HEAD-HUNTERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 396, 3 December 1932, Page 2

HEAD-HUNTERS

NATIVES OF FORMOSA LEGACY OF HATE BREEDS RUTHLESS AND SAVAGE VENDETTA. MONGOLIAN OPPRESSION. Formosa, "beautiful island" of the early Portuguese explorers( is to-day as beautiful as ever, But few trayelr lers to its interior waste time or wax sentimental over this aspect of the island. They are too busy feeling their heads to see if they are still in their accustomed places, for Formosa is the headquartere of'the headhnnter. A long and lurid history has lost his head over it in more senses than one. Chinese, Portuguese and Spaniards have left their heads as trophies with the ferocious islanders. Formosa has an area about half that of Scotland, and lies approximately 90 miles from the coast of China, from which it is separated by Fo-Qien Strait. The Tropic of Cancer, which passes through the middle of the island, brings the sealevel climate within the semi-tropics. Formosa, it may he mentioned, controls the world's' supply of camphor. In* 1657 the last psalm-singing Dutch missionary dashed down the beach for his boat, with Koxinga and his swashbuckling Chinese pirates close behind him. The _ Dutehme.i never came hack. Imperial Chinese sway was finally established. in 1683. Such was the misgovernment that Formosa soon became a refractorv region, and the plundered and exasperated natives, after killing and eating many of their conquerors, retircd to the mountain fastnesses and started a race-war, which still rages. For many yeans the island was notorious among sailors for its treachorous coast and its fierce people — -the semibarharous Chinese heing almost as much. dreaded as the head-hunting aboriginals. In 1805, when the military and naval prowess of the Japi-n-ese first astonished the world, and a defeated and helpless China iay at their feet, Formosa fell as a dorbtful prize to the conquerors. With characteristic Japanese vigour they _ set ahout the regeneration or extermination of the wild trihes, and ^although 37 years have passed away since then the Formosan is still ready to die in defence of his wretched hut and singular'mental inheritance. Japanese Methods. The Japanese Government have never heen anxious that an outside world should witness their methods of colonisation. Their means _ of persuasion never tended to an increase of friendliness hetween them and their subjects. After a taste of Japanese administration the Formosan decided that head-hunting was not only a legitimate hobby but an honourable profession. Recent uprisings show that he still holds these views. • At present the Japanese idea of showing the head-hunter where he is wrong is to cut a path along the side of the mountains and clear the jungle in front for a sufficient distance for the guards to note the approach of the enemy. Bamboo houses are loopholed, surrounded hy harbed-wh*e fences^ and supplied firerjarms, grenades, fleldguns'. telephones, etc. In very risky districts the wire entanglements are eleetrically charged, and sunken mines are laid for the savages. When rivers are spanned hy these frontier lines a peeuliarly constructed bridge of rattan and piano-wire is made, sometimes 400 or more feet long. Five or more guard-houses, with two to four men in each house, are placed at short intervals. vvhile on guard sleeps the other watches; for the duty of the guard is not only to preserve his own life, but also to protect the villages and fields in his district. As the natives are subdued or convinced of the futility of resistance, the guard line is advanced, not always without hardship or disaster to the invaders. When the lines are advanced over the tr unendous cliffs, which are a feature of thc east coast, steps must be cut in them, and progress! is much like Alpine climhing.. Field-guns are dragged up to almost inaccessible places; provisions are carried on the hacks of coolies; patrol detachments guard the workmen; and a regular army field equipment is necessary. In cases where the natives make a stout resistance, to capture a tribe or its •H-uU wed villages requires a force of a ihousand or men, iseveral months' work, and an expenditure of from twelve to thirteen thonsand pounds. Educating a head-hunter costs money. Origin Unknown. The origin of the Formosan, like that of his Japanese conqueror, is unknown. Those that remain uncontaminated by admixture with the Chinese settlers are a much finer looking race than the Mongolians. They are of medium istature, with clear olive complexions, stiff, straight hair, prominent cheek-bones, hlack eyess, broad, flat noses, and scanty beards. Not all Formosans are head-hunters, but with over 125,000 their neighbours heads are the objects most desired, and much of the spare time of the inhabitants is spent in preventing this useful member from being severed. The Ami-Taiyal, and Bunum tribes go after their hobby with; the passion of a stamp-collector, and make the acquisition of a numher of

heads their first aim in life. Social standing in a Formosan community depends entirely upon the size of one's cqllection of human heads, and no youth can consider himself of age Wtil he has secured his first head. In case of a tribal dispute the decision is always in f avour of the member with the finest set. Smooth and easy is the way of the young man with a large and comprehensive collection of crania, for the wornan of his choice is his, and he can rise to a position of respectability in the community impossible to his brother who has no heads on exhibition. Japanese Heads. Any type of head is good, hut Chinese and Japanese are esteemed above all others. To behead a Japanese is an act of piety, and proud is he who has accomplished it. Head-hunting is not nearly so easy as it sounds. The victim usually objects when he has a chanee, and specimens are often difficult to obtain. Owing to this, certain trihes content themselves with those of monkeys: Head-hunters on the warpath prefer to travel in squads. Supplied with rifles and food, they come as near to the edge of the jungle as they consafe. Hiding near some frequented path, they shoot the unsuspecting traveller, or emerging from their lurking place, they make a swift and sudden descent on some field or outlying house, decapitating whomsoever they meet. The hodies are left where they fall. The hunters take few chances. The savage tracks lie only through the dense forests, thick with underbrush, where hiding is easy. A Formosan axiom is that a head in the hand is worth two in the bnsh. Decapitated head.: are boiled to separate the flesh; then the skull is adorned wtih various rude ornaments, and either hung up in the warrior's hut as an evidence of his skill, or is placed in ,a niche inThe wall as a kind of souvenir. Just when or why the Formosan acquired the head-collecting habit is not known, hut it probably started when the Chinese toolc possession of tho island and hegan permanent settlements. Perhaps at that remote time was engenedered the ineradicable hatred which the aboriginals feel toward the Monogilians, and which not even blood requital seems to satisfy. The Chinese returned the compliment with true Mongolian barbarity. Therefcre, when the Japanese took possession they fell heirs to a legacy of hate which they have never been ahle to ajpease. The time may come when the last Formosan wil} go down before a ring of Japanese bayonets, hut ambition to add to his collection of human headpieces.