CANABALISTIC ETIQUETTE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 105, 18 April 1911, Page 11

CANABALISTIC ETIQUETTE.

BITING OFF NOSES. THE CEREMONY OF COOKING. MAN MAY NOT EAT HIS VICTIM. Some shocking instances of saeager.' arc related by the Administrator of Papua (Mr. Stauiforth Smith) in his latest annual report, which has just reached Federal Ministers. A native witness in a murder case tried at Port Moresby, where Avai. of Baimuru. in the Gulf of Papua, was charged with the murder of Laura, a woman of Baroi. who was living at Baimuru. said :—"Bai-i told us to kill three Baroi people. He told us to get into a canoe. M e <iid so, and caught the three Baroi people (Aimai. and nis wives Laura and Aipuru) in Era Bay. Kairi killed Aimai. I killed Laura, and lomu killed Aipuru. I killed her with a tlaggar of cassowary bone. We put the bodies in the canoe and took them back to Baimuru. I did k not bite off Laura’s nose ; it is not our custom to bite off the nose of a person whom you have killed. If I kill a man someone else bites off his nose ; Ana bit off Laura's nose : Kwai bit off Aimari’s. and Omaara Aipuru’s. We bite off the noses : we do not cut them off. Before we go to kill anyone we consult the spirit of the Kopiravi (wickerwork figures about !ft high, which are kept behind a screen at the end of the Ravi, or men’s house) : the spirit comes out ot tne Ravi to the canoe, and, if the expedition is to be successful, the canoe rocks. The spirit is invisible «• the Kopiravi does not come out. We got to Baimuru at night and left the bodies in the canoe till morning. Then we took them to the .Ravi, and put them outside the front of the Ravi, cut them up into small pieces, mixed the pieces with sago, cooked them, wrapped them up in leaves of nipa palm, and distributed them. Women and children may eat human flesh- I ate a hand of Aipuru ; I did not eat Laura be-

cause I had killed her. It is not our custom to eat a person whom you have killed. If. after killing a man, you sit on a v-woanut. with a » cocoanut under each heel, and get I your daughter to boil the man’s heart, yon may drink the water in which the heart is boiled, and may eat a little of the heart: you must be sitting on the cocoanuts all the time. Otherwise you must not eat any part of a person whom you have killed yourself. In the evening I went on to the platform of the Ravi with a torch in my hand, called out the names of the Kopiravi. and threw the torch on the ground. I slept in the Ravi. The place behind the screen where the Kopiravi

are kept is called Maivaki—they J are never brought out from the; Maivaki. My Ravi is called Kaumoro. There are ten Kopiravi in it, each with a different name —five for each side of the Ravi. I have only one wife. We killeu the Baroi people because the people of the Kerne Ravi at Baimuru had a new canoe. When we have a new canoe we must kill a cassowary, a pig. and a man. the pig and cassowary at one time, and then afterwards a man. We threw the blood of the Baroi people into the water at the; place where we killed them.” [ To yet another magistrate. Ton-1 In. a chief who had lost one of his | 17 wives, made his plaint:— i “About this woman,” he began. I “Well?” I said. I “I want her as payment for the i one who died.” i “Surely. Toulu. 16 are enough. “Look.” he continued, ignoring altogether my remark. ’’l am a big chief: there is no other chief like I roe. I am getting old. Perhaps I { may die soon. Let me take this j one woman, and when I am dead ; you may rule how many women a > man may have. I have many; guests, and it requires many wives j to fill my food-houses. It is two years since you told me I must take ; no more wives. I did not know j then that one would die. It is a year now since she died, anti I; have waited for you to speak. To-; night, if you say ‘it is eitough : no more wives.’ I will say ‘Good.’ If. * however, you say. ‘Take payment ! in this new wife for the one that is dead.’ then also I will say ‘Good.’ ” It is not reported whether Toulu '■ got the new wife or not. Durine his visit to native villages in Papua last year the LieutenantGovernor. Judge Murray, frequeri ly came across numbers of human skulls “adorning” the entrance to villages. At the village ot Baia. which is on the right bank of the Omati river, he saw a more gruesome sight. Judge Murray, in the course of his annual report, described it in this way:—‘'This is a large village of about 40 houses and two dubu daimus, with two chiefs. Minai and

Savau. They both stayed in the village to meet us; last year Savau ran away. Minai’s house is 134 yards long, and contained five Agibi with numerous skulls attached ; outside, at the entrance, were hanging some roasted human Kones, with the flesh still >n places adhering to them. I was told that they were the bones of an Omati bushman. The other house, Savau s, was smaller —only 98 yards in length—and the agibi and skulls were less numerous.” ‘ There are continual hostilities between the coastal villages and the ‘bushmen’ of the Sirebi: both sides eat those whom they kill —the coast people roast the ‘busb;i.« n, and presumably the ‘bushmen, hiding no pot-, do the same «.o hern