54 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



There was no open practice of cannibalism when I 

 first reached New Guinea, and I cannot say that I 

 have had any proved cases coming under my notice, 

 though it is of course practised. I noticed indeed in 

 the last criminal report of the Papuan Administration 

 that there had been one or two cases of cannibalism 

 proved among the natives and punished. The horror 

 with which cannibalism is viewed in this country does 

 not seem to me to be justified by my observation of 

 its effects on savages. Roughly speaking the savage 

 who is a cannibal is not necessarily a degraded type. 

 In fact with the savages I have known, as a rule, those 

 who had practised cannibalism were of a better type 

 than those who had not. I do not wish to argue 

 from this that cannibalism is a means of raising the 

 status of the savage; but it certainly seems to have 

 no degrading effect. 



I never had any great cause for fear in dealing with 

 the New Guinea natives. In my experience they are 

 a great deal afraid of the white man, and would rarely 

 molest him unless they were interfered with first. 

 The guiding principle in dealing with them, as I 

 think it is with most savages, is not to get excited 

 or flurried. So long as you keep your nerve and your 

 temper you have little or nothing to fear. I have 

 been of course, at different times, in positions which 

 seemed to suggest great peril, but with calmness and 

 with firmness the most difficult position soon relieved 

 itself. The most serious troubles I have had in 



