A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 43 



have supported life on the bodies of their own dead. 

 The famous wreck from which Byron drew his passage 

 about " two boobies and a noddy " is a case in point ; 

 the survivors of the yacht Mignonette, killing and eating 

 the boy Parker in 1884 is another ; and the horrors of the 

 siege of Jerusalem naturally recur to the imagination. 



Where the ghastly habit has survived into nascent, 

 civilisation, it has been through some connection with 

 religion, as in Mexico, or (as in a recent case in the 

 Soudan) with the purpose of sating revenge, or for some 

 magical reason, that the eaters may acquire the strength 

 and wisdom of the victim. In such cases, allowing for 

 the wildness of the people who retain the practice, we 

 feel much less horror than in face of the naked fact of 

 cannibalism practised by civilised men for the sake of 

 dear life. I merely here cite cases where the practice is 

 indulged in for no such necessity. 



A benevolent whaling captain, who undertook to do 

 something towards civilising Easter Island in the 

 Pacific, took a young man home with him, and gave 

 him an education and the habits of civilised life, and 

 returned him to the island. No sooner did he set foot 

 on shore than his affectionate friends, finding him fat and 

 in good condition, took him to a convenient place, but- 

 chered, cooked, and ate him in the shortest possible time. 



Dr. Dunmore Lang, in his interesting account of the 

 aborigines of Australia, mentions the following curious 

 fact : — " The dead body of an enemy slain in battle is 

 never eaten by his enemies, but by his own tribe and 

 friends." In another part of his work, he says : — " The 

 fights of the aborigines are frequent, and occasionally 

 bloody ; and on such occasions the dead of both parties, 

 of the combatants are carried off", skinned, roasted, and 

 eaten by their respective friends ! Davies had seen as. 

 many as. ten or twelve dead brought off by one of the 

 parties engaged, after one of their fights, all of which 

 were skinned, roasted, and eaten by the survivors. 

 There were so many assembled on such occasions, that 

 the bodies of the dead were cut up and eaten in a 



