- 1 day ago
Step back into the silent film era with Gow the Head Hunter (1928), a rare jungle adventure from the early days of cinema. This fascinating silent film takes viewers deep into exotic landscapes, exploring the mysterious world of tribal warriors and daring expeditions. With dramatic scenes and classic storytelling, the film reflects the style and imagination of 1920s adventure cinema.
If you enjoy vintage movies, silent film history, and rare archival footage, this classic is a must-watch. Experience a piece of cinematic history from nearly a century ago.
If you enjoy vintage movies, silent film history, and rare archival footage, this classic is a must-watch. Experience a piece of cinematic history from nearly a century ago.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:01The End
00:00:37The End
00:01:09The End
00:01:35We headed out into the Pacific Ocean 200 miles off the coast of California
00:01:40to pick up the trade wind that would carry us down toward the equator.
00:01:46Salisbury and his party made the round-the-world expedition aboard the Gypsy.
00:01:53It was a yacht 161 feet long.
00:01:59It had a crew of 18 and there were 13 scientists aboard.
00:02:07We had a laboratory for the development of moving picture film and the preservation of specimens
00:02:14to be collected, an ice machine, and we were well stocked for a long cruise in the tropics.
00:02:26But just before reaching the equator, you run into the doldrums.
00:02:30That's a vast expanse of water where there is very little, if any, wind.
00:02:35We had a diesel engine, and we turned on our power and had no difficulty getting across this quiet, expanse
00:02:44of ocean.
00:02:45The boys during that time mended everything but their ways.
00:02:50And here you see Captain Salisbury's cleaners at work, and boy could they clean.
00:02:56They invented the game of blackjack, and they had me clean the first day in the tropics.
00:03:03Very few of the sailors today know the knots that are necessary in the making of a hammock.
00:03:11This old fellow had been a deep-water sailor.
00:03:14He had been to the tropics before, and he knew that a very necessary part of the equipment was a
00:03:21hammock.
00:03:22When you pick up these clouds known as the trade clouds on the other side of the doldrums,
00:03:27you know that you're just about to get the trade wind that will carry you onto the equator.
00:03:32And when that shot of the sun was taken, we were just 75 miles northeast of the Marquesas Group.
00:03:41Each man wanted to be the first to sight land, so he appointed himself a lookout.
00:03:48The Marquesas Group is to be our first destination.
00:03:53It belongs to the French, and is formed by a number of small islands.
00:04:03The missionaries compelled the men to wear cotton pants and shirts, and they put hideous Mother Hubbard wrappers on the
00:04:10women.
00:04:11The natives were not accustomed to this.
00:04:13They became very warm.
00:04:16Their clothing became saturated with perspiration, and they'd sit in the cool trade winds.
00:04:23The wind blowing through the wet cloth gave them colds, and this turned into pneumonia.
00:04:29And thousands of them died.
00:04:31Today, I doubt very much if there are 300 Marquesans left.
00:04:35They lead a carefree life, these Marquesans, getting as much joy as possible out of each day.
00:05:01They don't need fish hooks.
00:05:02They use spears underwater, and a Marquesan always gets his fish.
00:05:08Fish are very plentiful, and the Marquesan is clever.
00:05:12That's a good combination.
00:05:14Frying pans?
00:05:16What use?
00:05:17They eat them raw.
00:05:19And I guess the fish, if given his choice, would rather be bitten by the white teeth of a Marquesan
00:05:24maiden than the teeth of a hungry shark.
00:05:27At least I would.
00:05:30On shore, we found fruits and vegetables growing in perfusion.
00:05:35This is the mango, a very delicious tropical fruit, if you don't object to the slight taste of turpentine.
00:05:42But that taste is very slight.
00:05:44You don't notice it after you've eaten the fruit several days.
00:05:47It's delicious, and you don't care how much juice runs down your chin and inside of your shirt.
00:05:53And believe me, that's plenty.
00:05:55The breadfruit grows on a fine, large tree.
00:06:02It's a staple article of diet of the Marquesan.
00:06:10Flowers were everywhere and of every imaginable color.
00:06:23And there's another beautiful thing found in the Marquesas group.
00:06:27The girls.
00:06:28They're lovely.
00:06:29They're just happy, grown-up children.
00:06:32They spend their days dancing, swimming, and singing on the beach.
00:06:37They wear a single garment called a peri-oo.
00:06:41It's about twice as wide as a bath towel and twice as long.
00:06:45They take this and give it a quick flip around their bodies and tuck onto the ends.
00:06:51There are no buttons or hooks or pins or suspenders, but I'm darned if I ever saw one of them
00:06:56fall off.
00:06:57And believe me, I watch carefully.
00:07:15Some day when the picking is good, this girl ought to pick herself a shirtwaist.
00:07:19It's a lucky captain that can visit one of these islands and get away with his entire crew because some
00:07:26of the boys are tempted to desert.
00:07:28But you can't blame the fellas.
00:07:31The girls are friendly.
00:07:32It's really a great place for a young man or for an old man with young ideas.
00:07:38We had no difficulty getting these girls to dance, but it was difficult to get them to stop.
00:07:43Whenever they heard music and saw the camera set up, they danced.
00:07:48Well, they insisted on getting into the picture.
00:07:51We're going to let them wriggle out of it the best way they can.
00:07:54The natives told us that it rains every day in the year in Samoa.
00:08:00But it generally takes the form of hard showers at night.
00:08:04Plenty of sunshine during the day results in a luxurious growth of tropical vegetation.
00:08:10Part of the coast of Samoa, of the island of Tutuila, is rocky, which may differ from your idea of
00:08:18a South Sea Island beach.
