back-ground of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but
the canines show the beast by their large development. The hands, or
rather the fingers, are like those of the natives. The flesh of the feet
is yellow, and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour it leaves
the impression that eating sokos was the first stage by which they
arrived at being cannibals; they say the flesh is delicious. The soko is
represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully stalking men
and women while at their work, kidnapping children, and running up trees
with them--he seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his
arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts
that, drops the child: the young soko in such a case would cling closely
to the armpit of the elder. One man was cutting out honey from a tree,
and naked, when a soko suddenly appeared and caught him, then let him
go: another man was hunting, and missed in his attempt to stab a soko:
it seized the spear and broke it, then grappled with the man, who called
to his companions, "Soko has caught me," the soko bit off the ends of
his fingers and escaped unharmed. Both men are now alive at Bambarré.

The soko is so cunning, and has such sharp eyes, that no one can stalk
him in front without being seen, hence, when shot, it is always in the
back; when surrounded by men and nets, he is generally speared in the
back too, otherwise he is not a very formidable beast: he is nothing, as
compared in power of damaging his assailant, to a leopard or lion, but
is more like a man unarmed, for it does not occur to him to use his
canine teeth, which are long and formidable. Numbers of them come down
in the forest, within a hundred yards of our camp, and would be unknown
but for giving tongue like fox-hounds: this is their nearest approach to
speech. A man hoeing was stalked by a soko, and seized; he roared out,
but the soko giggled and grinned, and left him as if he had done it in
play. A child caught up by a soko is often abused by being pinched and