Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-04-10
AMONG CANNlBAlS.
The uorrid Record Traveller Bring
Home From Central Africa.

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The uorrid Record Traveller Brings
Home From Central Africa.
We are getting to be better &C
quainted with that repulsive habit,
man eating, and Sidney Langford
Hinde, in his 1.-The Fall of the konso
Arabs published in London by
Mathuen, writes that in central AT
RIGA cannibalism is growing and eN-
tending to tribes that formerly were
free from the faint. Miss Kingsley
in her recent book tells us of her
visit to a country of cannibals.
AS commanding force in the
service of the Free State it was the
business of the author to prevent
the raids of the Kongo Arabs. The
Arabs, it is represented, were good
fighters, hut when beaten fled pre-
cipitately, fearful of being eaten by
the followers OF the Belgian train.
1t is one of the beliefs of Mussul-
mans that Il mutilated body cannot
enter heaven. So cannibalism, or
the dread of it, had its effects on
these slave dealing Arabs.
I The Bangala people cannot have a
Single idea of humanity. They have
the cruel habit of manning the ami
NAL they want to eat, believing that
when it fingers half alive its flesh
will lccome tender. Though there
was an abundance of hippopotami,
the cannibals preferred human flesh,
and they dealt i'll it.
Am instance is presented of Il SEN
try in the employ of the white forces
who, under instruction, fired ut Il
supposed enemy. The shot was ia
tal and the man fell. Tho man
killed proved 10 be the father of the
sentry, and tho son thought it was
"hard lines since he was unable
to eat him.
"Tho commandant ordered him
to bury the lody properly, but dis
covered afterward that, though the
man would not eat the body himself,
he had given it to his friends to eat.
That same week Il young Basongo
chief came to the cOmInandant while
at his dinner III his tent and asked
for the loan of his knife, which,
without thinking, the commandment
lent him. He Immediately disap-
pearel behind the tent and cut the
throat Of Il little girl slave belong
ing TO him and was in the act of
cooking her when one of cur sol
diers saw him and reported what he
was doing. This cannibal was put
in irons, but some two months later
| found him i'll such a wretchcd con-
ditio,4 that, fearing he would die, /
took him out OF the chains and gave
him his liberty with Il warning.
Scarcely q fortnight had passed
when he was brought in by some of
our Hausa soldiers, who said that
he was eating The children in and
about our environments"
There was no hositancy on the
part of tho natives as TO their can
nibalisfic tendencies. They would
say to the whites, "Give us that
man; he is a lazy fellow, and you
will never get amy good out of him,
SO you may as well give him to us
to eat ~
Slavery was to some of the natives
rather desirable condition. They
reasoned il out to Captain Hinde in
this way: IF l am free and don t
get work, who is going to feed me 2
Whereas, if l have master, he has
to find me work, and when there is
no work he has still to feed me-"
Captain Hindc's story of the pyg-
mics presents no novel points. If
physically they are much below the
average height of man, the little
fellows make up for their deticien-
cies Ivy cunning. They use weapons
tipped with poison and, with their
tiny bows and arrows, are remarka-
bly, quick and handy.
Once on visit to N'Gandu, the
capital of Congo Sutete, who was
at one time Tippoo Tbs lieutenant,
Captain Hinde saw horrid thing
an execution.
1.-The man is immediately torn to
pieces and disappears as quickly as
L., l., Il. 4
hounds. Every man lays hold of
him at once with one hand and with
the other whips off the piece with
his knife"