Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1919 — Few Old People in New Guinea. [ARTICLE]

Few Old People in New Guinea.

The average duration of life is shorter in New Guinea than in any other country, owing to the peculiar diet of the natives, who devour with gusto the larvae of beetles, dug out of decayed tree trunks, and habitually drink seawater when near the coast. “The people die off at about forty,” A. E. Pratt says In his “Two Years Among the Cannibals of New Guinea." “We saw one very old man, w’ho may have been about sixty years of age—the only example of longevity that we came across. He was bent almost double, and had a long, white beard. His fellow tribesmen regarded him as a great curiosity, and brought him to see us. Despite the decrepitude of his body, however, there was no trace of senility; his senses were unimpaired, and the poor old creature showed great gratitude for a gift of tobacco.” ’