QUEER LIBERIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 260, 2 November 1932, Page 6

QUEER LIBERIA.

(By DONALD J. OOWLE.)

CANNIBALISM AND SLAVERY.

The appearance of the name Liberia in the cable news during the last few months, accompanied by scanty but attractive pieces of information about queer native rites and strange relics of barbarism, has mystified many people _ previously unaware that such a country existed, let alone that it -was a self-governing republic, with full international status as an independent State. Actually there is ample justification for ignorance on the subject, and it can in fact be claimed that Liberia is one of the few remaining "mystery" countries of the world. To the student of politics the most interesting thing about this strange land is that it is governed by descendants of negroes who just over a hundred years ago were sent back to their native Africa from the plantations of Tennessee and Carolina. In consequence of this beginning, dark and experimental, the history of Liberia in the 10th century is one of turmoil, frequent bloodshed, and very muddled politics. In modern times the administration, with foreign assistance, has been fairly stable; but reports of inter-tribal massacres and other excesses last year forced the League of Nations to investigate. The results of the investigation, badly summarised, were in the cable news recently. To those who are more interested in humanity than in politics, however, the most interesting thing about Liberia is that, on good authority, namely, that of Mr. R. C. F. Maugham, British Consul at the capital, cannibalism is actually a common practice among the natives of the interior to-day. One tribe, known by repute as the Cbalins, said Mr. Maugham in a book published in 1920, not only eat human flesh on special ritualistic occasions, like the old Maoris and South Sea Islanders, but they eat it habitually; and it would not be exaggerating to say that it is an article of staple diet with them. Deprived of human flesh, indeed, these natives will go to any lengths to obtain it. Often the appetite degenerates into a lust, and stories have been related of how newly-buried corpses have been dug up, and horrible meals have been made of putrefying flesh. Mr. Maugham gives full warrant for this practice. "It is far from rare," he says, "as I have twice had occasion to prove, and is one so well understood that, following upon an interment, elaborate precautions are taken to prevent subsequent desecration oi the grave. Cannibalism, however, is only one of Liberia's attractions. Many of the interior tribes engage in slave dealing as their chief means of livelihood. One particular tribe, the Mpesses, are noted for their heartlessness and lack of the most ordinary sentiments. It is quite a common thing among them for a man to sell his whole family to an attractive bidder, and then proceed to buy a new set of wives and relations in a cheaper market! The Mpesses are also renowned for a Devil Society, membership of which involves a ceremony where a horrible pattern is made on the native's back by the ready method of pulling away the skin with a steel hook. Another tribe, known only to one or two travellers, are the Gbis, who are so superstitious that they will have nothing of European customs or articles of utility, and will not even construct roads and paths near their villages, believing that beaten tracks are the prerogative of their hideous animal gods. Liberia's list of curiosities is not exhausted, however, by a description of the human inhabitants. Queer animals and plants abound. In the thick forests of the interior are many different types of elephant, ranging from a semiamphibious form, only four or five feet high, to an almost extinct species, of great size and ferocity. To offset the presence of man-eating leopards, crocodiles and hippopotami there are a host of strange, and, in many cases,, dreadful insects. The largest and most venomous scorpion in the world is found in Liberia; there are spiders the size of a mouse whose webs are strong enough to support a walking stick; and there are poisonous centipedes many feet in length. And in the interior there is a native grass that grows to a height of twenty-five feet from the ground, there is a tree the leaves of which form innumerable umbrellas, and there is the smallest ruminant in the world, the royal antelope, which is only nine inches high.