AMONG THE CANNIBALS

Evening Star, Issue 18534, 17 January 1924, Page 8

AMONG THE CANNIBALS

A' FRENCHMAN’S EXPLOIT. ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA. Commandant Marcel, of the French army, who has just completed one of the most hazardous journeys of modern times in South America, has now returned to Paris, and will shortly relate to the Geographical Society the story of liis adventures among the only surviving group of cannibals in the valley of the Amazon.

Since 1879 no white man who attempted to explore this tract of country had ever emerged from it. Commandant Marcel's most interesting experiences were among the cannibal tribes known as the Matanzas, or “ Assassins,” with whom he lived for two months, observing their strange customs. ’Woman among these primitive people gets neither glory nor consideration. She is robbed of all credit even for her own particular function of motherhood, for when a child is expected the mother goes alone into the forest and stays there until it is born. She thou returns, and, placing the child in her husband’s arms, goes straight about her ordinary duties. The husband, however, celebrates the occasion by going to bed for eight days, during which time h* pretends to be very ill, moaning and feigning extreme weakness. 01 course, he has to bo specially fed Wicl carefully nursed during this period, at the end of which ho struts forth full of pride in his endurance of the ordeal and in his fatherhood. Parental pride, however, only lasts until the child Ui old enough to walk, for the little one is then loft to pick up for itself, and generally leads an independent life except that obedience and reverence must be rendered to the father. Cannibalism is practised not only for the sake of appetite, but as a means of self-improvement. The victims are roasted whole, but only the head is eaten, since the cannibal believes that by eating a human head he becomes the possessor of the powers and virtues of its owner. To be eaten is a compliment, hut Comrfiawknt Marcel preferred to decline it.