Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-22

Fire Hunting with the Congo Cannibals

tation. said I'm let go. boss and the
next instant tine limb relieved OF lis
we"ht, sprang up. almost jerking ME off.
When | climbed into safe position
l could between the charging ele
plants the mangled form of the boy
I never would have died for him. yet
he died for me.
An hour afterWard the last elephant
had passed out and l climbed down from
my perch, sick at heart. That day. |
estimated. thirty natives took their lives.
and close on 100 elephants.
Then came the feast Tom-ton1s were
beaten and thousands of natives col
lected from the nearby villages. The
first meal was eaten where it lay. being
hacked from the huge carcasses with
every conceivable form of sharp weapon
Children wallowed in the sticky blood and
fought with each other over choice It'd
bits. Every bit of the dead elephants
was cut off the bones and taken to the
villages to be smoked and kept for future
use. The ivory was then collected and
divided with mathematical fairness
among the chiefs of the villages that
participated in the hunt.
That night the village musicians beat their
tom-toms. and Instruments of every con-
ceivable sort were blown and beaten till
they screeched in frightful discord- The
revelry was wild. and the bowling savages
danced till they fell from exhaustion
From near by my hut rose the prayers of
the WITCH UOCIOTS, VINO were on lhelT
bellies before their wooden fetish thank
ing their god for his mercy and his good
ness. It is strange how both the civilized
and the savage thank God for being al
lowed to kill something. even il it be
their own kind.
Far off I heard the roars of lions,
which were on the hunting grounds, de-
vouring the corpses Of the natives killed
in the hunt. At any other time the
corpses would have been eaten by their
h1lf nf
elephant meat they were left to the lions.
The din Of the noise and the prayers
and the songs made me tired and I turned
over and went to sleep.
The following morning when ] aWoke
the strange unusual quietness of the vii
lage was broken only by the mumblings
Of the old witch doctor, who was grovei-
ing before the wooden idol. In every d.
rection, under the shade of the huts, lay
the natives, who were SO full Of elephant
meat that their bellies looked as tight
as overinflated balloons. So gorged were
they that 1t was evident that 1t panied
them TO move. Here and there the vii
lage dogs were showing their love for
their masters by licking the stale juice
OF the elephant meat from their faces. On
every place that would support it was a
bundle of elephant meat out of reach OF
the dogs. On the ground, covered with
thousands Of carnivorous insects of every
imaginable hue. were heaps OF rOttng
offal, from which rose sickenins odors,
that increased in intensity as the day
grew older and the sun warmer. Vultures
hook-beaked and hungry-looking which
were attracted by the smell of the meat.
were perched on every point where they
could find room. and hyenas and jackals
skulked on the outskirts of the village
waiting a chance to rush in like thieves
and grab mOuthful of meat. IT was a
scene sckening and repulsive but one
that can be witnessed almost any time in
central Africa
About two weeks after the elephant