I suppose it was a case of "In Rome do as Rome does," but
he certainly looked better in the dark skin he wore at his birth. I
was shown the large rock by the river where more than a thousand
people had been killed for their cannibal feasts. They were usually
prisoners captured in the Rewa district, also a few white men. They
were cut open alive and their hearts torn out, and their bodies were
then cut up for cooking on the rock, which I noticed was worn quite
smooth. Sometimes they would boil a man alive in a huge cauldron.
While staying at Namosi the "Buli" gave me some lessons in throwing
native spears, and in using the bow. Whilst practising the latter I
narrowly missed, by a few inches, shooting a woman who stepped out
suddenly from behind a hut.
I was out most of the day shooting pigeons in the woods close by,
accompanied by the "Buli," Masirewa, and several boys. The woods were
full of a wonderfully beautiful creeper, a delicate pink and white
CLERODENDRON which grew in large bunches; there was also a very pretty
HOYA (wax flower) scrambling up the trees. We filled ourselves with
the juicy pink fruit of the "kavika," or what is generally known as
the Malacca or rose-apple. The trees were plentiful in the woods,
grew to a large size, and were literally loaded with fruit, the
fallen fruit resembling a pink carpet.
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