Have You Tried The Missionary?
“Another tribe of Indians, called the Padaei, who live to the East of these marsh Indians, are nomadic as well as also eat raw meat. They are said to contain the following customs. If any of their compatriots — a man or a woman — is actually ill, his closest male friends (assuming in which in which is actually a man who is actually ill) kill him, on the grounds in which if he wasted away in illness his flesh might become spoiled. He denies in which he is actually ill, yet they take no notice, kill him, as well as also have a feast. Exactly the same procedure is actually followed by a woman’s closest female friends when in which is actually a woman who is actually ill. They sacrifice as well as also eat anyone who reaches old age, yet in which is actually unusual for anyone to do so, because they kill everyone who falls ill before reaching old age.”
Early scholars like John Leyden as well as also Stamford Raffles supposed the Padaei to in fact be the Batta or Batay (or Batak) based on their interpretation of Pali, “The letter p being almost always pronounced b,” said Leyden.
yet they were not alone in supposing a cannibalistic mind set inside the eastern islands. When the Portuguese arrived inside the Melaka Straits inside the early 16th century their resident note taker D’Alberquerque noticed how some of the ruling families inside the numerous city states on either side of the strategic piece of water, used cannibals as executioners who were given criminals ‘roasted’ or ‘boiled’ to eat. The Portuguese noted in which many of the cannibals came by a ‘country called Aru (in Sumatra) by where the King bought them to eat criminals.’
A hundred or so years later, Edmund Scott had been dropped off at Banten (today’s Banten Lama yet back then the largest trading port inside the region),as well as also as if he didn’t have enough problems coping with his colleagues drinking, fighting as well as also dying, he had the local headhunters giving him sleepless nights. “There were some Javan women in which might cut off their husband’s heads during the night”, he said, adding, “They did linger much about our house,” as well as also was convinced they might have become victims had they not kept their guard up.
You can almost sense the terror in his words as he penned his diary by candle light night after night, exhausted by the trading as well as also infighting in which took up the daylight hours. The ominous jungle hemming him in, as well as also having no idea whether a returning ship might ever take him by “in which stinking stew”, as one early entrepreneur described in which, he might end his days there as so many others had.
The Bataks appear again as fearsome cannibals inside the writings of Dr. Felix Maynard as well as also Alexandre Dumas in their work, The Whalers. They describe how being eaten alive was a means of justice for people guilty of adultery, theft at night time or people who attack someone in their house.
inside the cases of adultery, the offended party got to keep the ears of the offender while the Chief Judge got to keep the head for himself. Interestingly, the feast was only attended by men though the writers noted, “Women use a thousand subterfuges as well as also employ all their seductions” to have a place at the table with the men folk. Apparently the soles of the feet cooked with rice as well as also salt made for a most “delicious dish”.
They also suggested the Bataks used to eat their parents when they had outlived their usefulness. Apparently, when citrons ripened old men, they “were to be seen voluntarily submitting to death”. As he died, the remaining family members might whoop with joy singing:
When the fruit is actually ripe
in which needs must fall.
The family might finish off their aged relative before cutting up the body, adding sambal as well as also curry as well as also enjoying the feast.
Of course how much truth there is actually in some of the more fanciful recollections is actually debatable. Missionaries used to be very active inside the far flung regions of the archipelago as well as also in which suited their story to expound the dangers they faced, dealing with such savages. No doubt they found peoples’ wallets might open in which much quicker when they were faced with unbridled savagery demanding to be saved by the charismatic, heroic man of the cloth.
The Smithsonian Magazine sent an intrepid reporter into the Papuan jungles to meet with the Karowai. in which was explained to him in which the khakhua might disguise themselves as a friend or relative of the person they wished to kill, then set about eating the insides of the victim as they slept, considerately replacing them with fire ash so as not to disturb the victim. Before the victim breathes his last they will tell his relatives the name of the khakhua, effectively signing his death warrant.
One of the Karowai described what happened in one case. A cousin of his was dying as well as also told them who the khakhua was. They caught the ‘witch’ as well as also fired arrows into his body before cutting his head off. They then cut the body up, carefully wrapping the flesh in banana leaves before handing them to some other members of the community to eat.
in which so happened in which the ‘witch’ was a friend of theirs, yet in which didn’t matter, explaining in which was a “system of justice.”
Of course the Korowai don’t consider themselves as man eaters. “We don’t eat humans,” one said, “we only eat khakhua.”
Bon appétit!
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Have You Tried The Missionary?
Have You Tried The Missionary?