The daily sentinel., 1913-10-13
SCIENTIFIC
STUDY MADE
Of CAhN|bALS
Associated Press.

Associated Press.
Berlin. Germany, Sept. 1S.-That
cannibals seldom eat white captives
and then without particular zest is
the gist of a scientific report on the
subject made by DR.. Holman, for
merly a consul in Africa and an au-
thority on the subject of tribal Gus
toms.
Writing of the recent murder of
the German-American mineralogisr.
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 powers of magic, as has some
times been assumed, but because they
consider that 1t has an unpleasant
taste, due to the use of sharp spices
and condiments and of salted dishes
IN the diet of the European.
Dr. Hoffman cites an article print
ed several years ago in a journal of
Liberia, in which ii was said that
cannibals in the Liberian territory
cat a white man only when the VIC
tim has fallen into their hands alive.
Then the victim is immersed to the
neck in a running brook and held
there by bonds for two or three days,
en- much the same principle that an
oyster is 'floated' 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 Papua, 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 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 pre-
vided by unimpeachable witnesses.
In a book published last year, j. II.
p. Murray, lieutenant governor and
chief judicial officer OF Papua, had
much to say about the practice of
cannibalism among the natives in the
island. He writes about boiling
springs which not many years ago
We're made use of for cooking any
prisoners captured in the village wac-
fare.
Describing the northeastern divi-
sion of the island. Murray quotes
native witness, who. telling of the
eating of human bodies, said: I'VE
boil them; we cut them up and boil
them in 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 kangaroos in the grass-but men
are our real food" +.
Murray tells of the remark of
Ferguson Islander to stranger who
wanted to buy betel nuts from him:
why should | sell you betel nut;
am going to eat you" Which he
promptly did. He also writes of
crew of ship-wrecked Chinese, who
were eaten one by one, until the cap
tors, surfeited with the diet, peddled
those who were left around the coast
selling them to the highest bidders
Wives, who ventured to look around
during the funerals of their hus-
bands, were killed and eaten. One
native who was concerned in the kill
ing of a neighboring chief and his
two wives, told of the subsequent
eating of the victims with the utmost
unconcern.
He told of the 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 wrapped up in leaves and dis
tributed to the victors, including
their women and children.