Evening Star Newspaper, April 15, 1923, Page 77

. __Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C Jay SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1923. Cannibal Fitness Test Applied by'SavagesAto White Guest BY MARTIN JOHNSON. ITH our three white com- panions and our little group of trusty blacks, Osa and T spent our sec-! ©nd night in the camp of the savages, while an armed guard stood watch against an attack by enemy tribes. At sunrise Nagapate came and ask- ®d if we would shoot off our guns to . frighten the enemy. Since we did not wish to seem suspicious, we granted the request. But we fired in rotation, instead of in a volley, 80 that there would always be some among us with ready rifles And I have never seen such snappy reload- ing as that of our black boy: After the volley 1 gave Nagapate my rifle to shoot. He unloaded her as fast as he could pull the trigger ana begged for more. I did nogycare ‘1o w cartridges, sn‘? ex- plained through Atree. one of the sav understood a little pidgin Ilnglish, that the gunchad to cool off, and Nagap: seemed satisfied with the explar The natives Aty believed that their convinced that they were well supplied with ammu- nition, would be afraid to start hos- tilitles. We ourselves were more at ease and 1 went up to some of the ! eoldiers and examined their fighting equipment. Their guns were old and rusty., but they all had cartridges, which they carried in leather ear- tridge cases slung over their shoul- ders. None had clubs. Tnstead, they had hig knives, some of them three feet long. for hand-to-hand fighting. There was no government ban on ‘ them as on rifles and cartridges. One afternoon Nagapate brought up a man we had not seen before. e Nagapate him- nding ste many wi tion enemie was nearly as large seif, and had an air of comr “Rambi! mbi:" growled Nag: pate, pointing to his companion. Then the chief went through a rapid pan- tomime, in which he ceemed to kill ‘oft a whole army of encmies. We thered that Rambi was minister of . as, indeed, he was. We learned from Paul that the tribe was ruled by a sort of triumvirate, with Naga- nate command, and ambi chief. named Velle-Ve primitive in and a supren third ted as a st in avthori i photograpt- bave the being he did not Mghtest idea of what the operation | ) apered like a monkey | meant. He in front of my camera and actually succeeded in injecting a little enthu- to the rest of the natives. presents of tobacco for every picture T wade. T must have pald out several dollars’ worth of to- Lacco each day. i Onco 1 missed Osa. 1 had some- Ything of a hunt for her, but T finally | found her in the shade at the edge »f the clearing, playing with a little saked pickaninny, Atree and Naga- pate squatted nearby, watching her with grave, intent faces. Nagapate was Osa's constant com- panion. The great chief had taken fancy to the white “Mary.” v he sent her gifts, and his nd fruits ana cocoanuts pleased her fiore than if they had been expensive ents of civilization. They seemed er an assurance of his good will But the rest of us were a bit uneasy. was planning to occasion offered, haps N ate iassacre us, If the nd kéep Osa to share his wretched \ut. The strain of constant watching vas telling on our nerves. Like children, the savages soon weary of | o diversion. We were becoming amiliar — dangerously familiar —to hem. and our gifts and even the inagic, taught me by the great Houdini, had begun to pall. We be- #an to feel that it was time for us to go. e CRE R SA and I talked it over as we walked about the village the afternoon. We strayed than usual and suddenly found ourselves near what seemed to be a deserted hut. We walked around it and found. on the far side, a well beaten path that led to a tiny door. Without thinking, 1 crawled ihrough the doorway, and Osa fol- lowed me. It was several seconds before our eyes became accustomed _to the dim light. Suddenly Osa gasp- ed and clutched m{ arm. All about us, piled in baskets, were dried human heads. A ghastly frieze of them grinned about the eaves. Skulls hung from the rafters, heaps of picked human bones lay in the corners. We crawled out of the hut and lost no time in getting back to the center of the villag We gathered Paul Mazouyer and Perrole and Stephens about us and told them of our adventure, and it dld not take the conference loug to decide to return to the beach on the following day. The other white men told us that if we had been seen in or near the headhouse the chances were that we should all have been murdered, for such houses were sacred and taboo to all, save the men of the village. That evening a great fire was start- ed in the clearing. Until late in the night the ordinarily lazy savages piled on great logs that four men were required to carry. Nothing was cooked over the fire. It was not needed for warmth, for the night was stifiingly hot. We asked Atree the reason for the illumination. He re- plied