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NOTW

Anthropophagi.

ANTHROPOPHAGI, OR MAN EATERS.*

From the Monthly Magazine.

[VOL.2

NOTWITHSTANDING the bles- sacrificed; or, if he reached an advanced any one fell sick, he was immediately sings of civilization are daily ex- age, he experienced the same fate.ttending themselves into countries for- Herrera mentions that there were great merly unknown, still there is too much markets in China, furnished wholly with reason to think, that the horrible custom human flesh, for the better sort of people. which I am going to mention is pracIn every part of the new world, it tised by various tribes inhabiting the appears, there were people to whom the internal parts of Africa and America. practice was familiar; and I am afraid It is a gratifying reflection, however, it is not yet wholly neglected. Cortes that feeding on human flesh does not mentions that his Indian auxiliaries, at exist in any country where the clouds the siege of Mexico in 1521, had one of barbarism and ignorance have been means of subsistence more than the Spadispelled; and we may look forward with niards, viz. they fed upon the Mexicans confidence to the time, when the prac- they killed in battle. B. Diaz confirms tice will be recollected with disgust and his relation, adding, that the Indians, horror by the very people that now fol- when they returned from Mexico to

low it.

Setting aside the fictions of the heathen mythologists, tradition informs us of many nations with whom the banquet of human flesh was customary. The Melanchlanian, Massagetian, and Essedonian Scythians, all followed it.

their own country, carried with them large quantities of the flesh of the Mexicans, salted or dried, as a most acceptable present to their friends, that they might have the pleasure of feeding upon the bodies of their enemies in their festivals-During the same siege the MexiThe Massageta were accustomed to cans devoured with greediness the Spakill their old people, and a number of niards and Tlascalans, whom they took cattle in honor of the occasion, with which they made a feast; as this was considered by them the most happy death, and those were esteemed damned who died merely of sickness.+

When any of the Issedones lost his father, the relations used to bring a number of cattle, which, having killed and cut in pieces, with the dead body, they mixed all together, and served it up at a feast; the head of the deceased was however preserved, cleansed, and set in gold; and every year solemn sacrifices offered up to it.

Different authors have also mentioned
Scythians, inhabiting the coast of the
Euxine Sea, who cut the throats of all
strangers found amongst them, fed upon
their flesh, and made pots and drinking-
vessels of their sculls, when dried.‡
Amongst the Padai of India-when

-Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi.
Shak.
Melanchlani omnes indumenta nigra gerunt,
unde et cognomen habent, qui soli ex his humana
carne rescuntur, institutis Scythecis utentes.-Her-
odot, lib. iv. 107.
+ Lib. i. 216.
Lib. iv. 26.

Strabo, lib. vii, 298.

prisoners. The natives of the Caribbean Islands were cannibals; and the Caribs of the Main Land were seen, in 1764, to eat the flesh of the Maroons that had revolted against the Dutch, in their settlements on the Berbice; they are also reported to have made eunuchs of their children, in order to fatten and eat them.

In numbers of the American tribes it

is the custom to devour their prisoners of war, after submitting them to the most exquisite tortures which savage enthusiasm can invent. A scaffold is erected, and the prisoner tied to the stake; where he sings his own deathsong, and prepares for the tortures. They begin at the extremity of his body, and gradually approach the more vital parts; one plucks out his nails by the roots; another, with his teeth, tears off the flesh from his fingers; a third thrusts

+ Ideoque cum hac de causa, tum quia omnes qui in moreum incidunt, necantur, non multi sane eorum ad senectutem perveniunt.-Herodot, lib. iii. 99,

Cort. Relat, 176; Bern. Diaz de Castillo Conquist, de la N. Espagna, p. 156 and 157; and Robertson's America, p. 463 and 495, vol. iii.

