Chapter 5: You Will Be Chopped And Baked

Are there still cannibals in Irian Jaya?

The next day when we stopped for lunch in a deserted riverside shelter the next day I filmed Bruce asking Premus about cannibalism. Between us a pot of stew bubbled on the fire.

'Further upriver, Premus, do they still eat people?'

'Yes, but here, not for twenty years,' the old man said matter-of-factly.

'And further upriver, are there still tribes who are at war?' Bruce asked.

'Yes, but here, not now. The village of Butukatnow, it's not OK to enter.'

'Still? Now?'

'Yes, still. If you go there you will be finished! Bom! Pop!' To an accompaniment of suitable noises Premus's hand shot out to stab an invisible victim then traced a cutting motion on either side of his neck. 'Cutting here and here.' He grimaced and rolled his eyes. 'They will chop you and bake you.'
Bruce laughed.

'Bake us?'

'Yes, bake you. Baking, dancing, eating meat and sago…Feasting.'

I wondered if Premus wasn't exaggerating but he was deadly serious. I even detected in him a glimmer of pride that his countrymen were still carrying on in such a fashion.

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