HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1927-12-15, Page 3'Where ea.cl.litinting is a. Sport
stitions that Prompt the Natives to Acts o
.. h Power Behind the Revolt in the Solomon Isla
Super
Barbarous . Cruelty—What Fate Awaits the
British inhabitants?—A Chief C0.16 w!7on
of 100 Heads "
By a Retired Missionary
i;.write fast warships are speed- liead^Huntine Methods.
!ng Serosa the blue waters of the In the dense, rain-dreephed jungle
Southern Pacitic towards that myster- they lie in wait Presently, probably
Mus group of islands that lies three
bundred• miles east of New Guinea..
Will they arrive in time to avert
ghastly holocaust of white women and
.ehildre�n—or will the fierce, fanatical,
and cruel head hunters of the Solo -
mons wreak their vengeance before
help arrives?
That, I think, is the question every
anon who has set foot in those strange
Pacific islands is asking htmeelf at
'this moment.
The world knows very little of the
Solomon Islands; less of those
,strange sub -men, half man, half devil,
sof mixed Papuan. and• Melanesian
blood, who rove in that tropical vege-
tation. •
Since 1899, when the Union Jack
'Oast flew against the lark green folie
:ago of humid Malaita, we have striven
to inculcate some notions of humanity
into the heads of these terrible fiends
in human shape. Have we succeeded?
'The tale of ill-starred Cadet Lillie•, of
:District Commissioner Bell and of the
-fifteen loyal native police answers the
question.
These unfortunate., white people,
.and the ill-fated crew of the Auks
have been massacred. Even worse,
for those of us` -who know of what
'these islanders aro capable, is the
•contemplation of the possible fate of
'the women and children now in Sight,
head-hunters capture them
bother with 1t. The islands are very
fertile, tbougti so damp. as to be most
unhealthy for Europeans. Yams, and
coco-nut and tropia vegetables enmity
the needs of these savages. They
have never learnt to raise corn.
Warriors Alll
Fol' them the aim and end of life is
to take life. They take life, so far as
one can see, for the sake of tatting it,
It has been said of thein that they
hunt other trilaes--there are hundreds
of tribes and all at enmity—from a
zest and abundance - of the warlike
r spirit.
from the next village, connee a grout? But I formed another opinion myself
of tr-head- They fall upon them, cut after a Year among thein. When the
heir -heads, hands and feet off, and Solomon. Islander goes forth to do
run back well pleaseii with their battle he is thinking first and last of
ghastly spoil. in order his kitchen. He wishes to. slay his
The heads have been taken
to weaken the spirit forces of the
enemy: the hands and feet so that not
even the spirits can -run or oast Si
spear in ghostly battles
When the head-hunters arrive home
their return is celebrated with en-
thusiasm—the more heads the great-
er the jubilation. It is usual to expose
the trophies upon poles at first while
a mad, fantastic dance is executed
around them, a dance in which. women
and children join with equal zest.
After this orgy, the hunters take
their spoil off. The heads' areeleft to Samoa that they are the Greeks of, the
decay for a time, and in that tropic, Pacific I have lived among them,
enemy in order to eat h m.
•
The islands to -day are a`Brltish Pro-
tectorate. with a white population of
around five hundred.There are 150,-
000 savages, some of whom have been
cajoled into growing bananas and
nuts in a half-hearted manner. But
throughout the eleven thousand :miles,
of the islands ,the proportion of
ground cultivated is negligible, Noth-
ing, no power on earth, can teach this
savage the art of agriculture and hus-
bandry.
It is said of the gentle people " of
autdOQn1 shelter for this. :purpose
Fromdescribed in .a Dominion Department
of Agriculture pamphlet on The win- {
i t Beef Cattle in Ontario,
en
ter Feed ng o ee
It consists of a single -boarded abed Treat Your Friends toHome.'
facing south, a large door in the trout
humid climate decay comes with
tragic swiftness.
Then starts a process the full sec-
rets of which we do not yet know.