00:08:19But they have these palm-line beaches, and whenever you find one, you generally find a collection of native huts.
00:08:27To be a good South Sea Island dancer requires years of training.
00:08:31You have to start almost from the cradle.
00:08:34This little kitty got a pretty early start.
00:08:38But imagine exercising like this in the hot sun when you don't have to.
00:08:44The sitting siva dance of the women of Samoa, according to Robert Louis Stevenson,
00:08:50who spent a great many years in the South Seas and who is buried in the Samoan group,
00:08:56is the most graceful dance in the world.
00:09:00Every movement made by these women tell a story.
00:09:04They tell of their past lives, of their present existence, and of their hopes and fears for the future.
00:09:12The women are good dancers in Samoa, but the men are better.
00:09:17The women have a few tasks to perform.
00:09:20But when America took possession of Samoa, the men learned that in America, the politicians didn't work.
00:09:27So all the men in Samoa have become politicians.
00:09:31They don't work.
00:09:32All they do is dance and talk politics.
00:09:36And in their dance, their movements tell of the history of Samoa.
00:09:41The Samoans kept no written record of their history.
00:09:46All of the incidents were handed down from one generation to another in the movements of the siva.
00:09:53It must be very interesting to one who can interpret the movements of this dance.
00:10:01Now you've had your glimpse of Polynesia.
00:10:04You've seen the natives, and you've seen the happy, carefree lives they lead.
00:10:09Now you can compare all this with what you're going to find in Melanesia.
00:10:14For we're just about to cross the 180th meridian, and we'll be among the blacks.
00:10:22It's in Melanesia we find the cannibals and the headhunters.
00:10:26Our first stop will be at the Fiji Islands, a British crown colony.
00:10:31Seventy-five years ago, to speak of the Fiji Islands brought up visions of cannibalism.
00:10:36But today, according to the British government and the missionaries, cannibalism has ceased.
00:10:43The natives are trained to police the islands of the group wherever there are whites.
00:10:51It may be possible that the Fiji Islander, living so close to the dividing line between Polynesia and Melanesia,
00:10:59has had the Melanesian blood softened by the Polynesian strain and proves more susceptible to the influences of civilization.
00:11:12The children are very intelligent-looking, considering the fact that their grandparents were cannibals.
00:11:18But they had the queerest types of hair cut.
00:11:22Each one had his or her idea of beauty in a haircut.
00:11:27This girl washed her hair that morning and couldn't do a thing with it.
00:11:31And this fellow cuts his hair with a hammer and a chisel.
00:11:36They just reverse our method of building a house.
00:11:39They build the framework of the roof and lift it, and then build the under part of the hut.
00:11:45Then they thatch the whole thing with palm leaves, grass, and reeds.
00:11:51And it may surprise you to know that a hut built in this way is waterproof.
00:11:58The rainfall in the Fijis is very heavy.
00:12:02They have a great many bananas in this group.
00:12:04Practically all the bananas used in Australia and New Zealand are shipped from the Fiji Islands.
00:12:14They break each banana from the bunch and pack it separately.
00:12:21The bananas are brought down the rivers on great bamboo rafts.
00:12:28After the raft is unloaded, it's burned.
00:12:31For it's a great deal easier to go back up the river and build another raft
00:12:36than it would be to pull this one back up the swift current.
00:12:43Their fish lines and nets are made of coconut fiber.
00:12:46That's a very valuable article in the South Seas.
00:12:53This old fellow is making a line of coconut fiber
00:12:56that he will later weave into a fish net.
00:13:14A tortoise shell hook tied with coconut fiber
00:13:17to a pearl oyster shell attractor
00:13:20makes a very good fish lure
00:13:23for the large saltwater game fish.
00:13:27A Fiji Island sailing canoe
00:13:30would give you nervous prostration.
00:13:32It's a long, narrow canoe
00:13:34held upright by an outrigger.
00:13:37The sail is made of grass cloth
00:13:40and the lines and halyards are made of coconut fiber.
00:13:45When the wind blows very hard,
00:13:47it's necessary for the passengers
00:13:48to ride out on the outrigger
00:13:50to prevent the canoe turning over.
00:13:53But it's a speedy craft and safe
00:13:55if you know how to distribute your weight in a blow.
00:13:59The most interesting part of it, though,
00:14:01is their method of maneuvering.
00:14:03They go as far as they want in any direction
00:14:05and when they want to retrace their course,
00:14:07they don't come up into the wind
00:14:09with a lot of fuss and bother like a white man.
00:14:11They merely change the position of the sail.
00:14:14And then the bow becomes the stern
00:14:17and the stern becomes the bow.
00:14:20And merrily they sail along
00:14:22along the way home.
00:14:26A clever white man hasn't thought of that.
00:14:31I think we secured the only moving picture
00:14:34ever made of a tidal wave.
00:14:36You'll notice the water rushes in
00:14:38and covers those reefs
00:14:39to a depth of 11 or 12 feet
00:14:42in a very few minutes.
00:14:46On many of the low islands,
00:14:48a great deal of damage was done
00:14:50and some of the natives lost their lives.
00:14:53Some of the South Sea islands
00:14:54are only three or four feet
00:14:56above high water mark.
00:15:00Fort sliding down this natural chute
00:15:02on a hot day.
00:15:04But it was so hard on the elbows
00:15:06we couldn't sit down for about a week.
00:15:12And the women become very expert boatmen.
00:15:16They do all of the hard work in Melanesia,
00:15:19which includes the Fiji Island.
00:15:22You think a Melanesian would make a woman
00:15:25do any part of the hard work?
