[8] von Langsdorf, op. cit. i. 144.
[9] Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 134. Nisbet, A Colonial Tramp, ii. 143. Oldfield, ‘Aborigines of Australia,’ in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N.S. iii. 285. In hard summers the new-born babies were all eaten by the Kaura tribe in the neighbourhood of Adelaide (Howitt, op. cit. p. 749).
[10] Warren, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 146.
[11] Turner, ‘Ethnology of the Ungava District,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 187.
But whilst among some peoples starvation is the only inducement to cannibalism, there are others who can plead no such motive for their anthropophagous habits. The Fijians, until lately some of the greatest man-eaters on earth, inhabit a country where food of every kind abounds.[12] The Brazilian cannibals generally have a great plenty of game or fish.[13] In Africa cannibalism prevails in many countries which are well supplied with food.[14] Thus the Bangala of the Upper Congo have been known to make frequent warlike expeditions against adjoining tribes seemingly for the sole object of obtaining human flesh to eat, although their land is well provided with a variety of vegetable food and domestic animals, to say nothing of the incredible abundance of fish in its lakes and rivers.[15] Of the cave-cannibals in the Trans-Gariep Country, in South Africa, a traveller remarks with some surprise:—“They were inhabiting a fine agricultural tract of country, which also abounded in game. Notwithstanding this, they were not contented with hunting and feeding upon their enemies, but preyed much upon each other also, for many of their captures were made from amongst the people of their own tribe.”[16] Far from being an article of food resorted to in emergency only, human flesh is not seldom sought for as a delicacy.[17] The highest praise which the Fijians could bestow on a dainty was to say that it was “tender as a dead man.”[18] In various other islands of the South Seas human flesh is spoken of as a delicious food, far superior to pork.[19] The Australian Kurnai said that it tasted better than beef.[20] In some tribes in Australia a plump child is considered “a sweet mouthful, and, in the absence of the mother, clubs in the hands of a few wilful men will soon lay it low.”[21] Of certain natives of Northern Queensland we are told that the greatest incentive to taking life is their appetite for human flesh, as they know no greater luxury than the flesh of a black man.[22]
[12] Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 182. Erskine. op. cit. p. 262.
[13] von Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, i. 538. Koch, loc. cit. p. 87. de Nadaillac, in Bull. Soc. d’Anthr. 1888, p. 30 sq.
[14] Johnston, ‘Ethics of Cannibalism,’ in Fortnightly Review, N.S. xlv. 20 sqq. Hübbe-Schleiden, Ethiopien, p. 212. de Nadaillac, in Bull. Soc. d’Anthr. 1888, p. 32 sq.
[15] Coquilhat, op. cit. pp. 271, 273. Johnston, in Fortnightly Review, N.S. xlv. 20.
[16] Layland, quoted by Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land, i. 216.