610 HABITS OF THE SOKO. 



with his own. He finds a rougher customer in the lion ; this 

 powerful animal is more than a match for even the cunning of 

 the soko, and often not only kills him but tears off his limbs 

 in his fury. 



" The sokos have some singular customs, and are the objects 

 of singular superstitions; they collect together and make a 

 drumming noise — some say with hollow trees — and then burst 

 forth into loud yells. He seems not to be particularly danger- 

 ous, and manifests no disposition to molest unarmed men or 

 women. If he is wounded, he is satisfied with simply biting 

 off the fingers of his assailant, and spitting them out ; he then 

 slaps the cheeks of his victim, and biting a few times without 

 breaking the skin ; he then draws out the spear, and stuffs 

 leaves into the wound to staunch the blood. They eat no flesh, 

 but are very fond of bananas. The Manyuema hold them in 

 much respect, and say of them, ■ Soko is a man, and nothing bad 

 in him ; ' they believe that the dead who escape being eaten rise 

 as sokos. But notwithstanding their respect for them, they 

 devour their flesh most ravenously, and account it a great 

 luxury. The sokos are quite social ; they live in communities 

 of about ten, each having his own female; an intruder from 

 another camp is beaten off with their fists and loud yells. If 

 one tries to seize the female of another, he is caught on the 

 ground, and all unite in boxing and biting the offender. A 

 male often carries a child, especially if they are passing from 

 one patch of forest to another over a grassy space ; he then gives 

 it to the mother." 



While Dr. Livingstone was lying at Bambarre, reports were 

 constantly coming of the progress of the traders through the 

 country ; and it was an aggravation of his sufferings to know 

 that while he, by the unfaithfulness of his own servants and the 

 bad conduct of the traders, was bound almost hand and foot, 

 these traders were already scattered along the banks of the great 

 river. It seemed hard that they who had at heart only the 

 meanest objects, and found their delight, more than anything 

 else, in murder and plunder, went so freely where they pleased ; 

 while he, longing to solve the great problem of so many centu- 

 ries, and filled with love for these poor degraded beings, could 

 only sit and wait as patiently as possible. He could not be 