But the main facts we clo know, and
They are these- With the Solomon Is -
made Candy
being open at all times. Across the ,
yard is a covered feeding, trough over Old Mother Hubbard.
which is placed the hay rack. 'Doors Went to her cupboard
open to the outside from both the feed 'Twos Christmas Eve, ao I'm hold,
tro;agh and hay rack so that th feed . Fox gieta. she hail candy, m1' Beare,
can be forked in direct from a sleigh :As much as the cupboard would holde
or cart in a 'few' minutes. Steers' may Whynot tallowMotheri;ubbard's
be, fed a shed throughouttiles, example this Christmas; and 18t Gandy
most severe winter with xcellen r
sults.
Silage for Winter Lambs.
At the 1 apuskasit►g, Ontario, Ex git,s does not know the real spirit of
perimental Statim, an investigation, Christmas time. ' Besides, what is
more acceptable than a box of home-
made candles? Then, too, Such a gift Wee ve the probleru of what to
give to that !serval who seems to
have everything. ,
Success in candy making depends
upon the use of good ingredients, care-
ful testing and ---in the case of cream
candies, fudge, for example -plenty,
of elbow grease, For one who makes
help out cal that to
ng
Christmas list?
The feminine giver who has not had
the fun of making candies for her
has been conducted during the las
four wiutors to determine the relative
value of sunflower and oats, peas and
vetch silage as a part of the ration for
•winter lambs. The results indicate an
•advantage for the suniiower silage,
Theaverage daily gain per lamb, over
the four years, was 0.24 lb., for those
Zed sunflower silage, against 0.17 lbs.
for those fed oats, peas and vetch.
and I would say that they.. deserve
that tribute.
What can one say of the Solomon
Islander, unless one describes him the hell -hound of the southern seas?s
get into those• dark heads
liYl,il '-"-
to reduce the size of the captured he. first glimmerings of Christianity!
It is utterly impossible. Dreamers,
head. far from the ground, may say that
To achieve this singular end, . he faith and works make all things poi
takes infinite pains, working labor,:Bible.
o'usly with primitive .tools to remove perhaps, but ,speaking as one who
from the skull every particle of bone. has seen the head-hunters of the"Solo
At the end pieceof a week bone has re- mon Isles I can only say this, that at -
skull the moved every of from the ter all these years, the net result of
and carry them off for their frightful skull without injuring the flesh In any the all these
contact with white men
zites in the dense jungle. way. Then follows the astonishing I is the present dastardly white
n
To the reader, to whom the South- process of smoking the head and men women and little children.
treating it, so that it shrivels slowly Even but surely.
I have seen a Solomon Island vil-
lage—a mere clearing in the jungle
ringed about with huts made of tree
branches—human heads: no bigger
than an apple.
Th, hunter who possesses the most
heads. is the finest fellow in the tribe.
Old hunters, I have been told, have
accumulated as many as a hundred
heads during a lifetime of murderous
forays.
The First White Victims.
The first white men to land upon
these islands were a party of hardy
sailors led by the great Spanish ex-
plorer Mendana. 01 the landing party
only two escaped -back to their ship:
they were> attacked by the savages
who fell upon them, and carried them
off into the impenetrable jungle.
The reputation of the islands spread
through the Pacific, and roving sea-
men gave them a wide berth. But in
178? Carteret, a French sailor, landed
with a powerfully -armed force. He
drove off the first screaming hordes,
and pushed his way inland.
It is recorded in the diaries of that
sturdy sailor that after a day's toiling
through the jungle, his men rested at
night on the fringe of a dense plan-
tation. They were, although they did
not =know it, on the site of a deserted
island village,
Suddenly a sailor poking among the
undergrowth uttered a cry of dismay.
His comrades rushed up and there at
their feet, they saw looking up at
them with sightless eyes, the ghastly
faces of five white men.
That was pjrobably the first know-
ledge of the foul secrets of the head=.
hunters the white man ever got. For
years learned' men debated the prob-
lem of how these heads—they were,
carried back to Europe—had been re-
duced to the size of the heads of
dolls. No explanation seemed to
meet the facts.;,.
The Solomon Islanders have never
teemed eventhe rudiments of agricul-
ture, and they have had little need to
landeriit1is an art—and his art only- t
-ern Pacific is a piece of dream, sun
drenched and inhabited by romantic
Emil worshippers,. the cause of this
sudden uprising is probably a com-
plete mystery.
