Charles W. Darling

“ Give me credence, and trow me, if ye had experience of eating men and women’s flesh, ye would think it so delicious that ye would never forbear it again.’ So, without any sign of repentance, this unhappy creature died in the sight of the people. ”

“ The races on the Amazon known under the name of Tapuyos have been represented as devouring every prisoner they could capture, as a sacred duty, and a sacrifice acceptable to the manes of their fallen brethren. Indeed, they practiced a refined cruelty in cherishing and fattening their victims until an appointed day, when they were put to death by a single blow inflicted by a club viewed as sacred. ”

“ Paul De Chillu, with whom the writer has conversed, says that the natives of the gorilla country in Western Africa manifest no repugnance toward human flesh as food, but take it with a relish. The Fans, one of the West African tribes, are known to have indulged in this depraved taste for human food, and they purchase dead slaves for culinary purposes from other tribes, at the high rate of an elephant’s tooth apiece. In polite Fan society, it is accounted a very courteous act to exchange bodies for table use with the neighboring tribes with whom at the time the Fans happen to be at peace. ”

“ It appears undoubted that some of the men tried to prolong their lives by killing and eating their companions in misfortune. A few solitary arms and limbs have been picked up in their prison, and everything points to the fact that cannibalism was resorted to. The young man whose body was unmutilated seems to have survived the others, and to have died of hunger.”
Schweinfurth, in a work entitled “Heart of Africa,” assures his readers that tribes in Africa even now wage war with neighboring tribes, for the avowed purpose of obtaining human flesh to dry for provisions. ”

“ The records of shipwrecks and sieges prove that famine will sometimes overcome the horrors of cannibalism among men of the higher nations. During the great famine which smote the city of Moscow with such severity, it was estimated that no less than half a million of human beings died from hunger. Along the most public of the streets as well as in the narrow lanes-where lived the poor, multitudes fell down dying with no friendly person near them, and others too much exhausted to take the few crumbs proffered. ”

“ Human bones constituted part of the furniture of their houses, and human hair was used as an ornament in most of their implements of war. The European missionaries who have lived on the islands declare that these people devoured most of the bodies of the slain; and though implicit dependence 35cannot always be placed on the tales of seamen, it is well to remember that Longsdorf was told by a Frenchman who had resided on one of the islands, that the priests often regaled themselves on human flesh simply from the pleasure derived from its use. ”

“ In Mexico, a country as old in its geologic formation as 38any known to science, with mountains higher than any peaks of the Alps, with a climate always equable, and a sky in which the southern cross shines resplendently; even in this land the man-eater has been found. According to Prescott, the Mexicans were not cannibals in a certain acceptation of the term, as they did not feed on human flesh to gratify the appetite. Cannibalism with them in its origin and professed purpose was distinctly religious. ”

“ In the sunny land of Italy, in the year 1519, at the beautiful city of Milan, a record appears in its annals that a Milanese woman named Elizabeth had an invincible inclination to human flesh. She enticed children to her house, where she killed, salted and ate them. ”

“ In Australia where large animals are scarce, certain tribes of an extremely degraded type have been known to feed on flesh. There is a story of an Englishman who several years ago went to New Caledonia to raise cattle for the market of Noumea. While journeying from one ranch to another, by reason of the bushes and low shrubbery he lost his way, and after wandering about till near nightfall, finally came upon a large village of natives. He was hospitably entertained, well fed and by the great chief Atai was treated with much attention. ”

“ That the primary meaning of human sacrifice among them was to present victims to their deities is shown, by the manner in which the sacrificing priest, having torn out the heart, offered it to the sun, and afterwards went through the ceremonies of feeding the idol with the heart and blood. According to the Aztec worship one of their war gods demanded the sacrifice of such prisoners as came into the hands of their captors. In order therefore to meet the needed supplies for the required service, war was frequently engaged in. ”

“ The firearms of the whites gave them great advantage, and the defeat of the Iroquois was soon accomplished. As they fled they were shot down by French riflemen; and the only survivors, fifteen in number, were made prisoners. That night scalp-locks were abundant, and torture fires blazed along the shore. The same night the Algonquins had a feast, and the bodies of their defunct enemies furnished food for the banquet. A belief existed among these savages that by devouring the flesh and blood of fallen foes, the eaters became possessed of their bravery. ”

“ The Creek and Blackfeet tribes are also said by Farrand, a missionary for fifteen years among them, to have eaten their prisoners on the field of battle.
The charge of cannibalism against the members of the Greeley expedition, and the horrors of Cape Sabine are yet fresh in our memory, and the sufferings of the men during that long, bitter winter of 1884 have not half been told. A leading journal in its graphic description of their privations, makes use of this language: “After the game gave out early in February, we have good reason to believe the men were kept alive on human flesh. ”

“ The subject is truly said to be one of the broadest which can engage the human mind, and man, by his intellectual and moral being, stands above every other form of animal nature, dwelling in a world apart from them all. ”

“ The Wambembe also of Central Africa ate human flesh to such an extent that, when they could not obtain it otherwise, they traded their animals to secure the coveted article.
A Negro race called the Babooke living near the Niam-Niams is even more notoriously cannibalistic than that people; and Baker tells of the Makkarika tribe, dwelling about two hundred miles west of Gondokoro, who consumed the flesh of man with great avidity. When the slave-traders made a “razzia,” these natives accompanied them for the sake of eating the slain. ”

“ Their habitations 25in the tree-tops were also decked with human skulls, which led to the belief that the taste of human flesh was not unknown to them.
The Papuans were considered great adepts at cooking their fellow-men, and with them man-eating, plain, unmistakable and vile, existed up to a very late period. It is intimated that some of these natives have not yet lost their relish for human food. The Papuans who live inland are described as frightful and hideous in appearance, making themselves more so by the peculiar manner of arranging their hair, which they form into enormous bunches. ”