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his finger, already mangled, into the and eat the children of their fe taste, bowl of a pipe, and smokes it like to captives, whom they kept as concubi bacco: others pound his toes and fingers for that purpose; and who, when they between two stones; and, in short, every had done child-bearing, were also killed invention to torture they can think of is and eaten. In many parts of America made use of till nature sinks under the where the practice has been abolished, accumulated sufferings, or one of the it appears to have been so well known chiefs, whether out of compassion or in former times, that it has entered into tired of cruelty puts an end to his life the idiom of the language. The Irowith a club or a dagger. The body is quois, when they express a resolution of then put into the kettle, and succeeded going to war with an enemy, say, “Let by a repast as barbarous as the preceding us go and eat that nation :" and, if they solicit assistance from any other tribe,

treatment.*

This is more especially the custom they invite it to "eat broth made of the with the North Americans; their south-flesh of their enemies."* The same fell ern neighbours gratify their vengeance practices are expressed in their warin a manner somewhat different. M. de song-" I go to war to revenge the death Lery, and Stadius, a German officer, of my brothers; I shall kill; I shall exwho was in captivity amongst the Tou- terminate; I shall burn my enemies; I pinambos for nine years, narrate that shall bring away slaves; I shall devour they fed upon the bodies of their pri- their heart, dry their flesh, drink their soners under the most horrid circum- blood: I shall tear off their scalps, and stances; and the latter escaped the same make cups of their sculls."+ fate by extraordinary courage and ad- The inhabitants of New Zealand eat dress. According to them, their pri- the bodies of their enemies; but, it soners are caressed, and some beautiful would appear, from absolute necessityyoung woman appointed to solace them; on account of their want of the necessaand every artifice made use of to attach ries of life. The natives of Feejee are the captives to life--whilst, at the same also said to be anthropophagi. time, their doom is unalterably fixed; The food of the inhabitants of Anriko and of course their minds, from being in Africa, is said to be human flesh; and exalted with the hope of mercy, feel a human bodies are hung up for sale in corresponding depression when they dis- their shambles;-conceiving that they cover it is not to be extended to them: have an absolute right to dispose of their and it is for this cruel purpose that it is slaves at pleasure, their prisoners of war supposed to be done. On an appointed are fatted, killed, and either eaten or day the tribe assembles; the prisoner is sold to butchers. It is also said that brought forth with great solemnity, and discontented slaves offer themselves for dispatched with a single blow: as soon food to their masters; and that persons as he falls, the women seize the body, and dress it for the feast. Their children are besmeared with the blood, in order to kindle a hatred of their enemies; and all feed, with barbarous exultation, The Giagas, a tribe of savages, in the upon the flesh of the victim. The vir- kingdom of Congo, according to Catues by which the Toupinambos believe vazzi, whose account is almost incredithey deserved Paradise were revenge, ble, feed on human flesh under the most and eating abundance of their enemies. shocking circumstances. Some of the Some of the Brasilians and Chilese are Jaga princes take pleasure in eating said to be anthropophagi; and to devour the bleeding hearts of their enemies, and the bones of their children.

De la Vega mentions a people of Peru, who were accustomed to fatten

Meiners on the Flexibility and Inflexibility of the different races of Mankind: and Guthrie's Geography "Amerien."

↑ Robertson's America, [. 106, vol.

of the nearest relation feed upon each other without the least horror. They have no graves for the dead--who are devoured as soon as they have expired.§

young women; and a princess is said to have been so fond of her gallants, that she ate them successively. Five or six

Robertson's America, vol. ii. p. 15o,

Robertson's Amerien, vol. ii. p. 462; and Bossu's
Travels through Louisiana, vol. i. p. 101.

Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. ii. and in.
Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Anriko, and art. Jagas,

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Anthropophagi.Lellers from London.

(VOL. 2

g men will at once destroy and wounded, by lances thrown at him by e a captive, by tearing him in pieces. the assembled multitude, they rush upon South-west of Sennaar are said to be him as in a rage, cut pieces from the many tribes of negroes, feeders on human body, dip them in a dish, previously flesh. The inhabitants of Mumbos, a prepared of salt and lemon-juice, broil country north-west of Mocaranga, are them slightly, and then swallow the said to devour their captives and slaves. morsels with a barbarous enthusiasm: Mr. Marsden* writes, that the Battas, in some instances they tear the flesh a people of Sumatra, eat human flesh; from the carcase with their mouths. It but not because there is a scarcity of is said by some authors that they do not food, or as a gluttonous repast-but in eat the bodies of their enemies slain in order to shew their detestation of crimes battle; but, though it be not a general, by an ignominious punishment, and as yet it is an occasional, practice. a revenge upon their enemies;-the objects of it are prisoners of war, and offenders condemned for capital crimes. When sentence is pronounced, the victim is tied to a stake; and when mortally * History of Sumatra.