Yet, armecawith some knowledge of
the dark ways of the primitive minds
,of these -savages, the explanation is
.quite simple.
Unfriendly to the "White. Devils."
The Solomon Islander has many un-
pleasant traits, but the first one to
strike the stranger is his .ingrained
-distrust of the white man. There is
no way of winning him as there is
with more simple and 'friendly sav-
ages. He holds the white man to be
an imported devil, and as such he op-
poses him at every gpportunity.
When Malaita and the other larger
'islands of this group, which comprises
•some Six hundred miles of small. tree -
•covered isles, were,first brought into
.contact with white men, the islanders
gave battle. They rushed down from,
their primeval jungles, uttering their
barbaric cries, to give battle.
The white men had guns and fired.
But these strange death -dealers mere-
ly convinced the savages of the
devilish . nature of their enemies.
Many whites were killed outright,
a some, less fortunate, were carried. off
'wounded, into the dense jungle, there
to undergo the tortures of which I
shall give details id a moment,
What has caused the rising of to-
-day, with its frightful massacre and
;promise of worse? Simply this: The
:spirits• of: these islanders who fell be-
fore the grape shot of the first white
men to land have, according to the
"wise meir" of the tribes, been• abroad
in the jungle. conjuring the islanders
to avenge their deaths.
The present outbreak, then, Is noth-
ing more than a war of revenge for
the deaths .of •ancestors long ' since
dead.
When I spent a summer on Malaita,
.and covered. on one long tour the spar
par-
allel lines of islands that extend to-
wards the open ocean from New
Guinea, only one certain fact c6uld I
.ascertain about the religious — it
would be truer to say superstious=
beliefs of these terrible savages.
The Wood Sacrifice.
The Solomon Islander believes in
the perpetual presence- of his ances-
tors, he holds that alley hover unseen
but felt, in the density of the rain-
Bodden 'undergrowth, he believes they.
make demands, call for blood sacra-
lces.
When the spirits of these ancestors
demand the heads of enemies, then
the men of the SoTomons obey. Lust
for blood, fear of the revenge of the
dead spirits, frenzy that is very much
like madness, convert them into fiends
in human Nape.
1 have referred to the habit of
head-hunting, and the subject merits
a few words. With all savages, even
with a people so benighted as the
Solomon Islanders, one lands always
a dim idea behind the ferocious act.
When the . Solomon Islander set.
e out to capture the heads of his ene-
mies he has several clear ideas in his
mint. First, he believes that the
spirit of the enemy resides in the
head and that if he possesses that
head he can keep the spirit within
i'orever captive. '
Then, on -certain of the isles of this
large group, the idea is common taht
the heads of the enemies mai be of-
bred
f
fared as a sacrifice to the Bethel% that
the rata may not fall too abundantly
* ethey Sri S very wet islands—and that.
the primitive crops rita'y prosper.
When lfe Solomon Isilander goes
heathlu ing---•al 1. hereI must • make
it clear that for hundredn of yearn
these islanders leave been drenched to
the •bleed of many enemy tribes who
wage eternal warfare ttpon each: other
..-.b5,,-, ace' he tares cod threes;
en a retired missionary is a man -
There is one argument for these fel-
lows: and it is n'ow on the way to
them, travelling at twenty knots an
hour and carrying the guns that speak
the language of death—a tongue these
wretched' savages understand..
"atat :eft lea riteesa: h s fM is
The feed cost .per 100 pounds was
$10.3 for the former and $15,03 for the am greatis a valuable asset, deal of candy, a candy thereto
latter. Below are a few recipes which will
Wintering Turkeys.
r
Turkeys intended for breeders make a nice assortment for Christmas
boxes:
should be selected in the fall before Caramel Nut Fudge
fattening for market takes place. Only milk, 4
Well -matured birds possessing good 2 cups white sugar,
3 1/2 cuptablespoons
constituttianal vigor shoutd be chosen.tablespoons
butter, �z teaspoon vanilla, pinch salt,
3 eup broken pecan meats.
