The Papuans were considered great adepts at cooking their fellow-men, and with them man-eating, plain, unmistakable and vile, existed up to a very late period. It is intimated that some of these natives have not yet lost their relish for human food. The Papuans who live inland are described as frightful and hideous in appearance, making themselves more so by the peculiar manner of arranging their hair, which they form into enormous bunches. This startling head gear is about three feet in circumference, and adorned with the feathers of birds. New Guinea contains several varieties of the Papuan race. The black men of the south-east coast, from Cape Valsche to Cape Possession are different from the Arfaks inhabiting the mountainous northwest coast inland.
The inhabitants of the Isle of Pines, on the south of New Caledonia, where the sea abounds with coral reefs, are also known to have been tinctured with a gastronomic liking for their own species. Among the New Caledonians the priests claimed the hands of the slain as their special perquisites; and as those parts of the human body are said by anthropophagous connoisseurs to be the best, war was frequently fermented by the priests, in order that their larders might be the more abundantly supplied. D’Entrecasteaux thus recounts the skill displayed by the women in their methods of serving up the human body for food: “Sometimes it was placed before their lords and masters completely roasted but in a sitting posture, fully equipped in war costume, to represent the pièce de résistance; then again it would be served up as a side dish, skillfully cut in slices to tempt the appetite.” He states also that on their arrival the natives felt the calves and brawny arms of his men, and manifested much pleasure at the prospect of a feast, which might possibly be in store for them. This race did not confine itself to bipedal diet, perhaps for the reason that the supply was not equal to the demand; but like many other of the Oceanic people depended for the main portion of their sustenance on cocoa-nuts, roots, shell-fish, spiders, etc. When all other things failed they have been known to stay the pangs of hunger by filling their insatiable stomachs with clay, which though it affords no nutriment, yet for a time allays the cravings of the appetite.
In Australia where large animals are scarce, certain tribes of an extremely degraded type have been known to feed on flesh. There is a story of an Englishman who several years ago went to New Caledonia to raise cattle for the market of Noumea. While journeying from one ranch to another, by reason of the bushes and low shrubbery he lost his way, and after wandering about till near nightfall, finally came upon a large village of natives. He was hospitably entertained, well fed and by the great chief Atai was treated with much attention. Atai was very courteous to his white guest, and when night had fully come conducted him in state to the hut set apart for his repose. Fortunately the visitor was acquainted with the customs of the country, and knew the common method for putting an end to travelers preparatory to feasting upon them. It is as follows: The guest is kindly received and allotted a cabin by himself for rest and sleep. The native huts have visually but one opening, which serves as a door and window. When the guest is supposed to be well settled in his cabin, this single entrance is fired; and as it is constructed of light twigs it not only burns very rapidly but the occupant within is killed and roasted; now the feast begins. As the Englishman was familiar with this custom of New Caledonian life, and feeling that the cabin which the venerable Atai had so courteously provided might become for him perhaps a tomb as well as a cooking stove, unless he were very watchful, manifested however no distrust. Accordingly he entered the cabin of the chief, meeting courtesy with courtesy, until both were fairly housed. As he was in the prime of life and quite an athlete, he regarded himself more than a match for the aged cannibal, should he now be disposed to exhibit violence. Closing, therefore, the door and planting his back firmly against it, laying his hand on his revolver and displaying at the same time other weapons, he determined to remain in his chosen position the entire night. It was a terrible night for the traveler; but none the less for the cunning chief who again and again from his detainer requested permission to withdraw. He was made to understand, however, that his company could not be dispensed with, and that they must not think of parting until morning. When daylight was fully come, the Englishman now felt assured that Atai would not venture to allow his people openly to attack him, as he was well known in the settlement, and both issuing forth together from the hut, he gladly accepted the escort of a native guide, and was safely conducted to the borders of the same.
Among the Maoris or aborigines of New Zealand cannibalism prevailed to an alarming extent, also among the natives of the Sandwich Islands, Tahiti, and neighboring groups. Ellis in his “Polynesian Researches” shows that the Polynesians evinced a strong disposition to devour the flesh and drink the blood of their slain enemies; and the motive which governed them seemed to be the arousing of terror and obtaining a satisfactory revenge. A New Zealand warrior having killed his foe, would sever the head from the body, scoop up the warm life-blood flowing from the mutilated trunk, and facing his enemies with fiendish triumph would drink it in presence of other captors. Perhaps if there is one feature in the history of these islanders better known than another, it is the reputation they had of preferring the human subject as an article of diet to any inferior mammalia. In song and story this omnivorous weakness of the “King of the Cannibal Islands” and his dusky subjects has been celebrated.
Dr. Brown of Edinburgh in writing concerning the habits and customs of this people observes with a certain degree of grim humor, “If the Polynesian did eat his brother instead of loving him, he loved him (gastronomically) not only wisely but well; for the custom was conducive of great good, kept down the price of pork, yams and fowls, saved funeral expenses, thinned the population of an insular country, etc.; moreover, was it not in part a religious observance only allowed to certain individuals of high piety and stout digestion, and therefore to be encouraged and praised instead of being condemned in a chorus of seamen’s oaths and missionary hymns?” And yet in face of this and numerous other facts, some positively assert that cannibalism never existed among the islands in the South Pacific. Time has wrought however among these peoples great changes, and when as now some of these pristine savages are seen clothed in the usual attire prevalent in the western world, it is very humiliating to be asked whether their respected fathers perhaps ever partook of “cold missionary.” It is but just to these distant people, however, to say that never was cannibalism rampant among them, as was true of the occupants of the neighboring isles; and it is equally pleasant to know that, ornaments of the human person, either as charms or necklaces, made of human teeth, have lost their former popularity.
