Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1894 — AMONG MAN-EATERS. [ARTICLE]

AMONG MAN-EATERS.

The Flesh of White Men Too' Salty, Chinamen Not Bad. j Explorer Lumholtz has just returned] from Queensland, says the Pali Mall: Gazette. He devoted a year to the] -cannibal tribes inhabiting a terriblyj 1 wild tract of country a couple of h.uti-t dred miles north of Townsville. Mr. i Lumholtz says: “To begin with don’t imagine that because the tribes are c annibals they are therefore loathsome or repulsive in appearance. On the contrary many of the men are physically fine fellows and some of tho women have, pleasing features. Then, when you call them cannibals, you must remember th t human fle3h is a very rare luxury, for they only eat foreign tribes —nativo tribes, I moan, for thej flesh of the white man is nasty to. their palate. He has a salty flavor,] which is very disagreeable to them.”) “That was lucky for you.” “Well,' jio. If I were once dead it mattered: 1 little to me how my body was disposed] of. But being without morals and: absolutely indifferent to human life.' they would have killed me if they had] dared for the sake of the tobacco and* the few odds and ends I had with me.' When I joined them at first they wore friendly enough. They were a good; bit afraid of the white man, and for an] inch of tobacco apiece were willing toi serve me. Then they respected what; they called my baby-gun —my revolver: —which. I fired off every night. But! in time their fears wore off and there were several attempts to tomahawk; me, but I was lucky. I had a splendid; hunter with me who twice tried. I; should have shot him dead, but I was! a little loath to do so as I was very keen about getting that specimen of! the tiger marsupial, so I tolerated, him. Might is right among them. If! I had shot a few of them my dangers would have been considerably lessen-; ed.” “To resume about the man-eating, I never saw a cannibal feast, but every night in their huts the talk was of women and human ilesh. Those were the, stock subjects of conversation.” “Not very different from highly cultivated. Europeans, Mr. Lumholtz? Women] and Cooking.” “I was able to understand them, for I had learned tho, language, and I gathered that white man was no good— too salty. China-, man was not half bad. He fed on rice,! and had a tender vegetable flavor about him, like a mealy cauliflower. Butofar'T varieties there was nothing so sweet as a native baby—so sweet, so juicy, so fat, so tender. Old men and women were naturally tough and sinewy. And the favorite parts were tho thigh and the flesh of the hand. The cannibal blacks have no religion, no ceremonial,; no idols, and the only approach to a charm was a bit of human fat, wrapped up in grass and tied round the neck us good luck to your hunting.” “If you want a wife and you have money, which is tobacco, orahmdkerchief, or a tomahawk —I should tell you that these articles percolate through the densest bush, and over the wildest ranges—you can luy a wife. You may inherit a wife by agreement. Yon may get your dead brother’s wile but the; commonest method of acquiring a wife is to go and help yourself. If you are a big fellow you walk into a hut and take the lady. Then there is a row, and you h ve to fight a duel with a wooden broadsword, anl the wonnn come clown to the fight and howl and sereoch and hack their men, and there is a terriblo to-do. It is the women who cause all tho rows, all tho wars, all the feu Is. It is always some chocolate Helen and some ravishing Paris.” "And do the ladiet like a change of husb nds?" “They go and don’t seem to mind it tho least.” “How do tho men reg rd the women, then?” “As useful drudges, to do all the work and make them comfortable. The more women n man has the biager swell be is. The black fellow hates work. He only cares for hunting. He hates to rise until the sun is well up in the heavens and the dew has disappeared. Then he end his friends depart into '.he forest and hunt, eeldora bringing horns the food, but devouring it in the bush. It is ono of the rem rknblo things th t tho old men have always the prettiest wive 3. There are no chiefs. One man is as good as Hnolh°r. but when a political crisis arises the old men are consulted, and that is why the old men are the most influential. As for the young fellow, he oiten hag to do without a wife until ho is 30.