36 CANNIBALISM. 



view, by following die profitable calling of purveyor of human flesh 

 to the man-eaters of the adjacent coasts of St. Christoval— a trade in 

 which he is ably assisted by those wlio accompany him on his forag- 

 ing expeditions — we can hardly preserve this nice distinction 

 between the parts taken by the contractor and his customers in this 

 extraordinary traffic. I learned from Captain Macdonald that in 

 their abstinence from human flesh, the Santa Anna natives are not 

 actuated by any disUke of anthropophagy in itself; but that the cus- 

 tom has fallen into abeyance since the chief laid the tambu-ban on 

 human flesh several years ago, on account of a severe epidemic of 

 sickness having followed a cannibal feast. On one occasion through 

 the instrumentality of this resident, Lieutenant Oldham had the 

 satisfaction of rescuing two St. Christoval natives whom Mai was 

 carefully keeping in anticipation of the wants of the man-eaters of 

 Cape Surville. As the result of an interview held with this chief, 

 the two prisoners were sent on board the " Lark ; " but Mai gave 

 them up with a very bad grace, protesting that he was being robbed 

 of his own property. It is difficult to speculate on the reflections of 

 the victim as he lives on from day to day in constant expectation of 

 his fate. I am told that there is a faint gleam of tender feeling 

 shown in the case of a man who, by long residence in the village, has 

 almost come to be looked upon as one of themselves. He is allowed 

 to remain in ignorance of the dreaded moment until the last : and, 

 perhaps, he may be standing on the beach assisting in the launching 

 of the very canoe in which he is destined to take his final journey, 

 when suddenly he is laid hold of, and in a few moments more he is 

 beuig ferried across to the man-eaters of the opposite coast. All 

 persons whom I have met that have had a lengthened experience of 

 the St. Christoval natives confirm these cannibal practices. They 

 may sometimes be observed with all the horrible preliminaries which 

 have been described in the cases of other Pacific groups ; whilst, on 

 the other hand, it may be the habit to purchase and partake of 

 human flesh as an extra dainty in the daily fai'e. 



Captain Redlich, master of the schooner "Franz," who visited 

 Makira on the south side of St. Christoval in 1872, states that he 

 found a dead body in a war-canoe dressed and cooked whole. He 

 was informed by Mr. Perry, a resident, that he had seen as many as 

 twenty bodies -lying on the beach dressed and cooked.^ In 1865, Mr. 

 Brenchley noticed at VVano, on the nortli coast of this island, the 



1 Journal of the Koyal Geographical Society for 1874 (vol. 44), p. 31. 



