The San Francisco call., 1904-02-21
CANNIBAL KING BANGASSON,
RULER IN DARKEST AFRICA
Holds Sway Over 100000 Subjects, Who Vary Farming
With Slave Raids Mlintain Fetish Free in Their Chief
Village and Eat All Criminals Whom They Execute
BY WILLIAM STAMPS CHERRY.
IAfrican Traveller. Explorer Hunter o Big Camel
Copyright. 1904, by Joseph b. Bowes)

tribes, his ultimate purpose being to
drive the white intruders out of the
country.
Mbally, the eldest son of Bangassou,
will be the ruler of the N'Sacklaws
when the old chief dies He is ten
times more of savage than his father.
Like his father, he is big, fat and much
married. He has soft, dreamy eyes, and
is much beloved by the female portion
of the population. He is easily infiu-
enced for good or evil. He does not
take life very seriously, and will never
have the Caesarike qualities of his old
father. He spends his life drinking togo.
and sleeping off it's effects. His god is
his belly. Every time l met him he
squeezed my hand, while he embar-
rassed me by his protestations of ad-
miration for my generosity, which
meant that l was to give him a hand
some present. His first present was all.
ways a gargolet of togo, accompanied
by a vile smelling compound composed
of the flesh of everything in the animal
Kingdom, from an elephant to a rat,
which tasted good II eaten without
asking questions He was very much
surprised that l had no wives, and ex-
pressed his readiness to supply the de-
ficiency. Single blessedness was some
thing he could not understand
Mbally wished to impress me with
his greatness. He assembled all his
warriors, decked out in the most gor-
geous array. L was led past a great
heap of human skulls, some of them
being of recent acquisition, and the
odor was terrible. Many of them bore
marks of fire, and the hole at the ar
tieulation in the vertebra had been en-
larged to give access to the most dainty
dish known to the N'Sacklaws. BY a
fine economy Of means the skull serves
both as a pot to cook in and as a dish
to eat from. One part of the entertain
ment gotten up for my special benefit
consisted of a one-legged man and an
old deformed dwarf dancing to the
music of the tom-toms. 1t was a ludi-
crous performance. Following that
came sham battle, a wild, blood
curdling affair.
The braves went through the motions
of killing their enemies. They came
down toward me with a wild charge,
brandishing their spears as if they
would instantly annihilate me. i was
anything but at ease, but pretended to
be unconcerned Mbally was watching
me like a hawk with the tail of his eye.
He expected me to be overwhelmed
with this display of power and glory.
My men, who sat near me, were suit
ably impressed with the imposing spec
tacle; their eyes sbulged out of their
heads, and thev shook with fear. 1
had seen this game of bluff before and
was prepared for it, Mbally was ex-
asperated when he saw how coolly. |
took it. He turned upon me angriiy
and asked whv l had come TO his viii
lage. He said that he did not want me
there and that he hated the white men.
l told him that / just happened to be
passing by on my way to Ratio. his
rival and enemy. This touched him to
the quick. He then threatened me
with harm. ] tod him | could take
care of myself, and. taking out my re-
Voiyer / put a few holes in a bungo
tree, the bark of which is used for the
making of cloth. This gave things a
new turn: he began to quarrel about
the tree, but he soon cooled down, and
the game of bluff was over and we be-
came the stanchest of friends. The
chair upon which l sat during the per-
formance was hippo's head
l entered into negotiations with
Mbally for the skulls of the Boobos
killed in the last raid. l offered him
three guns for them. For some super
stitious reason he at first did not want
TO part with them, but the offer
was tempting and he took it. | was
preparing to put nv somewhat grew
some purchase into baskets and trans
port them down the river in canoes,
when he backed out, saying that they
were ''yorra"-that is. medicine-and
that if he gave them he and his father
would die. 1t was no use to argue with
him on this point. so my graveyard re-
moval scheme had to be given up