122 PLINY"S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book VTL 



selves the most careful observers, as well as of the longest 

 standing.^* 



CHAP. 2. THE "WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



"We have already stated, that there are certain tribes of the 

 Scythians, and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon 

 human flesh.^^ This fact itself might, perhaps, appear in- 

 credible, did we not recollect, that in the very centre of the 

 earth, in Italy and Sicily, nations formerly existed with these 

 monstrous propensities, the Cyclopes, ^° and the Laestrygones, for 

 example ; and that, very recently, on the other side of the Alps, 

 it was the custom to offer human sacrifices, after the manner 

 of those nations ;^^ and the difference is but small between 

 sacrificing human beings and eating them.^- 



In the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern re- 



28 Ajasson does not hesitate to style this remark, " ridiculum sane ;" 

 as every one knows that the Greeks were more noted for their Hvely ima- 

 gination, than for the correctness of their observations. — B. Surely Ajas- 

 son must have forgotten the existence of such men as Ai-istotle and Theo- 

 phrastus ! 



29 Pliny has previously denominated the Scythians " Anthropophagi ;" 

 and in B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 20, he employs the word as the proper 

 name of one of the Scythian tribes. — B. 



'0 See B. iii. c. 9. 



31 See B. xxxvi. c. 5. 



32 There can be no doubt, that cannibalism has existed at all times, 

 and that it now exists in some of the Asiatic and Polynesian islands ; but 

 we must differ from Pliny in his opinion respecting the near connection 

 between human sacrifices and cannibalism ; the first was strictly a religious 

 rite, the other was the result of very different causes ; perhaps, in some 

 cases, the want of food ; but, in most instances, a much less pardonable 

 motive. — B, Still, however, if nations go so far as to sacrifice human 

 beings, there is an equal chance that a religious impulse may prompt them 

 to taste the flesh ; and when once this has been done, there is no telling 

 how soon it may be repeated, and that too for the gratification of the palate. 

 According to Macrobius, human sacrifices were offered at Rome, down to 

 the time of Brutus, who, on the establishment of the Republic, abolished 

 them. "We read, however, in other authorities, that in 116, e.g., two Gauls, 

 a male and a female, were sacrificed by the priests in one of the streets 

 of Rome, shortly after which such practices were forbidden by the senate, 

 except in those cases in which they had been ordered by the Sibylline 

 books. Still we read, in the time of Augustus, of one hundred knights 

 being sacrificed by his orders, at Perusia, and of a similar immolation in 

 the time of the emperor Aurelian, a.d. 270. These, however, were all ex- 

 ceptional cases, and do not imply a custom of offering human sacrifices. 