00:15:27No, sir.
00:15:28He makes her do it all.
00:15:30Women carry the wood.
00:15:32The man carries the axe.
00:15:35These women are making top of cloth,
00:15:37the only cloth they had for garments
00:15:39prior to the arrival of the trader.
00:15:42And the edge of one piece
00:15:44pounded into the edge of the other.
00:15:46In this way, they can make a piece
00:15:48of any desired size.
00:15:50We saw some of the chief's trains
00:15:52that were 75 feet long.
00:15:54And with vegetable dyes,
00:15:56they stencil on the designs
00:15:58using a palm leaf for a stencil.
00:16:05The Fiji Islanders always give
00:16:08everyone of importance a feast.
00:16:10They thought we were important
00:16:12because we came with an expedition.
00:16:15We wanted to see what it was all about
00:16:17so we didn't dispel their illusion.
00:16:20They dig a hole and fill it with rocks,
00:16:22which they get very hot.
00:16:24They put leaves on top of the rocks,
00:16:27the food on top of the leaves,
00:16:28more leaves over the food,
00:16:30and then cover everything with dirt.
00:16:33Pigs, chicken, fish, turtles,
00:16:36everything imaginable
00:16:37goes into that fire hole.
00:16:39And the food cooked that way
00:16:41is very delicious
00:16:42if you can just forget
00:16:43that they haven't cleaned anything.
00:16:46But before you eat,
00:16:48you must go through the kava ceremony
00:16:50and like it.
00:16:51Kava is a peppery root
00:16:53that is mixed up with water,
00:16:55with a gradialist ceremony.
00:16:57Now, can you imagine
00:16:59drinking that stuff
00:17:00he's washing his hands in?
00:17:02He said he was straining it,
00:17:04but I noticed his hands
00:17:05were a gradial cleaner
00:17:06when he got through
00:17:06than when he started.
00:17:11The guest drinks this vile mixture
00:17:13from a coconut shell bowl.
00:17:16And, brother,
00:17:17if you think a coconut shell
00:17:19doesn't hold a lot,
00:17:20you try it sometime.
00:17:22After the guest drinks,
00:17:24he spins the bowl
00:17:25and the others applaud.
00:17:26It looked like a lot of hui to us.
00:17:29Here's Chief Rambezi
00:17:31and his long tapa cloth trainer.
00:17:33The chief is followed
00:17:35by his warriors
00:17:36dressed in leaves,
00:17:37bark, tapa cloth, and grass.
00:17:40That's the national costume
00:17:41of the Fiji Island warrior.
00:17:43They have a very nice custom
00:17:45of giving presents.
00:17:46They gave us a great many presents,
00:17:49a great many sweet potatoes.
00:17:51They call them yams,
00:17:52and some of them reach
00:17:53away to 50 palms.
00:17:56Then the women arrive,
00:17:57bringing more presents,
00:17:59more sweet potatoes.
00:18:02We had enough sweet potatoes
00:18:04aboard the yacht
00:18:04when we left the Fiji Islands
00:18:06to stock all the markets
00:18:07in the state.
00:18:10In the Sitting Siva dance
00:18:12of the women of the Fijis,
00:18:13as in the Sitting Siva in Samoa,
00:18:15those movements tell a story.
00:18:18The women wear shirtwaists
00:18:21made of grass, leaves, and flowers.
00:18:23Those are made fresh every day.
00:18:25I think that's a very nice custom.
00:18:30Captain Salisbury remarked
00:18:32during the progress of this dance
00:18:34that he should like very much
00:18:35to have one of those
00:18:36tapa cloth skirts.
00:18:39At the conclusion of the dance,
00:18:41all the women filed past him,
00:18:42and each woman took off her skirt
00:18:45and presented it to him.
00:18:49Every woman had another skirt underneath.
00:18:52The women are good dancers,
00:18:54but remember they do all the work.
00:18:56They have less time to dance
00:18:59than have the men.
00:19:00The men are all warriors.
00:19:03They haven't had a war for 75 years.
00:19:06Nevertheless, they're warriors,
00:19:07and they won't work.
00:19:09All they do is dance.
00:19:11And are they good?
00:19:13They've got to be good.
00:19:15They go through this dance
00:19:16of the war clubs,
00:19:18requiring hours,
00:19:19hundreds of intricate movements,
00:19:21absolutely without music,
00:19:23not even the beating of a tom-tom.
00:19:25We watched them for hours
00:19:27and didn't see one mistake
00:19:29or hesitation
00:19:31on the part of a dancer.
00:19:52I doubt very much if anywhere in the world
00:19:54is a ballet as perfect
00:19:56in synchronized movement
00:19:58as these warriors of the Fijis
00:20:01dancing the dance of the war clubs.
00:20:04They keep time
00:20:05very much as a musician
00:20:08keeps time on his instrument.
00:20:12They told us
00:20:13that they always dance
00:20:15this dance of the war clubs
00:20:16before starting on a raid.
00:20:19Perhaps for the same reason
00:20:21that the North American Indian
00:20:23danced his war dance
00:20:25before he went on the war path.
00:20:28Now note their features.
00:20:30Remember 75 years ago,
00:20:32the Fiji Islanders were cannibals.
00:20:45We leave the land of the Baddocks
00:20:47and travel up this Malacca Strait
00:20:49in search of new adventure.
00:20:51We pass the Nicobah Islands
00:20:53on the left
00:20:54and we approach the Andaman Islands
00:20:56in the Bay of Bengal
00:20:57where we found the Pygmies,
00:21:00the Jarawaiian Pygmies,
00:21:03perhaps the most primitive
00:21:04people on earth.
