94 



CANNIBALISM. 



tween the American coast and that of Japan 

 and China; a bill providing that parents or 

 guardians, having the control of children be- 

 tween the ages of eight and fourteen, shall re- 

 quire them to attend school at least twelve 

 weeks during the school-year, and six weeks 

 consecutively, unless they shall be excused by 

 the Board of Trustees on account of inability, 

 or on account of attendance at some private 

 school ; a bill requiring mining companies em- 

 ploying twelve men or more, and having a 

 shaft sunk to the depth of not less than three 

 hundred feet, to have an outlet beyond the 

 main shaft, through which the men may escape 

 in case of accident ; " An act to prohibit the 

 appropriation of public moneys for private 

 and sectarian purposes ; " and " An act to take 

 preliminary steps for the formation of a new 

 constitution for the State of California." A 

 joint resolution was received from the Legis- 

 lature of Nevada, asking the State " to cede 

 the territory east of the summit of the Sierras 

 to Nevada." 



The commission appointed to revise the 

 laws of the State have completed their work, 

 and reported four codes : a civil code ; a politi- 

 cal code ; a code of civil procedure ; and a penal 

 code. These comprise all the statutory pro- 

 visions which it is thought desirable to retain, 

 and such changes and new features as were 

 deemed expedient by the commissioners. Be- 

 fore being submitted to the Legislature, the 

 codes were examined by two prominent jurists 

 at the request of Governors Haight and Booth, 

 and received their approval. They came be- 

 fore the Legislature early in the session, but 

 were not acted upon before the close of the 

 year. 



CANNIBALISM. Evidences of the exist- 

 ence of this revolting practice in prehistoric 

 times are abundant. The human bones found 

 in the caves in Italy, France, and Belgium, as 

 in the cave of Chauvaux, near Namur, and in 

 the shell-heaps of Denmark, bear the marks 

 of fire and of having been broken. They are 

 mostly bones of young women and children, 

 affording the inference that human flesh was 

 eaten as a delicacy, and not from necessity. 

 Cannibals are often spoken of, in the writings 

 of the ancients, as living in the East Indies 

 and Africa. 



Our present inquiry is as to the extent to 

 which cannibalism still exists. Among Asiatic 

 nations, the Battas, on the island of Sumatra, 

 appear to be the only tribe who continue it. 

 They are mentioned as cannibals by Marco 

 Polo in the thirteenth century, and Nicolo di 

 Corti in the fifteenth century. They are by 

 no means of a low grade of intellectual stand- 

 ing, though they seem to have been formerly 

 more advanced than at present. They are 

 acquainted with farming and some branches 

 of industry, have an alphabet and a show 

 of a literature, and the majority of them can 

 read and write. According to Friedmann 

 ("Die Ostasiatische Inselwelt," Leipsic, 1868) 



anthropophagy is with them the expres- 

 sion of sensuality and passionateness, which 

 are highly developed among them. Their 

 unbounded appetites even stoop to cats, rats, 

 sick dogs, etc. "As cannibalism exists at 

 present among them," says Friedmann, "it 

 is regulated by law. Certain offences are 

 punished by death, after which the offender 

 is eaten. Prisoners of war are reserved for 

 the same terrible fate. An enemy taken 

 in arms outside of the Kampong must be 

 eaten alive, that is, without being previously 

 killed." Spies and traitors are also eaten, but 

 are first killed. It would be an error to say 

 that the Battas eat human flesh as a common 

 food. There are, indeed, according to Fried- 

 mann, some who buy slaves, fatten and eat 

 them, but they are despised even among their 

 own people. 



The classic ground for anthropophagy is 

 still Africa, chiefly on the Guinea coast, where 

 cannibalism is spread from Sierra Leone to 

 Calabar. Even where English influence pre- 

 dominates, it has not been able to stop this 

 practice entirely, as, for instance, in Sierra 

 Leone. The best description of the barbarism 

 reigning in that region is given by Consul 

 Thomas J. Hutchinson in his "Ten Years' 

 Wanderings among the Ethiopians " (London, 

 1862). Cannibalism also prevails in Omun, 

 on the Cross Eiver. Consul Campbell wrote 

 to Hutchinson from Lagos, that the wide- 

 spread tribe of the Idshoo were generally as- 

 sumed to be cannibals. As late as 1859 human 

 flesh was sold in open market at Duketown, 

 on the Old Calabar. In Brass and Bonny all 

 prisoners of war are eaten, with the idea that 

 they impart courage. 



A few degrees below the delta of the Niger 

 we again meet with cannibals, the tribe of the 

 Fans, or Pahuins. This tribe has come from 

 the interior of Africa and settled within the 

 limits of the French possessions near the Ga- 

 boon. The first account of them was given by 

 Paul du Chaillu ("Explorations and Adven- 

 tures in Equatorial Africa," etc., London, 1861). 

 Du Chaillu reports that, when he entered the 

 chief village of the Fans, he met a woman 

 carrying the leg of a man, and that he saw 

 human bones lying in front of the huts. But 

 the naval surgeon, Dr. Griffon du Bellay ("Le 

 Tour du Monde," 1865), who made several 

 trips from the coast to the interior in the 

 years 1861 to 1864, states that, although the 

 Fans are cannibals, yet the report of Du 

 Chaillu was exaggerated ; he saw no signs of 

 anthropophagy. 



More recently we have received news of the 

 existence of anthropophagy in the southern 

 part of Africa, where the caves of the can- 

 nibals in the land of the Bassoutos have excited 

 considerable attention. This region, which 

 lies between the Orange Free State and the 

 English possessions, has been the scene of 

 constant wars between the whites and the 

 natives, and the famine which followed these 



