Then they all looked at the moon and thought it was time to go to bed, and said good-night. When they left I said to them, “Come again to-morrow evening,” to which they replied, “We will come.”
The following evening the slaves came again and seated themselves on the ground. They said never a word, but kept gazing at me and looking at the Waterbury clock by turns.
Then I said to them: “Friends of mine, yesterday we talked about the big forest and about yourselves. Now tell me all about the people who live in the great forest.”
A big fellow, tall and slender, rose. He was tattooed all over and had teeth that were filed sharp to a point. It was believed by all that he had come from the furthest part of the interior of the continent. After a deep silence he said: “There are many tribes of men in the forests, Oguizi. Some are fierce and warlike. There are also tribes of men that are cannibals, who eat human flesh. These are the fiercest of all. They are always fighting, and they eat many of the prisoners they capture, for they prefer eating to selling them. They are great, powerful men. Their villages are fenced outside with long poles, and on the top of many poles are seen human skulls and skulls of wild beasts. They have many powerful idols and are great witchcraft men. They are great smiths, and make many terrible implements of war. Their spears are barbed. They carry crossbows and use poisoned arrows; they have also many terrible-looking axes of strange shape, which they can throw through the air and with the sharp edge split in two the skulls of their enemies. Their shields are square and are often made of the skin of the elephant; they are as hard as iron.
“A big fellow, tall and slender, rose. He was tattooed all over”
“A cannibal bought me. He belonged to the Osheba tribe. I was dreadfully afraid that I should be eaten up, but a few days afterwards he sold me for some pieces of copper and beads to a man who belonged to a neighboring tribe that was not cannibal.”
“Do you know by what name those cannibal tribes are called?” I asked.
“I know the names of two of them,” he replied. “One is called Fan, the other Osheba.”
“We have an Osheba man and woman amongst us, also a Fan and his wife,” they all shouted at once. Regundo told these two couples to get up and come before me. I looked at them. The men were fierce-looking fellows and as fine negroes as I had ever seen. They were very tall, over six feet in height, and their skin was of the color of chocolate. Their front teeth were filed to a fine point and colored black. The mouths of these two cannibals looked horrid when they laughed. Each wore a long queue of hair hanging down his back. They wore round their ankles two large, heavy iron rings. Their bodies were tattooed. They had been owned by King Mombo for over twelve years, and were amongst his bravest warriors. When they went out to fight they would not use guns, but armed themselves with barbed spears which they made themselves, turning the iron into steel by forging it in charcoal. Their shields were made of the hide of an elephant that they had trapped in a pit.