HUMAN SACRIFICES

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 12 June 1923, Page 15

HUMAN SACRIFICES

CURRENT IN BURMA. OFFICIAL REPORT OF SENSATIONAL PRACTICES. It has long been known that slavery in a mild form has existed in the Naga Hills, on the northern Assam-Burma frontiers, but few people outside official circles realised that human sacrifices are regular features of certain religious celebrations held by the wild people who inhabit the zone which is bounded on the west by the Naga Hills and on the east by the Hukong River. The practice, however, has been disclosed by the Commissioner of the division in his latest report, and the news has caused intense indignation throughout India. The discovery was made by a Survey of India party led by Colonel Rich, to whom two Naga guides averred that these sacrifices are never less than from six to ten per annum, and sometimes, when funds are plentiful, there are between twenty and thirty. Indian children kidnapped from Assam are the commonest victims, but any slaves available are also slaughtered. According to the latest official estimate, there are nearly three hundred slaves in Hkampti alone. The Government of India has but little control over the petty chieftains who rule in the back-o’-beyond districts of Burma and Assam, but, as the reporting officer points out, it is unthinkable that these human sacrifices can be allowed to continue with the full knowledge of Government officers, and he recommends direct administration by Government of the tracts where these hideous practices prevail.