Page "Ota Benga" Paragraph 6

The group arrived in St. Louis, Missouri without Verner, who had been taken ill with malaria, in late June 1904, after the Louisiana Purchase Exposition had already begun.

They immediately became the center of attention ; referred to variously by the press as Artiba, Autobank, Ota Bang, and Otabenga, Ota Benga was particularly popular.

He had an amiable personality, visitors were eager to see his teeth, which had been filed to sharp points in his early youth as ritual decoration.

The Africans had learned to charge for photographs and performances, and one newspaper account, promoting him as " the only genuine African cannibal in America ", claimed " teeth were worth the five cents he charges for showing them to visitors ".