The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-07-24
THE PACIFIC
L L "a.
Dr.. Livingstone's Journals.

From a recent London Review we make the
following extracts
10 the Manyeuma country, we met with a new
mammal. the Mamba fish, which has breasts
with milk, and utters a CRY - Livingstone also
killed an elephant with three tusks, all of good
size. Here, too, ne fell in with the soko, which
is believed TO be an entirely new species of Chin
panzee, and are supposed by the natives to be
their deceased kinsmen revived. The engraved
portrait Of a young soko, represents him with q
face dreadfnlly like that Of some Of the rufians
in certain Of John Leech's caricatures although
the expression of the chimpanzee is scarcely so
repulsiye as that of some of the faces in /" A
Court for King Cholera" We borrow from a
second volume Of the Journals the following
description of the soko -
IS Four gorillas or sokos were killed yesterday
an extensive grass-burning forced them out of
theT usual haunt, and coming on the plain they
were speared. They often 60 erect, but place the
hands on the head, as if to steady the body.
When seen thus, the soko is al ~ungainly beast.
The most sentimental young lady would not call
him a DEAR but a bandy-legged, pot bellied,
lOw-looking Tagabond without q particle of the
gentleman in him. Other animals, especially the
antelopes, are graceful, and it is pleasant to see
them, either at rest or in motion the natives
also are well made, 1.-THE and comely to behold
but the soko, if large, would do we'll to stand for
q picture Of the devil.
I'll takes away my appetite by his disgusting
beastiality OF appearance. His light-yellow face
shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology
for a beard the forehead villanously low, with
high ears, is well in the background Of the great
~dog-mouth the teeth are slightly human, but
the CANNES show the beast by their large develop
ment. The hands, or rather the fingers, are like
those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is
yellow, and the eagerness with which the Many
uema deyour it leaves the impression that eating
sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at
being cannibaIs they say the flesh is delicious.
The soko is represented by some to be extremely
knowing, successfully stalking men and women
while at their work, kidnapping children, and
running up trees with them-he seems to be
amused by the sight Of the young native in his
arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch
of bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the child.
Numbers of them come Town 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 vas stalked by q soko,
and seized he roared out, but the soko gigled
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. Sokos collect together, and make
a drumming noise, some say with hollow trees,
then burst forth into loud yells, which are we'll
initiated 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 stufis them into his wound
to staunch the blood he does not wish an en-
counter with an armed man. He sees women do
him no harm, and never molests them a man
without a spear is nearly safe from him. They
beat hollow trees as drums with hands, and then
scream as music to it when men hear them they
go to the sokos but sokos never 60 to men with
hostility. Manyuema say, 'Soko is a man and
nothing bad in him.
ssThey live in communities of about ten, each
having his own female. An Intruder from an
other camp is beaten off with their fists and loud
yells. IF one tries to seize the female of another,
he is caught on the ground, and all unite in box
ing and biting the offender. A male often car
ries a child, especially if they are passing from
one patch Of forest to another over q grassy space;
he then gives it to the mother"
The inclination which the sokos display to-
wards instrumental music is common, however,
to many varieties of the monkey tribe. There is
one, the black chimpanzee, TrogEodyLes niger,
which uses drumsticks, employing their hands
and feet with equal dexterity in welding them.
lame monkeys can be easily taught the use of the
castanets; and it is a curious circumstance, as
NJ. Houzeau has pointed out in the work which
we recently reviewed, that in all parts of the
world the drum is the first musical instrument
constructed by the savage, it being, like that of
the chimpanzee, nothing more, in its primitive
form, than a hollow cylinder of wood while the
cry of the lowest races of man in the Andaman
Islands, for example, is ndistinguishable from
that of the chimpanzee.
Livingstone was a born traveller, fitted for it
no less by his iron constitution than by the YER
satility of his resources, his various knowledge,
his eo%uanimity of mind, and his power of adapt
ing himself to novel circumstances. The pros
pect of entering into unknown regions, even
although it involved the confronting of perils of
no ordinary magnitude, exhilarated his spirits
and braced his energies. When he was setting
out on the arduous journeys recorded IN these
volumes we find him writing -
"The mere animal pleasure of travelling
in a wild unexplored country is very great.
When ON lands a couple of thousand feet eleva-
ton, brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the mus
cles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through
the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear,
the step is firm, and a days e~xertion always
makes the evenings repose thoroughly enjoyable.
"We have usually the stimulus Of remote
chances of danger either from beasts or men.
Our sympathies are drawn out towards our hum
BILE hardy companions by q community Of inter-
ests, and, it may be, of perils, which make US
all friends. Nothing but the most pltiable
p~uerility would lead any manly heart to make
their inferiority a theme for e liberalization how
ever, that is often done, as with the vague idea
that We can, by magnifying their deficiencies,
demonstrate our immaculate PROJECTIONS.
1.-THE effect of travel on a man whose heart is
in the right place is that the mind is made more
selfreliant it becomes more confident of its own
resources-there Is greater presence OF mind
The body is soon well-knit the muscles of the
limbs grow as hard as a beard, and seem to have
no fat the countenance is bronzed, and there is
no dyspepsia. Africa is q most wonderful coun-
try for appetite, and it is only when one gloats
over marrow bones or elephants feet that in
digestion is possible. No doubt much toll is
involved, and fatigue of which travellers in the
more temperate chimes can form but a faint con-
ception but the sweat of ones brow is no
longer a curse when one works for God it proves
a tonic to the system, and is actually Il blessing.