There are also many other nations who, although they do not eat human flesh indiscriminately, yet devour detached parts of the body without the least disgust. PHILOS.

Aug. 4, 1817.

S

From the Literary Gazette.

LETTERS FROM LONDON.

LETTER V.

As you might easily have foreseen, Fortunately, however, I recollected that

"We congratulate ourselves on sovaluable a member," said a pale gentleman, "for in Cato's judgment, a verse, a line of true simplicity, is worth a whole Childe Haroldry of fustian."

The room was in raptures at this parody." Did you hear that? note that!" echoed every where; and every one took out a tablet. This is rather an awful affair, thought I; and what a flow of soul must needs ensue, when people are talking for immortality!

from the tenor of a former letter, I I once composed an additional verse to was not very likely to succeed as a gov- Lullaby, so was introduced, in due form, erness. I therefore relinquished the as a lady, "who had kindly benefited. project, and waited on the lady who had the commonwealth of letters.' promised to make n her amanuensis. She received me with abundant civility, instituted me on the spot, and introduced me in the evening to a literary party. These, it seems, are a select few, who meet once or twice a week for the purpose of giving and receiving wisdom, of bartering an apologue for an anecdote, doling out sententiousness by retail, and, in short, transacting a regular commerce of small wit. They consist of certain ladies and gentlemen, who have the happiness, as they themselves say, to be neglected by the public; and who despise the public heartily, and write for it daily. They therefore find a prodigious comfort in collecting together, and praising each other, since the community will not do so for them. And truly, any one who heard them would imagine, that a congress of wits was then and there bolden, in formal deputation from the four corners of the globe.

At first, a serious obstacle presented itself against my admission into this society; as none but those who had already written something, were eligible.

"As you are about entering upon literary life," continued the pale gentleman, "allow me, Madam, to obtrude a few admonitory observations; for though some men are born with a desire to mind their own business, all men are born with a fondness for interfering with the affairs of others."

Tablets and exclamations were now at work again.

"If your object in writing is present notoriety, you must knock at the public brains with a quarto, for they are never at home to the gentle tap of ar octavo. Notes, wide lines, and a

a

VOL. 2.]

Letters from London.-Female Dress.

Thames of margin, will soon swell up the frog to a sufficient bull. In poetry, you must either invent a new measure, or revive an old one; you must write with diluted ink, and eke out a thought to three pages; and, above all, must be sedulous to bring adjectives and substantives together, which, having never been so close before, naturally stare in astonishment at finding themselves side by side. For this purpose, a calida junctura between obsolete and new made words, is the surest and easiest re

source.

"But if plain prose be your object, you must not write a condensed style, but contrive to make every sentence a labyrinth of parentheses, hypotheses, and repetitions. In a word, it is now the fashion to write as if you were speaking, and to speak as if you were writing.

"Then as for the subject, there is nothing so lucrative as novels or travels. Happy are those authors, who feel a desire to see a thousand miles. They set off some fine morning with a portmanteau, take a tour through France and the Netherlands, then publish, and out of the profits afford themselves a trunk for their next excursion. To conclude, nobody now will allow genius out of a certain circle, and public taste is as fluctuating as the Ocean. Nothing floats upon its surface but trifles, and the lightness of a production may always be known by its buoyancy."

I have not interrupted my detail of this harangue, with a list of the murmured eulogies that its several passages received, but when the speaker had ended, an old cynical gentleman took up the subject.

249

"I am far from being of opinion," said he, "either that the public taste, generally speaking, is vitiated, or that there is an insensibility to talent among us. On the contrary, we run rather into the opposite extreme, and hold up indifferent writers, as prodigies of wit. Formerly, seven or eight geniuses in a cenbut now tury, were thought sufficient; man, woman and child, all have genius. We are not content with a Pleiades, we must create a galaxy. And, indeed, in my judgment, this propensity is not without some reason; for though we do not, perhaps, possess any one star of the first magnitude, yet our literary hemisphere is illuminated by so glorious a cluster of smaller lights, that we may defy any former age to compare with the present in collective brilliancy."

"By Jupiter, Sir, you are a satellite on this occasion;" observed the pale gentleman, and the company laughed and recorded.

The remainder of the conversation was conducted in a similar manner, but with frequent pauses; because as all were determined not to commit themselves by talking plain sense, silence, portentous of epigram, was often the consequence.

