A BISHOP AMONG CANNIBALS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9644, 20 January 1903, Page 4

A BISHOP AMONG CANNIBALS.

EXPERIENCES IN NEW GUINEA. BISHOP STONE-WIUU TELLS 11 IS ADVENTURES Few modern Bishops have more mi-, promising material to work upon than the iji.-shop of New Guinea, the Uev. StoneWigg, who contributes to the December Pearson's .Magazine some interesting personal experiences. "The thoughts which New Guinea, suggests," lie writes, "cannibalism, malaria, sago swamps, tinned meat, and murders, are not the setting m which we picture apron, shovel-hut, gaiters, and lawn .sleeves. Still, there us a Bishop of New Guinea, though his travelling costume is ilannel shirt, dungaree pants, putties, stout boots, and slouch hat. "Episcopal duties are varied m that diocese. lam sure that I have done more manual work m the lost four years than 1 ever did before. When it is remembered that even to-day practically only the coastline of the diocese has come, under the influences of civilisation, it is not surprising that Government officials, traders, aaid missionaries often undergo startling, if not altogether unpleasant experiences. "It was only last July that I had to act as pig-sticker-in-chief n't -a great carnival of savages that was held six miles from my head station of Dogura, m Bartie Bay. A space m the forest was cleared and native houses were erected, with a large dancing pavilion m the centre. For the next hour or two after our arrival great numbers of pigs, slung mi poles by the legs, were brought m with much singing, dancing, and waving of mango branches. Two hours later dancing began on the platform, the grotesquely attired performers treading their measures to the weirdest music imaginable. "A native sticks his pig m a very leisurely fashion. Two natives rest a pole on which the beast is slung on their shoulders. The pig hangs body downwards, while the sharp point of a native's spear is inserted into its side. The. animal squeals m agony for about ten minutes, and then expires. "We told the natives that it would never do to kill all their pigs m this fashion. I further told my strange congregation tliat the pigs had a Friend up above, who did not like to see them suffer, and finished by saying that I and my staff would kill them one quickly and painlessly on the following morning, so that they could eat them at their feast. Somewhat to my astonishment, Unpeople took to heart what I said, with tlie result that the next morning I and one of my clergy had to kill 72 pigs." It was wliile visiting the main centres of native settlement on the coast that the Bishop met with an exciting shark adventure. Five of the party— the Bishop, his lay helper, two of the native crew of the vessel, and a boy from the mission station— were returning to their vessel m a dingy, when "suddenly we saw a large shark a yard or two away, just to seaward of the breakers, wondering whether he was going to have on- opportunity to snap his jaws on us. "What should we do, we asked ourselves; turn back to the shark or land among the hostile cannibals? I was most keen to land, and, as my white companion ! did not demur, I told the native who was rowing us to turn the dingy's head and make for the mouth of the river. "Without -remark he did so, and we shot along on a great railing wave, but the very next sea broke right over us and filled the dingy. Fortunately we had bern curried past, the shark— our only fear was lest the overflowing river would cany us out to sea among the sharks, and too far from the mission vessel to reach it m safety. We were some way from the land, and I wondered whether 1 should get there, when, to my joy, after swimming ten or a dozen strokes, we grounded m four feet of water on the sandy bar of the river." After this adventure the Bishop and his party made for a village on the opposite side of the river, although the natives endeavored to dissuade them. As they approached the inhabitants gathered excitedly, and were very muoli opposed to their landing, and they had to parley for several minutes be'ore they would let the whites go out of the dingy. They then asked for a house m which they could sleep and rather grudgingly wen shown one. ihe floor, raised four feet above the ground, was v,ery defective, and the whole structure very delapidated. However, they proceeded, to make it ship-shape. ' It was now 'nearly, dark," continues the Bishop, and the natives around the house were moving about m a suspicious way. Jwery now and then a low,-, penetrating sound was heard, and half-a-dozen warriors, fully aimed, would glide noiselessly into the village. All the women and children (a« is always the case when fighting is expected) had taken to their canoes an hour or two before, when we first entered the village. Some savagos, to whom I was talking m the hut, urged us to lie down, but I told them that if they would do ho first we would follow. "It was while the situation wax still somewhat dubious that we saw one of the natives stiffen his right arm a,nd bring the point of his spear up to the breast of one of our men. The hater never flinched, and the man who threatened him rather nervously dropped hLs spear, with the words, 'No more fighting— we will have peace. A better spirit seemed at once to prevail. The tension was distinctly relieved, and we turned m and slept n « soundly as lizards and mosquitoes would permit." Many^other exciting experiences has Bishop Slone-WJgg to recount, but although he has had many narrow escapes during h,s visits to the more remote vil(ages, he has never suffered any bodily injury at the hands of the cannibal.;. A * v " I " iv ! lt y lle attributes largely to the fact that he, like all members of his stall, goes about unarmed.