118 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



of plaited grass. The chiefs all wore a belt of hippo- 

 potamus hide, studded at the end with brass nails, and 

 into this were fixed their terrible knives; upon the 

 ankles they wore solid iron rings, some weighing two 

 pound.s each ; these were also worn upon the wrists. 

 In addition to these they all seemed to wear leg orna- 

 ments, half-way up the calf, of bright spiral iron wire, 

 shaped to the leg, and the same thing on a smaller 

 scale upon the arms. A ring or two of beads round 

 the neck and a curiously shaped headdress completed 

 the most ornamental attire of the Bangwa warrior. 

 The headdresses were of various kinds, those made 

 of monkey-skin predominating, the fur being worn 

 on the outside. Others were of prepared hide with 

 the fur removed, and some were made of a kind of 

 straw worked into most fantastic shapes. Others are 

 made with the bright plumage of birds. The warrior, 

 when dressed for evening, is a most obnoxious being, 

 having smothered himself from head to foot, particu- 

 larly on the head, with palm-oil. He smears a kind 

 of red paint over his face and chest and looks a most 

 hideous character. His hair is long, for it is never 

 shaved, and either hangs in a tangled mass or is fixed 

 up in a kind of leather nightcap, tied under his chin 

 with leather thongs. His cannibalism is most pro- 

 nounced, and, unlike many others, he does not seem 

 to mind being known as a cannibal; generally speak- 

 ing, he devours the bodies of his enemies, but a woman 

 is seldom, if ever, eaten by the Bangwa. The women, 

 however, join in the feast, not sitting with the men 

 but in a separate group by themselves. 



It would be difficult to say whether the cannibalism 

 of the Bangwa is practised merely from pleasure or 



