The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-04
sIDELIGHTs ON cAxNIBALs


 Cambridge Correspondence of the Lon
 don Mirror.
 Today I have been hearing fairy tales gathered from the cannibal tribes of British New Guinea by pr. Gunnar Landtman, lecturer in sociology at the Helsingfors university in Finland He has just returned to Europe after an anthropological expedition during which he made stay of nearly two years in the little known western DOT tion of New Guinea, living among the natives and making a special study of their social life. And as a result of his labors mod ern playwrights and novelists in need of good stirring plot may now seek inspiration from new source-the folk lore tales of the cannibal tribes of British New Guinea. During his travels from village to will lage Dr. Landtman collected, with great difficulty, the local stories and dramas of the places and he has returned with over 800 folk-tales, which he is now revising and classifying.
 Today Dr. Landtman, a blue eyed delicate looking man, kindly gave me details of his two years expedition with the Papuans.
 He says that he was most impressed with the wonderful imagination of the people. Each of the tales I have ob- tained has clearly worked out plot" he said.
 "A favorite story among the most primitive types of natives is that in which the evil woman, or adventures, impersonates the heroine and marries the hero.
 Tn the end of course. the deception is found out and the evil woman comes to summary end. Most remarkable is the similarity betweeen some of the stories and our own fairy tales. The Papuan child en- joys yarns of giants and magical be- ings just like European children, and ,very often almost the same adventures are narrated" Dr. Landtman then went on to dis cuss the social life of some of the prim- itive semi-cannibal tribes he encoun- tered and lived with. There is even a sort of hockey girl" in the wilds of British New Guinea. T found some of the natives playing a kind of hockey" the profes- sor continued. Tt was a game in which the strong young women took an &C., tive part.
 They had sides and played with a ball something like our hockey. After a while they would abandon the game and the children would take it up."
 A very moral people, some of the na- tives, nevertheless. believe in the ex- change of wives at certain festivities they hold.
 "Once.' said Dr. Landtman, his eyes twinkling, some of the men of the village came to me and offered their wives as a present! did not accept the kind offer"
 Quite a wonderful adventure stands when passing through a swamp he and his servants came across huge colony of flying foxes.
 q have never seen anything so re- markable in my life.' he told me. Hanging on the trees, looking just like large punches of grapes were these queer animals fast asleep. T fred my gun at some of them, and dozens of the foxes huttered with strange cries into the air They were just like bats. with wings from three to four feet across"
 Dr. Landtman nearly lost his life on this occasion.
 He saw some of the reeds moving about a yard or two in front of him. He thought nothing of it until native screamed out Big alligatorw and the professor managed to get away in time.
 A large alligator was subsequently, found to be basking in the swamp. Dr. Landtman, who is bringing out a book on his discoveries and travels in British New Guinea. has brought back with him some talking machine re- cords of the native music of the Pa- puans.