HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 30 July 1910, Page 9

HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA.

SINGULAR CUSTOMS OF A STRANGE RACE. Among the many strange peop'e wl:o are in England in connection with the Japan-British Exhibition, none arc more peculiar in their ways than the headhunters of Formosa. Popular prejudice lias endowed these singular sportsmen with atributes of invariable and unbridled ferocity. As .1 matter of fact they are—as savages go —of exceptionally genial dispositions and exemplary in their domestic virtues. It , must be admitted that they hunt heads, and, in many cases, t.ike great delight therein, but they are actuated in that pursuit 'by no spirit of venom or animosity. No lust for vengence prompts the blow that decapitates or disables the victimno hidden and long-smouldering enmity. Nothing but the abstract desire for a trophy in the shape of a human head. That desire may be prompted and often is prompted by the most commendable motives. In any case, it is one sanctified by custom and recognised as pious by untold generations of Formosans.

The Chinese, who have suffered much at their hand's, and who keep good records, know that the practice has flourished for at least 2000 years. 80 general has been the custom, and so sacred withal, that in many of the tribes to-day a young man is not regarded as an aault—is not permitted to marry or enter into the councils of his village or clan—until he has captured at least one head on his own account. The commonest motives for head-hunt-ing are as follows: — 1. To qualify as an adult.

2. To enable the hunter to win the affection of some particularly attractive girl of his village. No such damsel will consider the suit of a warrior who has not a good record of heads. 3. To achieve rank and influence. A man's standing in the community depends solely upon his dexterity and industry in capturing heads. Each head captured enhances the glory of the whole community. 4. To assure a period of prosperity. As many heads as possible are captured and offered with suitable but simple ceremonies as a tribute to the ancestor of the warrior, or the community concerned. 5. To secure relief from a pestilence or the cure of a sick person. The friends °f a sick person, or the healthy members of a community that is stricken with smallpox or some similar pest, sally forth and capture as many heads as possible so as to propitiate the evil spirits who have caused the infliction.

6. To remove some blame or stigma. A man who has incurred obloquy, by showing disrespect to his elders or aome other serious offence against person or property can regain the good graces of his fellow-tribesmen by bringing in some fresh heads.

7. To settle a dispute. If two members of a tribe quarrel over a point that cannot be settled by arbitration, both go out ihead-huntdng. The first to come (back with a head is adjudged to have his quarrel just. 'Regarded from a purely moral point of view, all the foregoing motives are. excellent; and—from a purely Formosan point of view—the deed in each case is as noble as the motive by which it is inspired. Needless to say, these warriors are all a splendid set of men, splendidly-limbed, deep-lunged, muscular and active. These attributes are essential to success as a head-hunter, because the calling is one attended by many perils and requires great skill and dexterity. Many a gay young buck sallies forth with ready blade to bring in a ihead, and subsequently finds his own head in his prospective victim's basket. The life is full of such excitements.

The head-hunter's chief weapon is a short, sharp, straight sword or cutlass, which he carries in a sheath of sca'bbard with a T-shaped attachment like a flat brush at the end. From this attachment dangle a couple of little tassels of black human hair. Every six tassels indicate one head captured. Chief Shiroi, the leader of the tribe at the Ja/pan-British Exhibition, has 240 tassels, representing forty heads, at tne end of his scabbard.

Other swords are similarly adorned, only with tassels of red hair. These red tassels indicate the number of women captured—six tassels to each woman, as in the case of the black tassels indicating the number of men.

Some great chiefs have been known to capture as man asi 500 heads in a lifetime, "but such records are extremely rare. The average number captured by a brave before he loses his own, or dies in some less natural course of events, is about ten.

There are, roughly speaking, about 120,000 of these head-hunters at present in Formosa, the island having a total population of about 3,000,000. They live principauly in the mountains of the interior, whither they ihave been driven by the Chinese, and later by the Japanese, who have developed the resources of the island. There are eight ditsinct groups or tribes.

The head-hunters at the Japan-British Exhibition belong to the Tsalisens. They seem to' be a cross between Chinese and Malays, and are a remarkalbly fine-look-ing lot of men considering they are ol the mixed Mongol type. They have all splendid muscular development. Little doubt exists but that these subjects of Japan come originally from the same stock as our own British headhunters, the byaks of Borneo.