Cook sugar, milk, and caramel to-
gether until a soft ball is formed in
cold water. Add butter and remove
from fire. Let stand until almost
cold. Add vanilla and beat until cool
and thick. Add nuts when mixture
begins to thicken while beating.
melting
The caramel is made by
one cup sugar in a skillet over fire,
stirring constantly. Remove from
flame when the sugar is melted and a
caramel color and add one eup of boil-
ing water and let simmer a few min-
utes. Store in a fruit jar. This is
should receive only limited rations nice for flavoring custards, and icings
duringhthe winter mrnths. Hard grain as well as candy, and will keep inde-
should be given preference to mash ,finitely.
or ground grains. Equal parts of oats, i gutter Scotch
wheat and buckwheat are suitable, 1 cup brown sugar, ' cup yellow
but the buckwheat should be discon- i corn&yip 1 tablespoon vinegar, iia
tinned in the spring. In the winter 1 cup water, 1/4 cup butter,
one feeding a day is sufficient, the 1 water,
ingredients buts together tax
grain being scattered in the litter. Ce tin vanilla} until brittle when.
Grit and oyster shell should be pro- i testedincold water. Remove from
vided. Early in March an extra daily
feed of grain should be begun, and ; fire. add vanilla and if you have a
starting about ten days later a wet, metal tmixtuoe blestop or rylarge
r e c okle-sheeonfuls s,
mash made up of equal parts of bran, ° drop
11
shorts, ground oats, and cornmeal ! these. The candy does not stick and
properly mixed and moistened with i siee and
easier to handle than when n a more t poured in
a sheet and cut in squares.
Divinity
2 cups white sugar, lie cup white
corn syrup, 1'a cap boiling water, 2
egg whites,• 1/z cup broken nut meats,
� cup candied cherries, candied pine-
apple, figs, dates, chopped fine.
Bail the sugar, syrup, and water
until a hard ball terms in cold water.e
Beat egg whites stiff and dry;
pour syrup over them gradually. Beat
constantly and when mixture begins
to stiffen add candided fruit and nuts.
Spread in a sheet one inch thick on
a greased platter.
When candy is ready for packing,
Cut wax paper to fit boxes, cut candy
New York designs are featuring the
fur piushes, specially for the school
girl. Here is a one -button, popular
straight line model in the new ma-
terial' of muskrat pattern.
Every precaution should be taken
secure birds that are free from dis-
ease, and males unrelated to the fe-
males. Proper housing and feeding
during the winter is important. Ac-
cording to a Dominion Department of
Agriculture bulletin on turkeys, the
birds should not be confined to houses
during the winter but should be allow-
ed to roam at will during the day. The
only shelter necessary at night is a
straw barn or closed -in shed. Tur-
keys should never be housed with
hens or in heated houses, but protec-
tion from draughts, rain and snow is
ssary. The- +breeding turkeys
quicker sales for higher prices when
the animate are dehorned.
Potato Diseases.
Diseases of the potato are respons-
ible for very heavy losses each year.
Fortunately these diseases are better
understood --'`'than they were a few
years ago, making it possible to re-
duce loss by low yields and rotting to
a comparatively low point. Some of
the diseases are recognizable in the
growing crop; others are identified in
the tubers. By a system ot inspection,
both in the field and of the harvested
crop, most of the diseases that cause
serious loss can be identified, making
it fairly easy to avoid using diseased
seed. This work of inspection car-
ried on by the Botanical Division of
the Experimental Farms, extends
throughout the Dominion and is lead-
ing to a more general use of seed cer-
tified to be practically disease-free.
Pamphlet No. 84 of the Department
of Agriculture at Ottawa, gives the
rules and regulations governing the
production of Canadian certified seed
potatoes. The standard, which was
necessarily comparatively low .in the
early days, has been raised year by
year, and for the present year permits
of only three per cent. disease on
second field inspection and no mixed
varieties at tuber inspection. This
pamphlet, which is available at the
Publications Branch, Department of
Agriculture, Ottawa, explains certifi-
cation an dthe steps necessary to ob-
tain it. It also gives useful informa-
tion on growing certified seed, storing
the crop, and much other information
useful to the growers of potatoes.
Wintering Steers In Open Sheds.
Expensive buildings are not neces-
sary for the winter feeding of cattle
and ofte nadd to the overhead expense
and labor. Where indoor accommo-
dation is not readily available, steers
can be fed outdoors equally if not
The Value of Dehorning.
