Arizona silver belt., 1894-10-13
SAMOAN HEAD HUNTERS.
Renewal of tho Barbarous Praca tice During Recent Troubles.
Native Troops Cut Off the ffeads of Girls as We'll as Men and Place Them at tho Feet of Their
 UinR.

There was renewal of the practice | of ''bead-hunting" in Samoa during the | recent troubles between the partisans ! af Malletoa and of Mataafa; and upon i the occasion, in violation of old Samoan l customs, the heads of girls, as well as of | men, we're 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 Washington from spies | short time | ago, says recent dispatch, 1t was i learned that an attempt 10 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 Hs it was not sustained by the resident ronsuls. 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 eonsuls serving under the protectorate. On account of the peculiar circum. stances of the case Chief Justjss Ide found himself unable to tiRhetire out Al. .s |. Il n. NlE.A Al. ened to iDhict. The ruling authorities would give him no assistance; the of- lenders could not be identified. The native warriors diSregarded his warD- inP; he had aJ means of enforcing his orders. ''t can look for no supr yrt here. physical or moral says re chief justice. For reasons that are not ta their credit the E. or .ars living in 1 Samoa declare tba r .pHrOus practices must be tolers Cd dntil the rebClli0Hs notivcS ur" .lolly crushcd; and SC they aI~ Jr posed to any interference | witb n old samoan institution oi l b. q unting The next outbreak in a .oa therefore, will probably again 1 give evidence of the existence of the aboiniuable practice in an enlarged as. sortment of human beads.
 Tho strangest of all the protests l against its continuance under civilized authority has inst been made by Nlr.
 Robert Louis Stevenson, the cllcSra ted novelist, who, in q letter sent from | Apia. tells of some of the sccncs that were recently witnessed there. He says 1 that the government troops, upon re- l returning from the field where they I had fought the Mataafaus net cnly brought with them the heads Uf rpb,l
 warriors but also those nf girls. They marched in procession to MOlTuw. ear. l ryiDg the girls heads which tlcy had
 taken, and made pf them aG2 ohlatioa to that melancholy cfiigy, the king,
 who sat on the vcranAa Df Nir govern ,acnt building. offered thanks io th,
 head hunters, and crowned as hcr3c
 those who should have been hanged a l criminals. The three members of the | Mathematician consular fri. unvirate unanimously winlled" upon the occasion, as they had previously
 winlied ot other incidents not les l shocking. Dcrpetratcd under the re- ] sponsibility Of the protecting powers | England, Germany and inc United states. When the girls heads were brought in Mir. Stevenson went to the 1 British consul. Air. Cusacli. smith. and | pressed him tO take some action. yet be 1 only drafted protest, which was put
 under paper weight, where it lay un- l T the gayagc cCrc-OHy was ended. He
 lcn spoke without any good result ta
 oInc of the Sighting men who had
 ken heads. and some of whom hnG | -ontcuted themselves with taking only he ears of their dead victims, as tro- l phies. He next conferred with the
 American chief justice, who, however. s has already been said, was power | less. T must not wonder. though may still deplore, that Mir. Ide accepted the situation Ii is but fair to say. however, that since Mr Idc took office | he seems to have done all he could tc l prevent head hunting. It is the gov ernmcnts under whose authority he
 hclAs his place that rcfu5c to give him the power to put a stop to it. The old king, Mataafa, who was dcthroned and has been sent into haniShmcnt by | the protectorate, forbade the taking of heads in war; but the king who now i rules by the grace of the protectordtc ! is devoid of squcHnishness in regard to it, and even this year has shown him. self ready to accept an oblatior of girls heads.
 Mir. Stevenson declares that many horrible atrocities have been perpc, trated during the last campaign | against the followers of Mataafa. He tells the story of Manono, l" where the l aged Matanfn lung himself on his knees before 1 Bsitish captain and i'm 1 plorcd 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 a great l part of the island was reduced to ruins. 1 He tells of other outrages not less, | atrocious in the province of Ana and i elsewhere, all perpetrated under the ! responsibility of the triple protectorate.
 The superstItlg1s People of Calcutta.
 The grossest superstition exists in i Calcutta. Recently an Indian had a live goat flung down from his two-story l house in accordance with the directions of so-called magician, who was called in to cast out devil with which q son