CANNIBALISM. 
359 
motive by which the eastern Polynesians were in¬ 
fluenced, but one principal design of their wars 
was to obtain men to eat. Hence, when dwelling 
in their encampment, and clearing the brushwood, 
&c. from the place in which they expected to 
engage the enemy, they animated each other to 
the work in the following terms, “ Clear away 
well, that we may kill and eat, and have a good 
feast to-day.” To “ kill and eat,” was the haughty 
warrior’s threat; and to be “ killed and eaten,” the 
dread of the vanquished and the exile. In the 
island of Rarotogna, they cut off the heads of the 
slain, piled them in heaps within the temple, and 
furnished the banquet of victory with their bodies. 
The desire of revenge, or the satisfaction result¬ 
ing from actually devouring an enemy, was not 
their only motive. The craving of nature, and the 
pangs of famine, often led to this unnatural crime. 
It was the frequent inducement in the Marquesas, 
and also in the Hervey Islands. In Maute, 
Metiaro, and Atiu, seasons of scarcity are severely 
felt; and, to satisfy their hunger, a number of 
persons, at the hour of midnight, have stolen a 
man from a neighbouring residence, killed, and 
eaten him at once. Mr. Bourne, who visited the 
islands in 1825, states, that members of the same 
family are not safe ; and so awful is their wretched¬ 
ness, that this horrid cruelty is practised towards 
those who, in civilized communities, are the objects 
of most endearing attachment: the husband has 
preyed upon the body of his wife, and the parent 
upon his child, in a most revolting manner, without 
subjecting it to any previous preparation. These 
facts are too painful and barbarous to admit detail. 
Another, and perhaps more criminal motive than 
either revenge or want, led some to the perpetra- 