Experience has proved the great ad-
vantage, from every standpoint, of de -
horning commercial cattle. Horns are
always a handicap to such cattle.
They add to the cost of production
and discount the selling value of the
animals. Of course the ideal method
to follow is to prevent the growth of
horns in, the calf. When steers' are
purciiaased for feeding it is better to
get -ones already dehorned, otherwise
they should be dehorned as soon as
possible. In a pamphlet entitled De -
horn Your Commercial Cattle, which
may ' be obtained from the Pubhca-
tions Branch, Department of Agricul-
ture, Ottawa, the process of deborning
is fully described. The operation, in
the case of •grown cattle, is to a cer-
tain extent painful, but its advantages
are so great that it should not be dis-
pensed with: Where the cattle are
fed loose, feeding them in mixed lots
of horned and hornless animals should
alwaysbe avoided, otherwise they
will finish very unevenly. The horn-
less cattle, after painful experience,
become timid and refuse to come up
to the feeding racks or mangers until
th bulk of the feed is gone. They be-
come undernourished, while the horn-
ed ones, eating too much, develop di-
gestive troubles. Besides this, live
stock shippers find that dehorned
stock are more easily loaded on the
cars, show less shrinkage and dam-
age in transit, and are more economi-
cal of space. Cattle salesmen make
sour skim -milk should be given at
noon.—Issued by the Director of Pub-
licity, Dominion Department of Agri-
culture, Ottawa.
in uniform pieces, gauging the size
lief the pieces by the width of the box.
Ir two layers are packed, have wax
paper and card -board between layers.
i AMrF�
"Could i kisa you good night?"
Wrap the boxes neatly and tie with
Christmas colors and a gay little card
and you have a very attractive and.
"Gosh! 1 begin to doubt 1t.1° acceptable gift.
Candy may be made two weeks or
mere ahead to relieve congestion at
Griggs—"Do you ever guee that de -f christmas time. Fortunately, even
pressed roactg, that vague sense of the chocolate and caramel fudges
some approaching trouble?" Briggs—can be made as much as two weeks
"Sure. I feel that way every summer before needed without diminishing
before my wife comes back from the their good qualities.
beach." I--------�:^----'
It is seldom that passing a new law.
CANADIAN DAIRYMEN
is the best way of mending a broken I OPPOSED TO DUMPING
one.
PREMIER CALI_SOi PRESIDENT
Left to Right: M r.. Ienry 'Chilton ot'the Br.itislt, lalmbasse; Icon. Vincent Massey, Canadian minister;
Castle ot thda TAI.t ti Stitteo iatata departmep,t.
Government Shows But Little
Sympathy With Com-
plaints
Ottawa, Ont,--C+aneellation of the
trade treaty between Canada and Aus
tralia was urged recently by the Na.
tional Dairy Council and the Canadian
Council of Agriculture, before mem-
bers of the federal cabinet. The
Dairy Council thought that the dump-
ing clause should be applied. to Aus-
tralian butter, that New Zealand
should be excluded from the treaty
and that the treaty itself should be
concluded within the required six
1 months' notice.
' J. A. Robb, bMinister of Finance, de.,
fended the treaty, saying ,that the
dairy industry as a whole was not suf•
j feriug, and that cream and milk pro..
.
jjjj chores were finding good markets and
1 prices. He said that the delegates
seemed to overlook the fact that other
industries were benefiting by it, tha
balance of trade between the tetra
countries being in Canada's favor by
some $12,000,000.
W. L. Mackenzie King suggested
that the matter might better be
brought before Parliament for debate;,
— +—
Isaac, an Aberdeen Jew, had a great
experience the other day, which made
me believe that honesty is the beet
policy, "While travelling in von of
the tram -ears, the conductor forgot to
ask tie for my taro, bob vas veli
penny. I could have lett without sap
ins, but did not succumib to the ten*
tattoo;
en *-
tattoo; so I gave bin a tbreepelang
bit, and get fivepehee chemic. Thui.
the doing of right thing's bratigs it►•
own Deward," _
Rt Hon W. L, Meatenzie King, and Mr. William
r. 0 ''I iN' !J tl b b e.")1•3';'';0.';'11
fi
,1