Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-02-18
IN NEW GUINEA.
CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS OF VIC ToRIA's cANNI5AL SUBJECTS.

TORlA'S cANNl6AL SUBJECTS. Work of Three English Missionaries . Houses fin High Trees-CannibaIIsn
 As n Token of AnectIoD-The sago Iu dustry-BIrds Of Paradise.
 And now what is the character of this
 land which, after SO many abortiye at
 tempts, has at Last come to the birth ot
 annexatiOn' Along the coast of a eonsid- erable part of it missionaries have been
 established for ame seventeen years
 now There are three English mission
 aries and many Polynesian converts who
 act as teachers and preachers. And,
 whatever opinion may be held of the work
 of missionaries in general, there are no
 two opinions held by those who know the
 place about the good that has been done
 by these New Guinea men.
 Their aim has not been to add a nun
 Der of baptisms tO their record, as savages
 hang scalps tO their girile for an evidence of their success; nor have they measured
 the Christianity of their converts by the
 amount Of clothing which they wear. But
 they have instilled confidence in the good ness of human nature where there was
 none before; they have taught the ad-
 vantages of peace and industry where be-
 fore there was only uneeasing bloodshsd
 and warfare.
 Thus a tolerably accurate knowledge has been gained of the habits of such of | the natives as inhabit the southern coast line. But of the many thousands who | live in the interior very little has been dis | covered
 Among such of the natives as have been visited, one of the most peculiar charac- | teristics k the inaccessible position in
 which they frequently place their houses. | This, no doubt, is the direct outcome of the state of constant intertribal warfare
 in which they have SO long existed, and
 which even now is not altogether stamped
 out Some of their houses are built in high trees up on the narrOwest and most
 inaccessible ridges of the mountains. To
 these bamboo ladders are the only means of approach, and vines are often eulti-
 vated tO run up the ladders to give them
 strength and make the ascent and descent
 easier Other tribes-and there are many
 of those living along the cOast-build their
 villages some distance out at sea, on piles
 of mangrOve wOOd standing eight or ten
 feet out of the water. There are villages
 Of this kind built altogether away from
 the shore, in the shallow waters of the
 southern coast, containing as many as
 4OO or JOO people and perhaps forty or
 fifty houses
 It is commonly said, and no doubt is often the case, that Eavages eat their van quished foes in faith that by so doing they inherit from them their noblest qualities; but it appears to be peculiar to the New Guinea natives to eat their kindred as a ee.lra .aF was seized and half eaten by one of the many crocOdiles that prey upon the coasts of the island. His sorrOwing parents slew the offending monster, and rescuing the half of their beloved son which was still uneaten. they greedily devoured it in their grief When their kindred die they hang them up, or lay them on framework of | bambOOs, for the sun to cleanse the bones of flesh. While this is going on they keep | watch near the corpse, and at intervals, | when their grief becomes too much for | them, they visit it and smear their bodies all over with the juices that are dropping | from the dead body When decay has | done its work the bones are cleaned, and | some of them are buried, while others are worn as ornaments by the survivors, and the skulls decorate their houses. In other | tribes the bodies are buried in 6 sitting posture up Co the neck, and a vessel is placed over the head. In these cases the skull alone is preserved for ornament, the rest of the body being left beneath the soil
 But though SO barbarOus in some of their habits, the natives of this place are lar superior to those of Australia in most ways Many of them cultivate plants for tood- Some of them make pottery which they exchange for sago with those situ- kv. g-- L.. .Nga-s.- | 'elves. Others devote all their time to ,atching fish, and these, too, they barter Tor oOcoanuts or yams or bananas, while | most are clever at fashio.ing and carving weapons of offense and shields, and many | ;sn make tolerable kind of cloth from he bark of trees, good canoes or service 'ble bows and arrows.
 The sago industry, especially, is valu- ( ible one. So much food can be produced . with so little labor, and the tree grows | we'll and abundantly in New Guinea. The method of obtaining the sago is to cut | town the tree and remove a slice of bark | , rom the upper surface of the felled trunk. | The inner wood of the tree which Is . throughout kind of pith is then pounded ' lown with rough instruments made for 1, he purpose into the trough formed by the | lrm outer bark of the tree.
 AS this pith is pounded down it is taken !. ut in vessels formed of the sheathing caves Of the sago palm and carried to an- ther trough rSar by, formed, like the rst, of the bais of another sago palm. iere it is pressed through a rough sieve, ormed again of fibers from the sago palm. lto water, where the starchy part dis ' olves and settles in the bottom as a sedi- T lent. This sediment, though not the ranulated sago of commerce, is the form ' ] which the natives eat the food, and it T lakes excellent cakes or mush. f' Another well known production of New g uinea is the bird of paradise, the most ], eautiful and gorgeous perhaps, except ii le peacock, of all known birds. There b re many different kinds of them. but all | VI re beautiful tO the eye, though the noises o' lat they make are somewhat trying to l IT le ear They are very shy and difficult | cr obtain, but by caution, cleverness and m Sceeding great patience the natives sue pi ed in killing them in snares or with | D, unted arrows, SO as not to injure their A san Francisco Chronicle ia