CANNIBALISM. 193 ness and symmetry; to this their roomy huts, their stools and forms, as well as their ironwork, bear witness.

There is naturally not much here that can be termed agriculture, unless, for the sake of euphony, one can call the planting of bananas, manioc, sweet potatoes, Colocasia, occasionally yams, and much tobacco “agriculture.” Nature has distributed her gifts so prodigally over the land, and made the maintenance of the individual so easy and free from toil, that methodical -work is unnecessary. Indeed, it is just this that is the cause of the standstill in the social development of the people. The only species of corn which are brought under cultivation are maize and eleusine; the former is found almost everywhere and in great quantities, the latter only in the eastern” part of the country, and there only to a limited extent. The banana is everywhere the staple food of the people, and every variety of it grows here. Fresh and dried, green and ripe, for cooking or made into wine or beer, it is always the favourite fruit. Cattle do not exist here; even sheep and goats are only to be found in the Mabode country—I saw some fine goats from there. Flesh is therefore an article of luxury, be it that of a fat guinea-pig, of a dried-up ape, or of a deceased relative. Ever since the invasion of the Arabs, cannibalism has been carried on with the greatest secrecy, at any rate in the neighbourhood of the stations, and the good old times have long since passed by when one could buy for copper rings as many skulls as one desired. It was only with the ereatest difficulty that I managed to procure an almost complete Akka skeleton and a few skulls. It may be quite otherwise away from the stations; at any rate, the following incident proves how deep-rooted this evil custom is amongst these people. When I asked an Akka, who had lived many years in our stations in the north, and who was returning home to Monbuttu, whether he was glad to go home again, he sald without hesitation that he had long since become tired of “ beef.”

On the southern bank of the Gadda I found that a little band of Akka were temporarily established right among the Momyvi who cultivate Gambari’s fields. As I have previously given some account of the gipsy life of these pigmies of the N