THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ALTRUISM 311 



represent, especially since the fact has been cor- 

 roborated by Du Chaillu in comparatively recent 

 times. The fact for which this old picture stands 

 is a good illustration of the power of custom in 

 shaping human ideas. In this savage * market' 

 pretty much the same line of goods appears as is 

 found in modern ' markets,' except that, instead 

 of the quartered corpses of sheep and bullocks, 

 there hang the shoulders, thighs, and gory heads 

 of men. The butcher is represented as standing 

 beside the chopping-block in the act of cutting up 

 the leg of a man. A child's head and other 

 fragments of the human body are piled up on 

 another block, and behind these on pegs are 

 ranged the more pretentious wares of the establish- 

 ment. ' Presently we passed a woman,' says Du 

 Chaillu, in speaking of the cannibalism of the 

 Fans, who were probably identical with those 

 referred to two centuries earlier as Antiques. 

 'She bore with her a piece of the thigh of a 

 human body, just as we should go to market and 

 carry thence a roast of steak.' We can easily 

 imagine (by the help of the sights we see every 

 day) the anthropophagous crowd standing around 

 giving their early morning orders, and the enter- 

 prising assassin hustling about to wait on them. 

 One of them wants an arm, another wants a leg, 

 another a liver, another a half-dozen nice fat ribs. 

 One fellow wants a tender ' cut ' of young girl's 

 sirloin, and another would like an old man's calf 

 for soup. A little naked urchin, who has had to 

 wait a long time in order to get a chance to buy 



