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Show WON'T EAT WOMEN. Peruvian Cannibal Regard the Sex m Unclean Animals. Down in the darkest Peru, over an outlying eastern ridge of the Andes, toward the very unsettled boundary lines of Brazil and Bolivia, a flourishing flourish-ing race of cannibalistic Indians can be found. They are so fierce and unapproachable un-approachable that few missionaries or explorers have ever felt courage enough to guarantee anything like a close study of their eccentricities. It was an Englishwoman who recently brought home a photograph of one of the women of a cannibal tribe, and though full of eagerness to know more of these people, she was persuaded to forego investigation. The civilized Indians In-dians regard them with a horror that only cannibalism can inspire, and only at long intervals have the white resi- -dent6 of Peru seen or captured any of ' the Cascibos, who range the forests where the precious Peruvian bark is found, and who fight each other in the hope of securing prisoners for a cannibalistic can-nibalistic orgie. But there is a queer code in their savage law. They make no effort to seize women for their feasts. The very degradation of the sex is in a way its preservation. The male ante or Cascibo regards a woman as an impure being. She is a necessary torment, tor-ment, but by no means a comfort, though she accepts her share of duty, and a cannibal brave would well-nigh perish of starvation before he would pollute his lips with female flesh. Not only is a woman thus despised, but her blood is feared as a poison, from the taste of which no man could recover. recov-er. The cannibal women profess no such distaste for man's flesh, but are said to eat it with relish, while in their own turn they have evidently taken no active steps to convince the men against their ancient error and prejur dice. Washington Times. |
