The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-09-25
PICTURES OF STRANGE LANDS.
Cannibal Cookery.



A friend of the writer, who for moro than
forty years has been in the employment of the
Dutch government, bears personal witness to
the prevalence of this custom in Sulnatra up
to recent times. He was once making scien-
titic investigations in the interior Of that is
land, and was being entertained in the most
hospitable manner by the native Raiah, or
Chief of the place he was then in. A feast
had boon made to which he was bidden and
to which he went. taking his own native ser
want with him. The banquet had proceeded
for some time without interruption, when at
last, as crown of the feast, beautiful brown
roast joint was brought from the back of the
house to the open airy place where the repast
was being held. This was cut up without re-
mark and handed round, and the Dutch gem
tleman was on the point of eating his portion,
having raised part of it to his lips when
his servant rushed forward and stopped
him, saying; Master, master, do not
questioned, admitted, with no small
pride at the extent of his hospitality, that
hearing that the white man would feast with
him, he had ordered young boy to be killed
and cooked in his honor, as the greatest deli
cacy obtainabie, and that the joint before them
was the best part, the thigh. Early travellers
in New Zealand always express astonishment,
when they discover the cannibal propensties
OF the inhabitants, that so gentle and pleasant
hammered people could become on occasion
such ferocious savages. Earle, who wrote
very readable, intelligent, and but little known
account of the Maoris very early in the pres
emit century, speaks of the gentle manners and
kindly ways of New Zealand chief, whom
afterward he discovered to be an inveterate
oannibal. He relates that he visited the place
whore was cooking tho body Of o young slave
girl that his friend had killed for the purpose.
The head was severed from the body;
the four quarters, with the principal
bones removed, were compressed and
packed into q small oven in the ground, and
covered with earth. 1t was a case of uniusti-
fable cannibalism. No revenge was gratiied
by the deed, and no excuse could be made that
the body was eaten to perfect their triumph.
Earle says that he learned that the flesh takes
many hours TO cook that it is very tough If
not thoroughly cooked, but that it pulls in
pieces like piece of botting paper, If well
done. He continues that the victim was
handsome. pleasant-looking girl of sixteen,
and one he used frequently to see about the
Pah. To quote his own words: "Whle lis
tening to this frghtfdl detail we felt sick al
most to fainting. We left Atoi, (the chief who
had killed the girD and again strolled toward
the spot where this disgusting feast was cook
ing. Not native was now near it, hot steam
Kept occasionally bursting from the smothered
mass, and the same dog that we had seen axe
the head of tho girl now crept from beneath
the bushes and sneaked toward tho village
To add to the gloominess of the whole, al arge
hawk rose heavily from tho very spot where
the poor victim had been cut in pieces NV
friend and L sat gazing in this melancholy
place. 1t was n lowering, gusty day, and the
moaning of the wind through the bushes, as it
swept round the hill on which we were, seemed
in unison with orr feelings" Earle goes on
to relate how he and three other compatrots,
whom he summoned from the beach for the
purpose, with the Engishmans usual imperti-
nenc0 and intolerance of customs differing
from his own, determined to Illustrate Atoi's
intention. They together visited the Hill
where the flesh was cooking, and, destroying
the oven, buried the remains in the earth.
They found the heart put on one side for the
special delectaton of their con-
slant friend and companion, Atoi Earle was
afterward good-humoredly told by the chief
that their interference had been of no avail, as
they had found the grave where the flesh had
been buried and opening it soon after no and
his friends had left had finished cooking Ii
and eaten il all, Earle argued long and prob
ably loudly with the chief upon this question
Atoi asked him what they did with the thieves
and runaways in England, and he told him
"hog them or hang them" "Then," replied
the Maori, "the only difference is that we eat
them after we have killed them" The same
chief told him that before the introduction of
potatoes the people in the interior had nothing
to eat but fern roots and kumera (another edi-
bic root fish they never had in the rivers, SO
that human flesh was the only kind they ever
partOOk Of