AT A CANNIBAL ORGY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 29 June 1927, Page 17

AT A CANNIBAL ORGY.

'WHITE WOMAN'S ORDEAL IN AFRICAN BTTSH. 34EAT-MAD TRIBE. i ' How many white women have camped fn cannibal villages in Central Africa, tallied, in the early morning, while brushing their hair, with a cannibal chief, or matched cannibals hacking -with their knives at a dead elephant? Mrs. Bradley, the famous American Novelist, has done these things—and fnany more. She recently visited the Belgian Congo *rith her hustxnd and decided to explore the Ruindi plains, south of Lake Edward, ft part of Africa into which the trader, the hunter and the missionary have never penetrated. Uncanny Survey. The people in this cannibal country rfcardly conveyed a pleasant first impreagion. "I never saw such round bullet heads •nd such protruding eyes," said Mrs. Bradley, describing her experiences. •"These people were cannibals of a most Untrammelled kind. Not a white person, save ourselves, had ever been in among jkhem. "As I stood for a moment in the path I caught a sudden glimpse of a round, black head peering out from the grass clumps at us, and then we found the bracken was alive with these crouching, furtive onlookers. At first I thought they were children, too frightened to appear, but not at all—they were mostly youths and young men, down on all fours, warily hiding, eyeing us in fixed fascinaJion." For about two years these people had tiot seen much meat, so they were in father an expectant mood when the white people dropped in upon them. Fortunately the visitors were lucky enough to kill a couple of elephants early next inorning. Primitive Passion. A mob surrounded each animal, black lianda snatched and knives cut into the flesh. The roar was deafening. _ "Xever have I seen such stark, primitive passion," said Sirs. Bradley. "They Went at that beast like madmen, their knives flashing, their arms dripping blood. They yelled and sobbed with exertion as they tore the hide and hacked out the flesh, thrusting dripping morsels into the mouths and flinging the chunks back to women, who struggled on the ptormy outskirts. "Each woman had a pointed stick which she drove into the pround behind her, end once she had caught a piece of meat and impaled it on that stick the others let it alone. Older Than Love. "Every bit that fell between the reaching hands was pounced on by the children and the weaklings who had no strong Bian to fend for them. The uproar was terriffic. We counted 500 about this elephant. "That was cannibalism. Men who were meat mad and insane for fat and food. A primitive people satisfying a primitive tat . . . older than love and more urfttt thin hate."