The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-11
cANNIBALs.
lNew York Suu.1

ID Anlca that eat human flesh is likely to have hospitable reception, and is Ger. tain to find himself among natives, who in their intelligence, arts, and physical and moral qualities are not eoualled bv many of the native tribes This fact. in. deed, is true of men-eaters the world over, notwithstanding the popular im- pression that cannibalism characterizes only the lowest levels of savage life. l, was true in Columbus time, when he wrote to Queen Isabella that the canni- bal Caribbees filled the natives of Hayti with abject terror. The word cannibal signifies brave CT valiant man, and is derived from the name by which the Caribbees called themselves.
 A few hundred miles northwest of Lake Albert Nyapza, on the banks of the river Welle, lives a great tribe whose canni- balism is the most pronounced of any of the natives of Africa. They are the Mon. buttus, reclaimed race, physically fine specimens of manhood, and far superior to the black tribes around them in arts of war or peace. They inhabit beautiful, fertile country, where forests alternate with rolling downs. They engage in az riculture, and human flesh, though ire quent, is not regular article of food ex- cept among the wealthier families. Schweinfurth, who lived among them for several months, says they are not, like very many African tribes, childish in speech and in their processes of thought, but that they understand reasonable questions, and give reasonable answers. The specimens of their pottery, decor ated with ornamental figures, that are now in the Ethnographical museum of Berlin, are said to equal the best examples of Egyptian art. They are ingenious wood carvers, and the greatest house builders in Africa.
 It is characteristic of cannibal tribes to conceal their practices as much as possi- ble frem those not addicted to them. During his months of residence among them, Schweinfurth on just two occasions saw women of the tribe preparing hum an flesh for consumption. He came upon them as they were boiling suDdry arms and legs, but his presence was unexpected and unwelcome, and he was invited to go elsewhere. In conversation, however, the Monbuttus made no secret of their practices, of which, indeed, there were abundant evidences in the heaps of care fully picked human bones that were scat tered about all their settlements. Their victims aIe the prisoners taken in the wars they are almost necessarily waging with one or another of the tribes about them.
 Next to the Monbuttus, the African tribe that are most notorious as man. eaters are the natives of Novo Redondo, in Portuguese Angola, whom ]. Monteiro described as the finest race of blacks in every way that he had met in Africa. He said there was no question of the superior physique and mental qualities of this can- nibal tribe, and he thought their supe- riority might actually be the result of the horrid custom by which they supplied themselves with larger amount of ani- nal food than other tribes used. It is far more likely, however, that their supe- riority, instead of being the result of can- nibalism, made it possible for them to be cannibals by enabling them to prey with upon weaker tribes. The great est excesses of cannibalism have always been found among the higher savage tribes or nations like the ancient Mexi- cans and Peruvians. The most encourag- ing fact with regard to people addicted to this custom Is that as they rise toward the middle and upper levels of civiliza- tion they voluntarily abandon the prac- ice. If the missionaries had accom- plished nothing more among the island ers of the Pacific, it would be to their lasting credit that they induced many thousands of the natives to give up this practice. There are many tribes in the l oopulous island groups of Oceanica | among whom cannibalism Is now only | tradition. The one signal result thus far | of missionary labors among the Terra | 1el Fuegans is the fact that they have in- duced the natives to give up the practice of eating human flesh.
 The Ilarch of civilization is rapidly re- | 1ucing the number of cannibal peoples. They are still numbered, however, by many thousands, and are probably far nore numerous in our own hemisphere han in the eastern half of the world. In Matto Crosse province of Brazil, recently 'isited by the German explorers Dr. Clauss and Herr von den Steinen, live en cannibal tribes, numbering some eventy or eighty thousand souls. Not many hundred miles from the district oc- :upied by these modern cannibals were ound, about twenty five years ago, the irst conclusive evidences that man be- ore the age of history ate the flesh of his elbows. In a heap of refuse on the ,uquassu river, such as accumulated around the dwellings of pro historic man, were found, mingled with hells and the bones of animals, numer- JUS human relics, the bones showing :learly that they had been broken to get 1t the marrow. This was the beginning # series of discoveries revealing human 'ones broken into pieces a few inches ong, in exactly the same way as the 'ones of the deer, moose, beaver. and 'ther animals with which they have been ound mingled in hundreds of heaps of prehistoric kitchen refuse, from Maine to he La Plata river. Canr;balis.n has, therefore, the distinction of being one of he most venerable of human customs.