Library of Cryptozoology

For the establishment of the soko’s individuality, however, there are teeth, skin, and skulls in existence, and the last have been declared by Professor Huxley to be human. They were brought from Africa as the fragments of a great ape which certain natives had lately eaten, and which they themselves called "meat of the forest." Nevertheless, the Professor declares that they are the vestiges of defunct humanity, male and female. After, such a verdict the soko at once takes rank as one of the most interesting mysteries of nature. Is it human or not? ls it the chief of monkeys or the lowest of men? Dr Livingstone was not quite certain, and Mr H. M. Stanley was only half-convinced. In reviewing the work of the latter explorer for a London journal I drew special attention to the soko, for though actually known only by report, the repeated references to it make this ape-man one of the features of the book. It is true that on one occasion Mr Stanley actually startled to its feet a g...

The most singular feature of Kampunzu village were two rows of skulls ten feet apart, running along the entire length of the village, imbedded about two inches deep in the ground, the "cerebral hemispheres" uppermost, bleached, and glistening white from weather. The skulls were 186 in number in this one village. To me they appeared to be human, though many had an extraordinary projection of the posterior lobes, others of the parietal bones, and the frontal bones were unusually low and retreating; yet the sutures and the general aspect of the greatest number of them were so similar to what I believed to be human, that it was almost with an indifferent air that I asked my chiefs and Arabs what these skulls were. They replied, "sokos"–chimpanzees (?). "Sokos from the forest?" "Certainly," they all replied. "Bring the chief of Kampunzu to me immediately," I said, much interested because of the wonderful reports of them that Livingstone had ...