A FEW WORDS ON CANNIBALISM. 45 



Captain Erskine in his " Journal of a Cruise among 

 the Islands of the "Western Pacific," says : — " Although 

 direct and authoritative proof may be necessary to con- 

 vince some humane sceptics of the existence of this 

 abominable practice, a visitor to the Feejee Islands need 

 at once feel all doubt dispelled, which he may have 

 entertained upon the subject ; as the necessary details 

 of every-day life abound with examples, which, if not 

 spoken of by the white residents without disgust, ex^ 

 hibit at least no surprise. So habitual has the sight of 

 the dead body for food become, that the missionaries assert 

 that the Feejeean language contains no word for a simple 

 corpse, but the word used ' bakola ' conveys the idea 

 of eating the body, and a term which, when translated, 

 we at first considered a jest, ' paka balava ' or long pig, 

 is employed in serious parlance, to express the difference 

 between the human body and that of a hog, to which 

 the epithet ' dina ' or true, is in distinction applied. 



" The supply of human flesh was formerly, in all parts 

 of Feejee, and is still in the districts to which the influence 

 of the missionaries has not extended, furnished from 

 different sources, the luxury being in general denied to 

 women and slaves, although they are supposed some- 

 times to satisfy their curiosity or inclination in secret. 

 All enemies killed in battle are, as a matter of course, 

 eaten by the victors, the bodies being previously pre- 

 sented to the spirit. This source of supply, to which it 

 is now believed ajl the negro races of the Pacific have 

 recourse, as well as to the bodies of shipwrecked persons, 

 in whose disfavour a strange superstition seems to have 

 existed, even in countries now civilised, is by no means 

 sufficient for the Feejeean demand, whose customs require 

 that on occasions of ceremony, when strangers of conse- 

 quence are entertained, the magnificence of the chief 

 shall be exhibited by a feast of human victims. The 

 method of furnishing these, by kidnapping neighbours, 

 generally females, has been shown on the occasion of the 

 Butoni visit to Bau ; and sometimes much diplomacy is. 

 exerted to calm the excited feelings of the tribe whose 



