2 10 
A Specimen Day 
and the bereaved brother was urging his com¬ 
rades with vociferous speeches to “ up and arm.” 
Usually when a man wants “ war,” he rushes naked 
through his own village, cursing it as he goes. 
Moreover, during the last war Mayyas lost five 
men to three of the enemy; which is not fair, said 
the women, who appeared most eager for the fray. 
All the youths seized their weapons; the huge 
war-drums, the hollowed bole of a tree fringed 
with Nyare hide, was set up in the middle of the 
street; preparations for the week of singing and 
dancing which precedes a campaign were already 
in hand, and one war-man gave earnest of blood¬ 
shed by spearing a goat the property of Mr. 
Tippet. It being our interest that the peace 
should be kept till after my proposed trip into the 
interior, I repaired to the palaver-house and lent 
weight to the advice of my host, who urged the 
heroes to collect ivory, ebony, and rubber, and not 
to fight till his stores were filled. We concluded 
by carrying off the goat. After great excitement 
the warriors subsided to a calm ; it was broken, 
however, two days afterwards by the murder of a 
villager, the suspected lover of a woman whose 
house was higher up the Mbokwe River; he went 
to visit her, and was incontinently speared in the 
breast by the “ injured husband.” If he die and 
no fine be paid, there will be another “ war.” 
I made careful inquiry about anthropophagy 
