Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-08
HUMAN FLESH EATERS.
Horrible Practices Of Certain Brit
 ish Columbia Indians.

Emotional Cannibalism Practiced by the 1 KwaEuu Tribo-An AristocratIc Tribo Whose Members Can Bite Who- 1 ever Disploasss Them.
 ! The British Columbia Indians have been
 suspected of eating human flesh, but they
 nave hitherto concealed their practices so
 carefully that no reliable white man is able
 70 glve personal testimony of the fact,
 writes Victoria (B O. correspondent of
 the New York Herald. MT. H. R. A. Po-
 COCK has been spending great deal of time
 among them, and although he is not able to
 give personal testimony of their cannibal-
 'suc rites, yet he has collected great deal
 or evidence from natives of the prevalence | of the practice.
 1 The Kwagutls, tribe dwelling in the ! central part of the province, have a belief
 that II man meets a certain spirit on the
 mountains he has right thereafter during
 the winter dances, lasting two months of
 the year, to bite whoever displeases him. | The spirit is called Ha-mad-tsi, and the can-
 nibais who earn their horrible distinction by | seeing him are known as Ha-mad-tsis They
 belong to whatmay be called an exclusive and Rrlstocratlc caste. Only members of cer- ! tain families may become Ha-mad-tsis, and | these when they come to the years of dis cretlon go up into the mountains, where | they may meet the spirit. Having en-
 countered this unlovely sprite, they come ! back to the villages snapping and biting at ! every body and making themselves general ! " very undesirable neighbors. Their sole purpose is to show the tribe that they are
 dlherent from ordinary men, and do not | care what they eat or what they suffer. | In olden times captive or slave
 was killed and presented to the in ! atloted, who ate the corpse in the presence or general assemblage of the people.
 More recently, although slavery IS not
 wholly extinct, the Indians have become
 afraid to kill, so they are reduced to the stealing of corpses. Usually these have
 been drying for a long time, being ''buried" among the branches of a tree, and are quite | davorless, the brains alone being consid- cred @ luxury.
 | Up to the time of eating a corpse in pub | nc the acolyte, whenever he appears from | the woods, bites indiscriminately, women belng, however, generally exempt, whether
 from native gallantry or not does not ap-
 pear. Formerly the faces were bitten, | noses and ears especially, but now the can- nibal merely lifts the flesh of a mans arm ! with his teeth, which Is sliced off with a | Knife by bystander while the half insane | savage retains kIs grip of 1t and finally
 swallows 1t. The father of the bitter pays every body who has suffered from his progeny's enthusiasm from two to ten blankets. There are few men in the Kwagutl tribes who do not bear the scars
 of this extraordinary mania. The Ha-mad-
 tsi, during the progress of the winter dances, is stark naked, heavy plaited rope Of cedar bark adorned with tassels being carried, however, on the shoulders There
 are from three to twenty Ha-mad-tsis, and each of them will perhaps eat of four or five corpses in a lifetime. Mir. Pocock has not actually witnessed the ceremony, but he collected considerable amount of tes- tlmony from what he considers reliable na- tive witnesses. He says: My interpreter said that when he was a / lad he remembers his mother saving two j slaves from being killed and eaten. The winter or Ha-mad-tsi dance was performed at Alert bay eighteen months ago, goats flesh being eaten from human bones at mid night and the tribe deceived Deer or
 goat flesh is often tied to the human bones
 and devoured in the dusk so that the on-
 lockers are all deceived. Apparently two bodies were devoured at Klawatis that same season. Three and a half years ago a white man was taken by his Indian woman
 to the winter dance, and turned out of doors, because, as the woman told him, a corpse was to be eaten. He saw woman's : body taken into the house by three naked ~A~SAA3 s'AN "SAo AOuuu tO IuC UdCh, Wu6rG, through hole, he saw the Ha-mad-tsis holding the body in their arms and biting pieces out. From the long black hair, hang ing from what seemed to be the head, he supposed this was the body of woman. If this was not human flesh both he and the
 whole audience were deceived.
 "A Fort Rupert half-breed woman of excellent character told me she was fully convinced that in many cases no deception an4<SA N@l l,olS l. except my interpreter, expressed any doubt A Kanaka, man of very good re- port, indeed, told me that at the head
 of Knight inlet he was admitted to a
 winter dance, and saw three Ha-mad-tsis eat corpse in presence of the tribe This evidence appears to me to be
 very strong on account of the witness character and the clearneSs and reasonable manner of his statements. He told me his story briefly. and as one surprised at the ex- istence of doubt, but tired of the subject.
 His wife, member of a Ha-mad-tsi family,
 furnished the evidence that convinced my interpreter that the Ha-mad-tsi is not a sham.
 After describing the ori gin of the rite in her family she said that some years ago, on Knight inlet, at::the winter feasts, she was
 invited to feast of berries for women. They were interrupted by the Ha-mad-tsis bringing human corpse into the house. They were six in number and all naked, and her brother was one of them. Attendants cut off strips of flesh from the corpse, which were devoured by the Ha-mad-tsis. This witness, although given to potlaching, an- other heather and semireligious orgy, bore otherwise good character. I was told number of most horrible stories of self torture practiced out of bravado during these ceremonies"
 MT. Pocock's revelations have produced a powerful feeling among Christian people throughout Canada, and the Government is being called upon to take efficient means of suppressing these unspeakably disgus ting practices.