Picture Show (Nov 1919-Apr 1920)

The ricture Show, April 10<A, 1920. 19 More Adventures Among the Cannibals. THE idea of taking a cinema camera to the cannibal islands of the South Seas, and taking a pictorial record of the habits and cifstoms of these man-eating savages first came to me after the death of the famous novelist, Jack London. Jack was one of my greatest friends, and I had been with him on the " Snark" when he had cruised around these islands and made arrangements for another voyage. But death claimed Jack before he started the second voyage, and I determined to carry on the work. Since I had not his gift of writing, I decided I would use the cinema camera instead of tho pen, and I provided myself with the most up-to-date outfit I could buy. My Wife's Refusal. RIGHT at the start of the great adventure I met with a rebuff. My wife absolutely refused to give her permission for me to go: We did not quarrel, but we got as near to it as we ever shall do. When she found I was determined to go, my wife had tho last word, though she did not utter it. Instead, she simply went and packed her bag and made arrangements to go with me. I knew she meant it, and though I was very much disturbed when I thought of the dangers I knew we should have .to face, I could not help admiring her courage. I do not wish these articles to be about Mrs. Johnson or myself, but to deal with the strange people and the extraordinary sights we saw. I will merely say she proved herself the bravest woman I have ever met, and the best pal a man could wish to have. Had I known what she would have to face, I think that, determined as I was to follow up the work Jack London left, I should have abandoned the expedition. In the Hands of Nagapate. WHEN I saw her in tho hands of the cannibal chief.i Nagapate, with myself powerless to help, I bitterly regretted I had allowed my craving for adventure to place her in tins terrible plight. How we were saved from this savage at the eleventh hour by a British warship, I shall tell in a subsequent article. I will merely record here my undying gratitude to the British Navy, and state that it was the only thing that made it possible for me to come back alive from my explorations. The natives we went amongst are the most treacherous peoplo in the world. No human instinct restrains them from killing and eating any traveller or shipwrecked mariner that may fall into their hands — only the fear of the British Navy. They have learned by bitter experience that tho long-range guns of the patrol ships will revenge any crime they commit, and the mere sight of tho smoko from the funnels (, of a British warship talks to them in a language they understand. First On the Islands. ALTHOUGH the Solomon Islands are shown on the map, that is all there is known about them to the outside world. As to the Now Hebrides interior of tho New Hebrides Islands, no white man had over ventured to explore till wo wont there. We saw for ourselves that cannibalism is still rife in theso wild lands which lie outsido tho pale of civilisation. Wo saw sun-dried skulls — all that remained of the victims of their can ON THE BORDERLAND OF CIVILIZATION. Hunting Cannibals with a Camera. By MARTIN JOHNSON. World Famous Explorer and Photographer. nibalistic orgies. Mrs. Johnson saw with her own eyes the horrible sight of an old man being buried alive simply because ho had become too weak to bo of use to this savage community. In my first article let me pay a tribute to tho great work of the missionaries who hold up the banner of Christianity on the borders of civilisation. At a place called Malaita Island we found the Rev. Mr. Mason, a clergyman of the Church of England. Within a pistol shot of his missionary station can be found the open spaces where tho cannibals worship their idols and offer up their human sacrifices. Here Mr. Mason carries on his life work. He takes a few of the most intelligent of the savages and sends them to a school in Australia. There they learn the teachings of Christianity, and gain as much education as they are capable of assimilating. On their return to the missionary station they are sent out to get converts. The work is necessarily slow, but it keeps going on. Some of the converted cannibals, when they go into the interior on their missionary work, fall from grace, and return to the savage customs of their race, but these backsliders are comparatively few, and on the whole the results are wonderful. Mr. Mason gets his converts by kindness, but so treacherous are *he savages that he has ever to be on his guard against a blow in the dark. THE CHIEF NAGAPATE. Mrs. MARTIN JOHNSON. Their Hatred of Boots. PERSONALLY, I found the only way to get on with them, since I could not stop in one place long enough to woo them by kindness, was to give them presents. It does not matter how cheap the present is so long as it glitters. One thing about these converted savages always made me smile. They would come back from the schools in Australia wearing all kinds of weird garments of civilisation, but oneo back in tho village, they would promptly discard their boots. I have seen them on a scorching day dressed up in an overcoat, which they refused to take off, but the boots beat them. In my next article I shall tell of tho tcrriblo advonturo we hail with the cannibal chief, Nagapnto. I CURED MY HAIRY FACE AND ARMS FOR EVER, ROOT AND ALL. Eradicated For Ever Hideous Hair Growths on Face and Arms After Electricity and Many Depilatories Had Failed. LET ME SEND YOU MY FREE HELP. For years I was in despair because of a hideous growth of Superfluous Hair. 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