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The cannibalistic tree
Does it really exist? It is certainly permissible to express doubts on this point, but the legend of it spreads so persistently in Madagascar among all the island's peoples that it is at least appropriate to examine the reported facts with interest.
An American scientist, Dr. Osborn, has just published, upon returning from a trip there, a curious account. He admits not having seen the plant ogre himself, but many missionaries have confirmed its existence to him, and he includes in his communication a letter from the botanist Liche, who claims to have witnessed a barbaric religious ceremony of which he was the center.
This tree is said to be a gigantic succulent plant with a massive crown, its top crowned with flowers exuding a fragrant and astonishing sap. From this top, Liche says, four immense leaves extend toward the ground, leaves 4 meters long, 1 meter wide, as hard as leather, and 20 to 40 centimeters thick. The natives—it is still Liche speaking—forced a woman to climb the tree and drink the juice of a flower. Immediately, the four leaves closed and remained closed for ten days, at the end of which the naturalist, who had perhaps himself inhaled a little too much of these flowers with their stupefying fragrance, assures us that only a few bones remained at the foot of the trunk, testifying to the bloodthirsty instincts of this tree that, fortunately, no one else has been able to discover.
Berliner Tageblatt.
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