[fspic]

Originally Posted by David

Of course you are welcome to believe anything you choose. All i know is what years of scientific study on the nature and habits of sharks has to say. Perhaps you could give us the actual title of the book and perhaps a few of the actual passages you are citing. That might be helpful.

I will dig through my books. The ones that happened to be on one shelf include the classic by C.A.W. Moncton, The Taming of New Guinea,Wanderings Among the South Sea Savagesby H.W. Walker, and one of my favorites, Cannibal Caravan, a true life account of photo and other work in Dutch New Guinea in the period after WWI and into the thirties. Believe this account may be the one of the Morobi coast cannibals some of whom went up to 6'6" whereas most of that island's varied population fell into the shorter or pygmy size range. I have one of their pineapple stone club heads which the seller described as pre-contact. Basically basalt and rather heavy and fitted to a baseball bat like handle which was likely 1.5" across the top at the wide slip preventing taper at the top. Whoever used that thing (and it shows use) had to be huge. It is this tribe, if I recall, that this man accompanied on a cannibal raid on another village. Probably 60 KIA on the other side but the attackers had to flee after a quick cutting up of bodies to take home for the victory feast. The white Dutch author and his rich idle Hollywood wife who separately financed her own expedition until hey met and married, stayed back at their main camp with Maylay guards.

The author explained the night time (just before daybreak) village attack as a hand weapon battle until the defenders seemed to be holding their own and the attackers brought in their artillery which was bows and arrows. That turned the tide and they fled into the jungle through the ranks of the attackers causing close quarters club fighting.

The preparations for the attack consisted of the usual human sacrifice of the sick and disabled as an offering to the spirits of dead warriors and the preparation of new weapons. New arrow heads were fitted, fresh bow strings prepared, and cane was split for new knives. (This or the Moncton book mentions that some knives were made from human thigh bones.) Heavy stone clubs such as mine were used in this attack to batter through the walls of huts - never mind the doorway. In this battle the defending Digoels used their own stone clubs to beat back attacking hordes of Marind-Amins who wound up fighting over the bodies of their fallen to get at the Digoels. The attackers ran to their dropped piles of bows and arrows and launched flights of arrows at the defenders who made a dense target. The Digoels fought with fury, again with stone clubs, and hewed a swatch through the lines of their attackers to escape. The white author noted he was in the middle of this and heard the sound of skulls crushing under the stone clubs. He stood in the torrential flow of retreating cannibals who were running through his position and he open fire with both pistols he carried. He wound up beating their warriors as they ran past with his empty pistols. He took a club blow to the shoulder but was saved from further harm by his good cannibals whose faces were painted in white clay. This was a recognition feature and very important as all this happened at the bare break of day in the dark. Now involved in jungle fighting (literally) in tangles of vines the author had a fighting advantage (sort of) in that the Digoels were unable to swing their clubs from the shoulder in those quarters. He was beating them with his pistol butts. He now took a bamboo knife wound in the chest and smashed that cannibal with his gun butt. Now, barely standing, a vine is snapped against his cheek and he throws himself to the ground as a club smashes into his first aid kit on his belt. Flipping over, he kicks the cannibal away against a liana plant. At that point his appointed guardian, named Herman, attacks the interloper and smashes his skull with his stone club. That was the chief of the tribe who was leading the attack. He had some problems with the white man and had to settle scores from earlier embarrassments in the village. Herman noted that the chief was no good and would eat his own mother.

The aftermath of the battle provided the next stage for the drama of horrors which was the killing of the wounded. Stone clubs can crush a skull but wounds elsewhere are not fatal. Even the blunt tipped arrows used protruded from through and through wounds and did not permit much bleeding. The Digoel warriors heing fled for the moment, the victors rounded up prisoners. Babies were swung like clubs against trees or the ground. Children six or older were thrown into a surviving hut as captives to be taken back. Now the taking of heads began as this was an issue of status or graduating to adulthood. There were fights over who got what and some of those ended fatally - which was fine as long as the head wasn't damaged even if it was one of your own men. Presumably the clay would be washed off and it might be presented as an enemy or maybe an honest trophy regardless of who it was. The head was taken using a bamboo knife with neck muscles cut in preferred places for the task of wringing the head off the body. The head was then given to the warrior's favorite woman, if she was in the group of sixty females who came on the raid. She fiercely guarded the head. After an indescribable orgy of mutilation of dead bodies and bathing themselves in blood and mud, limbs were cut off for food to be taken back as were hearts and livers which were tossed into a pile. This was all bamboo knives with brute force being used to wrench limbs off once muscles were cut. Captive women were raped, tortured, killed, re-raped and sodomized and caused more fighting for heads. A father killed a son for a head and a brother killed a brother for a captive woman. Later Herman brought the white man a head and said it was his and pointed to his guns. (well, I guess he did earn a couple.)

Anyway I am now so inspired with re-reading this account (much of which describes a sickening but real form of living) that I decided to get some original new Guinea wood of the type which would be used as the handle for my club head. These heads were sometimes cemented in place on the bottom taper with human teeth inserted into the "glue" mix. We can guess where those came from. I'll also check to see exactly how "pre-contact "pre-contact" is. I have seen greenish toned club heads auctioned with claimed ages to be from the 13th century. It was withdrawn from auction allegedly for being a national artifact which shouldn't be sent from New Guinea.

As for the sharks issue I will scan the other likely volumes but I may have to search some some of my other books upstairs. However the South Seas Savages is a good bet.