that he did not know. We fear- . ed some sinister purpose In it and lay sleepless, on guard the night through. At dawn we were up. We did our packing in a hurry, and then we sent one of the natives for Nagapate. The chief came across the clearing, slow- ly and deliberately, as always. With uim was a tottering old man, the oldest native I ever saw in the New | Hebrides. /° As; Osa and 1 went up " Nagapate, the old man. began to jab- .ber excitédly. He came over to me and felt my arms and legs with both his skinny haads. He pinched me and poked me ia the ribs and stomachs rollowing arther All the time he kept up-a running fire of excited comment, addressed to Nagapate. To our rellef, he finally stopped talking for want of breath. agapate spoke a few sharp words and the old man backed away. Osa’s face went white. And, in- deed, there could be no doubt about the meaning of the old native's panto- mime. I had by this time rather more than a smattering of the language of Nagapate's tribe, and so, with the ald of gestures, I succeeded in telling Nagapate that our provisions had run out and that we had to return to our boats. _1 invited the entire village to come to the beach for motion pictures and tobacco after sunset on the following evening. Motion pictures meant noth- ing to them, but tobacco they under- stood. So they agreed to come. We | left like honored guests, with an es- cort of twenty-five savages. Naga- pate himself walked (as a result of | my maneuvering) safe between Osa | and myself. | { Tt had taken twelve hours to climb | {up to Nagapate's village. The return | | journey required only three. | | We invited Nagapate, Atree and| { Rambi to come on board the schooner. | There we feasted them on hard-tack | and white salmon. When bedtime ] came the great chief indlicated that | it was his pleasure to sleep on board. I was heartily astonished. Our royal guest and his men bunk- ed in the engine room. I happened (ot wake about midnight and took a peep at them. There they were, flat on | | their backs on the hard, greasy floor, | 1 sleeping like logs. | * 5 | | TPARLY in the morning we got the | | whaleboats to work and took all | | my projection machinery ashore. Soon | 1 bad everything set up, ready for the | | show. But I found that my gepera- itor was out of order. Work as I would, T could not get a light. T was | discouraged. The men of Malekula are in the stage of development | reached by our own ancestors long before the dawn of written history. Through my pictures of them I had | carried New York audiences back into the stone age. Now I wanted to| | transport the savages into modern { times and my work. The as worked by man- | power. vo men on each side turned | #he handles attached to the machinery that should produce the magic light: | | but, though my boys ground patient- 1y all afternoon, not a glimmer show- | ed. Finally I motioned them to stop. They misunderstood me and went to | work with redoubled_gmergy and the light flashed on. In my excitement I | forgot my supper. The beach was already crowded with savages, who squatted on the| sands with their guns clutched tight | in their hands. By ddrk they were restless. They had received no to- bacco. They did not understand all this preparation that culminated in nothing. They wanted action. Since T had no idea how the pie- tures would be received I stationed armed guards at each side of the screen and around the projector, to cover the audience. My visitors were now thoroughly suspicious and would not stay where T put them. But Osa took Nagapate by the arm and made him sit down beside her. The rest of gencrator would not | srojector some fifty canoes, “manned” by wom- |lounged on the beach, doing nothing. en, the entize female population went | But it was the women who paddled to the big Tsland every day to gather | the canoes home. There was a stiff firewood and fruit and vegetables. sea and it took nearly three hours Further Adventures at Home of Tribe Where Visitor May Furnish the Feast. Couple Stumble Into Forbidden Precincts of Head House—OIld Men Buried Alive and Women Who Run Away Frightfully Burned—Introductions to the Native Minister of War and the Primitive Cabinet Chief—Amusement Among . Men When Tortures Are Inflicted. “OSA WAS PLAYING WITH A LITTLE NAKED PICKANINNY—ATREE AND NAGAPATE WATCHING HER WITH GRAVE, INTENT FACES.” the savages gathered about them Then the show began. First, a great bright square flashed | on the scréen. Then came a hundred | feet of titles. The attention of the natives was divided between the strange letters and the rays of white | light that passed above their heads. They looked forward and up and! back toward me, jabbering all the| time. Then, slowly, a familiar form | took shape on the screen. It was| Osa, standing with bent head. The/ savages were silent with amazement. Here was Osa sitting at Nagapate's | side—and there she was on the to greet | “HE_PINGHED- AND-POKED ME IN THE RIBS.AND STOMACH-THERE.