266 Inducnncnfs to the Eating of Human FlrJJj. 



and mouth with clay that thev might not call out for affift- 

 ance, and by thefe means fuffocated theui. She confefled 

 the hdi on Ixniig taken, and fome faked human flefli was 

 found in her habitation. My fervant having entered it, 

 obfervcd a cirl of four or five years of age who had been 

 fuffocated in the above manner, and who was lying wrapped 

 up, half dead, in a mat. By employing proper means (he 

 was however rellorcd to life. 



The reafon of the fecond inducement to anthropophag}' 

 will now be readily comprehended. We read in different 

 works, both ancient and modern, that many nations, in 

 various parts of the \\'orld, have killed men, not on account 

 of famine, but of the delicious tafle of human flcth, which 

 they not only fed upon but publicly fold. 



The third inducement, that people eat their deceafcd re- 

 lations by wav of (hewing them honour, feenis to be as ro- 

 mantic as it is repugnant to nature ; yet there are many au- 

 thors, from Herodotus, Uic father of hiflory, down to mo- 

 tlern times, who alVert that this pradlice has prevailed among 

 various nations. 



A fourth incitement to eat human flefli is hatred and re- 

 veno-e. There is a law in Coehinchina^ that all rebels, when 

 convi6led of their crime, (hall be executed, and that their 

 flefh fliall be devoured by the king's loyal fubjefts, and, in 

 particular, by thofe who are nearcfl his perfon. At the time 

 1 refided in that country feveral executions of this kind took 

 place. The men \yere beheaded, but the women were flab- 

 ted. After the execution the foldicrs who guarded the pa- 

 lace flocked around the bodies, and each cutting off, with a 

 pocket knife, a fmall piece, dipped it in the juice of an un- 

 ripe lemon, and in that manner fwallowed it. But as tha 

 fize of the morfel is not determined by the law, and as mofl 

 of the people have an averfion to fuch food, many fuffer the 

 bit of flefh to drop through their fingers cind fwallow only 

 the lemon. 



At ^he time when the Cochincfe were at war againfl the 



- Moif, 



