MAN EATERS OF THE EMPIRE.

Shannon News, 18 November 1924, Page 2

MAN EATERS OF THE EMPIRE.

Can anyone name off-hand a part of the British Empire where cannibalism is still the custom of the country, observed with religious regularity.

The answer to the riddle is "Papua," the part of New Guinea which has been a British possession for more than forty years. It is nearly twice as large as England, and is about as far from the northern tip of Australia.-as Edinburgh is from London.-Here'men eat each other as often as Londoners roast turkey—possibly oftener.

So, at any rate, it seems from the creepy story told by Mr Merlin Moore Taylor in "Where Canibals Roam," a book of exploration in Papua. "Far down the trail," Writes Mr Taylor, "a little band of warriors.were speeding toward the village. As they came they shouted and waved aloft their spears and bbws and arrows. "Two of them seemed to be carrying something aloft on a pole between them. I glanced at Abaridi (a Papuan): His eyes were dilated and • his mouth open in a widespread grin.. "I saw comprehension come into Humphries' (the 1 local magistrate's) eyes, and like a flash, I, coo, knew what was happening. Tha thing trussed to a pole like a pig, and rapidly being brought to the village, was a human being, and a cannibal feast was in the making. "The man appeared to have been killed.

"When the women saw that the returning hunters had 'gcime,' they set about building a huge fire, upon which they tossed stones. While they were being heated they "fell upon th-> body of the dead man. What happened then we could not see, but we knew "Papuan cannibals, with the exception of a coastal tribe or two, do not boil their victims. 'They skin them and roast them on hot stones."

While the little expedition were in their tent, a deputation arrived from the cannibal village, and left a parcel, wrapped in leaves. Mr Humphries, the magistrate, said to the sentry: "Take it away and bury it, and don't let anyone see you." Why do the Papuans eat their enemies? One reason seems to be the usual cannibal belief that by so doing they will become abler, braver, more god-like men. They also suffer from a meat shortage. The hill tribes catch an occasional kangaroo little larger than a rat, or an emu that has stray-., ed from the lowlands. Save the pig there is no other flesh than their ene< mies. '■'■.■"'

"Murder," adds Mr Taylor, "is Inseparably linked with the social law which forbids marriage to, a youth who has not earned the right to wear a feather head-dress by shedding human blood."