00:21:08We were very fortunate
00:21:09in finding this collection
00:21:12of natives
00:21:14who had lost their fear
00:21:16of the white man
00:21:17and their enmity for him.
00:21:19These Pygmies
00:21:20on the Andaman Islands
00:21:21are man killers.
00:21:23The men are about
00:21:24four feet in height,
00:21:26the women about
00:21:26three feet, eight inches.
00:21:28You can get a comparison there.
00:21:30The man is about
00:21:32five feet, eight.
00:21:35This is a full-grown
00:21:36man and woman.
00:21:38And when they meet,
00:21:39they shake hands as we do
00:21:41and the visitor sits
00:21:42on the whole slap.
00:21:43They carry on a conversation
00:21:45that sounds like
00:21:46the shattering of magpies.
00:21:51And they showed us their games.
00:21:54They play blind man's buff
00:21:57and leapfrog.
00:22:00There was a forester
00:22:01located on this island
00:22:03in the interest
00:22:04of the British government.
00:22:07And he told us
00:22:09that back in the jungle
00:22:10and even down on the beach
00:22:12when the wilder creatures
00:22:13came down to salt water
00:22:14that they played these games.
00:22:17It's really a mystery
00:22:18where they learn them.
00:22:20And they let the devil
00:22:22or the evil spirits
00:22:24out of the children
00:22:24by puncturing their flesh
00:22:26in thousands of places
00:22:28with a piece of sharp clamshell.
00:22:31Practically all of the adults' bodies
00:22:33were literally covered
00:22:35with those scars.
00:22:48They have a custom
00:22:50of wearing
00:22:51some part of the mate's head
00:22:54when he dies.
00:22:56Some of the widows wore
00:22:58the jawbone only,
00:23:01but others preferred
00:23:02the whole skull.
00:23:05It's a custom
00:23:06that has its merits
00:23:07because you can easily
00:23:08tell a widow.
00:23:10Of course,
00:23:10you can't tell a widow
00:23:11very much,
00:23:12but you know who's who
00:23:14and you can watch her step.
00:23:16But imagine making love
00:23:18to a woman
00:23:18that wears the skull
00:23:19of her departed husband
00:23:20hanging on her breasts.
00:23:22Reports had come out
00:23:23of the Andaman Islands
00:23:24that these pygmies
00:23:26had tails.
00:23:27That is one reason
00:23:28that Captain Salisbury's
00:23:29expedition went
00:23:30to the islands
00:23:31to secure pictures
00:23:33of the natives.
00:23:46They're very primitive.
00:23:48As I stated,
00:23:50perhaps the most primitive
00:23:51humans on earth,
00:23:52for they have never learned
00:23:54to build a fire.
00:23:55They eat all of their food raw,
00:23:56and it's a very primitive race
00:23:59indeed that has
00:24:00no habitation or hut.
00:24:02But they live in trees
00:24:04where every night
00:24:05overtakes them.
00:24:08And we were very fortunate
00:24:11indeed to be able
00:24:12to get these creatures
00:24:13because it's only occasionally
00:24:15that they come down
00:24:16to the salt water
00:24:17in search of turtle.
00:24:21But these,
00:24:22the natives we show you,
00:24:23had made friends
00:24:24with this forester.
00:24:26And he understood
00:24:27their language
00:24:29and acted as an interpreter.
00:24:32And in that way,
00:24:33we understood
00:24:34the ceremonies
00:24:35that they showed us
00:24:36and what they signified.
00:24:38A turtle on its back
00:24:39is absolutely helpless.
00:24:41You can go away
00:24:42and leave it
00:24:42and come back
00:24:43and find it
00:24:44just where you left it.
00:24:50Their canoe is
00:24:51merely a hollowed log
00:24:53held upright
00:24:54by an outrigger.
00:25:01A girl formally marks
00:25:03her transition
00:25:04from girlhood
00:25:05to womanhood
00:25:05by adorning her body
00:25:07with a costume
00:25:08of designs
00:25:09drawn in clamshell line.
00:25:13Rather disavilled,
00:25:14but the girls
00:25:15are very proud
00:25:16of their makeup.
00:25:21The costume consists
00:25:22of the design
00:25:23on the forehead
00:25:25and the design
00:25:27on the body.
00:25:29A little grass behind
00:25:30and not much before.
00:25:37The girl at the left
00:25:39has an open face.
00:25:42Wide open, in fact.
00:25:44We never knew
00:25:45whether she was smiling
00:25:46at us
00:25:47or getting ready
00:25:47to bite.
00:25:51Now there's another
00:25:52ceremony
00:25:53that they must pass
00:25:54through
00:25:56before they are
00:25:57considered fit
00:25:58to be women.
00:25:59It consists
00:26:00of being kept wet
00:26:01for three days
00:26:02with cold seawater
00:26:03while the older women
00:26:05fan her.
00:26:06If she doesn't
00:26:07die of pneumonia,
00:26:08she's considered fit.
00:26:20and then they
00:26:21showed us
00:26:21their wedding ceremony
00:26:24where the groom
00:26:25sits in the bride's lap
00:26:26and the members
00:26:28of the immediate family
00:26:29form in a summer circle
00:26:30around the couple.
00:26:35After a while,
00:26:36the friends arrive.
00:26:39They act more
00:26:40like enemies,
00:26:41but they're supposed
00:26:42to be friends.
00:26:45And they go into
00:26:46a football huddle
00:26:47around the couple
00:26:47and howl like dogs
00:26:49for about an hour.
00:26:51And then they showed us
00:26:53the wedding dance,
00:26:55the dance that makes
00:26:56the couple man and wife.
