions thirty slaves died in Bam- 

 barre of the same complaint, which shows with what fatality it 

 attacks the natives. 



During his prolonged enforced stay at Bambarre some natives 

 went on a gorilla hunt, that animal being quite numerous through- 

 out the Manyuema country, It is probable, however, that the 

 gorilla of which Livingstone writes, and which he usually calls a 

 soko, is a species of chimpanzee, and not the true gorilla, which 

 is much larger than the animal referred to in the following des- 

 cription which he gives of the hunt and the animal : 



" Four gorillas, or sokos, were killed yesterday : an extensive 

 grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and coming 

 on the plain, they were speared. They often go erect, but place 

 the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen 

 thus, the soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young 

 lady would not call him a * dear,' but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied, 

 low-looking villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him. 

 Other animals are graceful, especially the antelope, and it is 

 pleasant to see them, either at rest or in motion. The natives are 



