The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-10-16
DON'T LIKE WHITE MEN.
Flesh Said to Have Unpleasant
Flavor to CannibalS.

Berlin, Sept. Z9.-lu nat cauu!D LIS
seldom eat white captives and then
without particular zest is the gist of
a scientific relort on the subject
made by Dr.. Holman, formerly a
consul in Africa and an authority on
the subject o. tribal customs.
Writing of the recent murder of
the German-American mineralogist,
John Henry Warner, by natives of
New Guinea, DR.. Holman asserts that
the abstention of cannibals in Africa
and of Guinea from the flesh of white
men is not because they fear the
spirit of the white victim or his pow
ers of magic. as has sometimes been
assumed, but because they consider
that it has an unpleasant taste due to
the use of sharp spices and condl-
ments and of salted dishes in the
diet of the European.
DR.. Holman cites an article print
ed several years ago in journal
of Liberia, in which it was said that
the cannibals in the Liberian terri
tory eat a white man only when he
has fallen into their hands alive.
Then the victim is immersed to the
neck in running brook and held
there by bonds for two or three days,
on much the same principle that an
oyster is "f1oated' in fresh water
after being taken from the beds. DR..
Holman had confirmation of this
from a former cannibal.
The reported killing and eating of
Mr.. Warner, in Papau, by the natives,
has called attention to the fact that
cannibalism is by no means stamped
out in New Guinea Warner believed
that radium could be found in Papua
and fell a victim to his own zeal. 1t
is reported that his two native COM
panions escaped his horrible fate, the
news of which they brought to the
coast.
At one time official circles believed
that cannibalism was a thing of the
past in British New Guinea, but clear
evidence that it has persisted into
the present decade has been provided
by unimpeachable witnesses. In q
book published last year, ]. H. P.
Murray, lieutenant governor and
chief judicial officer of Papua, has
much to say about the practice of
cannibalism among the natives in the
island. He writes about boiling
springs which not many years ago
were mads use of for cooking many
prisoners captured in the village war
fare.
Describing the northeastern divis-
ion of the island, Murray quotes a
native witness, who, telling of the
eating of human bodies, said: eve
boil them; we cut them up and boil
them in pot We boil babies, too;
We cut them up like pig. We eat
them cold or hot; we eat the legs
first. We eat them because they are
like fish. We have fish in the creeks
and kangaroos in the grass-but men
are our real food
Murray tells of the remark of a
Ferguson Islander to stranger who
wanted to buy betel nuts from him:
why should l sell you betel nut; I
am going to eat YOU" Which he
promptly did. He also writes of a
crew of shipwrecked Chinese, who
were eaten one by one, until the cap
tors, surfeited with the diet, peddled
those who we're left around the coast
selling them to the highest bidders.
Wives who ventured to look around
during the funerals of their husbands
were killed and eaten. One native
who was concerned in the killing of
q neighboring chief and his two wives
told of the subsequent eating of the
victims with the utmost unconcern.
He told of eating the hand of one
wife, but refused to touch the other,
as he had killed her, and it was not
the custom of his tribe to eat ones
own victim. The two women were
singed first, then cut up into small
pieces, mixed with sago, cooked, wrap
ped up in leaves and distributed to
the victors, including their women
and children.
Rleasites Will Get Ready.