“ When Rome was captured by the Goths in the year 410 and the ports blockaded, there was such a distress among the Romans that human flesh was publicly sold in the markets; and many mothers were forced to consume their own children. ”

“ And yet in face of this and numerous other facts, some positively assert that cannibalism never 29existed among the islands in the South Pacific. Time has wrought however among these peoples great changes, and when as now some of these pristine savages are seen clothed in the usual attire prevalent in the western world, it is very humiliating to be asked whether their respected fathers perhaps ever partook of “cold missionary.” It is but just to these distant people, however, to say that never was cannibalism rampant among them, as was true of the occupants of the neighboring isles ”

“ Impelled by that covetous emotion which no savage has ever been able to repress, every object within their reach was grasped with both hands, and they held to it so pertinaciously as to require the united efforts of the strongest seamen to remove their grip and throw them overboard. ”

“ History plainly points to this land as the cradle 11of the human family. In looking over this vast continent, among the earliest people who practiced cannibalism were the Chinese. Their mode of preparing a human body previous to eating the same was as repulsive as any of the peoples who never rose to the dignity of an organized government. ”

“ The people of Maneana south of the Gambia and Senegal’ Mollien states are man-eaters; but their preference is for elderly persons; nor are they particular as to whether the vital spark of life has been extinguished.
According to Abdallatiphus, during the famine which desolated Egypt, A. D. 1199, in consequence of the Nile not overflowing its banks, many of the Nubians living on the river were forced by the pangs of hunger to kill and eat their own children. ”

“ In the interior of New Guinea (the great link by which the Molucca Islands are connected with New Holland on the one hand and the Polynesian Archipelago on the other) is a race of Haraforas who live in the hollows of trees, which they ascend by means of long notched pieces of timber. The agility of the youth of this race among the branches of trees is wonderful; they will climb and spring from one branch to another almost with the ease of monkeys, and like those animals when attacked all take to the trees as refuges, where they can defend themselves with great chance of success. ”

“ Junghuhn declares that warlike ferocity prompted these people to eat their enemies; he also describes them as regarding human flesh a great delicacy. In fact, they devoured not only war-captives, but even criminals, slaves, and their aged relations. ”

“ When all other things failed they have been known to stay the pangs of hunger by filling their insatiable stomachs with clay, which though it affords no nutriment, yet for a time allays the cravings of the appetite. ”

“ The religious doctrine that the soul outlives the body, continuing in ghostly shape to visit the living, and retaining a certain connection with the mortal remains it once inhabited, has evidently led many to propitiate an honored and dreaded spirit by respectful disposal of the corpse. ”

“ In verity cannibalism was a part of the Fijiian religion, and although their gods were supposed to delight in human flesh, still the horrors of Fijiian anthropophagy were attributable more to sensual gratification than to any devout motive. The Fijiians were of the opinion that many of the gods resided in or are personified by particular animals, such as rats, sharks, dogs, and even the human person. ”

“ Glaber chronicles that during the famine of 1033 in France, guests were sacrificed by Frenchmen who had welcomed them to their hospitality; children were enticed into secret places and slain, and frequently human flesh was exposed for sale in the markets. ”

“ Schweinfurth the Niam-Niams, also of Central Africa, devour the bodies of their dead 22enemies, and when any one of their people is old, feeble or so near dying, to use the sailor’s simile in Charles Dickens’ famous story, “he needn’t be so very partick’ler about a few minutes,” he is killed and eaten. Runaway slaves when recaptured always meet this fate, though as a rule the slaves in this tribe rarely attempt to escape. ”

“ Many psychologists and linguists, while confining themselves to their own specialties as bearing on man’s nature and origin, have undervalued the labors of their compeers, and neglected the results of each other’s inquiries in drawing their conclusions. ”

“ The remote tribes, though leading a more independent life, still retain however much of their former ferocity; they defend their territories, and allow no strangers to enter them under pain of being made a meal of; cannibalism existing among them in all its pristine rigor. ”

“ On awakening they relate what the spirit has declared to them in their dreams. The communication made known sometimes is that a woman or a man, a tattooed or an untattooed man, a fat or lean man, an old man or a young man from the next valley or border of the next stream, must be seized and brought to them. Those to whom this revelation comes immediately conceal themselves near a footpath or river, and the first passer-by bearing any resemblance to the description given, is taken and eaten by the priests. ”

“ Experience has shown them to be savage and deceitful in the extreme. They have been known to have killed the crews of several vessels wrecked on their coasts. Cannibalism prevails also among them, and in times of great scarcity they will feed upon their aged relations, rather than sacrifice and consume their fish-hunting dogs. ”

“ Thwing states that within a comparatively recent period, a tribe of Indians inhabiting Texas has indulged in man-eating.
The Carronkowas on Mattagorda Bay greatly harrassed early American settlers by their keen relish for human flesh. There was also a cognate tribe, a remnant of which still exists under the name of Tonkowas, which practiced cannibalism as late as 1854. ”

“ As he was departing for his field of labor, a friend humorously ventured to express the hope that he would not “disagree with those savages.” 12Whether he did or not, can never be told, as this martyr was eaten by the natives soon after his arrival at Sumatra.
Another authority fully as reliable, Mr. Anderson, relates that these Battaks not only eat their dead victims, but begin their consumption before they have been deprived of life; and the causes that provoke this disposition are midnight robbery, treacherous attacks, and intermarriage. ”