He laughed, and replied that they were very good. “Would you eat one if you had one now?” “Indeed I would. Shall a man refuse meat?” “Well, look here. I have one hundred cowries here. Take your men, and fetch one, and bring him to me alive or dead. I only want his skin and head. You may have the meat.” Kampunzu’s chief, before he set out with his men, brought me a portion of the skin of one, which probably covered the back. The fur was dark grey, an inch long, with the points inclined to white; a line of darker hair marked the spine. This, he assured me, was a portion of the skin of a “soko.” He also showed me a cap made out of it, which I purchased. The chief returned about evening unsuccessful from the search. He wished us to remain two or three days that he might set traps for the “sokos,” as they would be sure to visit the bananas at night. Not being able to wait so many days, I obtained for a few cowries the skull of a male and another of a female.[9] ----- Footnote 9: These two skulls were safely brought to England, and shown to Professor Huxley, who has passed judgment upon them as follows:— “Of the two skulls submitted to me for examination, the one is that of a man probably somewhat under thirty years of age, and the other that of a woman over fifty. “The man’s skull exhibits all the characteristic peculiarities of the negro type, including a well-marked, but not unusual, degree of prognathism. In the female skull the only point worth notice is a somewhat unusual breadth of the anterior nasal aperture in proportion to its height, indicating that the nostrils may have been slightly farther apart, and the extremity of the nose a little flatter than usual. “In both skulls the cephalic index is 75. Nothing in these skulls justifies the supposition that their original possessors differed in any sensible degree from the ordinary African negro.” Professor Huxley, by the above, startles me with the proof that Kampunzu’s people were cannibals, for at least one half of the number of skulls seen by me bore the mark of a hatchet, which had been driven into the head while the victims were alive. ----- In this village were also observed those carved benches cut out of the Rubiaceæ already mentioned, backgammon trays, and stools carved in the most admirable manner, all being decorated around the edges of the seats with brass tacks and “soko teeth.” [Illustration: BACKGAMMON TRAY.] Copper appeared to be abundant with the Wavinza. It was wound around their spear-staffs, and encircled the lower limbs and arms, the handles of their knives, walking-staffs, and hung from their necks in beads, and small shot-like balls of it were fastened to their hair.