HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA

Evening Star, Issue 19841, 14 April 1928, Page 10

HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA

In Formosa there still exists thousands of aborigines scattered among the deep woods and far-off recesses of overhanging mountains. These aborigines maintain many a strange custom handed down from the dim prehistoric age. The most interesting of all, according to a Japanese scientist who recently made an investigation on the spot, is tho inner motive ■which prompts the much-dreaded natives to indulge in head-cutting. Although the motive may be partly hate or sheer lust for a rifle or pistol, mostly it comes from an inborn ambition to prove the killer’s courage (writes Gonndske Komai, in the ‘Daily Mail’). Particularly does this apply to youth. Young, vigorous blood stirs them on to achieve something great, and the courageous feat of head-cutting is regarded as a sure sign of valor. The head exhibition festival is therefore regarded as the greatest annual event among the Formosan aborigines. At tin’s time all the distinguished headhunters foregather, and are praised by iheir excited kith and kin. These brave headhunters seem the only persons capable of causing a huge sensation among the sweet, marriageable daughters of the crowding aborigines. If any native finds a girl whom he odrose and who yet refuses to become his sweetheart, then he goes out headhunting. He would carry with him provisions e’nqngh to last for several days, together with his savage sword and an old-fashioned rifle. Crouching under a dense wood cr overhanging rock, he would patiently wait for days for anyone who should happen to pass his way. Once he discerned any stranger approaching, he would most cautiously aim at him, but never would he fire unless and until the stranger came well within a few yards distance. For it is their unwritten law that one should be able to kill his unhappy victim at a shot. Beware of tho headcutter’s gun. As son as he was favored with a victim he would chop the head off and hasten back to his prospective sweetheart, to whom he would most proudly show the fruit of his victory. “Look! YV’hat a magnificent piece that I Irought thee!” The moment the girl ■witnessed the splendid trophy she would (surrender herself at the feet of the conqueror as if electrified! Curiously enough, it sometimes happens that even the nature-loving, honest aborigines of the Land of Perpetual Sunshine have what is termed “ Fuh-fu-genkwa”—an uproarious quarrel between man and wife. The moment it has reached an irreconcilable stage tho husband goes out bead-hunting without attempting any further dispute with his excited lady. If the wife sees her man returning with a head she at once forgets the erstwhile anger, and turns into an adorable, obedient wife! When a young boy is insulted or disgraced before his fellow comrades he gets terribly excited, and leaves them immediately to hunt heads, thereby jiiming to restore or regain his honor ami good name at home. In a word, behind the head-hunting feats there lies always ii hidden motive —“Look at me, the ’bravest of all our tribe!”—a pride that causes many a throb to tho primitive heart of our dear Formosan natives I leads, exposed and bleached, are later the most cherished decorations on the owners’ honorable head shelves — tlie sacred seat of their invaluable household treasures.