- e THE MEANING OF THE PANTOMINE.” screen. head 2nd winked at them. Pande- monium broke loose. “Osa!—Osal Oso!—Osa!" shouted the They roared with laughter and screamed like rowdy children. I showed them a picture of Osa and me as we left the Astor Hotel in New York. Then I showed them the crowded New York streets. I follow ed this picture with glimpses of Chi- cago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Tokio and Sydney. Naga- pate told me faterward that he had not known there were so many white people in all the world and asked me @4ULD BE NO DOUBT ABOUT The picture-Osa raised her | | steamers, savages. | | been dead a year. if the Island I came from was much larger than Malekula. I showed racing automobiles, air- planes, elephants, ostriches, giraffes, then pictures taken, on Vao, Santo and other islands of the New Hebri- des. % % % INSTRUCTED Paul in turning the crank of the projector and put | Stephens and Perrole in charge of ! the radium flares. I myselt, took my stand behind my camera, which was trained on the audience. A hundred feet of titles—then Nagapate's face appeared suddenly on the screen. A great roar of “Nagapate went up. At that instant the radium lights flashed on, and I at my camera ground out the picture of the can- nibals at the “movies.” About two- thirds of the audience, terrified by the flares, made precipitately for the bush. But Nagapate and the sav- ages around him sat pat and regis- tered fear and amazement for my camera. In about two’ minutes the flares burned out. Then we coaxed back to their places the savages that had fled. I started the reel all over and ran it to the end amid an up- roar that made it impossible for me to make myself heard. Practically every savage pictured on the screen was in the audience. In two years they had not changed at all, except, as Osa said, for additional layers of airt. called out his name and laughed and shouted with joy. Among the fig- ures that came and went on the screen was that of a man who had The natives were awestruck. - My magic could bring back the dead! When the show ‘was over a great shout went up. The.savages gath- ered into groups and discussed the performance, for all the world as people do “back home.” Then they crowded - about us, demanding thelr pay for looking at my pictures! As I gave them thelir sticks of -tobacco, each grunted out the same phrase— whether it meant “Fine!” or “Thank As each man appeared they | |maroon the people who have the ro- mantic illusion that savages lead a beautiful life. We had long ago lost | that illysion, but even for us Vao had somo surprises. ‘One day I made a picture of an old blind man, so feeble | that he could scarcely walk. He was |one of the few really old savages |about, and I gatirered that he must have been a powerful chief in his day |or otherwise he would not have e caped the ordinary penalty of age— being buried alive. On the day after |1 had taken his picture, when I went {to his hut to speak to him, I was in- | formed that “he stop along ground,” {and I was shown a small hut. in which | was & freshly dug grave. My notice |of the old man had drawn him into the limelight. The chiefs had held a conterence and decided that he was a nufsance. A grave was dug for him, he was put into it, & flat stone was placed over his face so that he could breathe (7) and the hole was filled with earth. Now a devil-devil man was squatting near the grave to be on hand in case the old man asked for something. There was no consclous cruelty in the act, simply a relentless logic. A few days later, as we approached a village, we heard, at intervals, the long-drawn-out wail of & woman in pain. In the clearing we discovered a group of men laughing and jeering at something lving on the ground. That something was a writhing, screaming young girl. The cause of her agony was apparent. In the flesh back.of her knee, two great holes had been burned. “One fellow man, him name belong Nowdi, he ketchem plenty cocoanuts, | he ketchem plenty pigs, he ketchem ‘plenty Mary,” sald Atree, and he went on to explain that the “Mary” on the ground was the newest wife of Nowdl, whom he pointed out to us among the amused spectators. The |savage had pald twenty plgs fog her i—a good price for a wife in the' Hebrides—but he had made a bad bargain; for the girl did not like him. Four times she ran away from him or just “Good-bye!” I do’ motiand was caught and brought back. ‘| The 1ast time, nearly six months had While we packed our apparatus the | elapsed before she was found, hiding natives cut bamboo and .made rude|in the jungle of the mainland. The torches. They lighted these torches|day before we saw the girl, the men at our fire, and then they set oft inlof the village had gathered in judg- single file up the trall. -We sat on]ment. A stone was heated white-hot. the beach, watching the string of | Then four men held the girl while a lights' that wound through the black | fth placed the stone in the hollow like a flery serpent. The head dis- |of her knee, drew her leg back until eppeared over the top of the hill.ithe heel touched the thigh, and bound Half an hour later the tail wriggled|it there. . For an hour they watched out of sight. her anguish as the stone slowly The morning after our miotion-pic-|burned into her flesh. Then they ture show on the beach at Malekula turned her loose. Mhe would never found us anchored off Vao. We got}TUR away again. 