Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-05-25


Among them are cannibal tribes
light-colored, tall and stout. They are
skillfhl in the working of iron. They
work iron most beautifully. The moun-
tains are In the interior covered with
iron. Being warlike, they are con-
stantly making all sorts of instruments
to kill each other. In that country
they eat all their prisoners F; only the
kings are buried. People who die OF
disease are eaten. (Sensation.) They
have come within fifty yards of the mis-.
sionary station and dug up bodies to
be eaten. had nobody with me when
/ was among them, but found them
very kind towards me- OF course ]
told them it was very bad to eat hu-
man flesh, but they told me, and they
satisfied me that next to human flesh
the gorilla flesh was the best. / said
to them, ''why don't you kill the go.
rillas ?" But they can't kill them be.
cause they have no guns. They can't
kill them with spears.
OF the language of the country had
great difficulty to acquire any knowl.
edge. / had to stay long time among
one tribe to acquire the language. Ii
was only with great difficulty / could
come to the power of thinking. The
great difficulty was TO get 70 the level
of thinking of these negroes. 1t is
quite as difficult for us to come to their
standard as it is for the negro to come
to our level of thinking.
Their attempts to explain their reli-
gion to me have failed. Every attempt
10 10. 70
stitions and religions / have not been
able to understand the beginning or end
of at all. have had to give it up in
despair.
have travelled in the jungles for
days without meeting a single settle
ment Of the savages, having fought
against hunger and starvation. 1 do
not know how many times | have been
over three days without getting any
thing to eat except leaves.
/ travelled with monkey, and VIXEN /
got hungry made the monkey smell of
the leaves and berries. III. the monkey
ate the leaves and berries, thought
they would be goo enough for me-
Applause and laughter.) But the
monkeys taste ard mine did not always
agree, for found that he would eat of
very bitter food. Laughter)
But when man is very hungry he
is not very particular, you know. Yet
/ never killed my pet monkey, al
though / subsequently found that mon
key flesh was very good. daughter
Well, why not? You need not make
face, young lady; you can't tell me the
FIRST reason why We should not eat
monkey. QIaughter.) "Ehey are SO
much like a man?'' Don't think this.
III there is not much to eat in the
Jungle, there is plenty to drink. for it
rains nine months in the year; and, by
way of change, it rains all the year
round. Iaughter) There are beasts
of burden to carry your luggage, and
it has TO be carried on mems backs or
backs. / succeeded finally In
the women from carrying
my baggage but l had great difficulty.
You would see man carrying only his
spear, while his wives were loaded
with plantains. The food of the coun-
try is plantains. You have a great
while to travel in that country without
meeting settlements, and these plan
tains "a sort of banana-must be car
ried. Some of the bananas weigh from
125 TO $50 pounds. Eighty pounds will
be only sufficient for three or four days.
The first day they are so lazy that
they never think of tomorrow. They
find the load of plantains heavy, and
they Top eff a part secretly, and throw
it III the woods. On the third day they
say, sob, if we had only known this
we would have kept the plantains. -
(LaughteI.)
They believe in the worship of idols.
They also believe In evil spirits. When
they are killed they believe the devil to
be the cause of it. Laughter When
a man is sick they come and fire near
his ears in hopes of driving the devil
out OF bis head. They think that by
driving the devil ont the sick man will
get well. But / assure you he general
ly dies. Laughter. They are very
Ii man, woman or
child dies, they believe they have been
Hence somebody must be
killed. Every man that dies from three
to ten must be killed. They say he has
been bewitched.
WI en- tried to oppose this idea they
said, "Are You not iealous in your
country ?" Well 1 did not like to all
NIT that we are Laughter so j
eyaded the question. They said if a
man is jealous of another he tries TO
kill him. Hence wien a man dies they
always summon the heirs of the estate.
The estate is composed of slaves and
wives. The nephew iDherits the prop
erty. Not the son, but the son of the
eldest sister
The tribes are divided into clans
Each clan is divided from the names of
the women's side. The son of the eld-
est sister inherits the property. If the
eldest sister has no children, then the
of the second sister, and so on
to the cousins; but never the sons. -
They are very particular about that. -
People of the same clan never marry
with each other. If You speak of cous-
Ins getting married, they say, els il
possible % There is law that no
people of the same clan, however re-
moved from each other, can be mar
ried.
The children. consequently, belong
to the mother and the family of the
mother, and when the children are to
be sold the family of the father and |
mother get together to agree, not SO
much as to selling the children, but
how to divide the property coming |
from it. Laughter. Up to the edge |
Of four or five years the children are
well cared for. The mothers are as
fond of their babies as the mothers OF |
any other country. When they get too |
many children they sell them off
The ambition OF the men is TO pos
seas slaves and wives. The older the |
IL. H. H.