2 deceased."1 In Greenland "a slain man is said to have the power to avenge himself upon the murderer by rushing into him,' which can only be prevented by eating a piece of his liver." Many cannibals are in the habit of consuming that part of a slain enemy which is supposed to contain his soul or courage or strength, and one reason for this practice may be the wish to render him incapable of doing further harm. Queensland natives eat the kidneys of the persons whom they have killed, believing that "the kidneys are the centre of life." Among the Maoris a chief was often satisfied with the left eye of his enemy, which they considered to be the seat of the soul; or they drank the blood from a corresponding belief;* or in the case of a blood feud the heart of the enemy, representing the vital essence of him, was eaten "to fix or make firm the victory and the courage of the victor."5 Other peoples likewise eat the hearts or suck the brains of their foes. Moreover, by eating the supposed seat of a certain quality in his enemy the cannibal thinks not only that he deprives his victim of that quality, but also that he incorporates it with his own system. In many cases this is the chief or the only reason for the practice of cannibalism. The Shoshone Indians supposed that they became animated by the heroic spirit of a fallen foe if they partook of his flesh. Among the Hurons, if an enemy had shown courage, his heart, roasted and cut into small pieces, 1 Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, p. 300. 2 Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 45. 3 Lumholtz, op. cit. p. 272. Dieffenbach, op. cit. ii. 128 sq. 5 Best, in Jour. Polynesian Soc. xii. 83, 147. 6 Blumentritt, Der Ahnencultus der Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,' in Mittheil. d. kais. u. könig. Geograph. Gesellsch. in Wien, xxv. 154 (Italones). Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 269 (Kukis). de Groot, op. cit. (vol. iv. book) ii. 373 sqq. (ancient Chinese). Schneider, Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, p. 209 sq. cit. 'Aoneo. 3 5 was given to the young men and boys to eat.' The Ewespeaking peoples of the Slave Coast used to eat the hearts of foes remarkable for sagacity, holding that the heart is the seat of the intellect as well as of courage.2 Among the Kimbunda of South-Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the throne, a brave prisoner of war is killed in order that the king and nobles may eat his flesh, and so acquire his strength and courage. The idea of transference very largely underlies Australian cannibalism.* In some tribes enemies are consumed with a view to acquiring some part of their qualities and courage. The Dieyerie devour the fatty portions of their foes because they think it will impart strength to them." And similar motives are often given for the practice of eating relatives or friends. When a man is killed in one of the ceremonial fights in the tribes about Maryborough, in Queensland, his friends skin and eat him in the hope that his virtues as a warrior may go into those who partake of him. Among the natives of the River Darling, in New South Wales, a piece of flesh is cut from the dead body and taken to the camp, and after being sun-dried is cut up into small pieces, which are distributed among the relatives and friends of the deceased. Some of them use the piece in making a charm, or throw it into the river to bring a flood and fish, but others suck it to get strength and courage. In certain Central Australian tribes, when a party starts on an avenging expedition, every man of it drinks some blood and also has some spurted over his body, so as to make him lithe and active; the elder men 1 Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. xxxix. Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 100. 3 Magyar, Reisen in Süd-Afrika, p. 273 Fraser, Aborigines of New South Wales, pp. 56, 81. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. p. xxxviii. Howitt, Australian Medicine Men,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi. 30. Langloh Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, p. 38. Gason, 'Dieyerie Tribe,' in Curr, op. cit. ii. 52. VOL. II 3 indicate from whom the blood is to be drawn, and the persons thus selected must not decline. In certain South Australian tribes cannibalism is only practised by old men and women, who eat a baby in order to get the youngster's strength. Among other natives of the same continent, as we have noticed above, a mother used to kill and eat her first child, as this was believed to strengthen her for later births. And in various Australian tribes it is, or has been, the custom when a child is weak or sickly to kill its infant brother or sister and feed it with the flesh to make it strong. Many of the Brazilian Indians are in the habit of burning the bones of their departed relatives, and mix the ashes with a drink of which they partake for the purpose of absorbing their spirits or virtues." Dr. Couto de Magalhães was informed that the savage Chavantes "eat their children who die, in the hope of gathering again to their body the soul of the child." The belief in the principle of transference has also led to cannibalism in connection with human sacrifice and to the eating of man-gods. At Florida, in the Solomon Islands, human flesh was eaten in sacrifice only. In Hawaii, "après le sacrifice, le peuple, qui d'ailleurs ne fut jamais anthropophage, pratiquait une sorte de communion en mangeant certaines parties de la victime."8 In West Equatorial Africa, according to Mr. Winwood Reade, there are two kinds of cannibalism-the one is simply an 1 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 461. 