SOUTHERN GAZALAND

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 53.

SOUTHERN GAZALAND.

The Bulletin Missionaire has a letter from Dr. Liengme, of the Romande Mission, in Southeast Africa, in which he states that Gungunyana's people are not free from the charge of cannibalism. He writes as follows:—

"Lately 10,000 men and between 2,000 and 3,000 women and children in strange costumes went through the royal dance in the king's presence. Nothing could be more savage. Alas! human sacrifices were not lacking. It is the custom on the last day for a young boy and girl to be killed. At night near sunset a young 'beef' is brought by the people of the king's household into a tightly closed kraal. An eager fight is begun between them and the animal, which they must, without any weapon, simply by their strength of arm, harass, throw down, disembowel, and kill, pushing it with savage cries. When they have dispatched the animal, they bring, wrapped in reeds, the bodies of the two children who have been sacrificed. The flesh of the victims is mingled with that of the animal. Then all the young boys are seized and brought, willingly or by force, into the kraal. Some of them escape, unwilling to eat human flesh; others eagerly accept the invitation."