THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 499 



interlaced branches. But in spite of these precautions, one of 

 his best men was killed in a night attack by one of these spears 

 striking him in- the abdomen and cutting his body almost in two 



Evidences of cannibalism were on every hand in the human 

 and " soko " skulls that grinned on many poles, and the bones 

 that were so freely scattered near the village garbage-heaps and 

 the river banks, where one might suppose hungry canoemen to 

 have enjoyed a cold collation of ancient matron's arm ; as the 

 most positive and downright evidence of this hideous practice 

 was a thin forearm of a person that was picked up near a fire, 

 with certain scorched ribs which might have been tossed into the 

 fire after being gnawed. The explorers were constantly taunted 

 with threats that they would furnish " meat" for the savages, 

 that word having but a slight dialectic difference in many of their 

 languages. 



Upon coming to anchor one day about fifty yards from shore, 

 two old, queer-looking men came down the steep bank from a 

 neighboring village, and rattled pebbles, enclosed in basket-work, 

 toward them, hoping to charm the strangers away. But the 

 interpreter soon quieted the fears of the old men, and Stanley 

 succeeded in obtaining some very important information from 

 them in regard to the direction and character of the river below. 



NATIVES OF RUBUNGA. 



WHILE passing through the cannibal country it was almost im- 

 possible to procure food, and the expedition was reduced nearly 

 to the point of starvation. Therefore, on arriving at a village 

 called Rubunga, Stanley determined to make a desperate effort 

 to obtain provisions, and having anchored the boats some distance 

 out in the river, he began to make signs to the crowd of savages 

 on the shore, indicating that he was hungry and wanted something 

 to eat. At length an old chief came down the high bank to the 

 lower landing near some rocks. Other elders of the people, in 

 head-dresses of leopard and civet skin, joined him soon, and 

 then all sat down. The old chief nodded his head. In an instant 

 the anchor of the "Lady Alice '' was raised, and with two 

 strokes of the oars Stanley was on shore, and seizing the skinny 



