Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-07-11
THE SOLOMON ISLANDERS.
People Who Indulge in Human Flesh
and Other PeeuIiarities


Europeans have been in contact with
the Solomon Islanders no characteristic
OF them has been. perhaps, more COM
mon than that of cannibalism, says a
writer IN the Westminster Review.
When the Spaniards first discovered
these islands the man-eating habits of
the natives became strikingly apparent.
On the occasion of the arrival of the
ships at the island, which it's discover
ers named ST. Isabel, the chief of the
natives that they came IN contact with
sent the general (Mendana) a present
O. a quarter of boy, including
the arm and hand, together with some
roots, which he had requested him to
accept. This custom of sending supply
of vegetables along with the human
hesh as present was practiced in the
Islands OF the FIJI group; Mariner, in
his interesting work on the Tonga ISL
and, published in 1912, described how,
when he arrived In his canoe at an out
lying island of that group, he found on
the shore large crate of vegetables,
with girl sitting upon it, and ascer-
tanned that the two were about to be
presented as the material of feast to
the king of the Fiji Islands. Happily,
he rescued the girl from her impending
fate. Referring to the natives of the
island which Gallego named La
Florida, he says: 3'They eat human
flesh" and, elsewhere, he relates that
"the steward with four soldiers and
five negroes were sent on shore for
water; "that their floats having got
aground they were Immediately at
tackled by natives, who, lying in am
bush, rushed upon them and "did not
leave single soul alive except a negro"
belonging to Gallego; that 'all the
rest they hewed to pieces, cutting off
their heads, arms and legs, tearing out
their tongues and supping up their
brains with great ierocity." DR.. Guppy
mentions, on the authority Of H. FL.
Romllly, that ''the New Ireland canni-
balls OF the present day are fond of
composition of sage, cocoanut and hui
man brains" In 1868, when the ships
of Bougainville's expedition were at
Cholseul Bay, they were attacked by
100 natives In ten canoes; two canoes
were captured, and in one of them
"was the jaw of a man half broiled."
Capt. Redlich, master of the schooner
Franz who visited Makira, on the south
side of st. Christoval, in 1872, states that
he found a dead body in war canoe
dressed and cooked whole. He was in
formed by Perry, resident, that he had
seen as many as twenty bodies lying on
the beach, dressed and cooked. In
1865, Mr.. Brenehley noticed at Wano, on
the north coast of this island, the skulls
of twenty-five bushmen hanging up I'M
der the roof of the Tambu house, all of
which showed the effects of a toma-
hawk, and all had been eaten" The
natives of the Island of Santa Anna, at
the time DR.. Guppy visited it, abstained
from eating human flesh several years
ago, on account of a very severe
epidemic of sickness having followed
cannibal feast. Nevertheless, Mai. the
war chief of this island, ''has acquired
considerable fortune, in native point
of view, by following the profitable call
ing of purveyor of human flesh to the
man-eaters of the adjacent coasts of
It. Christoval-a trade in which he is
ably assisted by those who accompany
him on his foraging expeditions. This
chief was in the habit of keeping human
beings whom he had captured, and lat
tened them for the market. Dr. Guppy
mentions two prisoners whom he sue
the monster. When DR.. Guppy visited
a village on the north coast of St. Girls
toval, and saw the chief named Toro,
who received him civilly and shook
hands with him, he noticed that outside
the front of the chiefs house five
skulls were hanging, which belonged to
some unfortunate bushmen who had
fallen at his hands On inquiry of a
native who spoke little English" says
DIR. Guppy, 81 ascertained that their
bodies had been 'kaied kaied'-i. e.,
eaten-although it was with a little
hesitation that he admitted the fact
The Shorthand natives accredit the Bou-
granville people who live around the
active volcano at Bagana with the regu-
lar practice of cannibalism; and there
can be little doubt that this custom is
extensively practiced among the scarce
ly known bush tribes in the interior of
this large island. Of the natives of New
that human flesh forms their chief ar
ticle of diet" The doctor observes:
1T is difficult to speculate on the refec-
tions of the victim as he lives from day
to day in constant expectation of his
fate" There is reason to believe that
this expectation does not produce the
agonizing terror which most Europeans
under like circumstances would expe-
rience. In the time not very far distant,
when cannibalism prevailed in New
Zealand, it was, occasionally, at
all events, the custom of
a chief when starting on
a war expedition to take with him,
fastened together, number Of men
whom he already held as captives;
these men served as a living larder.
Each of them knew that his turn to be
killed and eaten would come; neverthe-
less, with the certainty of this doom be-
fore him, he partook of each of his fell
lows whose death preceded his own ;
and Capt. Wilkes, in his account of
his exploring expedition, stated that
King Thakam bau appropriated one of
the small islands of the FIJI group as a
human preserve. Every man impris-
oned there knew that he would ulti-
mately serve as food for his majesty,
and such alike were the loyalty and in
difference as to death of these victims
that, when questioned by Capt. Wilkes
as to their feeling on the matter, they
expressed a kind of acquiescence in
their fate. and used words to the effect
that it was quite proper that the king
should be thus provided for.