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Witch Weekly · June 24, 2018 – 4:32 AM

After years in the wilderness among savages, have J. Alfred Darrow and Pablo Medina truly forsaken their wild ways in favor of returning to civilization? Or is it possible that they harbor decidedly un-English sympathies or participate in strange practices from the comfort of home?

Savages Among Us: The Trials of Darrow & Medina Revealed
Regular readers of the Daily Prophet may have been anticipating the arrival of The Untold Story of the Sycorax Expedition, a collection of journal entries, illustrations, and more traditional narrative selections authored by Captain J. Alfred Darrow, one of the two survivors of the disastrous expedition which set sail in 1882. Although only released earlier this week, the book was available for preorder through owl earlier this month, and has already become something of a sensation — despite the fact that the publisher warned off consumption by the fairer sex, due to some of the more scandalous events covered within the book's pages.

If you happen not to be one of the many women who ordered the book through mail so as to be able to read it without being actually seen to purchase it, we can summarize some of the more salacious elements, most of which deal with the life of Darrow and his companion, Mr. Pablo Medina, after they assimilated with a local tribe. Mr. Darrow's journal entries detail strikingly uncivilized practices, including the fact that hardly anyone in the village was ever clothed beyond the barest covering over their genitals, and fornication outside of the institution of marriage (which seemed to be quite an unknown concept to them) was rampant.

These details might, perhaps, be considered merely academically if it were not for the insinuation in the narrative (and, on certain points, blunt admittance) that the castaways partook in these savage practices, as well. Both men received tattoos during their time in the tribe, joined hunting parties, participated in primitive battles against other tribes on occasion, and learned a rudimentary form of magic in lieu of using any of the skills taught at Hogwarts to aid them in survival.

J. Alfred Darrow authored The Untold Story of the Sycorax Expedition, giving the average citizen an insight into the strange practices of the savages of South America.

Most worrisome of all, however, is what the book leaves unsaid. In a previous encounter with savage local peoples, many of the crew of the Sycorax were murdered in cold blood — and Mr. Darrow suspected, as he wrote at the time, that they had been eaten. The fear of cannibalism remains a prevelant one through many pages of his narrative — but then disappears entirely once he has joined forces with the locals. With only a cryptic reference to their 'strange dietary customs' he entirely leaves out the question of how these tribesmen sustained themselves, which leads one to wonder — is it possible that these two formerly civilized Englishmen have ever tasted human flesh?

Magizoologist Pablo Medina — the face of a cannibal?

Whatever the case, we advise readers to keep an appropriate distance between both men, as it seems unlikely that they can have escaped their time with the savages entirely unscathed. If the two gentleman are ever able to return to normal society after years in the wilderness remains to be seen, but we would hardly want to be the first to test their manners!

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Issue #185 - Savages Among Us: The Trials of Darrow & Medina