In some tribes of South America there is an ancient custom to cut off the enemies of the head and a special way to save them. After special treatment they turn into Tsatsa - very small human heads, officials Indians amulets. With tantsa connected many sinister stories. One of them happened relatively recently, however, not in South America, and in Africa...

The investigation proceeds private detective

In 1976, a German lawyer Michael Roger, while in transit in Hamburg, went into the shop. There were sold small, the size of a fist, a human head. Surprised craftsmanship: soft smooth skin, juicy lips, real hair. Lisa, however, were made of bone, with painted eyes, but it did not spoil the impression. Heads were alive.

Basically they were the head of the Negroes, but among them the lawyer saw one European. Roger stopped, stunned-face head clearly belonged to his son, six months ago missing in Central Africa.

He looked at her carefully, he nearly lost his senses: the crown was seen two major birth-stains. Their form and location clearly talked about the fact that this is true, but somehow oddly shrunken head of his son!

He hurried to buy a "souvenir" and took him straight to the police. But the guards just shrugged. It is a souvenir, a toy. Grounds for opening a criminal case no. However, they felt sorry for the poor father, who with grief everywhere seems lost son.

Roger had hired a private detective. Former investigator Johan Dreyer began to find out where and what could be done head. It turned out that such Souvenirs pretty much sold in stores in Europe. It means that somewhere established their mass production. Almost all of them were black, but there were white, which is worth more. Wholesale store for the sale was in London. There Dreyer and went.

The secret of the priests of the tribe of hivaro came to Africa

In the English capital detective handed one of the black heads on the study of the expert. The conclusion, which he did, puzzled detective. The head was created by the technology of South American Indians of a tribe of hivaro. Inhabits it in remote areas of Ecuador and is known by its barbarian customs, preserved since ancient times. Hivaro hunting for human heads, which are then in a special way reduce and save.

In General, the method looks like this. With soaked head shrinks skin with hair. Then the skin is cooked in a special herbal blend. It becomes soft, elastic and simultaneously decreased in size. It roll, filled with small stones-pebbles or sand, and then closed with stitches. The result is a head the size of a tennis ball, but it has kept its features. It becomes like a small copy of the original. At the end of operation it hung above the fireplace. Smoke kills the process of conservation.

Hair on head, still preserving the length, the Indians decorated by feathers, why the head gets scary. Only after this it is believed that evil spirit, in the severed head, conquered. Head becomes Tsatsa-the sacred talisman tribe.

Currently, bounty hunting is prohibited all over South America. However, Tsatsa are in a great demand among collectors. Where is demand, there is supply. Bounty hunt continues, although these tantsa on the market is still very small.

The emergence of a large number of black heads, created by "Ecuador" method, called expert bewilderment. The fact that the process of making tantsa is stored by the priests of hivaro in the strictest confidence. Even South American ethnographers, study the customs of the Indians, the technology of their production is not entirely clear. Where this method is known in Africa (and Negroid type of heads indicates that they come from there), is not clear.

Dreyer learned that heads come to London from Carrara (Ethiopia). Arriving there, the investigator found that there is only a transit point. People who fill cases are linked to some dubious organization supporting contacts with the guerilla groups almost all over the Black continent. As a headquarters of this organization is situated in the Central African Republic. That is where he worked son Michael Roger!

Colt against poison

Dreyer settled in Bangui, the capital of the CARS. Here he looked around, started Dating, gently asked local people.

In those years a country ruled the Emperor-an Ogre Bokassa. Rampant crime, corruption flourished. Europeans working in Bangui on contracts, did not venture to poke his nose on the city's outskirts. Detective learned from them that the city really missing people. Not only Africans, but also white. Most often go on negotiations with some traders and not returned. Detective strongly advised not to engage in dubious enterprise, even if he promised mountains of gold.

Dreyer waited for a "bite". And once strangers African showed him the Golden nugget, saying that he wanted to sell two dozen of the same. To meet agreed in the evening. At the appointed time Dreyer was in bungalows on the outskirts of Bangui. The owner, before the business talk, offered him a whisky. The detective waited to drink, suspecting something was wrong. Seeing that the owner does not drink, he drew from his pocket the colt and put the head of an African. Frightened Niger admitted that he was given the task to poison his guest. The body must come people from the Villa behind the river.

Night trupovozki

To trust the local police detective could not, had to act at their own risk. But in Bangui he had a soul mate, a Belgian, who disappeared from there the other. They Dreyer has established a watch for suspicious of the Villa.

The case was complicated: the Villa was well protected, military posts were already on distant approaches to it. Friends found out that the Villa is often visited covered trucks accompanied by jeeps with armed guards.

Rainy night Dreyer with Belgian noticed three of the truck, which was moving in the direction of the Villa. Ahead was driving the jeep. The caravan stopped before the river Mbomou. Usually small, in the rainy season it spreads, and through it a ferry. While the truck was waiting for a ferry, friends ran to the extreme of them and looked into the body. It was full of corpses.

Dreyer realized that this is a chance to enter the Villa. He climbed into the bed and pulled her behind a curtain. More Belgian've never seen him.

Bloody Chechelnik

Only after the revolution of 1979, when the bandit Villa stormed the military, the white inhabitants of Bangui learned that African Mafiosi were brought there by human corpses almost from all over Africa. Corpses was always in abundance. High mortality from ethnic conflicts and rampant epidemics have left bounty hunters without extraction.

Now, we have no doubt that the technology of manufacturing heads, not even the bosses of this dirty business, brings good income. Knew her only one person, the leading manufacturer - Ecuadorian, known under the nickname King Coco.

This Coco managed to convince the bandits that the process of making heads is associated with magic, and it means that without it they cannot do. Bandits appreciated Ecuadorians its weight in gold. Coco did not release further limits the Villa, but he lived it really like a king.

They said he was the son of an Indian priest, but with the land of long ago broke. It was described as a man not long in the tooth, obrutcheva, bald, with a big belly. He had a habit of walking naked, wearing on a variety of beads and bracelets. Beside it always was a young girl. He felt pleasure to slash their bodies their dirty nails and laugh, when the girl screamed in pain. He demanded that were brought to him virgins. Supposedly, during the time of communication with them, he took from them the energy needed to create tantsa.

Coco was killed under mysterious circumstances. With his death stopped and manufacturing heads. They stopped to put at about that time, when the Villa has penetrated Dreyer. Familiar with this case people are convinced that bloody Chechelnik went to the light with direct participation of a detective, but the Dreyer's not big trouble. The detective knew what was coming, when left in the truck full of dead bodies...

Later it turned out that the product Coco worse than these, the South American tantsa. In the early 1980-ies the skin on his head began to deteriorate and, in the end, they all rotted away, except for a few instances stored in formalin. Experts explain it by the lack Coco necessary ingredients for the manufacture of tantsa. Apparently, he replaced the South American herb local, African, which eventually went to the detriment of the quality of the terrible Souvenirs.