Evening star., 1934-09-11
FALL OF MAN LAID
TO WASTE OF RICE
Island Tribe Holds Foolish
Human Spoiled PrimaevaI
Bliss.
RY THOMAS r. HENRY.

, BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
A new version of the fall of man"
from a state of primaeval happiness
to the necessity of earning his bread
by the sweat of his brow has been
discovered among the aboriginal
Kalinga tribesmen of the mountain
province of the Philippine Islands by
Rev. Francis Billet, a Catholic mis-
sionary among them.
He has just reported this finding to
the Catholic Anthropological Confer
ence, with headquarters at Catholic
University here. The staple food of
these people is rice, which they store
away in empty squash shells.
"In the beginning" according to
the legend obtained by Father Billet,
human life upon earth was easy.
Pounded rice, ready for cooking, was
inside the squashes. There was no
need to plant it or to prepare it.
Fool Spoils Paradise.
"But fool, one of the humans, spoiled
this happy condition, for he wanted
a sweeter variety of rice, more valued
than the ordinary kind. In his search
for it he was extravagant and waste
full, cutting many squashes and
throwing away all that did not con-
tain the rice he wanted.
"Kabuniyan, the Supreme Being,
looked down from on high, saw what
happened and pondered what he
should do with men. So he changed
their condition. From now on. as
punishment, they would have to work
preparing the rice fields, making irri-
cation canals, bringing in water,
planting, sowing, etc. With this pur-
pose in view, he dropped an ear OF
rice.
But the people again grew ex-
travagant and wasteful. They grew
such abundant crops that they could
not eat all the rice, but burned what
was left over. Now rice, even when
there is plenty, is esteemed as very
valuable.
80 Kabuniyan again punished
them for their wastefullness in burn
ing the rice. He let fall rats. But
these multiplied to such an extent
that they ate all the rice and none
was left to be harvested. Kabuniyan
then again had mercy and let fall
cats to eat the rats"
Trial in East Africa.
Another report concerns the pecu-
liar methods of trial among the Wan
garu, an obscure tribe in the Tangan-
yika Province of East Africa. for
warded by Rev. Thomas McVicar, a
missionary there.
He relates:
1.-TWO persons may be blamed for
a certain crime. Both deny it fatty,
despite the fact that it is morally
certain that one of the two is the
criminal. Both take up handful
of dust and then simultaneously
throw it on the ground saying: The
dust that ends men, This action is
supposed to bring about the death OF
the culprit in short time.
"This method of proving the truth
of ones statements is resorted to but
very seldom. Ordinarily man will
first touch his mouth with the fingers
of his right hand, next with the same
fingers he will touch the dust, and
then he will rub his hand across his
throat. This action seems to mean
that the statement he has just made is
as true as the fact that man returns
to dust.
"The common ordeal to determine
innocence or guilt is to have the ac-
cused party drink a potion made by
a medicine man. If the drinker re-
covers he is innocent. Otherwise he
is guilty. Medicine men come here
regularly, claiming that they can rid
the country of sourcerers. All the
natives approach the medicine men.
Upon payment of small sum-5 or 10
cents-each is given potion to drink
Those on whom the drink has no
effect are not sorcerers. 1 know of
two cases where such medicine men
wished permission to operate for sew
eral DAYS on mission territory and one
was willing to offer us five shillings
for the permission"