Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-05-11
The Man-EatIng Tree OF Madagas.
ear

car.
Ii you a imagine a pineapple. eight
feet high and thick in proportion, resting
upon its base, and denuded of leaves
you will have good idea of the trunk of
the tree, which, however, was not the
color of an anana, but a dark. dingv
brown, and apparently as hard as IRON.
From the apex of this fustieated cone
lat least two feet in diameter) eight huge
leaves sheer to the ground, like doors
swinging back on their hinges. These
leaves, which were joined at the top Of
the trees at regular intervals, were about
eleven or twelve feet long, and shaped
very much like the leaves ofan American
agave or century plant. They are two
feet through in their thickest point and
three feet wide, tapering to a sharp point
that looked like a cows horn, very con-
vex OF the outer (but now under) surface
snd on the under (now upper surface
slightly concave. This concave face was
thickly set With strong thorny hooks like
those upon the head of the teazle. These
leaves, hanging thus limp and lifeless,
dead-green in color, had in appearance
the massive strength of oak fiber. The
apex OF the cone was a round white con-
cave hgure like q smaller plate set with
in a larger one. This was not a flower
but q receptacle, and there exuded into
1t a clear treacly liquid honey. sweet
and possessed Of violent intoxicating
and soporifc properties. From under
meath the rim ESQ to speak Of the under
most plate, a series eff long hairy green
tendrils stretched out in every direction
toward the horizon. These were seven
or eight feet long, and tapered from four
inches to q half inch in diameter. vet
they stretched out as stifHy as iron rods.
Above these from between the upper
and under cup) six white, almost trans
parent palpi reared themselves toward
the sky, t~wirling and twisting With a
marvellous lncessant motion, vet con-
stantly reaching upward. Thin as reeds
aud trail as quilts, apparently, were vet
five or six feet tall, and were SO constant
ly and vigorously in motion, with such a
s~ubstile, sinHous, silent throbbing against
the air, with their suggestions of serpents
hayed, yet dancing on their tails. Nv
observations on this occasion we're sud
denly interrupted by the natives who had
been shrieking around the tree With their
shrlll voices, and chanting what Hen
drlck told me we're propitiatory hymns
to the great tree devil. With still wilder
shrieks and chants they now surround
ed n OF the women, and urged her
with the points Of their iavelins, until
slowly, and with despairing face, she
climbed up the stalk of the tree, and
stood on the summit Of the cone, the
palpi sWirling all about her. "Tsikl
Tsikl" Drink drink) cried the men.
STOPPING, she drank of the viscid fluid
in the cup, rising instantly again, with
wild frenzy in her face and conyulsiye
cords in her limbs. But she did not
jump down as she seemed to intend to
do. oh, no! The atrocious cannibsl
tree, that had been SO inert and dead.
came to sudden savage life. The slender.
delicate palpi, with the fury Of starved
serpents, quivered a moment over her
head, then, as if instinct with demoniac
intelligence, fastened upon her in sudden
coils round and around her neck and
arms, and while her awful screams and
yet more awful laughter rose wildly TO
be instantly strangled down again into
a gurgling moan, the tendrils one after
another, like great green serpents with
brutal energy and internal rapidity, rose.
protracted themselves, and wrapped her
about in fold after fold, ever tightening
with cruel swiftness and savage ~tenacity
of anacondas fastening upon their prey.
1t was the barbarity of the LAGOON
without its beauty-this strange, horrible
murder. And now the great leaves rose
slowly and stifHy, like the arms of a der
rick, erected themselves in the air, ap-
preached one another, and closed about
the dead and hampered victim with the
silent force of a hydraulic press and the
ruthless purpose Of a thumb-screw. A
moment more, and while / could see the
basis OF the great levers pressing more
tightly toward each other from their
interstices, there trickled down the stalk
OF the tree great streams of the yiscid
honey-like fluid, mingled horribly with
the blood and oozing viscere Of the
victim. AT sight Of this the savage
hordes around me, yelling madly, bound
ed forward, crowded to the trees, clasped
1t, and with cups, leaves, hands and
tongues, each one obtained enough Of
the liquid to send him mad and frantic.
DIR. Jay, in the South Australian
RegiSfeT.