00:27:26a little it
00:27:29a little it
00:27:40and now
00:27:40yeah
00:27:42and now
00:27:47and now
00:27:50if she's
00:27:51and you
00:27:53and you
00:27:53are
00:27:54I
00:27:55and
00:28:06Well, they thought they'd given us a good show.
00:28:09And one day, they made their way up this trail into the jungle.
00:28:13A jungle so thick that a white man must cut every foot of his way.
00:28:19Going up this waterway, we told them goodbye.
00:28:22Now we're going to take you to one more group of erstwhile cannibals.
00:28:27These are the Popwans occupying islands along the coast of New Guinea.
00:28:32And according to the Australian government and the missionaries, the Popwans were cannibals from 13 to 18 years ago.
00:28:41Here the missionaries have done a very good work.
00:28:45They have raised these natives from the very depth of primitive existence, up the scale of civilization to where they
00:28:54are quite civilized in action, if not in dress.
00:28:59They load catamarans with these pots and set sail on a trading expedition.
00:29:04The catamaran is a couple of hollow logs with a platform of bamboo, the mast stepped over to one side,
00:29:13and the crew composed very often of women and boys.
00:29:21Now they have to wait for the wind to blow from the right direction to take them where they want
00:29:26to go, for it's impossible to maneuver these catamarans.
00:29:30Then at the other end, they sometimes wait for months for the wind to blow from the right direction to
00:29:36bring them home.
00:29:36So you can see the schedule of a traveling man in New Guinea is rather uncertain.
00:29:43I doubt very much if you'll ever see another picture of these crab claw grass cloth sails.
00:29:51They're called crab claw sails on account of the shape, and they're made of grass cloth woven by the women.
00:29:58It takes the women months to make one of these sails.
00:30:02It was the only material they had for sail-making prior to the arrival of the trader.
00:30:09But he brought cotton duck, and he had very little sales resistance to overcome to get the natives to substitute
00:30:16the cotton duck for the grass claw.
00:30:20That also released the women from sail-making to the gathering of ivory nuts and other things for which the
00:30:29traders were willing to give trade good.
00:30:31But these sails are very fragile.
00:30:34If they become damp, they mildew, and if they mildew, they're very easily torn by the wind.
00:30:41So today, I doubt very much if you will see a dozen of these sails left along the coast of
00:30:48New Guinea.
00:30:54Well, when they reach their destination, they run the catamaran up as far as they can on the beach at
00:31:03high tide.
00:31:04Now, when the tide goes out, it leaves their craft high and dry, and they can do their trading right
00:31:11on the catamaran.
00:31:14There's a lot of fuss and bother when they reach your port, because they must lower these sails and furl
00:31:20them and carry them ashore and keep them covered.
00:31:23For, as I stated, they're very fragile, and if they become damp, they mildew.
00:31:29The arrival of one of these trading expeditions is quite a social event.
00:31:34On this part of the New Guinea coast, visitors are few and far apart.
00:31:41Building your houses in this way has its advantages, because when the tide goes out, it leaves a good yard
00:31:48for the kiddies to play in,
00:31:50and when the tide comes in, it gives the backyard a good cleaning.
00:31:53Their schoolroom is a great outdoors, and they're going to their reading, writing, and arithmetic in a big way.
00:32:02The missionary teachers told us that they very seldom had to mark a student absent.
00:32:11We're going to take you first to the islands of the New Hebrides group.
00:32:16This is a French and British possession.
00:32:20Now, when we approach a cannibal island, it's advisable to anchor the boat off a wide beach,
00:32:26so that when you go ashore in your small boats, the water's edge will be quite a ways from the
00:32:32jungle.
00:32:33You won't see the natives at first.
00:32:35They'll be back in the bush, watching you just as suspiciously, perhaps, as you'll watch them.
00:32:43And they have very good reason to be suspicious of a white man.
00:32:47You may have to spend several days at the water's edge displaying trinkets before the natives come out of the
00:32:53bush.
00:32:54They first send out the small boys, and if nothing happens to the small boys, then the men come out.
00:33:01They'll bring out pigs and chickens, vegetables and fruit, to trade for the trinkets they know we'll have for them.
00:33:10These are real cannibals.
00:33:12They're the Melanesian type.
00:33:14And the pipe was the favorite article we had.
00:33:18They wanted some paint.
00:33:21The only thing we had was enamel.
00:33:23They took it and painted their faces with it.
00:33:26It was guaranteed not to come off with steam or hot water, so I guess they're still wearing it.
00:33:31They have the mentality of three- or four-year-old children and the bodies of adults.
00:33:39These hats were supposed to frighten undesirable visitors away from their island,
00:33:45and they didn't want us to go back into the interior.
00:33:49This always worked on the superstitious tribes from other islands,
00:33:53but naturally it had no effect on us, so they finally gave it up and disappeared in the jungle.
00:34:00Sometime later, when we followed them, we found their village, a very evil, vile-smelling place.
00:34:08We found the men and boys living in a compound by themselves.
00:34:13The women live with the pigs.
00:34:16The man's compound is absolutely taboo to women.
00:34:20If a woman enters a man's compound, she is killed instantly.
00:34:26That may sound silly in this day of civilization,
00:34:29but I assure you it's one of the many brutal customs practiced by the cannibals of the New Hebrides.
00:34:36A cannibal has one virtue.
00:34:38He will generally tell the truth.
00:34:41We asked these fellows if they had eaten human flesh,
00:34:44and they grinned and grunted and readily admitted it.
00:34:47But they also admitted that they preferred the flesh of the black man to that of the white man.
