STARVED INTO CANNIBALISM

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XII, Issue 2374, 2 June 1906, Page 8

STARVED INTO CANNIBALISM

HORRIBLE STORY FROM SIBERIA. Au account ot a remarkable ease of cannibalism comes from SredneKolymsk, in the province of Yakutsk, Eastern Siberia. A member of tlie tribe of Yukagirs, a dying race, was in December last brought to Sredne-Kolymsk, and lodged in gaol. According to the “ Naslia Shisn,'’ he and his daughter are charged with having eaten the man’s nephew, whom he killed at the entreaties of his daughter. After that the Yukagir, though he had caught a swan, continued to eat human flesh, because he hail acquired a taste for it. The elder of the tribe said that lu- discovered the cannibal's daughter in the act of devouring a boiled human head. The explanation of this atrocious custom is to be found in the fact that famine is chronic in the district of Kolymsk. Several members of the Yukagir s family having died of starvation before his eyes, the man became a cannibal. and killed the nephew in order to appease his own and his daughter's hunger. The correspondent of the “ Xasha Shisn ” takes the authorities of the district severely to task for having sent a number of half-starved and half-naked Yukagirs on a shooting and fishing expedition for trading purposes, on the upper reaches of the Kolyma. Ya— and Popova rivers during the season which lasted from February 10th to June 29tli, without having supplied them with -nfficieiit provisions. The fate which may overtake people thus sent to the extreme north for the purpose of trading i- illustrated by the experience-. of a number of Chukchis, who dwelt on the upper reaches of the river- Omolon and Oloi for two years, during which they lost all their ' • disease . and them- - Ives had to undergo terrible sufferings from famine. With difficulty they dragged on wretched existence until the beginning of June. 1905. Then it become clear that nothing but starvation awaited them. They called a general meeting of the tribe and ■ • deliberations la-ting a whole day. decided that the head of every family should kill all its members ind i n pnt an end to hi- own life. () the morning of the following d• • all was over. On a high piece of ground all who had lived tlie day bef re lay dead, closely huddled toga' r. A whole tribe had compassed it- an destruction, not a soul surviving.