380 THE WORLD'S AVON DEES. 



kills him at once, and sometimes tears his limbs off, but does not 

 eat him. The soko eats no flesh ; small bananas are his dainties, 

 but not maize. His food consists of wild fruits, which abound. 

 The soko brings forth at times twins. A very large soko was 

 seen by Mohamed's hunters sitting picking his nails : they tried 

 to stalk him, but he vanished. Some Manyuema think that their 

 buried dead rise as sokos, and one was killed with holes in his 

 ears, as if he had been a man. He is very strong, and fears 

 guns, but not spears ; he never catches women. 



" Sokos collect together, and make a drumming noise, some 

 say with hollow trees, then burst forth into loud yells, which are 

 well knitated by the natives' embryotic music. If a man has no 

 spear the soko goes away satisfied ; but if wounded, he seizes the 

 wrist, lops off the fingers, and spits them out, slaps the cheeks 

 of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin : he draws out 

 a spear (but never uses it), and takes some leaves and stuffs 

 them into his wound to staunch the blood : he does not wish an 

 encounter with an armed man. He sees women do him no harm, 

 and never molests them : a man without a spear is nearly safe 

 from him. They beat hollow trees as drums with hands, and 

 then scream as music to it : when men hear them they go to the 

 sokos, but sokos never go to men with hostility. Manyuema say, 

 ' Soko is a man, and nothing bad in him.' 



" They live in communities of about ten, each having his own 

 female : an intruder from another camp is beaten off with their 

 fists and loud yells. If one tries to seize the female of another, 

 he is caught on the ground, and all unite in boxing and biting 

 the offender. A male often carries a child, especially if they 

 are passing from one patch of forest to another over a grassy 

 space ; he then gives it to the mother." 



A MARVELOUS-LY IGNORANT PEOPLE. 



LIVINGSTONE was detained at Bambarre a considerable time, 

 even after his ulcerated feet had healed, for, since all but three 

 of his men had deserted, he was forced to send back to Ujiji for 

 more, expecting now the arrival of those sent for to Zanzibar, as 

 before explained ; but he was doomed to sorest disappointment, 