2 Crauford, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxiv. 182. 3 Supra, i. 458. 4 Howitt, Native Tribes of SouthEast Australia, p. 749 sq. (all the tribes of the Wotjo nation, and the Tatathi and other tribes on the Murray River frontage). Stanbridge, Tribes in the Central Part of Victoria,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. London, N.S. i. 289. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 52, 475 (Luritcha tribe). 5 Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, p. 498 (Tariánas, Tucános, and some other tribes of the Uaupés). Coudreau, La France équinoxiale, ii. 173 (Cobbéos, of the Uaupés). Monteiro, quoted by von Spix and von Martius, Reise in Brasilien, iii. 1207, n. * (Jumánas). Koch, loc. cit. p. 83 sq. Dorman, op. cit. p. 151. 6 Couto de Magalhães, Trabalho preparatorio para aproveitamento do selvagem e do solo por elle occupado no Brazil-O selvagem, p. 132. Cf. de Castelnau, Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud, iv. 382 (Camacas). 7 Codrington, op. cit. p. 343. See also Geiseler, Die Oster-Insel, p. 30 sq. (Easter Islanders). 8 Remy, Ka Mooolelo Hawaii, p. xl. act of gourmandise, the other is sacrificial and is performed by the priests, whose office it is to eat a portion of the victims, whether men, goats, or fowls.1 And this sacrificial cannibalism is not restricted to the priests. In British Nigeria "no great human sacrifice offered for the purpose of appeasing the gods and averting sickness or misfortune is considered to be complete unless either the priests or the people eat the bodies of the victims"; and among the Aro people in Southern Nigeria the human victims offered to the god were eaten by all the people, the flesh being distributed throughout their country. The inhabitants of the province of Caranque, in ancient Peru, likewise consumed the flesh of those whom they sacrificed to their gods.* The Aztecs ate parts of the human bodies whose blood had been poured out on the altar of sacrifice, and so did the Mayas. In Nicaragua the high-priests received the heart, the king the feet and hands, he who captured the victim took the thighs, the entrails were given to the trumpeters, and the rest was divided among the people." In ancient India it was a prevalent opinion that he who offered a human victim in sacrifice should partake of its flesh; though, in opposition to this view, it was also said that a man cannot be allowed, much less required, to eat human flesh.8 The sacrificial form of cannibalism obviously springs from the idea that a victim offered to a supernatural being participates in his sanctity and from the wish of the worshipper to transfer to himself something of its benign virtue. So also the divine qualities of a man-god are supposed to be assimilated by the person who 1 Reade, op. cit. p. 158. See also Schneider, Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, p. 209 sq. 2 Mockler-Ferryman, British Nigeria, p. 261. 3 Partridge, Cross River Natives, p. 59. Ranking, Researches on the Conquest of Peru, p. 89. 5 Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, p. 41. Réville, Hibbert Lectures on the Religions of Mexico and Peru, p. 89. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 176; iii. 443 sq. Bancroft, op. cit. ii. 725. 7 Ibid. ii. 725. 8 Weber, Ueber Menschenopfer bei den Indern der vedischen Zeit,' in Indische Streifen, i. 72 sq. 9 See supra, i. 445 sq. eats his flesh or drinks his blood. This was the idea of the early Christians concerning the Eucharist. In the holy food they assumed a real bestowal of heavenly gifts, a bodily self-communication of Christ, a miraculous implanting of divine life. The partaking of the consecrated elements had no special relation to the forgiveness of sins; but it strengthened faith and knowledge, and, especially, it was the guarantee of eternal life, because the body of Christ was eternal. The holy food was described as the "medicine of immortality." 2 In various other instances human flesh or blood is supposed to have a supernatural or medicinal effect upon him who partakes of it. The Banks' Islanders in Melanesia believe that a man or woman may obtain a power like that of Vampires by stealing and eating a morsel of a corpse; the ghost of the dead man would then "join in a close friendship with the person who had eaten, and would gratify him by afflicting any one against whom his ghostly power might be directed." Australian sorcerers are said to acquire their magic influence by eating human flesh. The Egyptian natives who accompanied Baker on one of his expeditions imagined that the rite of consuming an enemy's liver would give a fatal direction to a random bullet. Among the aborigines of Tasmania a 3 man's blood was often administered as a healing draught. In China the heart, the liver, the gall, and the blood of executed criminals are used for life-strengthening purposes; thus at Peking, when a person has been executed by the sword, certain large pith balls are steeped in the blood and, under the name of "blood-bread,” sold as a medicine for consumption. Tertullian speaks of those "who at the gladiatorial shows, for the cure of epilepsy, 1 See Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 352, 353, 366. 2 Harnack, History of Dogma, i. 211; ii. 144 sqq.; iv. 286, 291, 294, 296, 297, 299 sq. Codrington, op. cit. p. 221 sq. 4 Eyre, Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 255. 5 Baker, Ismailia, p. 393. 6 Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 89. 7 de Groot, op. cit. (vol. iv. book) ii. 377. Rennie, quoted by Yule, in his translation of Marco Polo, i. 275, n. 7. |