3 : our luggage ashore as quickly as pos-| We turned aside, half sick. It was ‘hard for me to keep my hands off sible and then turned in to make up, for lost sleep. We had slept -little | the brutes that stood laughing around during our eight days in,the village the EIrl Only the knowledgs that to . touch them would be.sulcide for me of Nagapate, but we knew that'the| & "5 iy or worse for Oss held me 400 savages of Vao, though &t heart back. But gradually, I realized that as flerce and as cruel ‘as any of ‘the . st ) it. was not quite fair to jydge these % ‘Hb“'u::ed ’:‘,':ol:‘,w e | avages—still in the stage of develop- '1“:1 ::ex,;h :n:.:on' g | ment passea by our own ancestors ale . hundreds of thousands of years ago— The next morning we said good-bye | g o5 qing to the standard of civilized to Paul Mazouyer, and he chugged| o1y ~ And I remembered’ how away to Santo in the Iittle schooner [y 5% (T L e my own kind that for two weeks had been our| ci=S PR L n they are re- home. Perrolo and Stephens had 8all- | je54eq frém the restraints of civili- ed direct from Malekula. Osa and If,otion were alone on Vao. * % % % ; wm decided that the Island of -Vao ‘would be & good'place in whichto ERE HE next morning Osa and I sat on the beach and watched the commuters set off for Malekula, In For the small Island fo Vao could not support its four hundred inhabitants, and the native women had according- 1y made their gardens on the big island. This morning, as usual, the women were accompanied by an armed guard, for the Vao men did not take any chances when it came to a question of losing their women. Late in the evening the canoes came back again. The women had worked all day, many of them with children strapped to their backs; the men had said Mr. Hen- “if thim Hadleys that gave th’ swell ball is anny | kin {v th’ aldherman?” “I doubt it said Mr. Dooley. *I knowed all his folks. They're Mon- aghan people an’ I niver heerd iv thim marryin’ into th’ Hadleys, who come fr'm away beyant near th' Joynt's Causeway. What med ye think iv thim?” “I was readin’ about tl’ Prowtes turnin’ over th' other night” Hennessy. “It looks to 1ie as though th’ man was wr-rong, an’ th’ Hadley was. right. Faith, th’ more th* poor can get out iv th’ r-rich th’ better f'r thim. I scen it r-right in th' paper th' other day. If these people didn't let go iv their coin here they'd take it way with thim instid iv puttin’ it in circulation amongst th’ florists an’' dhressmakers |an’ bootleggers they'll have to hire. T believe in encouragin’ th' rich to walk away frm their change. 'Ti gr-reat f'r business. Mr. Dooley mused over this propo- sition some time before he said: “Years ago, whin I was a little bit iv a kid, hardly high enough to look into th’ pot iv stirabout on th' peat fire. they was a rich landlord in our part iv Ireland, an’ he ownded near half th’ counthryside. His name was Dorsey—Willum Edmund Fitzgerald Dorsey, justice iv' th’ peace, mimb: | 1v Parlymint. R et < ‘;ul‘u. niver tell ye how ‘much land | that man had in his own r-right. Ye cud walk fr a day without lavin® it —bog an’ oat fleM an’ pasthure an’ game presarves. He was smothered with money an’ he lived in a house as big as 2 hotel. “Manny's th' time I've seen him ride by our place, an’ me father'd raise THIS DORSEY WAS A his head from th' kish iv turf an’ touch his hat to th' gr-reat man. An’ wanst or twict In th' month th' dogs'd come yelpin' acrost our little place, with lads follerin’ afther in r-red coats; f'r this Dorsey was a gr- reat huntsman, bad scran to his evil face. f “He had th' r-reputation iv bein' a good landlord o long asth’ crops come regular. He was vilent, it's thrue, an’ @' as lave as not cut a farmer acrost th’ face with his whip f'r crossin® th' thrail iv th’ fox; but the was liberal with his money, an’, Hinnissy, that's a thrait that covers a multitude v sins. “He give freely to th’ church, an’ was as gin'rous to th’ priest zs to th’ parson. He had th' gintry fr miles around to his house f'r balls an’ din- ners an’ huntin’ meetin‘s, an’ half th® little shopkeepers in th’ neighborin® town lived on th’ money he spent f'r th’ things he didn’t bring fr'm Dublin or Leondon. % “I mind wanst a great roar wint up whin be stayed th’ whole season in England with his family, It near broke th’ townsfolk, an’ they were wild with delight whin he come back an’ opened up th’ big house. “But wan year there come a flood