Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/195

 MANNEES AND CUSTOMS. 165 plant taro, and when the work was done, he sent her to fetch wood, with which he made a fire, while she, at his bidding, collected leaves and grass to line the oven, and procured a bamboo to cut up what was to be cooked. When she had cheerfully obeyed his commands, the monster seized his wife, deliberately dismembered her, and cooked and ate her, calling some to help him in consuming the unnatural feast. The woman was his equal, one with whom he lived comfortably ; he had no quarrel with her or cause of complaint. Twice he might have defended his conduct to me, had he been so disposed, but he only assented, to the truth of what I here record. The only motives could have been a fondness for human flesh, and a hope that he should be spoken of and pointed out as a terrific fellow. Those who escape from shipwreck are supposed to be saved that they may be eaten, and very rarely are they allowed to live. Re- cently, at Wakaya, fourteen or sixteen persons, who lost their canoe at sea, were cooked and eaten. So far as I can learn, this abominable food is never eaten raw, although the victim is often presented in full life and vigour. Thus young women have been placed alive beside a pile of wood given by the Kandavuans to the Chiefs of Rewa. I knew also of a man being taken alive to a Chief on Vanua LeVu, and given him to eat. In such cases they would be killed first. Some of the heathen Chiefs hate camiibalism, and I know several who could never be induced to taste human flesh. These, however, are rare exceptions to the rule. No one who is thoroughly acquainted with the Fijians, can say that this vitiated taste is not widely spread, or that there is not a large number who esteem such food a delicacy, giv- ing it a decided preference above all other. The practice of kidnapping persons, on purpose to be eaten, proves that this flesh is in high repute. I have conversed with those who had escaped, severely wounded, from an attempt to steal them, as a supply for a forthcoming feast ; and one of the last bodies which I saw offered to a Chief was thus obtained for the special entertainment of the distinguished visitor*. Cannibalism does not confine its selection to one sex, or a particular age. I have seen the grey-headed and children of both sexes devoted to the oven. I have laboured to make the murderers of females ashamed of themselves; and have heard their cowardly cruelty de- fended by the assertion that such victims were doubly good — because they ate well, and because of the distress it caused their husbands and friends. The heart, the thigh, and the arm above the elbow are con- sidered the greatest dainties. The head is the least esteemed, so that