The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1906-1908, 1908-09-12
DISLIKE WHITE MEN
CANNl6ALS WILL EAT ONLY
THEIR OWN KIND.
Probable Explanation Is That savaoes
Fear the Spirit of Antagonlstic
Race viii Take Posses
sion of Them.

IL was only recently that news came
out OF the western Pacific of the kill.
ing OF a missionary on one of the
solomon Islands for cannibal feast,
says the New York Sun.
Private advices from the official
charged with the investigation of the
murder comment upon the probability
that the story had come out to ciyili-
zatlon as tale Of cannibalism. The
missionary had been killed, the writer
said, for trespassing upon the sacred
precincts OF one OF the native secret
societies while their solemn mummery
was In progress, due warning of which
mad been given by the deep reyer.
peratlon made by the energetic swing
ing of tho bull roarer.
But there was no evidence of any
sort to Offset the statement made by
the murderers that they had not eaten
Che Whlts man. Their statement
found confirmation in the condition of
such OF the bones as were recovered
Tor each had been brought to high
polish and stained with turmeric to a
brilliant yellow.
The charge of eating white men
seems very hard to down. Even now
when every one should know better
IL Is by no means unusual to find the
statement that the HaWaiians at
kealakekua ate Capt. Cook, vet thew
were not cannibals at all.
In the western Pacific, where can.
nlDalism is constantly practiced 'ex-
cept under the immediate eve of
white men, 1t is natural to be sus-
picious of practitioners of such gas
tronomy, Yet it is highly improbable
that white man. who might be killed
In the most jovial way by these saw
ages, would ever be eaten by them.
Here is a piece of testimony on the
subject from sedate German who has
lived for 30 years and more among
these cannibals of the Pacific, Herr
Parkinson of the Bismarck archi.
pelago
During my long residence in these
Islands," he writes. q have not vet
been able to establish to my satisfac.
ton single case in which white
men, though butchered, have actually
been eaten by the Melanesians. The
bodies of the murdered have often
enough been dlsmembered and single
pieces sent to remote districts as
trophies of the preparation of the
murder, but as to the eating of any
OF these portions no definite informa
ton can be had
1t seems quite difficult to compre.
mend why the cannibal who eats his
own kind should reject the white man
as an article of food. Yetiff wo con.
slider the senseless superst1tio, III the
Melanesian, which in my opinion has
driven him to cannibalism, because
through eating the bodies of the slain
ne expects to come into a full enioy.
ment OF all the powers of him who is
eaten, thus does it become compre.
hensible that he will not eat the body
OF white man whom he has killed |
because OF his belief that the spirit of |
the murdered man will exert an intiu.
ence over him which he does not at |
all regard as desirable.
The late King Goroi of the Short.
land islands once told me in answer to
my question the not particularly fiat.
Iering reason spirit belong all white
man no good in general one receives
me reply that the white man as meat !
Toes not taste good. This hold to be
! suoterfuge under which the sly ma
I've hides his dread of the spirit Of the
slain"