48 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
occur to him to use liis canine teeth, which are long and formidable. Numbers of them came down In 
the forest, within a hundred yards of our camp, and would be unknown but for giving tongue like Fox- 
hounds : this is their nearest approach to speech. A man, hoeing, was stalked by a Soko, and seized ; 
he roared out, but the Soko giggled and grinned, and left him as if he had done it in play. A child, 
caught up by a Soko, is often abused by being pinched, and scratched, and let fall.” 
“The Soko kills the Leopard occasionally, by seizing both paws and biting them, so as to disable 
them; he then goes up a tree, groans over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the Leopard dies. 
At other times both Soko and Leopard die. The Lion kills him at once, and sometimes tears his limbs 
A SOKO HUNT. (After a Sketch b-j Dr. Lidrujstone.) 
off, but does not eat him. The Soko eats no flesh ; small bananas are his dainties, but not maize. His 
food consists of wild fruits, which abound, and of these one is like large sweet sop, but indifferent in 
taste. The Soko brings forth at times twins. A very large Soko was seen by Mohamad’s hunters, 
sitting picking his nails ; they tried to stalk him, but he vanished. Some Manyuema think that their 
buried dead rise as Sokos, and one was killed with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He is 
very strong, and fears guns, but not spears. He never catches women.” 
“ Sokos collect together, and make a drumming noise, some say with hollow trees, then burst forth into 
loud yells, which are well imitated by the natives’ embryonic music. If a man has no spear, the Soko 
goes away satisfied ; but if wounded, he seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers and spits them out, slaps 
the cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin ; he draws out a spear (but never uses it), 
and takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the blood ; he does not seek an 
encounter with an armed man. He sees women do him no harm, and never molests them ; a mau 
