Wichita eagle., 1889-03-14
FOND OF HUMAN FLESH.
Where Baked Man Is Regarded as
a Great Delicacy.
Life Among tho Cannibals Of tho Solomon
Islands-Sago, Cocoanut and Human
Brains for Dinner-Refiections
of tho Victims.

| Dur1nR Cle periOQ throughout W0lcl Eu
ropeans have been in contact with the Solo
mon Islanders no characteristic of them
has been, perhaps, more common than tha,
| of cannibalism. When the Spaniards first
| discovered these islands the man-eating
habits of the natives became strikingly ap
! parent On the occasion of the arrival Of
the ships at the island, which its discover
ers named st. Isabel, the chief of the ma
| tlves that they came into contact with sent
the General (Mendana) present of quar-
ter Of boy, including the arm and hand, to
gether with some roots, which he had re.
| quested him to accept
| This custom Of sending a supply of veg
etaoies along With the human flesh as q
! present was praoiced in the islands of FiJ
! group, says the Ch cago Herald. Mariner
in his interesting work on the Tonga Is
lands, published in 1872, describes how,
when he arrived in his canoe at an outlying
island of that group, he found on the shore
large crate Of vegetables, with a girl sit
! ting upon 1t, and ascertained that the two
were about to be presented as the material
| of a feast to the King of the FIJI Islands
! Happily he rescued the girl from her I'M
! pending fate.
! Referring to the natives of the island
| which Gallego named La Florida, he says
"They eat human flesh" and elsewhere he
relates that ''the steward, with four soldiers
! and five negroes, was sent on shore for
water" that their boats having got aground,
they were Immediately attacked by the ma
! tives, who, lying in ambush, 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 hai-
! their tongues and supping up their brains
with great ferocity."
| DIR. Guppy mentions, On the authority of
/ 81. II. Romilly, that "the New Ireland can
nibals of the present day are found of a
composition of sago, cocoanut and human
brains" In 176S when the ships of Bou-
gainville's expedition were st Choisel Bay,
they were attacked by one hundred and
fifty natives in ten canoes; two canoes were
captured, and in one of them was found
the Jaw of man half broiled.n
Captain Redlich, master of the schooner
Franz, who visited Makira, on the south
side of st. Christoval, in 1872, states that he
found dead body IN a war canoe dressed
and cooked whole He was informed by
Perry, a resident, that he had seen as many
as twenty bodies lying ON the beach, dressed
and cooked. In 1865, Mr.. Brenchley noticed
at Wano, on the north coast of this island,
the skulls of twentyiv bushmen hanging
up under the roof of the Tambu House. all
Of which showed the effects of a tomahawk
and all had been eaten"
The 2tives 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
cio hav i1,a1 foo CT
Nevertheless Mai, the war chief of this
island, . has acquired a considerable fort
une, in a native point of view, by follow
ing the profitable calling of purveyor of
human flesh to the man-eaters of the ad-
jacent coasts of st. Christoval-a trade in
which he is ably assisted by those who
accompany him on his foraging expedi-
tons
This chief was in the habit of keeping
human beings whom he had captured, and
fattening them for the market. DR., Guppy
mentions two prisoners whom he succeeded
in rescuing from the hands of this monster.
When DIR. Guppy visited a village on the
north coast of st. Christoval 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 hls hands"
On inquiry Of native who spoke lit
tie English" says DR.. Guppy, Il ascer-
tanned that their bodies had been kaled-
kaied'-i e., eaten-although it was with a
little hesitation that he admitted the fact.
The Shorthand natives accredit the Bougain-
vile people who live around the active vol
cano at Bagana with the regular practice of
cannibalism; and there can be little doubt
that this custom is extensively practlced
among the scarcely known bush tribes in
the interior of this large island. OF the ma
tves of New Georgia or Rubiana, Captain
Cheyne AYERS that human flesh forms their
chief article of diet.'
The Doctor observes: at is difficult to
speculate on the reflections of the victim as
he Yves from day to day in constant expec-
tation of his fate" There is reason to be-
Geve that this expectation does not produce
the agonizing terror which most Europeans
under like circumstances would experience.
In the time not very far distant, when can
nibalsm prevailed in New Zealand, it was,
occasionally at all events. the custom of
chief when starting on war expedition to
take with him, fastened together. a number
of men whom he already held as captives;
these men served as living larder
Each of them knew that his turn to be
killed and eaten would come nevertheless,
with the certainty of this doom before him,
he partook of each OF his fellows whose
death preceded his own; and Captain
Wilkes, in his account of his exploring ex-
ploring expedition, stated that King Tha-
kambau appropriated CO. of the small is
lands Of the FIJI group as a human pre-
serve. Every man imprisoned there knew
that he would ultimately serve as
food for his Majesty. and such alike were
the loyalty and Indifference to death of
these victims that when questioned by Cap
tain Wilkes as TO their feelings on the mat
ter, they expressed kind of acquiescence in
their fate and used words to the effect that it
was quite proper that the King shouls.be
thus provided for