The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-08-20

rs il large land?"
Yes"
Who is your chief"
"A woman named Victoria"
what, A woman"
Yes. and he has great power
Why did she leave your country"
ITO teach you and tell YOU OF the
great loving Spirit who loves Us all.
Have you cocoanuts in your coun-
try"
NO"
Have you sagoo'
NO"
Have you yams?'
NO"
Have you taro."
NO"
Have you sweet potatoes
NO"
Have you breadfruit?"
No"
Have you plenty of hoop iron and
tomahawks?"
Yes; in great abundance"
I'VE understand now why you have
come. You have nothing to eat in
Beritani, but have plenty of hoop iron
and tomahawks with which you can
buy food"
1t was useless to tell them" says
Mr.. Chalmers, that we had plenty OF
food different from theirs, and that
want of food did not send us from
Britain. We had no cocoanuts, yams,
taro or sago-and who could live
without these? Seeing us open tin
ned meats they came to the sage con-
clusion that We were cannibals like
themselves, and had men cooked in
our country and sent out to u.s."
Although it is thirty years since
missionaries first went to New Guinea
cannibalism is not extinct. Chal-
mers. the pioneer Of them all, after
passing unscathed for so many years
in the midst Of every kind Of danger,
was himself actually killed and eaten
by cannibals in April, 1901. He was
coasting along the southwestern
shores of the island in the mission
ship Nieue when from one village
who clustered around the ship in their
canoes and refused to depart peace
ably Chalmers with another white
missionary and several natives, went
on shore, hoping to win them over.
He accompanied them into the dubu,
or mems clubhouse, but while he was
talking with them one of the saw
ages came up behind him and killed
him with a blow from his club, and
the others speedily met the same end.
fire was made. and the brave mis-
sionary who had devoted half life
time to working among the cannibals
of New Guinea met the fate from
which mis- influence had saved SO
many others.
Men Stay At Their Clubs.
The centre of village life in New
Guinea is the dubu, or mems club
house. These are large houses, gen.
orally two stories high. and with
veranda about ten feet above the
round. the height of the house often
Icing fifty feet in front. No woman
or girl dares to show her face inside
one of these dubus-they are sacred
to the men. They do not usually pass
the whole night in their own huts. but
come to the dubu and sleep there
indeed, IL they do not their wives
ask them why they are disobeying the
command Of the god who is supposed
to have instituted these dubus. When
boys grow up their hair is shaved
of very close, and they are sent into
the 6ubu to stay there till their hair
becc mes thick crop, perhaps several
months. When their hair is sufficient
~ lag and bushy they can come out
ar1 get married as soon as they like.
One Of the largest villages In this
wild part OF New Guinea, which forms
the middle part of the Gulf of Papua,
and is inhabited by cannibal tribes,
10 that of Maipua, which has popu
lation Of fifteen hundred to eighteen
hundred people. When Chalmers
visited It they we're inveterate canni-
balls, but at the same time they were
not wholly uncivilized. Their houses
were large and we'll kept, the streams
running through the village had good
bridges across them. and the swampy
ground had logs laid upon it to make
a rude kind Of paving. The town con-
tanned fine temples, and in front OF
nearly every house was an image Of
the god Semese, the Great Spirit.
Into the largest Of the temples Mr..
Chalmers was allowed to go. He
describes how in each of the courts
we're numerous skulls of men, women
and children, crocodiles. and wild
bears, all Of which were carved and
many painted. The human skulls
were those Of people who had been
LiIlod and aatan. The daintiest dish