Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-10-11

seemed TO intend TO do. oh no.
The atrocious cannibal tree that had
been SO inert and dead came to sudden saw
age life. The slender, delicate palpi. with the
fury Of starved serpents, quivered a moment
over her head, then as If instinct with demo-
Mac intelligence fastened upon her in sudden
coils round and round her neck and arms.
Then, while her awful screams and yet
more awful laughter rose wildly TO be in
stantly strangled down again into gurgling
moan. the outstretched tendrils one after
another, like green serpents. with brutal
energy and internal rapidity rose and
wrapped her about in fold after fold, ever
tightening upon their prey.
And now the great leaves slowly rose and
stiffly like the arms of derrick. erected
themselves in the air approached one another
and closed about the dead and hampered VIC
tim with the silent force of a hydraulic press
and the ruthless purpose OF a thumb screw
"A moment more. and while / could sec
the bases Of these great levers pressing more
tightly towards each other, from their inter
stces there trcked down the stalk OF the tree
great streams Of the viscid honey-like fluid
mingled horribly with the blood and oozing
visccra OF the victim.
AT sight of this the savage hordes around
me, yelling mady bounded forward. crowded
10 the tree clasped II, and with cups, leaves
hands and tongues each one obtained enough
of the liquor TO send him mad and frantic.
Then ensued a grotesque and indescrib-
ably hideous orgy, from which even while its
convulsve madness was turning into delirium
and insensbity Hendrck dragged me hur-
riedly away into the recesses Of the forest,
hiding me from the dangerous brutes
The retracted leaves of the great tree
kept their upright position during ten days,
hon II
prone again the tendrils stretched out, the
palpi floating. and nothing but a white skull
at the foot of the tree TO remind me of the
sacrifice that had taken place there"
Queen Ranavalona, the First who usurped
the throne of Madagascar in 1928 and was
one Of the cruelest monarchs who ever ruled
is said TO have had man-eating tree planted
in the garden of her palace at Ahtanamarivo.
1t served as a sort of vegetable guillotine.
being reserved exclusively for her Christian
subjects, whom she loathed and prosecuted
with the enthusiasm Of Nero.
Lesser offenders, such as cutthroats,
thieves and ambitious relatives, were merely
boiled In oil
Local legends about the equally murderous
Malagasy spiders are abundant. These night
marish creatures horned, behaved and carry
ing enough venom TO kill regiment, are sup
posed to live in inland caves. from which
tney pOunCe on man ana DedSI dIke.
Color Is lent their possible existence by
pretty well authenticated accounts of a SINH
lar giant species, native to the Amazon re-
gions. Some of the latter drop upon their I'M
suspecting victims from the skies. using huge
webs as parachutes They don't carry tommy
guns and the rest of the modern parachut-
lists equipment, but are said to manage well
enough with what nature gave them.
Others, concealing themselves in the tree
tops, employ a different technique. They drop
their webs first the heads of men, horses
or other likely subjects and then. when the
prey is enmeshed make a leisurely descent
and polish it off.
If, such warriors as these infest the Maia-
gasy jungles; If replicas Of Mr.. Liche's and
Queen Ranavalonas deadly trees are still
to be found, spreading their lethal tendris
across the forest floor; and If Aepycrnis is
not really extinct but like the stored Phoenix,
only waiting to rise again, it would seem
that the United Nations perhaps made a mis-
take in occupying Madagascar
Maybe the greatest disservce they could
have done the Japanese would have been to
let them have il.