The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-01
HEATHER TANNA.
$4,000 NATIVES STILL PRAY TO
THE SPIRIT WI.

AFtSSO GA A4t 00 . ALL INA az
THE SPIRIT WI.
Tribes In the New Hebrides Which
Sacrifice Their Weakr,ngs and Wild
ows-Evident Intent of the Religion
is to Make g Fighting People.
From the NetD York Sun.
Queer 10 may be, but there are Islands
one in partioular--in the New Hebrides
group where oannibAlism, infanticide,
human sacrifices, murder of widows, and
inhuman warfare are still revered social,
religious aud martial customs OF the people.
This is testified to in sorrow by the best
possible witness, the venerable and Rev.
John q. Patton, who has passed "a years Of
his life in the Hebrides teaching the natives
about Jesus and his love- DIR. Patton is now
In New York lecturing for the benefit of q
fund to increase the work in his missionary
field.
A sun reporter met him IN the rooms OF
the Presby terian board Of foreign missions,
So Fifth avenue, and learned many inter
esting facts about the customs of the
islanders.
The group, which extends for over 500
miles In length In the west Pacific, is
huoWu as m6laneslh. some one na9 IN
vented the word "negroid" to describe the
physical characteristic OF its dark, black
crisp, curly-headed inhabitants
While the missionaries have made many
converts on the islands, on one, the island
of Tanna, Chris ianity has never gained
foothold. and there Its Il, 900 natives still
pray to the Spirit Vui, which is incorpor-
ated in stone idols, which they believe de-
mands, besides prayers, offerings Of she'll
food arA ~ hum Iva
There seems to be phase Of something
approaching political economy in the selec-
ton OF the human sacrifices, for to some
extent there 10 observed q system which
conserves to the state its best fighters and
wealth producers, and rids 1t Of its least de-
sirable men.
II bad luck In battle or husbandry or fish
ing suggests to the chiefs and sacred men
that Vut would be more liberal In his distri-
button OF favors il some people were killed
before stone idol, it never happens that
the men who are most adept with the bow
aud arrow, most accurate with the spear
and deadly with the war club, or even those
who are famous canoists or fishermen, are
knocked In the head as sacrifices. Those
who are conspicuous In the rear when the
battle is hot. who are clumsy in handling
the paddle, are more likely
TO GET THEIR QUIETus
6b buCh hAuobs 4ucf6 10 hQObu6I kElDo8mAn
whose life 10 sure to be thought necessary
to obtain Vui's good offices. and he is the
fellow who has failed 10 revenge In insult
offered to him through his intended bride
A male infants father buys a wife for
bis son. That is, the female infant for
whom price has been paid to its parents,
ia engaged to the boy for whom she has
been bought, and she Is impressed with this
as soon as her young idea is capable Of
grasping the fact. All the members of the
tribe are told of the engagement also, aud
this bit OF society news Is intended to warn
the young men from that girl when she Is
old enough TO begin making negroid eyes.
Flirting, In other words, is not popular.
An engaged young man must not have
his mind distracted from the pleasures OF
war by the bore of looking after his best
girl. The 400 Of Tanna do not expect a
lover to take his sweetheart to the most
popular cocoa grove or coral beach to keep
her heart from strayiug, and 1t disapproves
violently OF any suoh performance between
the ticketed bride-elect and any other
young man.
Ii, however, any other young nan "mis-
behaves" to quote DR.. Paton's Language,
''or attempts 20 misbehave toward the
bride-elect,n society demands that her 40.
knowledged lover shall kill the foolish young
man guilty Of that misbehavior. II he does
not do 30 10 shows him lacking In warlike
spirit, and the next time there Is religious
ceremony, including human sacrifice, that
unwarlike lover is certain TO be selected by
the chief and sacred men to be dubbed 10
death before q stone idol.
Isl q vigorous Melanesisn policy which
seems TO express a scientific regard for the
theory that the fittest shall survive, and the
plan might be studied with profit by the
medical gentlemen who are preparing a
plan for our next legislature, whereby the
race OF New Workers is to be strengthened
and improved. So far as the testimony Of
DIR. Patton goes, nothing very bad happens
to the woman in the case. The father OF
the man who failed to fight for her sells her
70 some one who Is looking for a vito; DOS
sibly the man who had misbehaved
Children are sacrificed, too. Their selso-
ton for the deadly club man Is made also
by the chief and sacred men. The sickly
and physically unprOmising are most likely
to be chosen, but In Tanna, as in other
more civilizBd countries, the mothers of
feeble children
HAVE A WAY OF LOVING THEM
all the more far their inflrmities; the sor-
row ocoasioneA by their selection is as great
as IL robust infants had been offered 70 the
stone idol.
DR.. Patton had In his home as servants
two boys who had escaped from TannA dur
ing q sacrifice of children.
They told ths doctor that they had been
In the circle where the human sacrifice was
being made, and the sight Of their little
plaYmates besng killed 90 frightened them
that they ran away and hid in the bush DR..
Patton converted the boys 60 Christianity,
and then they returned 70 their homes to dc
missionary work among their own people.
Their efforts were not appreciated, and
again they escaped. but both were killed In
tight on their way back TO Dr. Patton.
While camilla ism Is practicsd by all the
tribes OF Tanntl. az IL was once on all the
Islands OF the group. DR.. Patton does not
think that people are killei only for the
purposes OF fest. The bottles of those
killed In war ally are eaten.
The native rtIli gion 10 intendNd 20 make a
| fighting people a man who tights well d