Cannibalism is not met with on the Congo until we ascend almost to Stanley Pool. The first tribe of the Bateke--the Alali--on the north bank, are said to eat human flesh sometimes, but only those who have been killed for witchcraft. The Amfuninga, or Amfunu, the next tribe of Bateke, are also credited with the same vice. It is only a report; we have no evidence of the fact. From Bolobo (2° South lat.) upwards it is known to be a custom. White men have had to witness the cutting up of victims, being powerless to prevent the act. When remonstrated with, the natives have replied, ‘You kill your goats, and no one finds fault with you; let us kill our meat then.’ When eating their ghastly meal, the parents give morsels of the cooked flesh to the little ones, to give them the taste for such food. Why they eat human flesh it would be difficult to say. Tribes towards the east coast eat their enemies that they may gain their strength and courage, and it is probable that some such notion underlies the custom on the Upper Congo. We hope to settle among these folk soon, and may get to understand the reasons. It is customary on the upper river to bury--sometimes alive--slaves or wives of a deceased chief. This is done that he may not appear without attendants in the spirit world. ‘The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.’ There are two customs which prevail through the country--_Ndembo_, and another, very much like Freemasonry, called _Nkimba_. In the practice of _Ndembo_, the initiating doctors get some one to fall down in a pretended fit, and in this state he is carried away to an enclosed place outside the town. This is called ‘dying _Ndembo_.’ Others follow suit, generally boys and girls, but often young men and women. Most feign the fit; but sometimes, when it has become the fashion, others will be attacked with hysteria, and so the doctor gets sufficient for a wholesale initiation, twenty or thirty, or even fifty. They are supposed to have died. But the parents and friends supply food, and after a period varying, according to custom, from three months to three years, it is arranged that the doctor shall bring them to life again. The custom is not only degrading, but extremely mischievous in its results. So bad is it, that before we reached San Salvador the king of Congo had stopped the custom in his town; and others had followed suit in neighbouring districts, giving the reason that it was too vile to be continued.