WITH CANNIBALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1933, Page 3

WITH CANNIBALS

WEDS CHIEFS DAUGHTER. Tribes of nude cannibals, who arc so rich in gold and diamonds that they will give a pound of gold for a pair of scissors or a mirror, have been the only neighbours for the last nine years of Dr. Herman Huth, a German explorer and chemist. Dr. Huth recently returned to Guayaquil, Ecuador, after living with the Jivaro, Boro and Ocaina tribes of Indians in the jungles of Eastern Ecuador for nine years, during which time he saw no other white man.

Dr. Huth brought with him Lucinda Matanza, daughter of the chief of the Ocaina tribe, as his wife. Until she left Eastern Ecuador, the girl had never before seen a motor car, railv,train or aeroplane. Coming to Ecuador, after spending three years in Africa, Dr. Huth, a member of the German Institute of Explorers, went to live with the Ocaina tribe in 1922. “As soon as I arrived at their village,” he said, “the tribal warriors seized and bound me. They took all my possessions, even my clothes. Afterwards they permitted me to live unmolested among them. “’Later, I married the daughter of the chief. The ceremony was simple. The tribal medicine man removed the bride’s two incisor teeth, thus definitely marking her as belonging to one man. Through my wife, i learned the process the Indians used in reducing ..he heads and even the entire bodies of their enemies to an incredibly small size. This was done with the aid of certain plants growing in the region. Heads were reduced to the size of a small orange. “The Jivaros kill their enemies, cut off the heads, which they reduce to a email size, and frequently eat the remainder. These Indians, 1 believe, arc the only aborigines in the world who still actively practise cannibalism.”

Dr. Huth, who is 40 years of age, seems to have suffered little permanent effects form his long sojourn in the jungle. He said all the three tribes resented any attempt to change their customs or their religion, and have prevented missionaries from settling in their territory.

“Al! the Indians worship the sun.'’ he said. “Except for the chiefs, they arc completely nude. The chiefs obtain cloth from neighbouring tribes. The Boro tribe, living between the Napo and Pastara rivers,” said Dr. Huth, “possess large quantities of gold and diamonds. These they exchange with other tribes for scissors, mirrors, needles and other inexpensive goods. These Indians often give as much as a pound of gold for a good pair of scissors. “Boro Indians know how to reduce gold to liquid form without Ihe use of heat or known chemicals. This method, they -told me, was handed down to them by the Incas, from whom they descended. I was never able to learn the secret, but. apparently liquidity is achieved by using an acid obtained from some local plant.” Dr. Huth has also samples of tropical plants used for medicinal purposes by the Indians, and these are being sent to German scientific institutions.