WHY CANNIBALISM EXISTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 47, 20 March 1909, Page 3

WHY CANNIBALISM EXISTS.

Vew explorers have been more successful than M. benfant, a French oifieer, wlio has spent two years exploring the Dark Continent between Lake Tchad and the Sanglui River, yet few - missions" have been more perilous and dill'icult. The vast area (over 11)0,1)011 square miles) over which tlie Vronch ollicerand his collaborators travelled in I'vcry direction is notorious for its dangers, j There are sVainips and diseases, enemies I of every kind, and the natives, though I belonging to different races, are all of j tlioui°autliropophagi of the worst description. According to M. l.enfailt, cannibalism in the Congo is not a matter of religion or form of "sacrifice—as it has often been staled before—but a, hygienic necessity. In those unfortunate regions the terrible tse-tse fly prevents herbivorous animals from reproducing themselves. .11 is the lack of "meat" and (he absence of salt—for the ashes of certain trees used by the natives as salt] are not satisfactory—which are tlie direct causes of cannibalism. The natives are man-eaters because they require salted nourishment, because they "want to make their mouths healthy"—to use their own picturesque expression. And the reason why anthropophagi prcfe" (lie llesh of white men to that of their fellows is simply because the flesh of the European contains more salt. When cattle are introduced and salt is distributed to them the natives very soon irase l» be juan-eaters. I A XATIVE J'SPEtIAXTO.

One of the most interesting chapters is thai which deals with the labis. . I.ahi is the inline of a language—,l kind of Esperanto— common to certain men belonging to the various races and tribes of that part of Central Africa. Tin- labis are. the initiate. The chiefs of the secret sect, select in each tribe the strongest and the most intelligent young men.and edncal... them in the forest, away from all. from the day when lie has been selected as a future lain, the yoing unlive joins a group of other pupils. Kvcr hilii conceals himself under a huge Ifi.skot. and paints hi* body while. His parents and iriends must never a»sisl him. The yiuing laid hunts, fishes,, builds his own but. He becomes an athlete, and a mini capable himself of thinking or he is eliminated. The education iiMhc laid comprises three periods- the first covering two years, the other being slill longer. During the hist period the hlbis are entrusted to the care of the wisest natives, of great warriors, professors of dancing, of mighty hunters, etc. The discipline at that, stage is almost ferocious. When his final training is completed, the laid returns lo his village, marries, and soon becomes u chief. \\ hen he travels and arrives among tribes whose language is unknown to him, he makes eci-iain signs, pronounces certain ■scllebTes. and a labi gcmerally comes fov!vr»Vu,,