Moreover, the eating of human flesh is regarded with some degree of superstitious dread. This is not seldom the case even among peoples who are themselves cannibals. In Lepers’ Island, in the New Hebrides, where cannibalism still prevails, the natives say that “to eat human flesh is a dreadful thing,” and that a man-eater is a person who is afraid of nothing; hence “men will buy flesh when some one has been killed, that they may get the name of valiant men by eating it.”[131] In those parts of Fiji where cannibalism was a national institution, only the select few, the taboo-class, the priests, chiefs, and higher orders, were deemed fit to indulge in it; and whilst every other kind of food was eaten with the fingers, human flesh was eaten with forks, which were handed down as heirlooms from generation to generation, and with which the natives would not part even for a handsome equivalent.[132] The Fijians of Nakelo, again, who did not practise cannibalism, attributed to it those fearful skin diseases with which children are so often visited in Fiji.[133] The New Caledonians, who are exo-anthropophagous, believe that if a man eats a tribes-fellow he will break out into sores and die.[134] Among the Maoris no men but sacred chiefs could partake of human flesh without becoming tapu, in which state they could not return to their usual occupations without having the tapu removed from their bodies.[135] So also among the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia a man who has eaten human flesh as a ceremonial rite is for a long time afterwards subject to a variety of restrictions, being considered unclean. For sixteen days he must not eat any warm food. For four months he is not allowed to blow hot food in order to cool it. For the same period he uses a spoon, dish, and kettle of his own, which are thrown away after the lapse of the prescribed time. He must stay alone in his bedroom, and is not allowed to go out of the house door but must use the secret door in the rear of the house. And for a whole year he must not touch his wife, nor is he allowed to gamble or to work.[136] Among the West African Fans, before a cannibal meal, the corpse is carried to a hut built on the outskirts of the settlement. There “it is eaten secretly by the warriors, women and children not being allowed to be present, or even to look upon man’s flesh; and the cooking pots used for the banquet must all be broken. A joint of ‘black brother’ is never seen in the villages.”[137] So also among the Bambala, south of the River Congo, vessels in which human flesh has been cooked are broken and the pieces thrown away.[138] In Eastern Central Africa the person who eats a human being is believed to run a great risk; Mr. Macdonald knew a headman whose success in war was attributed to the fact that he had eaten the whole body of a strong young man, but it was supposed that if he had not been protected by powerful charms, such cannibalism might have been dangerous to him.[139]
[131] Codrington, op. cit. p. 344.
[132] Seemann, Viti, pp. 179, 181 sq.
[133] Ibid. p. 179 sq.
[134] Atkinson, ‘Natives of New Caledonia,’ in Folk-Lore, xiv. 253.
[135] Thomson, op. cit. i. 147 sq.
[136] Boas, ‘Social Organization of the Kwakiutl Indians,’ in Report of the U.S. National Museum, 1895, p. 537 sq. Cf. Woldt, Kaptein Jacobsens Reiser til Nordamerikas Nordvestkyst, p. 44 sqq.; Mayne, Four Years in British Columbia, p. 256 sq.
[137] Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land, i. 212.
[138] Torday and Joyce, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxv. 404.
[139] Macdonald, Africana, i. 170.