The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-27
Native of New Guinea Gives
Some Expert Evidence
On Human Flesh as an Article
of Diet.
CUT THEM UP and BOIL THEM
Served Hot or Cold, According
to Taste.
Only White Men Captured
Alive Are Eaten.

Berlin, Sept. 27.-That cannibals
seldom eat white captives and then
without particular zest is the gist of
a scientific report on the subject made
by DIR. Holman, formerly a consul in
Africa and an authority on the sub
5ect of tribal customs.
Writing of the recent murder of the
German American mineralogist, John
Guinea, DR.. Holman asserts that the
abStention of canniba1S in Africa and
of Guinea from the flesh of white men
is not because they fear the spirit of
magic, as has sometimes been as
sumed, but because they consider that
1t has an unpleasant taste due to the
use of sharp spices and condiments
and of sailed dishes in the diet of the
European.
DR.. Holman cites article printed
several years ago in a journal of Lii
IBERIA, in which it was said that the
cannibals in the Liberian territory eat
a white man only when he has fallen
into their hands alive. Then the VIC
tim is immersed to the neck in a run
ming brook and held there by bonds
same principle that an oyster is
''floated' in fresh water after being
taken from the beds. DR. Holman
had confirmation of this from a for
mer cannibal.
The reported killing and eating of
Mr.. Warner, in Papua, by the natives,
has called attention to the fact that
cannibalism is by no means stamped
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 thing OF the
past in British New Guinea, but clear |
f1aot ~ '
present decade has been provided by !
unimpeachable witnesses In book |
published last year, J. H P. Murray, /
lieutenant governor and chief judicial
officer of Papua, has much to say |
about the practice or cannlballsm
among the natives in the island. He
writes about boiling springs which not |
many years ago were made use of for |
village warfare.
Describing the northeastern di- |
vision of the island, Murray quotes a |
native witness, who, telling of the eat
ing of human bodies, said: 1--WE boil |
them; we cut them up and boil them
in a pot. We boil babies, too; we cut
them up like a 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 kan |
garoos in the grass-but men are our |
real food
Murray tells of the remark of a |
terRuSSOn 1Slanu6T 10 d Stranger WIN
wanted to buy betel nuts from him: |
''Why should I sell you betel nuts?
am going to eat you" Which he |
promptly did. He also writes of a |
crew of shipwrecked Chinese, who
We're 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
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 sage, cooked,
wrapped up in leaves, and distributed |
to the victors, including their women
and children.
Lieutenant General Kuno Won Steu- |
ben is the new "schoolmaSter" of the
German War college, to which the /
best of the young German army Off
GERS are sent soon after receiving |
their commission. Americans will re-
call with interest that other Won
Steuben of the same family, he of the
teSty temper and indomitable perse
verance, who organized and drilled |