AUSTRALIAN CANNIBALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 16 September 1911, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN CANNIBALS.

Tlio work of the Swedish scientific expedition, the members of which returned from Uieir investigations in the northwest of West Australia recently, covered a very wide field of scientific search. They describe the country as the most interesting and wonderful part of the world from a scientific standpoint. Mr. Laurell, the anthropologist attached to the expedition, gave an interesting resume of his investigations. Describing his experiences on Sunday Island, lie said:— "To me the most interesting tilings which came under observation on the island were the unique rafts, or catama-ran-like crafts, which the natives make out of boughs of marfgrove trees. These crafts are made so that the limbs, which are joined together at one end, are j spread out in the shape of a halfopened fan. These sections, which are, of course, quite separate, are laid in the water with the joined ends overlapping each other, and under these is placed a third section, which consists of a few limbs bound side by side. This comprises the whole craft. When placed in the water the sections are not in any way tied together, and one <vould naturally suppose that as soon as 1 they were moved by the water they would iioat apart. Tins is not so,'however, and on the frail craft the blacks proceed 15 or 20 mile 9 out into the open sea, and journey from island to island without any difficulty. ''The male aboriginal always occupies the middle craft, where the two ends over-lap, from which position he propels it along with a paddle. The gins, as well as the pickaninnies, are able to use the rafts, and it is a frequent sight to see them paddling along between the islands. They are wonderfully clever in steering their crafts between the islands, and when the tide is on the move the whole sea is a moss of eddying whirlpools, making steering very difficult.

"Another interesting feature of my stay there was the discovery of a boy who displayed marked ability in sculpture. He fashioned a number of native skulls and heads out of clay, in the case of the heads the features- and' hair being splendidly executed. Dr. Sodaberg, who is himself an artist, declared that one of the heads in particular was wonderfully good. The boy was only about 16 or 17 years of age, and was entirely untutored.

"'I was fortunate in seeing one burial service on the island. The natives place the dead on a platform in a tree, and when the body is dried up by the sun it is taken down and, with set ceremonials, placed in a small cleft or depression in the cliffs.

"I was surprised to see the natives place their clogs on the same level of importance as themselves, inasmuch as when their dogs die they are placed upon a burial platform to dry. It is a question always interesting to scientists, and never more so than to-day, as to whence the Australian aboriginal came,, and where there are to be found any of his relations'. That is a matter which is very hard to determine, and, in fact, it might be that it will never be found out. From time to time I could not help noting among the natives individuals having a distinctly Semitic cast of features. They possessed the Jewish crooked nose and short curly hair.

"The aboriginals as a race are decidedly cannibalistic, although it is not so pronounced in some parts as in others. They often kill and eat one another in the Never Never, but usually it is some member of another tribe who is slaughtered to provide the feast. There is no doubt about the fact that they eat human fk;sh, but I don't think that they would tankle the flesh of a European, for some blacks said to me 'White fella no good. Heat too salt."'