Monasimba went to his wife, and after washing he may appear among men. If no widow can be obtained, he must sit naked behind his house till some one happens there; all the clothes he wore are thrown away. The man who killed a woman goes free; he offered his grandmother to be killed in his stead, and after a great deal of talk nothing was done to him. They are the lowest of the low especially in blood-thirstiness.
A strong man among them is lawless, doing whatever he lists without any remonstrance or resistance by the head man. Thus, for example, a man’s wife was given away to another for ten goats, and then his child was sold also. For goats and cattle this people will do any mean or brutal thing.
Livingstone has to record this testimony after discovering some new proofs respecting the debasement of this people: “The Manyuema are the most bloody, callous savages I know. One puts a scarlet feather from a parrot’s tail on the ground, and challenges those near to stick it in the hair. He who accepts this challenge must kill a man or a woman.
“Another custom is that none dare wear the skin of the musk-cat (ngawa) unless he has murdered somebody. Guns alone prevent their killing us all, and for no reason either; some will kill people in order to be permitted to wear the red tail-feathers of the parrot in their hair. Yet these are not ugly-looking like the West Coast negroes, for many of the men have as finely formed heads as can be found in London. We English, if naked, would make but poor figures beside the strapping forms and finely-shaped limbs of Manyuema men and women.”
So blood-thirsty are the people that travellers are asked everywhere that some of their fellow-men be killed. They are afraid to go to villages three or four miles off, because there are murderers of fathers and mothers and other relations living there. The moral condition of this people is one of pre-eminent degradation.
They are far from being a generous people. Hassani, a Moslem trader, told Dr. Livingstone that no Manyuema had ever presented him with a mouthful of food, not even a potato or banana, though he had made many presents to them. They are untruthful as a people, but very honest. No articles are even purloined by them. If a fowl or goat be lost or anything else, it may be known that an Arab slave is the thief. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that Livingstone and the Arab merchants kept their fowls in the Manyuema villages, to prevent their being stolen by their own slaves. A conscientious, rigorous sense of justice, allied with their blood-thirstiness, is a singular feature in the character of this tribe.
The Manyuema have great fear of guns. Often a man will borrow one to help him settle a dispute. Going with it on his shoulder he can readily adjust the difficulty by the fear the weapon inspires, even though it is known by his opponent that he could not use it.
Though the presence of guns will always awaken such terror, yet if their enemies be armed only with spears, however numerous, these men are brave. It is a common expression “The Manyuema are bad.” They are exceedingly cruel among themselves, but their reputation for badness is in no small degree caused by the representations of the Arab traders, who plunder them in every possible way. It is no wonder that some badness should be manifested when their huts are appropriated without leave, compensation, or thanks. Firewood, pots, baskets, food, in fact everything is taken that they fancy. The women usually flee into the forest, to return only after the invaders have gone, but to find their possessions plundered or destroyed. If treated kindly, they make overtures of friendship by gifts of provisions and fruits. The Arabs will eat up all they can lay hands on, and then say, “The Manyuema are bad, very bad.”
In respect to cannibalism, it is the fact that the Manyuema eat only their foes and those who are killed in war. Some have alleged that captives also are eaten, and that a slave is bought with a goat to be eaten, but there is doubt of the truth of this assertion. From the most careful observation, Livingstone concluded that it is only those slain in battle who are eaten, and this in revenge. Mokandira said, “The meat is not nice; it makes one dream of the dead man.”
On the west of Lualaba it is thought that men eat those bought for the purpose of a feast. All unite in saying that human flesh is saltish, and needs very little condiment.