A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 41 



and which becomes dry by keeping rather than decom- 

 poses by the natural process. 



Locke, in his Essay on Government (sec. 57), quotes 

 the following paper from Garcilasso de Vegas' " History 

 of the Incas of Peru": — "In some provinces they were 

 so liquorish after man's flesh that they would not have 

 the patience to stay till the breath was out of the body, 

 but would suck the ■ blood as it ran from the wounds of 

 the dying man ; they had public shambles of man's flesh, 

 and their madness herein was to that degree, that they 

 spared not their own children which they had begot on 

 strangers taken in war, for they made their captives their 

 mistresses, and choicely nourished the children they had 

 by them, till about thirteen years old ; they butchered 

 and eat them, and they served their mothers after the 

 same fashion when they grew past child-bearing and 

 ceased to bring them any more children." 



Gibbon, in the twenty-third chapter of his history, 

 states that " a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti, 

 the enemies and afterwards the soldiers of Valentinian, 

 are accused by an eye-witness (Jerom., vol. ii., p. 75) 

 of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they 

 hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked 

 the shepherd rather than his flock, and that they curiously 

 selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males 

 and females (pastorum nates et feminarum papillas J , -which. 

 they prepared for their horrid repasts." 



Strabo (IV., v., sect. 35) says that the inhabitants of 

 Jerne are more savage than those of Britain, and deem it 

 honorable to devour their deceased fathers. 



In reference to the last passage, Aubrey, in his " Re- 

 mains of Gentilism," mentions a holy maul preserved in 

 Wiltshire to his day, and previously used for braining 

 the incurably sick and old. 



According to Herodotus, the Massagetsa (i., 216) and 

 the Padai (iii., 99) ate their relations. 



There is, therefore, credible evidence that cannibalism 

 existed in Europe, Asia and America, It might, there- 

 fore, be reasonably expected to be found in Africa. Thus 



