OUR JOURNEY UP THE NIGER AND BENUE 35 



Taylor went on to say that slaves are occasionally to be seen 

 here (Wukari) in the market for sale. He has also seen them 

 shackled together in the bush. Taylor had with him a little 

 five-year-old cannibal boy to whom I showed pictures of 

 animals. The one idea they suggested to him was food, and 

 he pretended to shoot them and put them in his mouth. . . . 

 As I write he thinks my new brindled pup, whom I have 

 christened ' Wuka,' would be good to eat. Dogs with them 

 are about as popular as human flesh. . . . Apart from 

 a certain amount of cannibalism, they are quite a moral 

 people. All their wants are supplied at their door, and 

 directly their crops are gathered, they go raiding one another. 

 But this is only like a game to them, and the slaves they take 

 are well treated and are not made beasts of burden and an 

 article of trade as with the Hausa. The girls are married at 

 ten years of age and have famiUes of three or four." 



Later on, Gosling's notes on the Munchi people were 

 borne out by observations made by Jose on a journey to 

 Tarkum, where I sent him to collect during my convalescence 

 after my attack of blackwater fever. The first place he 

 came to was a Munchi village, where the people at first showed 

 a hostile attitude towards him, gathering round with fingers 

 upon their bowstrings, and the king refused to come out 

 and meet him. But an old Munchi hunter, who understood 

 Hausa, hearing Jose talk to his " boys," came forward and 

 spoke with him. On learning from Jose that his mission 

 was a peaceful one, and that he merely wanted to go through 

 their country to hunt, being a keen hunter himself, he 

 became very friendly, and after pacifying his people, offered 

 to take Jose to the places where game was to be found. 