The experience of Captain Marion, a French officer who visited New Zealand June, 1772, with a party of sixteen men and four lieutenants, confirms beyond all question the truthfulness of the statement, that the natives in former times were strongly addicted to this repugnant habit; for no sooner had the Frenchmen landed than they were attacked, murdered and soon after eaten. Next morning when another boat’s crew went ashore, a great swarm of these savages immediately surrounded them, captured and put to death no less than eleven of the twelve constituting the party. The survivor witnessed the dead bodies of his companions cut up and divided among the actors in the scene, each of whom having eaten what he needed, carried away such portions as were left, to be consumed by his absent friends. A similar misfortune overtook Captain Furneaux of the ship Adventure in the year 1773, on Cook’s second voyage. The record is that a boat was sent to the land under the care of a midshipman and a crew consisting of ten men, all of whom were killed and eaten.
Hawkesworth verifies the accounts made by other writers, and declares unequivocally that the New Zealanders ate the bodies of their enemies; but he remarks apologetically that their cannibalism originated from an irresistible necessity, occasioned by the pangs of hunger rather than from any natural desire for this form of food.
Kotzebue, in 1824, directed his course for the Navigators’ Islands, and on the second day of April observed the most easterly of the number rising like a high mountain from the ocean. His testimony concerning these people is, that “the inhabitants are the most ferocious people to be met with in the South Sea.” He visited also the scene where De Langle and his comrades fell, now known as Massacre Bay. On the arrival of his ship “La Perouse” it was surrounded by several hundred canoes filled with furious savages, who evidently were disposed to take the vessel by violence. To prevent any assault, however, the sailors were placed at proper stations, fully armed, and with orders to check any attempt at advance. Even with this precaution and in defiance of repeated blows, some of the more resolute succeeded in clambering aboard. Impelled by that covetous emotion which no savage has ever been able to repress, every object within their reach was grasped with both hands, and they held to it so pertinaciously as to require the united efforts of the strongest seamen to remove their grip and throw them overboard. A few who were permitted to remain on deck behaved like wild beasts of the desert, and showed in their movements the most disgusting propensities. Indeed one of them was so much tempted by the accidental display of a young sailor’s bare arm, that unable to control his horrible appetite, he snapped at the same with his teeth, indicating by the most unequivocal signs, that such food was to him both acceptable and palatable. Kotzebue, after other references to the existence of cannibalism in the islands of the South Sea, warns all voyagers not to venture among the tribes who have this taste for human food, without the utmost precaution, as they are more artful and treacherous than any of the other Polynesians.
Walon, a shipwrecked mariner, narrates his experience in connection with that of several shipmates, in the following almost ghastly words:
“We had scarcely reached dry land before a swarm of natives surrounded and made prisoners our little band, now numbering but four men. Too weak to make any resistance the capture was very easy. Noticing our condition, fruits were given us to eat and a chance to rest, before we were marched off to their village. After a while we were tied with thongs of a wiry grass, and the clothing stripped from our backs. As the march to the village began, the savages would approach us, feel of our flesh, pinch our arms and with approving nods and grunts smack their lips and jabber away in their gibberish. Then the mate says to me: ‘Sam, these savages are cannibals, I believe;’ his sentiments echoed our minds. Well we tramped along for an hour or so until we reached the native village. We were at once taken before the head chiefs of the tribe. Each of us was again pinched, sounded and inspected as carefully as a butcher would inspect a calf before buying. The prospects of a feast on four baked white men caused great rejoicing in the town and as we were led away to our prison the hungry eyes of the savages looked longingly upon us. We were provided with a superabundance of food—bread, fruit, plantains, guavas, and many vegetables that we had never before seen. Fish and game of all sorts were placed before us, and we were compelled to eat almost to suffocation. I was grieving myself slowly to death. My three companions had grown fat and healthy looking as a man could wish to be. One day a guard appeared and conducted us before the chief. While on our way, we passed what seemed to be a shallow grave, scooped out of the sand, which natives were lining with flat stones. After reaching the chief’s hut we were placed in line, and again pinched and sounded. Finally, the mate was selected and seized by two savages, who placed a green bamboo pole behind his back, to which he was bound securely, cords of grass being tied around his ankles, thighs and shoulders. He was then laid at full length on the ground and a layer of green leaves placed on his body, when he was soon completely enveloped in the leaves. With great ceremony he was now lifted to the shoulders of four men, and amid a din of native drums was borne to the shallow grave. An immense fire had been built on the stones during the time in which we had been before the chief. A ceremony and incantation, followed by sprinkling the mate from head to foot with a fine powder of some sort, then took place. The executioner at once stepped forward, and with a sharp-pointed stone smashed the skull of the mate, whereupon the bearers immediately placed the body on the heated stones and covered it to a depth of several feet with green leaves and grasses. We were then led back to our prison. The fate of the mate completely unnerved us, and all the afternoon and evening yells and confusion without told us that the wild orgies of cannibalism were being enacted. Escape from a similar fate seemed impossible; but we determined to make the attempt on the occasion of our next daily walk. But before an opportunity presented itself, my two companions had been sacrificed and had followed the mate. In many ways I had contrived to keep myself lean, and, in fact, seemed almost a living skeleton, and the natives had relaxed their watchfulness to a great extent. Liberty to go about the island at will was accorded to me, and I soon began preparations for escape.”