The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-02-20

Dr. Livingstone, the great African eXplor-
er, kept minute journal of his travels up
almost to the day of bis death, and that jour
nal was fortunately all preserved and reached
his relatives III England, who have just Civ
en- 1t to the public. The New York Ereatng
Post, in a notice of the book, gives few in
erestinE extracts, which we copy.
In the country Of the Manyuema Dr.. Liv-
ngstone became acquainted with an ungainly
species OF chimpanzee, which he enormously
supposed to be identical with De Chaillu's
gorilla The native name for it is "Soko'
1t Is thus described, in the Journal
lie takes away my appetite by his disgust.
ng bestality of appearance. HIS lightyel
low face shows off his ugly whskers and
faint apology for Il beard; the forehead, vii
lainously 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 development
The hands, or rather the fingers, are like
those of the natives. The flesh Of the feet is
yellow, AID the eagcrness with which the
Manyucma deyour il leaves the impression
that eating sokos was the first stage by which
they arrived at being cannibals; they say the
flesh is delicious. The sOkO is represented
bg some to be extremely knowing, successful
ly 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 bunch
of bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the
child; the young soko in such u case would
cling closely to the armpt Of the elder. One
man was cutting honey from tree, and max
ed, when a soko suddenly appeared and
caught him, then let him go. Another man
was hunting, and missed in his attempt to
stab a soko; ii seized the spear and broke it,
then grappled with the man, who called to
his companions, 'Soko has caught me- the
soko bit off the ends Of his fingers and es
capped unframed. Both men are now alive at
Bambarrc.
The soko is SO cunning, and has such
sharp eyes, that no one can stalk him in front
without being seen: hence, when shot, it is
always in the back; when surrounded by
men and nets, he is generally speared in the
back too; otherwise he is not a very formid
able beast; he is nothing, as compared in
power of damaging his assailant, to leopard
or lion, but is more like Il man unarmcd, for
it does not occur to him TO use his canine
teeth, which are long and formidable Mum
bcrs of them come down in the forest within
a hundred yards OF our camp, and would be
unknown hut for giving tongue like fox
hounds; this is their nearest approach to
speech. A man hoeing was salked by Il So
ko and seized; he roared out, but the soko
giggled and grinned, and left him as If he
had done it in play. \ child caught up by
u soko is often abused by being punched and
scratched and let fall.
The sOko kills the leopard occasionally
by selling both paws and biting them so as
to disable them; he then goes up a tree,
groans over his wounds, and sometimes re-
covers, While the leopard dies; at other times
both soko and leopard die. The lion kills
him at once, and sometimes tears his limbs
of, but does not eat him The sOkO eats no
flesh; small bananas are his dan,ies, but not
maize. His food consists Of wild fruits,
which abound; one staicnc, OF Manyucma
mamwa, is like large sweet sop, but indifter
ent in taste and flesh The soko brings forth
at times twins. \ very large soko was seen
by Mohamad's hunters sitting picking his
nails; they tried to stalk HIM, but he van
ishcd. some Manyuema think that their
buried dead rise as sokos and one was killed
with holes in his ears, As if he had been a
man. He is very strong, and fears guns but
not spears; he never catches women.
"Sokos collect together and make a drum.
ming noise, some say with hollow trees then
burst forth into loud yels, which are well
initiated by the natives embryonic music
If q 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 checks 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
A I,a- - g.. x,t.,r
an armed man. lie sees women do him no
harm, and never molcsts them; man with
out a spear Is nearly safe from him. They
beat hollow trees As drums with their hands,
and then scream AS music to il; when men
hear them they 90 to the sokos; but sokos
never 90 to men with hostility. Manyuema
say, 'Soko is n man, and there is nothing bad
in him
"They live IN communities of about ten,
each having his own female; an intruder
from another camp Is beaten of 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 boxing and biting the often
der A male often carries a child, especially
if they are passing from one patch of forest to
another over grassy space; he then gives il
u the mother.
Among the greatest difficulties encounter
cd by African travellers are earth sponges,"
which are thus described By DR.. Livingstone
in his journal:
"In going 10 Bangweolo from kizinga,
crossed twenty-nine Of these reservoirs in
thirty miles of latitude, on southeast course;
this may give about one sponge for every two
miles The word bog conveys much of the
idea of these earthen sponges but il is insepa-
rably connected in our minds with peat, and
these contain not a particle of peat; they con-
Sist of black, porous earth, covered with
hard wry grass, and few other damp-loving
plants In many places the spouges hold