00:34:53They claim that a white man smells bad and tastes salty.
00:34:58And that is very likely true because every race has its own particular body musk.
00:35:34And that is very much more suitable for women's black man.
00:35:36A Boo African Martinez
00:35:40The deep note of the tom-tom has called in these savages from all over the island for
00:35:47this ceremony.
00:35:49And deep in the jungle they have clearings called sing-sing grounds where they hold their
00:35:54hideous feasts.
00:35:55The cannibal woman is not permitted to eat human flesh, but she prepares it for cooking.
00:36:18One of these ceremonies starts with a dance, early in the morning.
00:36:23It starts in an orderly manner, but as the hours go by the men become frenzy.
00:36:30They tear their hair, they scream like demons, tear off their covering, if any, and they
00:36:38dance until they fall exhausted.
00:36:40They're kicked out of the way and others take their places.
00:36:44The whole spectacle is a very disgusting and revolting one to a white man.
00:36:51Then in the afternoon they bring in the pigs.
00:36:53They sacrifice some of the male pigs to the gods, and the men dance with the female pigs.
00:37:03They go through many repulsive and obscene actions which naturally the censors would not permit
00:37:10us to show in a moving picture theater.
00:37:13We show this ceremony up to the point where the censors compelled us to cut it.
00:37:31We were at Malakula Island about ten days before we could get these natives out of the jungle
00:37:37in a group.
00:37:38They'd come out one or two at a time, but we wanted a group picture.
00:37:43It was impossible to go back in the jungle and photograph them due to the fact that the
00:37:48light at noon is just like twilight.
00:37:51This is due to the dense vegetation.
00:37:54We finally got them out on the beach and made pictures of the boys first.
00:37:59The boys are not too hard looking, although they do have very cruel eyes and treacherous mouths.
00:38:04But the adults are very fierce and very treacherous.
00:38:11Every man wears a piece of bamboo through the cartilage of the nose.
00:38:15And among these savages, too, the pipe was the favorite article.
00:38:20We have found that no matter how primitive a race, it knows how to smile.
00:38:27You're apt to wonder when a cannibal smiles at you what he's thinking.
00:38:32And you're pretty apt to hope he isn't thinking of calories.
00:38:38Here's a jolly little playmate.
00:38:40Many of them had guns, and they claimed that they had killed white men for them.
00:38:46You can believe this because it's about the only way they can get a gun.
00:38:51It's a very serious crime against the British government to sell them guns or ammunition.
00:38:58And that's the thing that they want more than anything else.
00:39:05A missionary boat put into this bay, and cannibals came out to the missionary boat to listen to the organ.
00:39:13They call it the Sing Sing Bacchus.
00:39:16They can't say box, they say Bacchus.
00:39:18Now, these being the best-dressed men in the tribes, we decided to have a style show.
00:39:27We're going to show you what the well-dressed cannibal will wear this year.
00:39:37Captain Salisbury had made a previous trip to this island, and he had a copy of Asia containing pictures of
00:39:44these men which he had taken.
00:39:46They got a great bang out of seeing their own pictures in that publication.
00:40:02The Solomon Islands belong to the British, and here we found both cannibals and headhunters.
00:40:10There's a large island of Malata in this group, and years ago the bush cannibals drove the shore cannibals away.
00:40:18The survivors took up refuge on coral reefs that surround this island of Malata.
00:40:26And during the past several hundred years they've been going back to the mainland, bringing out canoe loads of rocks
00:40:31and dirt.
00:40:32They've built those small islands up until they can live on them very comfortably.
00:40:38That little Picaninny isn't much out to the old man, but he looks good in the picture.
00:40:46This fellow showed us what would happen if he sat one inch off balance in this little ten-pound canoe.
00:40:57But he could climb into that canoe over the gunwale a hundred times without capsizing it.
00:41:03That's quite a stunt. There wasn't a member of our party that could sit in that canoe and paddle it
00:41:09one minute without capsizing it.
00:41:12The men on the small islands are known as saltwater men.
00:41:16All the small islands are protected by rock walls.
00:41:21These walls serve two purposes.
00:41:24They protect the inhabitants from the raids of the cannibals and headhunters from the other islands.
00:41:30And they also protect them from the storms.
00:41:34Life in the western Pacific is pretty much a case of the survival of the fittest.
00:41:44The boys are diving here for trinkets and tobacco cans.
00:41:49But they dive in the same manner for the clamshell, which is used in making the shell money, the medium
00:41:57of exchange of the Solomon Islands.
00:41:59This clamshell money is not a coin, it's an ornament.
00:42:04But it's highly valued by all the tribes.
00:42:07Most of the tribes are too lazy to make it.
00:42:14The men on these small islands never go to the mainland.
00:42:17They're afraid of the bush cannibals.
00:42:19But once a week they send the women over with the fish they catch in these fish traps and shell
00:42:26money to trade with the bush cannibals for vegetables and fruits, things they are unable to produce on the small
00:42:34islands.
00:42:35The bush cannibals declare this truce once a week.
00:42:38The women set sail on a trading expedition.
00:42:41We followed to see what would happen, and as it happened so often in life, nothing happened.
00:42:47The bush cannibals came out of the interior, the men carrying nothing, the women heavily laden.
00:42:53And they met the women coming over from the small islands.
00:43:00Now we're going to show you the Solomon Island cannibals.
00:43:04You'll notice that he looks cleaner and more intelligent.
00:43:10But I assure you that he's just as treacherous, just as bloodthirsty, and just as fond of human flesh as
00:43:18the cannibals of the New Hebrides.
00:43:21In fact, these men have a very evil reputation.
00:43:25They're known as killers.
