Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-10-13


Weaker Tribes for a Supply of Human
Flesh.
The facts about the Congo cannibals
have been very slow in coming to the
light. In the thousand or more pages OF
Stanlcy's last book the subject is not men.
toned. The explorer was too busy found
ing his twenty stations to add fresh facts
TO the details in his Dark Continent"
about a practice which many of the tribes
endeavor to conceal. The Manyema, the
first cannibal tribe Of the Congo river
who were made known to us, told both
Livingstone and Stanley that they did not
eat human flesh. When Stanley found ut
a village above Stanley Falls hundreds Of
whitened skulls arranged in rows around
the huts, he was told they were the skulls
of Sokos or c~himpanzees, and that this
species OF the ape family was ~favorite food
among the people. He offered a hundred
cowries for "A specimen of IA Soko, dead or
alive, but it was not produced. Two OK the
skulls were taken TO England, where Pro
fessor Huxley pronounced them the skulls
Of a woman and a man. They bore the
marks OF the Ratchet that gave the unfor.
tunate prisoners their death; and Stanley
said half the skulls he saw were similarly
marked.
WARNING ON WEAKER TRIBES
The middle course of the Congo from a
point about 100 mics above Nyangwe to
Bolobo, some 200 miles down the river,
II the tributaries on both sides of this
part Of the river are the regions where
nearly all of the Congo cannibals are
found. They are not known near the
sources of the river nor near its mouth.
The traveller krom Lake ~Tanganyika to
Nyangwe ON the Congo passes through a
country Surprisingly beautiful" rs Liv-
ingstone called 1t, which is the home of
the cannibal Manyema. When a slave or
carrier belonging TO a caravan dies in
their country they always wish to bury
the body, Offering grain or vegetables in
exchange. They make wal Oh the weaker
tribes around them. To one explorer
they justified cannibalism on the ground
that their neighbors were thieves and
Ought to be eaten. They come here"
they said, land steal our bananas, and
SO we chase and kill and eat them" The
country abounds with a great variety of
animal and vegetable food, and Living
stone said there was no reason for Man
yeIna cannibalism except a depraved appe-
tite. 1t must not be supposed that all Of
the Congo cannibals seek habitually to
supply themselves with human flesh.
Most Of them, like the Manyema, limit
themselves TO eating the bodies of those
who are killed In battle or who die. Cam
eron said the Manyema consider the flesh
Of men much superior TO that of women
Although the Manyema are far more de
graded than many other cannibal tribes,
they are noted for their g~entleness and
physical superiority; and their handsome
women are much sought after as slaves
by the Arabs, who now support several
stations in the Manyema country. and
here as well as further down the Congo
are doing much to destroy the practice of
c~annibalism.
Cannibal tribes arc regarded with fear
and adherence by ell who are not I'D
dicted TO the practice. Had it not been
for the terror with which the Congo men
eaters inspired their carriers, Livingstone
or Cameron, instead Of Stanley, would
have solved the problem Of the Congo.
This adherence Of cannibalism extends
from sea TO sea. Horace Waller wrote
~ the tribes of Lake Nyassa that
Il was common TO hear them speak Of
tribes far away who eat human bodies,
and on every occasion the fact is related
with the utmost horror and disgust"
THOUSANDS II CANNIBALs.
The densely wooded regions between
Nyangwe and Stanley Falls are the
homes Of many thousands Of canni
balls. The Waregga, the Wasongoro
Memo, and the Bakumu are the best
known among these fierce tribes. a large
part of the territory they inhabit has not
been visited, but Ia some of their villages
.1,-. l.. 49,. l.. .1.y1- 49, f...l
lining the streets, and human thigh bones,
ribs and vertebre are piled up In the
garbage heaps. "Ah, we shall eat
Wajimi meat today" was the cry with
which they sailed forth here and there to
do battle with Stanley. AT Stanley Falls
he sank in the river the bodies Of two Of
his men whom they had killed to keep
them out of the clutches Of the cannibals.
swarmed by thousands along the river,
have now buried themselves in the for
ests, the Arabs having taken complete
possession Of the river banks between
Nyangwe and Stanley Falls.
a little below the Bangala tribe Gren-
fell and Won Francois. three years ago,
found thousands of cannibals along the
thickly populated Tchuapa afiluent, which
they assembled for more than 800 miles.
These tribes, all of whom speak the Same
language, did not pretend to deny their
weakness for human flesh. They share
with the Manyema the popularity Of pre-
ferring to eat men, and they do not kill
women for food. They repeatedly offered
to give the explorers women slaves in ex-
change for men, who they admitted would
be utilized as food. Won Francois says
they particularly coveted his fat Boruki
interpreter. Once some presumptuous
fellows surrounded the big Indian inter
prefer, pinched his arms, patted him on
tho back, cried "Meatl meat!' and begged
the whites to reward their friendship by