A RACE OF CANNIBALS. 
853 
branch — the main stream of the Nile — in distinction from 
the smaller eastern arm which Speke, Grant and Baker took 
to be the river of Egypt. 
The Manyema could give no information about their 
country, because they never travel. Blood feuds often 
prevent them from visiting villages three or four miles off, 
and many at a distance of about thirty miles did not know 
the great river, although named to them. No trader had 
gone so far as I had, and their people cared only for ivory. 
In my attempts to penetrate further and further I had 
but little hopes of ultimate success, for the great amount 
of westing led to a continued effort to suspend the judg- 
ment, lest, after all, I might be exploring the Congo in- 
stead of the Nile, and it was only after the two great west- 
ern drains fell into the central main, and left but the two 
great lacustrine rivers of Ptolemy, that I felt pretty sure 
of being on the right track. 
The great bends west probahly form one side of the great 
rivers above that geographical loop, the other side being 
Upper Tanganyika and the Lake River Albert. A water- 
fall is reported to exist between Tanganyika and Albert 
Nyanza, but I could not go to it; nor have I seen the con- 
necting link between the two — the upper side of the loop — 
though I believe it exists. 
The Manyema are certainly cannibals, but it was long 
ere I could get evidence more positive than would have led 
a Scotch jury to give a verdict of “Not proven.” They 
eat only enemies killed in war ; they seem as if instigated 
by revenge in their man-eating orgies, and on these occa- 
sions they do not like a stranger to see them. I offered a 
large reward in vain to any one who would call me to wit- 
ness a cannibal feast. Some intelligent men have told me 
that the meat is not nice, and made them dream of the 
dead. The women never partake, and I am glad of it, for 
many of them, far down Lualaba, are very pretty ; they 
bathe three or four times a day, and are expert divers for 
oysters. 
47 
