American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-02-20
The SOkO.

yesterday; an extensive grass-burning
forced them out of their usual haunts
and coming on the plain they were
speared. They often go erect, but place
the hand on the head as if to steady the
body. When seen thus the sOko is an
ungainly beast. Other animals, especial
ly the antelOpes, are graceful, and it is
pleasant to see them either at rest or in
motion; the natives are also well made,
1.-the and comedy to behold, but the soko,
if large, would do we'll to stand for a pict-
ure of the devil. He takes away my ap
petite by his disgusting bestiality of ap-
pearance. His light yellow face shows
off his ugly whiskers and faint apology
for beard; the forehead, villalnously
low, with ears, lis we'll 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, and the eargerness with which
Manyuema devours it leaves the impress
sion that eating sokOs was the first stage
by which they arrived at being cannibals.
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 bunch of ba-
nanas, and as he lifts that drops
the child. The young soko in
such case would cling closely to the
arm-pit of the elder. One man was cut
ting out honey from tree, and naked,
when a soko suddenly appeared and
caught him; then let him go. Another
man was hunting and missed his attempt
to stab a soko. 1t 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 escaped I'M
harmed. Both men are now living in
Bombarre. 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 man and nets he is gen
orally speared in the back, too. Other
wise he is not very formidable beast
He is nothing as compared in power of
damaging his assailant to a leopard or
lion, but is more like a man unarmed,
for it does not occur to him to use his
canine teeth, which are long and formid-
able. Numbers of them come down in
the forest, within 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 was stalked by soko and
seized. He roared out, but the soko
giggled and grinned, and left him, as if
he had done it in play. A child
caught up by soko is often
abused by being pinched and scratched
and let fall. The soko kills the Loop
ard occasionally by securing both paws
and biting them SO as to disable them.
He then goes up tree, groans over his
wounds, and sometimes RECEIVERS, 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. A very large
soko was seen by Mohamad's hunters
sitting picking his nails. They tried to
stalk him, but he vanished. Some Man
yuema think that their buried dead rise
up 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.
He draws out q spear, but never uses it,
and takes out some leaves and stuffs
| them into his wound to stanch the
blood; he does not wish an encounter
with an armed man. He sees women do
him no harm, and never molests them; a
man without a spear is nearly safe for
him. They live in communities of about
ten, each having his own female; an in
| truder from another 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
boxing and biting the offender. A male
often carries a child, especially if they
pass from one patch of forest to another
over a grassy space; he then gives it to
the mother from " Liuingstons's Last
Journey" TN Appleton's Journal.