The Adair County news., 1922-07-25
GETS RECIPES
OF CANN|BALS
English Woman Novelist Learns
Ways of New Guinea EpiCureS
During Long Sojourn.
THEIR MANNERS ARE PRAISED
Says Hypnotism Prevails Among Ma
tiVes to An Extent Appearing In
credibIe-Position of Women
Is DepIorabIe.

Is DepIorabIe.
London.-AIiss Beatrice Grimshaw,
the well known novelist, who has been
10 years in the South Sea islands, has
returned from New Guinea AS an
indication of the wilderness and the
unknown character of the vast tracts
of territory comprising that country
she mentioned that quite recently the
missionaries, with the aid of airplanes,
had discovered a valley containing TO-
600 people whose existence had not
even been suspected. They were found
to be living at an altitude where it
was imagined that human life could
not endure. She had a wonderful sto-
ry to tell of her experiences. To
representative of the Evening Standard
she said:
"New Guinea is one of the most
noteworthy countries in the world,
and a great deal of it has never been
explored by white people. Within a
certain distance the government has
done a great deal, but there are
stretches in which cannibal tribes live
to themselves. Many, however, are
induced to work on the plantations,
and the cannibals are certainly the fin
est native workers, because of their
physical development and their de-
meanor. But cannibalism fiOurishes,
and the people who practice 1t 90 not
regard it as wrong. In the interior
cannibals live to themselves, and it is
only when they come under British
jurisdiction that their cannibalistic
tendencies are checked. One gets so
accustomed to this question of canni-
balism that it is accepted almost as
matter of course. 1 know the cookery
recipes now as to the best methods of
preparing human food.
Huge Stove oven Used.
SIN one part of the country there is
a stone oven six feet long dug into
a side of a hill for the purpose of
dealing with the victims. The inhab-
itants of one village may attack an
other. The prisoners are tortured ter
ribly, and then eaten. One method is
to take out their eyes and then roast
the body alive in the traditional three
legged caldron. The cannibals break
the bones and legs of their victims be-
fOrehand sometimes, and then let the
body lie in a running stream, which
method, they believe, makes the meat
more tender. The odd feature of it
all is that the most determined canni-
balls are extremely weil-mannered, and
in all other respects are the best work
erS you can find. AS to whether can
nibalism springs from the love Of hu-
man flesh or is merely a rituSi one
cannot say. 1 think the cannibals real
ly like the human flesh. But you can
not get them to talk about it.
"SOrcery has remarkable hold on
the people in this country, and the
occult powers that are displayed can
only be regarded by white people as
amusing. The natives even have a
SOrcerers' university where natives are
taught for a period of two years.
SOrcerers can carry poisonous and
dangerous snakes in their hair, and
can train them to bite people, leaving
them loose in house, and it is even
possible, it is said, to make a snake
bite a particular person. Equally ex-
traOrdinary are the powers possessed
by cOnjurors.
Saturated in Hypnotism.
81 believe these natives understand
hypnOtism from end to end. They do
table-turning with a sort of alligator
shaped image. They ask questions of
spirits, and see blue lights. This hap
pens in the Gulf country. The power
of hypnOtism is used to an extent
that seems barely credible, but there
is no doubt, to my mind, that certain
natives are believed to hypnotic
whole audiences, and they do it in
one instance by means of dance of
the most peculiar character. have
seen this dance, and the extraordinary
effect of it. The performer apparently
dominates the whole of the room by
his actions. The effect of the dancing
is that hypnosis on a massed scale like
this can be induced In the wierdeSt
possible way.
Several people have tried to inves-
tigate the meaning of the mind, but
they have not succeeded. 1t is quite
obvious that the natives are saturated
in hypnotism as a.result Of the prac-
tice of many centuries, which enables
them to do all sorts of things that to
us are always ineXplicable. l do not
admire spiritualism or hypnOtism, and
1 am rather glad to find that it has its
roots among Savages.
''The position of women is deplor-
able. They are in effect slaves. Mar
riage is by purchase. and it is usually
dependent on the number of pigs that
can be offered by the bridegroom to
the brides parents. The pig, in fact
is thought to be of very much more
value than the WIFE"