aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

90 ABOUND THE WORLD.
" O true believers ! surely wines and games are an abomination,
a snare of Satan." The heathen (?) of Asia have
wines neither upon their sideboards, nor at their funerals.
CANNIBALISM.
As one stimulus leads to another, why should not meateating
open the way to cannibalism ? If, according to the
unphilosophical epicure, flesh is a better food than vegetables,
grains, and fruits, and higher, too, in the scale of sustenance,
why not subsist upon it altogether ? And so, if human flesh
is still higher, more readily assimilating with the juices and
forces of the system, because magnetically humanized, why
not eat that also ? The Maori cannibals of New Zealand did
this very thing. When the giant-like moa-birds failed to
supj)ly necessary meat, the natives resorted to cannibalism
eating, first, enemies slain in battle. Animal food they must
and would have.
The Rev. Mr. Baker said to me, while at a dinner-party
given by the Rev. Dr. Lang, Sydney, " I have visited one
hundred and ten of the South-Sea Islands, and am perfectly
acquainted with their manners, customs, regulations, and
religious notions. They believe in one or more gods, and in
an existence hereafter. Those on the Isle of Lifu, Loyalty
Group, Western Polynesia, believe that the good spirits of
their ancestors — whom they sometimes see as apparitions—
dwell on the sunny side of the island, and the bad spirits
among the lagoons on the other. They are dark complexioned,
and capable of a high civilization. Some of these
islanders yet continue their cannibal practices." This clergyman
personally knew one old chief who had helped to eat
and digest thirty human beings. They generally bake them.
It is considered an honor to drink the blood, and feast upon
certain parts of the bodies, of those slain on their battlefields.