CANNIBALISM

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1931, Page 6

CANNIBALISM

NEW HEBRIDES NATIVES

ALMOST CEASELESS WARFARE. Cannibalism, devil dunces wliich last for days, a tribe which to-day is just as it was before ever a white man went to 'ihe South Seas, a tribe of bearded men who lie in wait for their human preythese things were spoken of by Mr Thomas >L. Richards, who has .travelled extensively in the South SeasCand, seen not usually beheld by the ‘white rnarifw Mr Richards arrived in Auckland by the Tofua on Tuesday. On the island of Malekula, Northern New Hebrides, jungle-clad and feverridden, there was a tribe called the Big •Nambus, he said, among whom cannibalism was rampant, as common as ever it was in the bau old days. “In one village, .five miles inland from the coast, I saw two human bodies which had been carved Open and from which the hearts had been eaten by the nearest relatives. These things are not uncommon, far from it.” DANCING BEFORE IDOLS. There was almost ceaseless warfare between the Big Nam'bus and the Little N,ambus, a tribe which lived further back in the inland hills. “And whenever a raid is decided on,” he said, “'the Big; Nambus will hold an .orgy, which they call ‘sing-sing,’ which, ilasts for days on end. . Whole villages will congregate and will dance before their heathen painted wooden idols. Both the-women'' and the men take part, 'the mam: with: their muskets, another relic of the bad old clays, and their clubs,'and they will work‘themselves to a frenzy. Sometimes the dancers will bend forward and creep in single file slowly past the idol. Then the measure from the tom-toms will beat faster, the line wii'l move in sympathy, H and in the flickering intermittent glare from the tr’bnl fires the night will be made horrible by the dancers, who become, for the time, maniacs. As the beat of the drums becomes mad, the dancers writhe and twist and fall and shriek, and so is engendered the craving for blood. In the morning the fires have burned low, the villages are deserted, and the warriors have departed 'to""satiatetheir lust for blood. They wll kill with as little compunction as we would a snail,’ G iRiviLLA FIGHT JN G. The tribe, Mr Richards said, was under the rule of a king named Rapatrm, who was supreme in time of peace. But when there was war, the command was relegated to a war chief, whose word was law a,nd death.

It was seldom that pitched battles were fought. Usuajly it was guerilla warfare. Perhaps two or three would meet an equal number of the enemy at •.he bend, of a jungle track. There '*as never any thought of quarter. Another two or three would meet deatli by ambush at a ford. Sometimes they would -fight In ythe.—trees, ■■ I'ke —monkeys. - - A warrior would choose a tree near one of the narrow twisted paths, and there he would wait, for days ii necessary, and he ‘seldom waited in vain. Their muskets were a. relic from .antiquity. All the lead from the shot would be melted together to one mass, so thnt the wound would be. the more effective. tThoy are a small people, about oft in height. They are bearded, and they, never wash. They know the jungle as only primitive savages can. Little is known of the island, which must be some 69,000 or 70,000 acres in area, for it is full of blnckwater fever and malaria, and is very swampy. Their villages ai. simple in the extreme, merely rude grass huts, placed haphazard in a small clearing. There is no attempt at a stockade or any defence. Tf attacked the inhabitants simply melt into the jungle and become part of it. TWO WHITE INHABITANTS.:

“A little trade is done with them, hiit not much, for they fire a treacherous peopie. Two white men; an Englishman and a 'Frenchman, live there, but their lives are never safe. They deal in pocket mirrors, clay pipes and tobacco. And these must be paid for in threepenny pieces, for; the natives understand no other currency. “Strange things happen in the outer islands,” added Mr .Richards, “happenings which the outside world know., nothing of. Savages do not become civilised in the span of a lifetime.”