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tionate in the little services which he rendered 

 us, whether he still felt sometimes a desire to 

 eat of a Cheruvichahena. He answered without 

 discomposure, that, living in the mission, he 

 would only eat what he saw was eaten by 

 los Padres. Reproaches addressed to the na- 

 tives on the abominable practice, which we here 

 discuss, produce no effect ; it is as if a Bramin 

 of the Ganges, travelling in Europe, reproached 

 us with our habit of feeding on the flesh of ani- 

 mals. In the eyes of the Indian of the Guaisia, 

 the Cheruvichahena was a being entirely different 

 from himself ; and whom he thought it was no 

 more unjust to kill, than the jaguars of the 

 forest. It was merely from a sense of propriety, 

 that, as long as he should remain in the mission, 

 he would only eat the same food as los Padres. 

 The natives, if they return to their tribe (al 

 monte), or find themselves pressed by hunger, 

 soon resume their ancient habits of anthropo- 

 phagy. And why should we be so much asto- 

 nished at this inconstancy in the tribes of the 

 Oroonoko, when we are reminded, by terrible 

 and well ascertained examples, of what has 

 passed among civilized nations in times of great 

 scarcity ? In Egypt, in the thirteenth century, 

 the habit of eating human flesh pervaded all 

 classes of society ; extraordinary snares were 

 spread for physicians in particular. They were 

 called to attend persons, who pretended to be 



