[35] Codrington, op. cit. p. 135.
It has been questioned whether cannibalism can be a direct expression of hatred;[36] but for no good reason. To eat a person is, according to primitive ideas, to annihilate him as an individual,[37] and we can readily imagine the triumphant feelings of a savage who has his enemy between his jaws. The Fijian eats in revenge even the vermin which bite him, and when a thorn pricks him he picks it out of his flesh and eats it.[38] The Cochin-Chinese express their deepest hatred of a person by saying, “I wish I could eat his liver or his flesh.”[39] Other people want to “drink the blood” of their enemies.
[36] Steinmetz, op. cit. p. 33.
[37] Dieffenbach, op. cit. ii. 118 (Maoris). Johnston, in Fortnightly Review, N. S. xlv. 27 (Negroes of the Niger Delta). Koch, loc. cit. pp. 87, 109. Lippert, Der Seelencult, p. 69. Idem, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, ii. 282 sq.
[38] Pritchard, op. cit. p. 371.
[39] von Langsdorf, op. cit. i. 148.
The idea that a person is annihilated or loses his individuality by being eaten has led to cannibalism not only in revenge but as an act of protection, as a method of making a dangerous individual harmless after death.[40] Among the Botocudos warriors devoured the bodies of their fallen enemies in the belief that they would thus be safe from the revengeful hatred of the dead.[41] In Ashantee “several of the hearts of the enemy are cut out by the fetish men who follow the army, and the blood and small pieces being mixed (with much ceremony and incantation) with various consecrated herbs, all those who have never killed an enemy before eat a portion, for it is believed that if they did not, their vigour and courage would be secretly wasted by the haunting spirit of the deceased.”[42] In Greenland “a slain man is said to have the power to avenge himself upon the murderer by rushing into him, which can only be prevented by eating a piece of his liver.”[43] Many cannibals are in the habit of consuming that part of a slain enemy which is supposed to contain his soul or courage or strength, and one reason for this practice may be the wish to render him incapable of doing further harm. Queensland natives eat the kidneys of the persons whom they have killed, believing that “the kidneys are the centre of life.”[44] Among the Maoris a chief was often satisfied with the left eye of his enemy, which they considered to be the seat of the soul; or they drank the blood from a corresponding belief;[45] or in the case of a blood feud the heart of the enemy, representing the vital essence of him, was eaten “to fix or make firm the victory and the courage of the victor.”[46] Other peoples likewise eat the hearts or suck the brains of their foes.
[40] Cf. Lippert, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, ii. 282; Koch, loc. cit. pp. 87, 109.
[41] Featherman, Social History of Mankind, ‘Chiapo- and Guarano-Maranonians,’ p. 355.
[42] Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, p. 300.