The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-06-24

caught their victim red handed in canni-
balism and that, knowing that he would
keep on killing to satisfy his lust for hui
man flesh, they had taken his life to pre-
serve their own.
Hard as it may seem to believe that
the practice of eating human flesh still
exists in the North American continent,
says the New York Herald, yet the tale
of these Indians is supported by testi-
mony of the mounted police, and mission
aries in the northwest also record in
stances Of the practice.
1t must not be supposed, however, that
the practice is one in vogue among the
tribes as tribes. There are no instances
OF wild orgies, at which the bodies of en-
emies slain in battle are roasted and then
leyoured by the assembled braves. The
instances noted in recent years are where
some individual, apparently influenced by
atavism, returning unwittingly to the
grewsoine customs OF his ancestors, sur
renders himself to the horrible taste for
the flesh of his fellows.
The belief of the Indians is that when
once one Of these aborigines has returned
to this ancestral habit he never RECEIVERS
from it, and will slay at random to as
suage the papgs of unnatural hunger. lie
becomes, they believe, thenceforth a man
eating monster, a "windigo," for whom
the cruelist death is only a well deserved
penalty.
Father Dablon, one of the missionaries,
tells in his journal of a disease that was
quite common among the Indians. The
victim suddenly became a hypochondrlac,
his malady developing into a mania. In
the succeeding stage the insane man was
seized with such a hunger for human
flesh that he sprang like a famished wolf
upon all whom he met. IN proportion,p
says Father Dabion, "as he finds where
with to gIut his hunger, it grows like
thirst In dropsy, and, accordingly, the In
dams never fail to kill at once any one
seized with this disease"
There were many cases of cannibalism
formerly reported among the Canadian
Indians. but it was thought that the prac-
lice had died out. The declaration of the
swo murderers just caught by the police
That the man they killed had been guilty
of eannibalism is believed by the Cana
dian authorities to show that it still ex-
lists among the aborigines of the north
west.
The chase and capture of the two muir
derers and the tales of the Indians are
told by the chief of the mounted police of
Edmonton as follows:
( ssSouison Moos-toos, the victim of the
recent tragedy, had turned swindigo'-
possessed an evil spirit with the craving
to eat human flesh in the present in
stance. The Indians stated that should
he not be killed he would ~assuredly kill
the remainder of the band and would not
stop at this, but that anything in human
or animal shape would meet the same
fate should they come in his way when
possessed of a knife or Winchester.
.This particular band of Indians had
left Lesser Cave lake for a point upon
Smoky river for the purpose of hunting
and trapping in that vicinity, which is 70
miles from the settlement, the route they
took being entirely untraveled except by
Indians from time to time.
ssThe first reports brought to the North
western mounted police of the murder
was by the native traders who had fol-
lowed the band for the purpose of trade
and barter for pelts. Such was the fear
among these people that they abandoned
their whole trading outfit, leaving also
their pack animals en- route loaded up
with provisions required for their W
consumption.
1.-THE party of police, composed of Cor
poral Charles Phillips and Constable
Warren, with Interpreter Plante, started
for the scene of the tragedy. The police
first interviewed one of the natives who
had abandoned his outfit with a view of
taking him with them to recover if posi-
Bile his goods and also to have him~act as
guide should the trail be oblterated by
the falling Of snow. He was finally per-
suaded to ccompan them, but proved
of very little service, for the poor fellow
was so overcome with fear of becoming a
victim Of the Unsuitable thirst for blood
which he had already witnessed that the
constant assurance Of the police that
they would protect him was necessary to
keep up his spirits.
when the camp OF Indians was reach
ed, they had made themselves ready to
receive the police in a hostile spirit. but
the camp was approached early id the
morning, when most OF them we're asleep.
"A demand was made for all who had
participated in the murder, and, as usual,
a request was made for a powwow, or
talk, but this was promptly refused. and
q peremptory demand was made for the
murderers on the threat that otherwise