CANNIBALISM. 
255 
limited, or destroyed their original means of sub- 
sistence, I have found that the natives could usually, 
in three or four hours, procure as much food as would 
last for the day, and that without fatigue or labour. 
They are not provident in their provision for the 
future, but a sufficiency of food is commonly laid 
by at the camp for the morning meal. In travel- 
ling, they sometimes husband, with great care and 
abstinence, the stock they have prepared for the 
journey ; and though both fatigued and hungry, 
they will eat sparingly, and share their morsel with 
their friends, without encroaching too much upon 
their store, until some reasonable prospect appears 
of getting it replenished. 
In wet weather the natives suffer the most, as 
they are then indisposed to leave their camps to 
look for food, and experience the inconveniences 
both of cold and hunger. If food, at all tainted, is 
offered to a native by Europeans, it is generally 
rejected with disgust. In their natural state, how- 
ever, they frequently eat either fish or animals 
almost in a state of putridity. 
Cannibalism is not common, though there is 
reason to believe, that it is occasionally practised by 
some tribes, but under what circumstances it is diffi- 
cult to say. Native sorcerers are said to acquire their 
magic influence by eating human flesh, but this is 
only done once in a life-time.* 
* The only authentic and detailed account of any instance of 
cannibalism, that I am acquainted with, is found in Parlia- 