00:43:27I believe they'd kill their father for a half a string of shell money.
00:43:33The British government is constantly sending expeditions after these men.
00:43:39Not long ago, the natives of this village killed the crew of a trading schooner.
00:43:46And the government sent a gunboat out, shell this village, and killed some of these men.
00:43:54Those that they capture, they take to their settlement at Tulegi, where they have a stockade and a gallows, and
00:44:02where they're executed.
00:44:04It's very possible that some of the very men you see in this picture have been either killed or captured.
00:44:11When they reach the shore, the women drop exhausted from their hard journey.
00:44:16But the men dance for hours.
00:44:19They dance to the music of the most primitive instrument of man.
00:44:24The hollow log.
00:44:26To the rhythm that comes from this log, when men beat it, these fellows dance.
00:44:32You notice some of them are wearing undershirts.
00:44:34We traded our undershirts for war clubs and spears.
00:44:40When we left this island, we had plenty of weapons, but were short on underclothes.
00:44:52Now we'll take you over and give you a glimpse of Tulegi, the headquarters of the British in the Solomons.
00:45:00Just a handful of British and a number of native gods populate this small settlement.
00:45:09Here is where they can find the cannibals they capture after depredations against the white men.
00:45:15And they give them the little necktie party on this gallows.
00:45:19It's always a very splendid lesson to the man they hang, but it doesn't seem to make any impression at
00:45:25all on the others.
00:45:26We went in too close to this island, and the current put us ashore on that reef.
00:45:31It was necessary to lighten the boat, and we went ashore and took up our headquarters in a hut.
00:45:42This sacred bush turkey is a very ambitious bird.
00:45:48Whenever she wants to lay an egg, she digs a hole four feet deep, deposits her egg in the hole,
00:45:54and then fills the hole with sand.
00:45:57The heat of the sand hatches the egg, and the little chick is forced to make its way up through
00:46:06four feet of sand to the surface.
00:46:08It emerges fully feathered, and glances around, locates the jungle, and flies away almost immediately.
00:46:18It receives no care at all from the parent birds.
00:46:30The natives gather the eggs, but they never kill the birds themselves.
00:46:44We soon ran out of presents after going ashore on this island, and the men became very surly and sullen.
00:46:52They got off at the jungle's edge, and glared at us.
00:46:57When we saw these fellows coming in from other islands, and other parts of this island, dressed in their war
00:47:04paint, and carrying their weapons, and putting on these dances, we knew what it was all about.
00:47:11We had been among cannibals long enough to know that this meant that we should get that boat off the
00:47:17reef, and get our things aboard, and set sail.
00:47:21We got our things aboard, and took some shots with a telephoto lens of these dances, and then were on
00:47:29our way.
00:47:33Our first view of the headhunters showed them shooting fish, literally shooting fish.
00:47:40Then the cannibal, he has a higher mentality than that of a six or eight year old child.
00:47:47He keeps himself in splendid physical condition.
00:47:50They bind their ankles loosely, and are able to go up these trees like a monkey on a stick.
00:47:58Only a man in splendid physical condition can perform this stunt.
00:48:07Or they run up the trees in this fashion, with their ankles unbound.
00:48:16The coconut tree is a very valuable plant in the South Seas.
00:48:20I doubt very much if the natives could exist five years without it.
00:48:25The fronds of the palm furnish coverings for their huts.
00:48:28The natives eat the meat of the coconut and drink the milk.
00:48:32And coconut fiber has hundreds of uses.
00:48:35For everything that we use, wires, screws, pins, tacks, paste, nails, they use coconut fiber.
00:48:45Then another vegetable that is very valuable is the climbing vine.
00:48:51They use this when they need a heavier binding to take the place of rope.
00:48:58And two men with several loops of this vine can go to the top of the tallest tree,
00:49:04no matter how large the tree is in diameter.
00:49:07The man below passes the loop to the man above.
00:49:11And when they want to come down, they use the long length of this,
00:49:16get it between their toes to act as a break, and they slide down.
00:49:23Every stalk of the traveler's palm contains a drink of cold, pure water.
00:49:29That's quite the purest water found in that part of the world.
00:49:43They make fire, as do many primitive races, by rubbing hard and soft wood together.
00:49:50This friction produces a heat that in turn produces a spark which they place in the tender,
00:49:59in this case coconut fiber, just another use for the coconut tree.
00:50:04And by blowing on this spark, they have a fire almost as quickly as we could make one with a
00:50:11match.
00:50:12But they don't have to do this very often.
00:50:15They keep their fires burning month after month, never let them go out.
00:50:22The canoes of the headhunters are not the crude hollowed logs of the cannibals,
00:50:28but they're constructed more scientifically.
00:50:32They cut the boards to a good shape and fit with crude stone implements,
00:50:39pour holes along the edges, and then lace the boards together using vegetable fiber.
00:50:46And then with a nut that grows there, they waterproof the seams.
00:50:50They rub it on a rock, fill in the cracks, and it acts as a waterproof cement.
00:50:56We saw canoes that had been in use 35 years.
00:51:00They were just as seaworthy as the day they were made.
00:51:05The chewer of the bagel nut puts a piece of the nut in his mouth,
00:51:08some lime from his lime pot, and a piece of wild pepper leaf.
00:51:13And boy, he gets the kick of a mule.
00:51:15His hard action goes up a number of beats.
00:51:19They're very proud of their personal appearance.
00:51:21They put lime in their hair to kill the insects,
00:51:23and then comb them out with those bamboo combs.
00:51:28And when they shave, they use a pair of clamshell tweezers
00:51:33and pull the whiskers out by the roofs.
