Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1889 — AMONG CANNIBALS. [ARTICLE]

AMONG CANNIBALS.

1 A Visit M the )Most Degraded) Race iuihe World. New York Commercial Advertiser. Recently a remarkably interesting lecture was delivered by Dr.' Carl Lumholz, of Christiana, Norway, before the Geographical Society at Chickering Hall. Dr. Lumholz is a jroung Norwegian sciedtist who,, a few years since, conceived the idea of penetrating the voidest parts of Australia in search of fiord and fauns of the opuutry, He has but now returned from me explorations, having passed two years and more among the least civilized tribes of men now existing, and having trod over land and among nations never before visited by white men. The most interesting part, of his experiences were with the cannibalistic tribes in the heart of Australia, of whom he says: / " “Of coatee, I could not go at once and live with them, but had to work my way gradually. I had, then, been in Australia more, than a year and, es course, had acquired some experience as to how to proceed with them. I now first began to associate with the socalled civilized blacks, and through them I, by degrees, became acquainted with otner Jirtbes, until at last. I lived with natives who were in the mostprimitivfe state of l,ife and had never come in contact.with.a white man. By civilized blacks; we< generally understand such of thq natives as have to some degree been affected by European culture, but the extent of the civilization may be briefly summed up thus—that a civilized black knows that he will be shot dead if he kills a European; that he is greatly addicted to tobacco,, and fond of wearing clothes which, he .considers more as an ornament than. as a useful article.

“Thfe greatest trouble was to get the blacks to take part in my ; excursions, for they are born idlers and have fundamental objection to any kind of work. Luckily, in the last six or seven months of my stay in that region I happened to find a really good servant. He stuck to me wherever I went, so that my position from the time of his advent grew much more favorable. He was by no means an ordinary black, but was possessed of a peculiar vein or naivete, and so he often blurted out ideas and information of the greatest value. In spite of this he uas not at all free from the treachery characteristic of all the blacks. Nevertheless, he was better than the others, and saved my life many a time. Of course I dared not trust myself to him unreservedly, for all blacks are like children, the sport of caprice and inspiration of the moment, and are especially prone to deceit, of us were fortunate enough to find, as a rule, four or five of the blacks willing to go with us; sometimes the whole tribe, with its women and.children. “As far as the method was possible, I rode alone, whilst my blacks went on in front, one of them leading my pack horse. At the foot of the mountains a camprwas pitched, and here the horses were left behind, whilst the saddles and bridles were placed in a tree, so that the wild dogs could not get at them. Then we went up the mountain on foot, the dense underwood there, of course, being impassable for horses. My provisions consisted of fourteen to fifteen pieces of ox flesh, pickled and dried, with a small quantity of wheat flour to be baked into bread in the hot ashes, and some sugar. When these provisions were exhausted, yyhich occurred pretty quickly, we lived, like the aborigines, on young snakes, lizards, larvae; eggs and the like. My outfit included a large white woolen blanket that was a standing wonder and a constant envy of the blacks. As soon as I unpacked it they made a clicking noise, expressive of dielight, with their tongues, and roard out: ‘Tamin, tamin!’ [Fat, fat!] Anything that is very good they call ‘fat.’ “One of the most important things I brought with me was tobacco,, a greater joy to the aborigines than the very best food. At Herbert River the blacks dicL not know, before the arrival of the whites, of any stimulants at all. The tobacco served me instead of money, and for it they will do anything, even to selling their Wives. Among these people tobacco is always smoked, never chewed, and I have often seen a mother, carrying a child on her back, hand it a pipe, at which the child would take a couple of puffs with apparent delight. They often used to send ip barter small bite of tobacco, wrapped in gum, to other tribes, and in that way tobacco is known among remote tribes who have never themselves came into contact with Europeahs. “Next to tobacco, my ; revolver was of the greatest importance to me. Very luckily, the natives, who do not themselves possess even bows and arrows, have the greatest resnect for firearms. It is, however, necessary to keep up youi reputation as a good marksman, else you will soon lose their respect Their astonishment is equally great when you bit a. kangaroo, in a resting position, or .when yon bring down a bird on the wing. They were especially afraid of my revolver, which they looked upon as inexhaustible. I made it my business to keep this fear constantly awake, and every night before creeping into my hut I discharged my baby-gun, as they called it, just in order to refresh their minds as to the existence of this dreadful weapon.

/ “tn the evenings, just before sunset, we pitched and settled down for the night I had a hut made by the natives every evening in the ordinary way. The huts are built in a few minutes and consist of pa|m leaves stretched across a slight framework of houghs. They are about three to four feet highland have a large opening on one side.r-1 always had my hut made so long that I could lie down at full length, but the natives I generally fpund lying two or three closely huddled together in each hut, with their feet projecting ou t Side. A .' “Happily for me, I felt in the winter time the cold at night, owing to the great contrast with the heat of the daytime, * and in consequence I awoke several times every night and had to Wake the blacks to keep the fire burning before our huts. Thia gave the blacks the impression that the white man slept but little, and that he was alwiays on the alert and had the baby-gun ready. It was necessary always to be on one’s guard, as the , blacks are of a very treacherous and cunning nature, and one of the most important precautions that a colonist learns to take is, ‘never to have a black fellow behind you. ’ The blacks never seem to lose their inherited impulses, as the following experience of a squatter on Thompson river will show: Hahad, one day, gone shooting with his black boy, and as he wai walking in the forest in front of Bis servant the latter clapped him on th# shoulder and said: ‘Lei me go in front of you and shoot; behind I fepl too great a longing .to kill you.” ’ Dr. Lumholz then went on to. relate his experience with , the cannibalistic tribes of the interior. He tol’d of their treachery to each other as tribes, how they have territories over whose borders .they can only step at the risk of being hunted and killed, and that when thus killed they are often eaten. While Dr. Lumholz was among them they made something of a secret of their fondness for human flesh. He was glad nevertheless to learn that they didTibt look upon white men as very availsbte food, as it was reported to make them nausdated. During his stay of a year or more among these people he heard of only two cases of cannibalism. He further dwelt upon the strange customs of the aborigines, their modes of living, marriage customs, methods of warfare, domestic and social life, closing with the following: “I had a good deal of unpleasantness and many troubles through their deceit and cunning, which often made me so , tired and worried that I was on the .point of giving up the expedition, but the thought of perhaps being able to make valuable discoveries in this strange and interesting country always kept my spirits up, and I must say that I was not disappointed, but have returned with interesting facts and specimens of natural history new/to science, and with an intimate knowledge of the habits and life of the Australian aborigines—one of those unfortunate races that are rapidly dying out. On the other hand I was cheered in my work by the many delightful impressions I received of the grand and splendid scenery around me on my wanderings, sights I shall never forget. When the tropical sun rose in the early merning above the trees of the lofty Australian forest and awakened nature with its bright, dazzling rays, or when the moon appeared above the mountain ridge and threw her pale light over the vast plains below, while the mystic voices ot the night birds rang out on the still, quiet night, there was a “beauty over the landscape which I aould not possibly do justice to if I were to attempt to describe it, and regretted only that I had no companion to share it with me.” Mark Twain .relates that he was awakened from a sound sleep by the collapse of the Park Central Hotel, Hartford. Hft thought that Something bad happened to his own house and sprang out of bed in an agony of dismay. When he learned that his house was uninjured he looked out of the windows to see which of his neighbors had been overwhelmed. ’ The hotel was more than a mile from his house.