THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



large, as, so widespread has it been amongst all sorts of savage 

 races and in all parts of the world, that a very lengthy paper 

 would be required even to deal with the subject very superficially. 

 It is more my purpose to describe somewhat in detail what was 

 the nature of the proceedings at cannibal feasts as practised in 

 Fiji by the natives, and in New Zealand by the Maoris, the 

 countries in which I had the opportunity of prosecuting my 

 inquiries. About the origin of the term cannibal there exists 

 some doubt. The " Encyclopaedia Britannica" refers it to 

 Canibales or Caribales, Latinized forms of the name of the 

 Caribs of the West Indian Islands, as recorded by Columbus. 

 In "The Story of New Zealand" Dr. Thomson gives the Latin 

 expression — " Propter rabiem caninam anthropophagorum gentis" 

 and the French — " Appetit de chien" as suggested sources of 

 derivation. 



Shakespeare makes Othello refer to the custom thus : — 



" The cannibals that each other eat, 

 The anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

 Do grow beneath their shoulders." 



— Othello i. 3. 



In both Fiji and New Zealand anthropophagy, or cannibalism, 

 was of considerable antiquity, and no proper records exist as to 

 its origin. It has been considered by some that the custom was 

 resorted to by the islanders of the South Seas because there 

 were no large animals, and that in the absence of animal food 

 the instinct for flesh as a part of the diet overcame the natural 

 repugnance of human beings to eating their own kind. 



The inhabitants of these islands and of New Zealand, how- 

 ever, had ample supplies of animal food in the flesh of birds, 

 whales, porpoises, seals, turtle, fish and many molluscs, and 

 always largely availed themselves of these resources. 



From the remotest historical periods we have evidence of the 

 existence of the custom in all parts of the world, and, curiously 

 enough, it is not amongst the lowest races of maiikind that it 

 appears to have been most prevalent, but rather amongst those 

 which have reached a very fairly advanced stage in the develop- 

 ment of civilization. The Fijians, Maoris, and Papuans are all 

 peoples of a high order of intellectual development, and may be 

 instanced as examples — -as, indeed, may any races which have 

 acquired a special notoriety as cannibals. Some old proverbs 

 say, " Hawks don't tear out hawks' eyes," and " Bears do not 

 eat bears' flesh ;" and we find that man, in his crudest and 

 most primitive state, is but little, or not at all, addicted to 

 devouring his own species. Again, it has been suggested that 

 the custom has originated in, or developed from, some form 

 or other of religious ceremony involving human sacrifice ; and, 

 again, that it was purely from motives of revenge that man first 

 learned to partake of the flesh of his fellow men. 