iv rain, an' th’ nex' year another flood, an’ th’ third year there wasn't a lumper turned up that wasn't blue- black to th’' hear-rt. We was betther off than most, an’ We suffered our share; but thim that was scrapin’ th’ sod f'r & bare livin' fr'm day to day perished like th’ cattle in th’ fleld. “Thin come th' writs an’ th’ evic- tions. Th' bailifts dhrove out in squads, selzin’ cattle an’' turnin’ peo- ple into th’ r-road. “Nawthin’ wud soften th’ hear-rt iv Dorsey. I seen th' priest an’ th' ‘Piscopal ministher dhrivin’ over to plead with him wan night; an’ th’ good man stopped at our house comin’ back, and spent th' night with us. I heerd him tell me father what Dorsex, jsald. [ tant minister that give thim such a | sald | put just to Paris or some place, an’ spind it | to paddle across the mile-wide chan- nel. When the boats were safely beached the women shouldered their big bundles of vegetables and fire- wood and trudged wearily toward ilhelr villages, the men bringing up the rear, with nothing to carry ex- | cept thelr precious guns. Among the poor female slaves—they were little | more—we saw five who hobbled along | with the aid of sticks. They were | women who had tried to run away. | Copyright, by Houghton Miffiin Co. Mr. Dooley On the Necessity - of Modesty Among the Rich BY FINLEY PETER DUNNE. “‘Haven't I been libral with me people? he says. ‘Haven't I give treely to ye'er churches? Haven't I Put up soup-houses an’ disthributed blankets whin th’ weather was cold? Haven't I kept th’ sttop-keepers iv th’ town bevant fr'm starvin’ be thradin’ with thim an’ stayin’ in this cur-rsed counthry, whin, if 1'd done what mo wife wanted, 1'd been r-runnin’ jaround Europe, enj'yin’ life? I'm a | risidint landlord. I ain’t like Kilduff, | that laves his estate in th* hands iv I'm proud iv me station. I | was bor-rn here, an’ here I'll dle; but Tll have me r-rights. These here people owes their rent, an’ I'll get th’ | rent or th’ farms if T have to call on ivry rig’mint fr'm Bombay to Cape i Clear, an’ turn ivry oat-field into a | pasture £'r me cattle. I stand on th’ |law. I'm a just man, an’ I ask no ! more thin what belongs to me.” g u] RY night they was a party on th' hill, an’ th' people come trm | miles around; an’ th' tinants trudgin’ ver th' muddy roads with th’ peelers ehind thim cud see th' light poorin’ jout fr'm th' big house an’ hear De- vine's band playin’ to th’ dancers. | Th* shop-keepers lived in clover, an® thanked th’ lord f'r a good landlord, | an’ wan that lived at home. “But one avnin’ a black man be th’ {name iv Shaughnessy, that had | thramped acrost th’ hills fr'm Galway | just in time to rent fr th’ potato rot, | wint and hid himself in a hedge along th’ road with a shotgun loaded with hardware under his coat. | “Dorsey'd heerd talk iv the people | bein' aggrieved at him givin’ big par- | ties while. his bailiifs were hustlin® | men and women off.their holdin's; | but he was a Migh-handed man, an' | foolish in his pride, an’ he'd have it |no other way but that he'd go about | without protection. This night he | rode alongside th' carriage iv some ‘v his frinds goin’ to th’ other side iv | an agint. “TH" DOGS'D COME YELPIN’ ACROST OUR LITTLE PLACE, FR GR-REAT HUNTSMAN.” town, an' ‘moonlight. “Th* Irish ar-re poor marksmen. Hinnissy, except whin they fire in platoons; but that blg man loomin up in th* moonlight on a black horse cud no more be missed thin th® r-rock iv Cashel. “He niver knowed what hit him; an’ Pether th’ packer come down th' followin' month, an’ a jury {v shop- keepers hanged Shaughnessy so fast it med even th’ judge smile.” “Well,” said Mr. Hennessy, “I sup- pose he desarved it; but, it I'd been on th’ jury, I'd've starved to death befure I'd give th’ verdict.” “Thrue,” sald Mr. Dooley, “but Dor- sey was a fool. He might've evicted twinty thousan’ tinants, an' lived to joke about it over his bottle. 'Twas th’ music iv th’ band an’ th' dancin’ on th’-hill an’ th’ lights th' Galway man seen whin he wint up th’ muddy road with his babby in his arrums that done th’ business f'r Dorsey.” (Copyright, 1923.) come back alone in th' Magnetized Borers. N South Africa it has been noticed that bore holes driven to a depth of 500 to 1,000 feet caow a strong de- viation, which 1s generally toward the north. It is sald that this is prob- ably due to the magnetization of tho long stem of the boring tool, result- ing from its rotation in the magnetic field ‘of the earth. The south mag- netic pole forms near the top and the north near the bottom. The effect of the attraction exer- cised by terrestrial magnetism is to impart to the tool a curve, with its convex side toward the south, and thus to produce a deviation of the hole toward the north, which becomes more pronounced as the depth in- creases. When the hole deviates in other directions than horth, it s be- lieved that the cause lies in ‘the obiquity of the strata of rock that! are.traversed.