IN CANNIBAL COUNTRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1930, Page 9

IN CANNIBAL COUNTRY

MALEKULAN SAVAGERY.

It is quite a curious thing in these days to look into the lives of human beings belonging to an age away back in the very beginning of the human race. To see how very limited is their outlook; how very few things have any value in their daily existence; and how those few things can be supplied by their natural surroundings (writes Evelyn Cheesman, F.E.S., E.Z.S., in the ‘‘Sydney Morning Herald”). Such are the conditions of tribes living in the -north of Malekula, an island of the New Hebrides. There, and on the neighbouring island of Santo, are tribes still living at what has been called the ‘‘middle stage of savagery,” just as Captain Cook found them in 1774. These two islands are the last strongholds of cannibalism in the group; and on Malekula is the onlv territory through which the white man cannot pass, nor natives belonging to other tribes, for it is the domain of the Big Nambas tribes. I have visited two Big Nambas villages on the hills above, where the people are more friendly, and have looked down upon this “tambu” country. It looks peaceful enough, with its plateaux of tall plumed grass, its winding belts of bush, its creeks and streams, with blue smoke curling up at intervals —the only sign of human habitation. I have crossed the river, which is the boundary, and collected insects in the bush, beyond; I also waded up the river for some distance, looking for the breeding places of mosquitoes; but my guides were very uneasy and visibly relieved when the work was finished, and to have penetrated to the villages, even if one could have discovered them, would mean grave risk, not so much to myself "as to my native escort.

The Small Nambas tribes of the north-east are more friendly. They also are still to be credited with cannibalism, according to the natives, but they do not dislike strangers, and are on good terms with the converted natives, both Big and Small Nambas — of the Adventist mission. NERVOUS ESCORTS. But when I planned to walk through the terirtory of the Small Nambas to the east coast it was no easy task to find guides and carriers ;and it took the greater part of three days, with the help of the missionary, before five men were forthcoming for the trip. On the chart the distance is about twelve miles as the crow flies, but owing to the merciless winding of bush trails, it must have been more than double.

We started along the coast to Espiege Bay, which looked very beautiful in the early morning sunlight; the high coral cliffs at the mouth of the river just like colossal fortress walls overgrown with vegetation, and the waters of the little deep blue, with very white breakers.

After this we took to the bush, emerging from time to time into open stretches of country covered with that same tall grass, which allowed a wide view of the surrounding hills. It was fairly easy walking, the trail being clear, though rough. One was not allowed, however, to forget that we were on Malekula, for on one hillside was a white, grinning skull stuck up in a tree. The guides knew its history; some native who had been clubbed from behind by a bushman who had a quarrel with his tribe. The body had been rescued by a relative, and the head, when sufficiently dry, would be carried to the murdered man’s village, and an offering of kava poured out to his devil, which if this were neglected might make itself very obnoxious to the next-of-kin.

There are only two villages passed on this route, Tunmelilev and Rarab. At the second I intended to camp for the night, in order to have more time for collecting, although the main object was to get an idea of the type of country, and fit in the information with the work I had already carried through in other parts of the island. The guides were very anxious that I should spend the night at the first village; but it was only a third part of the whole distance, while Rarab was nearer the half, and when I saw Tunmelilev nothing would have induced me to encamp there; for it was built in a sticky hollow, with water coming through the clay all about, and the huts were hidden in high bush, where the air was scarcely stirring. I have seldom met with a more unhealthy site for a human settlement. The last hut as we left the village was open on three sides. I stooped and saw that it was occupied by two very clean skulls lodged among small brushwood on a wooden erection at the farther end.

A DANCE—WITH DEVIL WORSHIP

We then passed through a far more attractive region, for the trail climbed the shoulder of a hill and kept just below the ridge under high trees, with but little undergrowth. There we dropped down again to the clean little village of Rarab ; the antithesis of the one we had left, with clean-looking huts, and well cleared of scrub. I had noticed a few copra sheds at the entrance to the village, and had mentally decided that my hammock should be slung there that night. Then we passed through the dancing ground, with its tum-tums carved with grotesque human faces, and I saw the guides look at a pile of large yams and discuss them among themselves. I, too, knew the meaning of this, for when a dance is impending fruit is set aside as tamba. for any other purpose except the accompanying feast; but it did not occur to me then that this might interfere with my plans. We reached the men’s house —a bachelor’s residence, where male strangers are also put up —and, having been suitably introduced to an old man smoking a very black pipe outside, I sat down al a little distance away while the guides consulted with him. The conference was held by hurling monosyllables at the rate of one a- minute, the guides squatting inside the house, and the old man remaining outside. But at the end of twenty minutes the head guide came to me with a very crestfallen face and told me that it was impossible to encamp at that village or in the district, because a big dance was to be held there that night. This includes devil-worship, sing-sing to devils, and a feast, and there was a tambu upon any strangers remaining in the neighbourhood while this was in progress.

It was a sad blow, for there was nothing else to be done but to push on at once. Outside the village we met a band of sixteen savages hauling along a large protesting pig to be slaughtered for the feast. My guides were not at all anxious to linger as they had been in the last village; and I gathered that

they did not even wish to cook their midday rice there after hearing of the tambu. We passed over countless little rivulets, the sources of streams and rivers which find their way to the north-east coast; and climbed in and out of steep galleys draped in large ferns and dripping with moisture. After this there was yet another territory to be avoided; for the trail passed below hills on which lived some hostile hillmen. So these had also to be considered, and we encamped at sundown on the banks of a river beyond their boundary. Then packed up at dawn, and followed the same river until it brought Us finally to the shore.