PAPUAN LOVE STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 297, 14 December 1911, Page 8

PAPUAN LOVE STORY.

MURDER BY CANNIBAL HUSBAND.

EATS BRIDE OS HQiiEYMO^X

"You're nice enough to eat," is an expression fairly coirjmcn among European lovers in addressing the ladies of their choice, but it has been left to a Papuan to put the compliment into practice. I'articulars 01 a revolting piece cf cannibalism among natives in the mountain country in the central division of Pi;pua have recently come to light (writes the Point .Moresby correspondent of the "Sydney Sun"). A native of one bf-tbe mountain tribes paid a visit to a neighbouring village to ask a girl, the sister of the chief, to marry him. The girl consented, tm ■was taken away from her village. V.'hen I some distance away she became alarmed, and, turning, left her husband, and made to run back to her village. £he. however, -was promptly pulled up by another native rushing out of the bush, and without further warning was speared, the weapon piercing her chast from, one side to the other. Meanwhile-the "husband," | who had given chase, speared h;r in the j back. The two then took the girl to their own village, cut. her up and '.ooked her. portioning out tl>e flesh among the rest of the village. A cannibal gorge then commenced, and the unfortunate girl's brother arrived on the scene to see them in the act of eating the body. Among the mountain tribes in this district human life i 3 still very lightly regarded. A native has only recently been released from Port Moresby Gaol after a long sentence, served for the murder of a girl of another trifv;, his only defence for the crime ha ring been th .t he wa? hungry, rnd finding t;>e girl in the bus!:, he killed "iier and ate her! The ex-gaolbird is now a useful man among his own people, being able to in-sti-jct them in white man's laws and customs, and spread a knowledge of white man's talk.