At length I left them, and returned home, with the full conviction, that a party specifically meeting to talk, is the most silent assembly in nature; that nothing can be more dull than a firm resolution to be witty, and nothing so little conducive to knowledge, as a premeditated conversation for the purpose of imparting it. Adieu.

From the Literary Gazette..

ON TASTE IN FEMALE DRESS.

"Dress is the natural finish of beauty. Without attachment to the better sex remains pure dress, a handsome woman is a gem, but a gem that is and undiminished, and, thank heaven,

not set."

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my perception of physical and moral beauty is still in its meridian of power. I look back upon the years of my youth

upon the prime of my manhoodwhen the loveliest and the best of women was the solace of my heart, with a dear, a soothing delight, which the wealth of worlds could not purchase.

250

Taste in Female Dress.

[VOL. 2

that the feeling, or sentiment especially with respect to the opposite sex-is more general than might be at first suspected ; and, perhaps, we seldom, if ever, meet with a female, whose general style of dress is chaste, elegant, and appropriate, that we do not, on a more intimate acquaintance, find much in her disposition, mind, and manner, to admire, and to love.

Sixty-five years have not rolled re- infallible; yet I am inclined to think, gardless over my head. Within that period a little eternity in prospective, but scarcely more than a point in the past many are the changes of the times, and of manners, that I have observed. Connected, in some measure, with my naturally invincible admiration of the sex, has been an attention to their various styles of personal decoration; and though, in some respects, I entertain a perfectly philosophical contempt of dress, I will not shrink from the avowal, that, in the contemplation of a beautiful woman, elegantly and tastefully attired, I have, at all times, enjoyed a pleasure of no vulgar cast. Time was, when the waist of a span,

"Small by degrees, and beautifully less," was the summit of female ambition; when the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire, whose zone was exactly the circumference of an orange and a half, excited the envy of the whole world of fashion; but this, and numberless other absurdities, have been hurried down the stream of oblivion, never more, it is hoped, to intrude into the regions of taste. Peaked stomachers, fortification bosoms, monstrous craws, cork hips, and protuberant pads, have, in succession, been consigned to the "family vault of all the Capulets;" and notwithstanding its faults, I must be permitted to consider the present age as greatly superior to many that are past.

I have already remarked, that the love of dress is natural to woman. Look at the Hottentot fair, bedaubed with grease and ochre; see the native of the South Sea Islands, gaily bedight in shells, and beads, and feathers, and ferruginous pendants in her ears and nose; and, to come nearer home, observe the country wench, tricked out in flaring ribbons, and rivaling the rainbow in the number and variety, if not in the beauty, of its colors. Here is the love of dress in all its native force; but where is the chastening hand of taste, the nice perception of the beautiful and correct? The British fair, thanks to the powder-tax, have long relinquished the practice of kneading up their tresses into dough, by the admixture of flour and fat-a practice as odious as that of the Hottentots; for what is there more offensive or ridiculous in red dust and grease, than in white dust and grease?-but they still retain that relic of barbarism, the wearing ear-rings. Why should they not, like some of their sable sisters, adorn their olfactory organs in the same chaste and simple style?—The short petticoats, which now so frequently enable the Bond-Street lounger to expatiate on the color of his mistress's garters, are doubtlessly an importation from that land where Vice reigns triumphantwhere Modesty has long forgotten to blush. Still are we doomed to exclaim,

The love of dress is natural to woman. This has been seen, and attested, in all ages and in all countries of the world, in the most savage as well as in the most polished states. It is a laudable, a useful, an interesting propensity; but it requires to be chastened and regulated by the hand of taste, by a sense of the beautiful in nature, of the correct and harmonious in art. Thus it will generally be seen, that the mind which is most highly cultivated, will be most successful in the art of personal decoration, provided its attention be directed, or attracted towards that point. Lord dresses and pelisses round, like so many Chesterfield declared, that he could not beer-barrels, originated, I presume, help forming some opinion of a man's eastward of Temple-Bar. The wearers sense, and character, from the style of his of these dresses always remind me of dress. Such a criterion is by no means brewers' wives and daughters, hanging

"O, France, whose edicts govern dress and
meat,
Thy victor, Britain, bends beneath thy feet!"

The almost equal barbarous, though not
equally indecent, mode of hooping the

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