75 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CRIMINAL FESTIVALS. 



By M. GUILLAUME FEKRERO. 



WHAT we now call crime is a normal fact of social life among 

 ruder peoples, who have not yet risen above the lowest 

 grades of manhood. Murder, theft, pillage, are glorious exploits 

 or rarely sought-out amusements among such ; and cannibalism 

 is a system of alimentation more prized than all others. Primi- 

 tive man in most regions has no repugnance against killing and 

 eating other men, but rather finds enjoyment in it. This being 

 the moral condition of most primitive peoples, we can compre- 

 hend without difficulty that their festivals had a cruel and crim- 

 inal character. As human flesh is the most exquisite viand for 

 cannibal savages, it was natural that when they met to celebrate 

 any welcome event in a festal way they should regale themselves 

 liberally with this precious food. The Fijians never failed in 

 their cannibal days to mark every public solemnity, like the dedi- 

 cation of a temple, with a grand feast of human flesh : and they 

 celebrated their victories in war by carving and roasting their 

 slain enemies on the field of battle. The Monbuttos celebrate 

 grand man-eating festivals on the field of battle after a victory. 

 The New-Zealanders carved up immediately after the battle their 

 vanquished and wounded enemies, while prisoners were reserved, 

 partly to be eaten by the braves, and partly for grand public fes- 

 tivals in which human flesh was the principal dish. 



Murder is a pleasure to the primitive man, as with the Java- 

 nese, who tests the quality of his new dirk by plunging it into the 

 heart of the first man he meets. It is quite natural, therefore, 

 that there should be meetings among these people for the enjoy- 

 ment of this pleasure, at which they engage in murderous festivi- 

 ties at the expense of some unfortunate victim. The red Indians, 

 returning from an expedition, used to give themselves up to san- 

 guinary orgies upon their prisoners, binding them to a stake in 

 the midst of the village, when men, women, and children would 

 inflict petty tortures upon them till they died, killed by pin- 

 prickings. 



We see, then, that in the beginning of civilization crime is in- 

 dividual and collective ; there are crimes which each man com- 

 mits on his own account, and criminal festivals, collective crimes, 

 perpetrated by a whole tribe, a people, etc. 



The same rule prevails with those very numerous crimes which 

 are connected with religious ideas, such as human sacrifices in 

 honor of defunct ancestors and then of the gods, who are only 

 deified ancestors. Among so savage peoples, these ancestors would 

 have been fierce and cruel men, to whom human sacrifices, kill- 



