Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-10-26
CANNlHAl. INDIANS.
The Horrible Practices Of Certain British
Columbia Redskins.

The British Columbia Indians have
been suspected Of eating human flesh,
says n Victoria letter To the n. Y.
Herald, but they have hitherto con-
cealed their practices so carefully that
no reliable white man is able to give
perfect testimony of the fact. III. II. A.
Pocock has been spending n great deal
of his time among them, and although
he is not able TO give personal tcsti-
mony Of their ca~nnibalislic rites. vet he
has collected a great deal of evidence
from natives of the prevalence of the
practice.
The kwagutls, at ribc dwelling in the
central part of that province, Lave a
bellet that If a man meets a certain
spirit on the mountains he has n RIGHT
thereafter during the winter dances.
lasting two months Of the wear. TO bite
whoever dispicases him. The spirit is
called Ha-mad-tsi, and the cannibals
who earn their horrible distinction by
seeing him are known as N~a-mad-tsis.
They belong TO what may be called an
exclusive and ar;stocratic caste. Only
members of certain families NAV be-
come Ha-mad-tsis, and these when they
come TO years OF discretion 90 up into
the mountains where they may meet
the spirit. Having encountered this
unlovely sprite they come back to the
villages swapping and biting ut every
thing and making themselves generally
very undesirable ncighbors. Their sole
purpose is TO show the tribe they are
different from ordinary mel and do not
care what they eat or what they suffer.
In old times a captive or a slave was
killed and presented to the initiated,
who ate the corpse in the presence of a
general assemblage of the people.
More recently, although slavery is lot
wholly extinct, the Indians have be-
come afraid 10 kill, so they are reduced
the stealing of corpses. Usually
these have been drying for n long time,
being buried among the branches of
q tree, and are quite ~ilavorless, the
brains alone being considered aluXury.
Up to the time of eating u corpse in
public h acolyte, whenever he ap-
pears from the woods, bites indiscrimi-
women being, however, gem
orally exempt, whether from native
.gallantry or not does not appear.
Formerly the faces were bitten, noses
and ears especially, but now the canni-
bal mere lifts the flesh of n mans arm
with his teeth, which is sliced off with
knife by a bystander while the half
insane savage retains his grip Of it and
swallows it. The father OF
the bitter pays everybody who has
suffered from his progeny's enthusiasm
two to ten blankets. There are
few men in the Kwaguti tribes who do
not bear the scars Of this extraordinary
mania. The Ha-mad-tsi, during tho
progress of the winter dances, is stark
naked, a heavy plated rope of cedar
bark adorned with tassels being II
ried, however, on the shoulders. There
are from three to twenty Ha-mad-tsis,
and each of them will perhaps eat of
or five corpses in "A lifetime. MI.
Pocock, however had one old gentle
pointed out to him who had par
of twenty. At the same time the
is very frequently a sham one
made up for the purpose. Deer or goat
flesh is very often tied to the human
and devoured in the dusk SO that
he onlookers are all deceived.