120 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



concoction is made. Then when cool the chief and 

 his head-men, or any others who may be asked, will 

 sit round the pot with long, hollow reeds in their 

 hands, and with these they suck up the terrible poison. 



I have several times sat by them as they indulged 

 in this dangerous practice and watched the effects of 

 the drug. First a kind of hilarity comes over them, 

 and this in time gives place to hysterical laughing, 

 and their eyes seem to stand out from their heads, 

 and utter wildness is stamped upon their faces; gradu- 

 ally the effect becomes so great as to cause temporary 

 madness, and they will jump; up and down, waving 

 their awful knives above their heads, and then they 

 rush off into the wood, thirsting for human blood. 

 I was told that ,when the Bangwa want to go on 

 some raiding expedition they first have a great revel 

 round the kola-nut pot, and when worked up into a 

 state of frenzy they rush off to attack their foes in 

 order that they may afterwards drink their blood, 

 should they be victorious. The women are not 

 allowed to drink this poison, it being reserved for 

 the warriors only. 



At one very large village of the Bangwa I had 

 an opportunity of witnessing a midnight dance per- 

 formed by the natives. It was a bright moonlight 

 night when the people began to collect in the clearing 

 in front of the chief's house; in all about two hundred 

 men and women, alike nude, gathered in this spot for 

 the national dance. A huge fire was built in the midst 

 of the open space, and around this they all arranged 

 themselves, men and women on opposite sides, forming 

 a circle, and when the circle was complete the chief 

 gave the word and the dancing commenced. Words 



