Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1914 — VISIT TO FORMER CANNIBALS [ARTICLE]

VISIT TO FORMER CANNIBALS

Had Been Reformed, but One Member of the Party, at Least, Was Not at Ease.

A number of natives came to greet us when we landed at Bau, among them a few whom the consul seemed to know. They volunteered to act as escorts for us, and by various expressions tried to convey the idea that they were glad to see us.

A school forms one side of the square; across from this stands the council chamber, built on the trench where the bodies were roasted for their former feasts. The old headstones against which Cacobau used to dash the brains of his victims still stands and the anchor and rudder of a French ship wrecked near Bau lie beside it.

Beneath a picture of Queen Victoria I saw an old sword swinging, says a writer in the Christian Herald. ' I examined it and found it was a French weapon, the sword of the unfortunate French vessel’s commander. During the time this was going on Jim Ratu Kadavu’s servant, who is a particularly good type of a large, muscular race, approached me, ran his hand around my waist and slowly down my thigh, and smacked his lips with a wicked smile. I laughed at this display of aboriginal humor, but not very heartily, for the sword of the French captain still swung before my eyes.