00:51:36It doesn't seem to cause them any discomfort at all.
00:51:40I doubt very much if they have the same nervous system that we have.
00:51:46I think he missed one.
00:51:51When the boys are five or six years old, they're taken from the mothers,
00:51:56and kept in the compound with the men.
00:51:58And they're taught how to handle their weapons and the steps of the war dancers.
00:52:02For it is the desire of every headhunter to be a good warrior.
00:52:07And when nine years old, they pierce his ear with a thorn.
00:52:13They keep increasing the size of this plug until the earlobes are stretched enough
00:52:17to hold a couple of tin cans, and he's all dressed up.
00:52:22You'll notice the lobe of the ear goes entirely around the can.
00:52:27The old men make ornaments of clamshell and tortoiseshell.
00:52:36This fellow has a piece of coconut fiber tied to his big toe,
00:52:40and he's working down a tortoiseshell ornament.
00:52:44And notice his earlobes.
00:52:47That tortoiseshell ornament goes over a clamshell backing,
00:52:51and that is one on the forehead of a chief.
00:52:55The part of the picture showing Gao's rise to Powah
00:52:58and the great raid that followed
00:53:01was reenacted for Captain Salisbury by Gao and his tribes.
00:53:07This is a very important event in the history of the headhunter.
00:53:12But we photographed it not because of its historical importance,
00:53:17but because it is perhaps the only opportunity
00:53:21that civilized people will have of seeing actual headhunters engaged in a raid
00:53:28in the headhunter country and over the ground that the original action took place.
00:54:04The canoes were taken from their place.
00:54:06There were places of concealment in the jungle,
00:54:08for the headhunters must keep these canoes concealed
00:54:12because the English destroy them whenever they're found.
00:54:17The English know that they'll only be used at the time of a raid,
00:54:21and every raid is a very bloody affair.
00:54:24They all gathered at Bilois for a great council of war,
00:54:30all the chiefs and their warriors.
00:54:34And at this council the plan of action was discussed,
00:54:38and it was also decided that only the young men should be taken on the raid.
00:54:45This didn't please the old fellows.
00:54:48They wanted to go.
00:54:50This old man pointed to the ring on his breast.
00:54:53He said,
00:54:54That shows I've killed a chief.
00:54:58And for every ring on my arm, I've got a skull in my skull house.
00:55:07Headhunters take the heads of their enemies as a religious ceremony.
00:55:12If anything of an unfortunate nature occurs,
00:55:15such as the stealing of that girl or the shipwrecking of a canoe,
00:55:19they think their god the Uri Uri is angry,
00:55:22and that they must secure heads of their enemies to pacify him.
00:55:41It's a hundred and fifty miles to the island of Tsavo,
00:55:45where their enemies reside.
00:55:48These men are great paddlers.
00:55:49They take advantage of the shelter offered by the different islands,
00:55:53and whenever they come to a rough place,
00:55:55they paddle furiously.
00:55:58They can keep up this stroke for hours.
00:56:00And they're fatalists.
00:56:02They're great warriors.
00:56:22They're pretty good.
00:56:23They're good.
00:56:31They're good.
00:56:36They're good.
00:56:43He was a missionary.
00:56:45I have a great job.
00:56:47I've got a great job,
00:56:47and we're good.
00:56:48We're good.
00:56:49Let's go.
00:57:19Let's go.
00:57:49The victors hold a three-day celebration.
00:57:52This gives them an opportunity to prepare the skulls to place in their skull houses.
00:57:58They keep only the skull.
00:58:01The flesh is removed.
00:58:02Back on Bilois, the women are overjoyed to see so many of the warriors returning from this raid.
00:58:11There was great rejoicing when they found that Nibu had been rescued unharmed, and she's led ashore by a young
00:58:19chief.
00:58:20The boys are kept prisoners so that if any heads are needed in a hurry, they won't have to go
00:58:27on a raid.
00:58:29The islands of the Western Pacific cast a strange spell over a white man at any time.
00:58:36Particularly is this true if the white man is witnessing the return of a victorious tribe of headhunters from a
00:58:46raid?
00:58:46The queer chant and the very weird ceremony sends a strange sensation up and down a white man's spine.
00:58:58I can't describe that sensation.
00:59:01You've just got to go down there and find out for yourselves.
00:59:07The warriors bring the skulls ashore wrapped in leaves.
00:59:12And there's one more ceremony that must be performed before the skulls are placed in the shrines.
00:59:20This consists of placing the skulls on the beach in a large pile.
00:59:28And then they dance a dance around this pile of skulls.
00:59:31It is dedicated to their Uri Uri, their god.
00:59:35In this dance, they tell the story of the raid, how they attacked the Savo Islanders,
00:59:42how they killed the men, women, and girl children,
00:59:46and how they brought back these skulls to present to their great god.
00:59:55There are a great many of these skull houses in this part of the Solomon Island group.
01:00:00Some of them are very pretentious, others mere lean-tos.
01:00:04But every head-hunter takes this religion very seriously.
01:00:08And it would be sacrilegious for him to keep any of the victims' possessions.
01:00:14All the victims' shell money and ornaments are tied to the skull with coconut fiber.
01:00:21And they'll remain there as long as the warrior who owns the skull house lives.
01:00:29Go is at peace now, at peace until another raid.
01:00:34Come on.
01:00:35Come on.
01:00:35Come on.
01:00:39Come on.
01:00:40Fuck.
01:00:50Nobody will have sentiments to the clowns.
01:00:50Mother.
01:00:50Come on.
01:00:51This is the sacrifice for you.
01:00:54Mother.
01:00:54You
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