AMONG THE CANNIBALS 119 



from some superstitious idea about the strength of 

 the enemy entering into themselves. As far as I could 

 make out this latter is the more general belief. It 

 is for the same reason that some tribes of Eastern 

 Africa will eat the liver of a dead leopard that they 

 may imbibe its strength as the Bangwa warrior 

 devours his enemy. On several occasions I saw them 

 engaging in their feasts, and most ghastly were the 

 sights, too horrible indeed to mention. Sometimes one 

 would see part of a limb roasting over the fire, or 

 else in a cooking-pot, boiling, while the warriors sat 

 round watching eagerly until it was cooked. But 

 still, notwithstanding the fact of there being a 

 superstitious idea in connection with this cannibalism, 

 there is no doubt a depraved appetite. I have seen 

 the wild, exciting feast, where spirit dances and invo- 

 cations have been the principal items, and I have seen 

 the warriors in all soberness sit down to a ' joint of 

 man ' in exactly the same way as they would do to 

 a piece of forest antelope. Once when told by a 

 European that the practice of eating human flesh was 

 a most degraded habit the cannibal answered : ' Why 

 degraded? You people eat sheep and cows and fowls, 

 which are all animals of a far lower order, and we 

 eat man, who is great and above all; it is you who 

 are degraded ! ' Thus will the cannibal defend the 

 practice. 



Another usual accompaniment to the feast of the 

 Bangwa is the drinking of a concoction of the kola- 

 nut. The nut, being dried, is pounded up to powder 

 and mixed with a pot of palm-wine and then boiled 

 upon the fire for some hours ; more wine is then 

 added to the other ingredients until a very strong 



