The St. Johns herald., 1894-12-06
SAMOAN HEAD HUNTERS.
Renewal Of the Barbarous Prac- < tice During Recent Troubles.
Native Troops Cut on the Heads of Girls - as We'll as Men and Place Them e. at the Feet of Their
 King.


 of Malietoa and of Mataafa; and upon
 the occasion, in violation of old Samoan
 customs, the heads of girls, as well as of
 men, were taken by the native troops
 engaged to fight for the triple protec-
 torate which exists under the authority
 of the British, German, and American
 governments. By advices received in
 ago, says a recent dispatch, it was
 learned that an attempt to put stop
 to the practice had been made by the
 American jurist, Mir. Ide, of Vermont,
 who was last year appointed to the
 office of chief justice of Samoa, but the
 attempt was unsuccessful, as it was
 not sustained by the resident consuls.
 When the government troops went out
 to fight Mataafa's people in the rebel
 lion of this year he warned them that
 they would be punished if they in-
 dulged in the practice of head hunting; and yet, notwithstanding, as soon as hostilities were begun the head hunters
 broke loose, and when they returned
 from the field they brought with them
 the heads of their victims, which
 were laid at the feet of the king
 with the knowledge of the foreign consuls serving under the protectorate. On account of the peculiar circum- stances of the case Chief Justice Ide found himself unable to measure out the punishment which he had threat ened to inflict The ruling authorities would give him no assistance; the of lenders could not be identified. The native warriors disregarded his warn ing; he had no means of enforcing his orders. 'I can look for no support here, physical or moral" says the chief justice. For reasons that are not to their credit the Europeans living in Samoa declare that barbarous practices must be tolerated until the rebellious natives are wholly crushed; and so they are opposed to any interference with the old Samoan institution of head hunting. The next outbreak in Samoa, therefore, will probably again give evidence of the existence of the abominable practice in an enlarged as sortment of human heads.
 The strangest of all the protests against its continuance under civilized authority has just been made by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, the celebrated novelist, who, in a letter sent from Apia, tells of some of the scenes that were recently witnessed there. He says that the government troops, upon re- returning from the field where they had fought the Mutations, not only brought with them the heads of rebel warriors, but also those of girls. They marched in procession to Molinuw, car rying the girls heads which they had taken, and made of them an oblation to that melancholy effigy, the king" who sat on the veranda of the govern ment building, offered thanks to the head hunters, and crowned as heroes those who should have been hanged as criminals. The three members of the Anglo-German-Ameriebn consular tri- umvirate unanimously winked" upon the occasion, as they had previously
 vinked at other incidents not less shocking. perpetrated under the re- sponsibility of the protecting powers Germany and the United States. When the girls heads were brought in Mir. Stevenson went to the British consul, MT. Cusack-Smith, and pressed him to take some action, yet he only drafted protest, which was put under paper weight, where it lay un- til the savage ceremony was ended. He then spoke without any good result to some of the fighting men who had taken heads, and some of whom had themselves with taking only the ears of their dead victims, as tro- phies. He next conferred with the American chief justice, who, however, as has already been said, was power less. 1T must not wonder, though may still deplore, that MT. Ide accepted the situation" 1t is but fair to say, however, that since MT. Ide took office he seems to have done all he could to prevent head hunting. 1t is the gov ernments under whose authority he holds his place that refuse to give him the power to put stop to it. The old king, Mataafa, who was detbroned and aoS OCOA SCAO AAb1 " the protectorate. forbade the taking of heads in war; but the king who now rules by the grace of the protectorate is devoid of squeamishness in regard to 1t, and even this year has shown him. self ready to accept an oblation of girls heads.
 Mir. Stevenson declares that many horrible atrocities have been perpe- trated during the last campaign against the followers of Mataafa. He tells the 'story of Manono," where the aged Mataafa flung himself on his knees before a British captain and inn plored protection for his women and children. Very soon afterward at the time of nightfall, flames were observed to rise from the island. There was wild disorder all through the night; the houses were burned, the women stripped naked, the food trees hewn down, the animals killed, and great part of the island was reduced to ruins. He tells of other outrages not less atrocious in the province of Ana and elsewhere, all perpetrated under the of the triple protectorate.