to Mabriiki, my gun-bearer, who was 4 feet 10
inches in height. “ He walks like a . man, and
goes about with a stick, with which he beats
the trees in the forest, and makes hideous noises.
The Nyama eat our bananas, and we hunt them,
kill them, and eat them.”
“ Are they good eating?” I asked.
He laughed, and replied that they were very
good.
“Would you eat one if you had one now?”
“ Indeed I would. Shall a man refuse meat?”
Well, look here. I have one hundred cowries
here. Take your men, and catch one,
and bring him to me alive or dead. I only
want his skin and head. You may have the
meat.”
Kampunzu’s chief, before he set out with his
men, brought me a portion of the skin of one,
which probably covered the back. The fur was
dark grey, an inch long, with the points inclined
to white; a line of darker hair marked the spine.
This, he assured me, was a portion of the skin
of a “ soko.” He also showed me a cap made
out of it, which I purchased.
The chief returned about evening unsuccessful
from the search. He wished us to remain two
or three days that he might set traps for the
sokos,” as they would be sure to visit the
bananas at night. Not being able to wait so
rNov. 17, 1876.1 HUXLEY ON THE “ SOKO” SKULLS. 185
[ Kampunzu. J
many days, I obtained for a few cowries the
skull of a male, and another of a female.*
In this village were also observed those
caryed benches cut out of the Rubiaceae already
mentioned, backgammon trays, and stools carved
in' the most admirable manner, all being decorated
around the edges of the seats with brass
tacks and “ soko teeth.”
Copper appeared to be abundant with the
Wavinza. It was wound around their spear-
staffs and encircled the lower limbs, and arms,
♦These two skulls were safely brought to England," and
shown to Professor Huxley, who has passed judgment upon
them as follows: —
“ Of the two skulls submitted to me for examination, the
one is that of a man probably somewhat under thirty years
o f age, and the other that o f a woman over fifty.
“ The man’s skull exhibits all the characteristic peculiarities
of the negro type, including a well-marked, but not unusual,
degree o f prognathism. In the female skull the only
point worth notice is a somewhat unusual breadth o f the anterior
nasal aperture in proportion to its height, indicating
that the nostrils may have been slightly farther apart, and
the extremity o f the nose a little flatter than usual.
“ In both skulls the cephalic index is 75. Nothing in these
skulls justifies the supposition that their original possessors
differed in any sensible degree from the ordinary African
negro.”
Professor Huxley, b y the above, startles me with the proof
that Kampunzu’s people were cannibals, for at least one half
of the number o f skulls seen b y me bore the mark o f a hatchet,
which had been driven into the head while the victims
were alive.