NEW ZEALAND CANNIBALISM

Dunstan Times, Issue 1194, 16 January 1885, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND CANNIBALISM

Early travellers in New Zealand always express astonishment, when' they discover the cannibal propensities of the inhabitants, that so gentle and pleasant-mannered a people could become upon occasion such ferocious savages, Earle, who wrote a very readable, intelligent, and but little known account of the Maoris very early in the present century, speaks of the gentle manners and kindly ways of a New Zealand chef, whom afterwards he discovered to be an inveterate cannibal. He relates that he visited the place where he was cooking the body of a young slave girl that his friend had killed for the purpose The head was severed from the hotly, the four quarters with the principal hones removed, were compressed aud packed into a small oven in the ground, and covered with earth. It was a case of unjustifiable cannibalism. No revenge was gratified by the deed, and no excuse could be made that the body was eaten to perfect their triumph. Earle says that he learned that the flesh takes many hours to cook, that it is verv tough if not thoroughly cooked, but it polls in pieces like a bit of blotting paper, if well done. He continues that the victim was a handsome pleas-ant-looking girl of sixteen, and one that he used frequently to see about the pah To quote his own words : “ While listening to this horrible detail we felt sick almost to fainting We Ic-.fc Atoi (The chief who had killed the girl)iihd again strolled towards the spot where this disgusting feast was cooking. Not a Native was now near it; a hot steam occasionally bursting from the smothered muss, and the same dog that we had seen take the head off the girl now crept from beneath the bushes and sneaked towards the village ; to add to the gloominess of the whole, a large hawk rose heavily from the spot where the .ppor victim' bad been ssnt in pieces. : * My friend and T sat gazing in this melancholy place; ii was a lowering, gusty day, and the moaning of the wino. through the bushes, as it swept round the hill on I which we were, seemed in unison with our feelings.” Earle goes on to relate how he and three other compatriots, whom he summoned from the beach for the purpose,with the Englishman’s usual impertinent interference and intolerance of customs differing from his owo, determined to frustrate Atoi’s intention They found tfie heart put on one side for the sped 1 delectation of their constant friend and companion, Atoi Earle was afterwards good-humoredly told by the chief that their interference had been of no avail, as they had found the grave where the flesh had been buried, and, opening it soon after he and Ids friends had left had finished cooking it, and eaten it all "Earle argued long, and probably lo”d, .with the chief on this question. “Atoi asked him what they did with their thieves and runaways in England and he told them “ Flog them or hang them ” “ Then ” replied the Maori, “ the-ouly difference is that we eat them after we have killed them.” The same chief told him that before the introduction of potatoes the people of the interior had nothing to eat but fern roots and Tcumera (another edible roo ); fish they never had in the rivers,so that human flesh was the only flesh that they ever partook of. Another early traveller in Now Zealand, Ellis, who had admirable opportunities for arriving at the real motive fortius custom, tell’ ns that the Maoris “eat the bodies of their enemies that they may imbido their courage” ; and that they exulted greatly at the banquet upon the body of a great chief, for they though! that they would thus obtain his valient and daring spirit.— A H. Johnstone, in the Gentleman! t Magazine.