GIFTS FROM SAVAGE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 97, 18 January 1933, Page 14

GIFTS FROM SAVAGE

(Reuter —Special to “The Dominion.”) The King has received gifts from Ringapat, King of the Big Nambas, a tribe in the New Hebrides Islands. Ringapat sent him beads made of shells and coconuts, and a carved battle spear. He also sent this message:— Ringapat, King of the Big Nambas, wishes King George to know that he will never eat man’s flesh, white man or black, boy; that he will never kill man, either white man or black boy; and that he will be good to all white men so long as they are good to his boys and do not steal them. That is pretty good of Ringapat, considering that his father Nikapat, was an old cannibal who was feared throughout the island, and who had sixty wives. The gifts were sent to King George through Miss Evelyn Cheesman, the explorer, who told of her adventures to the Royal Geographical Society. The battle spear had a polished point. Ringapat warned Miss Cheesman that a scratch would cause death. So she had the point cleaned before sending it to the King. The analysts said they thought the poison was ■strychnine.