[24] Schneider, Naturvölker, i. 191 sq. Fornander, Account of the Polynesian Race, i. 129. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 106, 346-348, 357 (Society Islanders). Williams, Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, p. 548 sq. (especially the Hervey Islanders and Tahitians). von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery, iii. 248 (Sandwich Islanders). Lisiansky, Voyage round the World, pp. 81 sq. (Nukahivans), 120 (Sandwich Islanders). Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 289 sqq. (Mangaians). Williams and Calvert, Fiji, pp. 188, 195; Wilkes, Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. 97; Hale, U.S. Exploring Expedition, Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology, p. 57 (Fijians). Codrington, Melanesians, p. 134 sqq.
[25] Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo, ii. 215 sqq. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 218 sq. (Dyaks).
[26] Woodthorpe, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxvi. 24 (Shans, &c.). Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, p. 152 (Steins inhabiting the south-east of Indo-China). Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 244 (Pankhos and Bunjogees). Godwin-Austen, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. ii. 394 (Garo hill tribes). Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 147 (Bhúiyas), 176 (Bhúmij), 281 (Gonds), 285 sqq. (Kandhs). Hislop, Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 15 sq. (Gonds). Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 113 sq. Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan, passim (Kandhs).
[27] Schneider, Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, p. 118. Reade, Savage Africa, p. 52 (Dahomans, &c.). Ling Roth, Great Benin, p. 63 sqq. Ellis, Ew̔e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 117 sqq. Idem, Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 296. Idem, Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 169 sqq. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, ii. 173. Schoen and Crowther, Expedition up the Niger, p. 48 sq. (Ibos). Arnot Garenganze, p. 75 (Barotse). Arbousset and Daumas, Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 97 (Marimos, a Bechuana tribe). Macdonald, Africana, i. 96 sq. (Eastern Central Africans). Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 422; Sibree, The Great African Island, p. 303 (Malagasy).
From this enumeration it appears that the practice of human sacrifice cannot be regarded as a characteristic of savage races. On the contrary, it is found much more frequently among barbarians and semi-civilised peoples than among genuine savages, and at the lowest stages of culture known to us it is hardly heard of. Among some peoples the practice has been noticed to become increasingly prevalent in the course of time. In the Society Islands “human sacrifices, we are informed by the natives, are comparatively of modern institution: they were not admitted until a few generations antecedent to the discovery of the islands”;[28] and in ancient legends there seems to be certain indications that they were once prohibited in Polynesia.[29] In India human sacrifices were apparently much rarer among the Vedic people than among the Brahmanists of a later age.[30] We are told that such sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs only in the beginning of the fourteenth century, about two hundred years before the conquest, and that, “rare at first, they became more frequent with the wider extent of their empire; till, at length, almost every festival was closed with this cruel abomination.”[31] Of the Africans Mr. Winwood Reade remarks, “The more powerful the nation the grander the sacrifice.”[32]
[28] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 106.
[29] Fornander, op. cit. i. 129.
[30] Wilson, Works, ii. 268 sq.
[31] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, p. 36.
[32] Reade, Savage Africa, p. 52.