CAPTIVES OF BLACKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5451, 22 July 1929, Page 2

CAPTIVES OF BLACKS.

WHITE WOMEN IN AUSTRALIA. OTHER STRANGE HAPPENINGS. It is naturally startling to learn that several white women are reported to be living in captivity amongst a dangerous aboriginal t; ibe in an out-of-the-way spot in Aus’..alia (says a, writer in the “Dominion”; Happenings just as queer have come to light now and then in other countries. For instance, a hunter in the Cameroon?, during an expedition came upon u herd of apes. He fired at one, squatting in a tree which was staring at him with a curious intentness. When the body came crashing to the ground he was horrified tb discover that he had shot a native woman. Investigation showed that customary tattoo marks were lacking, and that she must have been living amongst these apes from early childhood. In this case nobody knows any details of the curious life this woman must have lived. There are other instances equally amazing, however. A South African native, now about thirty years old, was stolen when quite young from his kraal by a troop of baboons, and one of these acted as a foster-mother to him for some years. He was later discovered by a party of hunters runnig about on all fours, and was captured. At first he was unable to speak, and his favourite food was mealies and prickly pears. After many years he learnt again how to talk. He says that, on the whole, the baboons treated him kindly. One in particular collected edible crickets for him to eat and kept him warm on cold nights by taking him in its arms. He tells strange tales of long night marches by his troop, and even now will explain how he learnt | to walk on all fours. His one deficiency is a complete lack of the sense of time.

In Malay not long ago another girl was captured by orang-outangs, who made off with her into the forest. Nearly two years later she was discovered with these apes in a tall tree. The tree was chopped down, but the girl escaped. Eventually she was captured and taken home, but she moped all day. Orang-outangs again abducted her, but she was found again and brought back to civilisation:'?. The result was not satisfactory, for' not only had she forgotten how to speak, but she spent her life moping silently and staring into the forest, for which she had developed an extraordinary desire.