Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-09-18
The Man-Eating Trer.
ThriiiinS story Of AN English Iravel-

A gentleman who has travelled in
Africa and is we'll acquainted with
the gentleman who was an eye-wit-
ness of the thrilling scene given be-
low, furnishes the following:
The man eating tree is be ieved to
be one of the numerous species of
cacti, and SO far as known is indigo
nous to the soil of the island of Mad
agascar, where it is an object so rare
ly met with that the natives regard
it with veneratioD and wor ship it as
an altar at which the power of evil
resides. The writer has never seen
the tree but will give as nearly as
possible, in the language of Mr..
Herbert Rhoades, an English gentle
man who spent a number Of years
at the Court of the Malagese Queen
and travelled a great deal in the in
terror of the island, his account of
the tree and the sacrifice of human
being to it's bloQd-loving nature.
Il had often heard" he says, 4" of
this wonderful denizen of the forests
and had had related to me numerous
instances OF its peculiar appetite and
when upon arriving at one of the
villages or hamlets in the farinterior,
l was informed that an important
ceremony vas to be gone through
the following day and that maiden
was to be sacrificed on the man eat
ing tree to appease the anger of the
evil spirit, you may naturally imag-
inc that | was determined to see for
myself, if possible, whether this tree
and its qualities were an absolute
fact. or, as | always suspected, either
n myth or an open fraud practiced
on the common herd by their rulers
VI pi'cotioOu. AIteI opiHe paidNeI.
ing and the gift of innumerable beads
and other articles of value to the ma
tiyes my guide arranged with one of
the headmen that l should lie Sc
creted in some shrubbery at some
distance from the fatal tree but near
enough to watch every incident.
Strict injunctions were given that no
matter what happened I was to rr--
main in my hiding-place, as, if dis
covered. would surely be sacri-
feed, as no stranger had ever been
allowed to be present during the
performance Of the sacred rites. I
shall pass over the earlier incidents
of the day and touch at once On the
principal event, the remembrance of
which is like some fearful night
mare, or lingering phantasma of
n fever.stricken brain. At an early
hour I was hurried to my hiding
place, a small thicket of trees and
shrubs skirting an open glade sore
300 yards in diameter. In the CEN
ter of the glade and in the midst of
a smaller circle of bare ground OH
which not vestige of foliage of any
sort could be seen, stood what looked
like an enormous cactus of the kind
commonly known as the prickly
pear. Having q good field-glass
with me l was able to examine it mi
nutely. The trunk from the base to
about four feet from the ground was
bare of branches and covered with n
thick, dark bark full of large warty
excresences. At four feet from the
ground the trunk ended and circle
of large, thick leaves exactly similar
to those on the prickly pear, only
six times as large, rose flom its outer
rim, dropping gracefully outward at
the top and forming sort of large
bowl, the bottom of which was GOV.
cred with leaves of later growth.
Every leaf was bristling with mass
of hard thorns at least six inches in
length. While 1 had been making
these observations the sounds of
tom-toms and numerous other dia-
bolical instruments, accompanied by
shrieks, yells and other sounds emit
ted from the human throat, growing
nearer and nearer, proved that the
time for the ceremony was near at
hand; and at this moment the pro-
cession headed by the victim, a
young girl of about eighteen years
of age, held and pushed along by
two strong men, and half dead with
fear. entered the glade. Without
describing the usual mummery
that invariably accompanies similar
scenes amongst barbarians, will
simply glance at the horrid sight
that followed. Frantic with fear
and half demented, the miserable
victim was pushed, amid the shouts
and beating of tom-toms by the
crowd, who stood in a circle round
the tree, into the basin already men
toned. As soon as her naked feet
touched the top of the tree trunk,
numbers of the more plant and
younger leaves, as though endowed
with sudden vitality, embraced her
legs, the hard thorns piercing deeply
and drawing blood from every pore.
The more she struggled the harder
they clung, while every second, az