CANNIBALISM, the act or practice of eating human flesh by mankind. In his acci dental discovery of the West Indies Columbus heard of, if he did not himself see, the Carib Islands, the inhabitants of which were spoken of as Caribales, or, owing to the customary dialectical interchange of 1, n and r, Canibales. These Canibales or Caribales were reported to be man-eaters. This terrible association of Canibales with the practice of eating human flesh naturally enough led straightway to the transfer of the name of the people to their horrid custom. The Greek word, anthro coming down from pre-Christian times, indicates that the practice, though unknown to Columbus, was ancient and well enough known to be in the literature of the older peoples. The story of Polyphemus devouring human flesh as told in the 'Odyssey) and other legends of semi-divine man-eaters is evidence enough that the ancient authors knew, by hearsay at least, of this practice. It is a well-established fact that all races of men have at some time, in a greater or less degree, been guilty of the practice of eating human flesh for one purpose or another. It is very generally believed, and with a good show of reason, that there never has been a time, since man first appeared, down to and including our own, when the world has been free from canni balism. It is nearer being free from it now than it has been perhaps in all past time. To-day it exists among isolated South American tribes; in West Equatorial and Central Africa; in the Malay Archipelago, some of the South Sea Islands (mainly in Melanesia) and in parts of Australia. Excluding Australia cannibalism may be said to be confined to a belt of land extending to a little more than 10 degrees north and south of the equator. How far back the practice goes it is not possible to tell. So far as is known there is nothing to warrant the belief that the ancestors of the human species or the first of the human species ate one another. There is little if any evidence to indicate that down to as late a period as the close of the Old Stone Age the several races of men which had successively inhabited Euro-Asia and northern Africa prac tised cannibalism. Cannibalism is not univer sally characteristic of the savage state. A few charred and broken and scraped human bones from the cave-dwelling period are substantially all that has been found which can by any stretch of the imagination be supposed to hint at this practice. Tylor goes as far as the facts seem to warrant when he says that this evidence may "perhaps be taken to show that prehistoric savages were in this respect like those of modern times neither free from cannibalism nor universally practising it..) Cannibalism originates in and is carried on from widely different motives, ranging all the way from eating human flesh as a regular part of daily subsistence to the eating of it for purely magical or ritualistic reasons. It is not possible to draw a dividing line between the several kinds because all or nearly all forms are more or less interrelated. This may arise from the fact that usually the practice does not begin in a single motive., As a Means of Subsistence.— The most repulsive and degrading form of cannibalism is that of eating human flesh as a part, the main part, of the regular diet. The negro tribes along the Guinea Coast southwards into the Kongo and for some distance eastward eat human flesh as food. It is treated just as other races treat animal flesh. Raids are made to capture prisoners and they are herded and kept till wanted. Sometimes they are fattened just as other races fatten animals for the slaughter. Under great stress of hunger occasioned by shipwrecks, sieges and famines civilized persons have been driven to the eating of human flesh. The siege of Samaria about the middle of the 8th century B.C. (II Kings vi, 24ff); the siege of Paris in 1590; and the famine in Algiers in 1868 furnish instances of this. What civ ilized people are driven to do by the pressure of hunger it is not surprising that the savage should do with even greater readiness under similar circumstances. Many savage races have resorted to cannibalism onlyin times of famine. The Mungerra tribe in Queensland in times of severe famine *kill an eat some of their female children.) The natives of Tierra del Fuego, when starving in winter, *throttle and devour the oldest woman of the party. When asked why they did not kill and eat the dogs, they reply 'Dogs catch otters.' ° As Manifestation of Affection.— In credible as it may seem cannibalism in some instances seems to be prompted by affection. The Binderwurs of Central India killed and ate the sick and aged, °thinking this an act of kindness and acceptable to the goddess Kali.* The aborigines of southwest Victoria practise eating human flesh in a solemn service of mourning for the dead, particularly for those killed by accident. °The Tangara carry their dead about with them, and whenever they feel sorry for their death, they eat some of the flesh till nothing remains but the bones.) Among still other peoples parents partake of the flesh of their dead children las a token of grief and affection for the The practice of eating flesh for the purpose of honoring dead kinsmen is of a similar charac ter. Herodotus, writing of the Massagetie, a Scythian people living in the northeast of the Caspian, relates that when a man has attained a great age among these people it is the custom for his kinsmen to sacrifice him, boil his flesh with the flesh of cattle and eat it. This is accounted an exceedingly happy ending. Lyden describes a cannibalistic custom which has the appearance of a very pious ceremony. The aged and infirm invite their descendants to eat them. The victim ascends a tree around which the others assemble singing a funeral dirge: °The season is come, the fruit is ripe, and it must descend.) He then descends, and is put to death and eaten in a solemn banquet. As a Ritualistic Practice.— Cannibalism as a religious institution is one of the most widespread and persistent forms of the practice and it ranges all the way from almost a pass able refinement to the most revolting orgies. The religious purpose is not always the same. In some instances it is due to a desire, as among some Australian tribes, who make a practice of eating their totems, to become identified with the totem or god. In other cases the desire is simply to establish a close bond of friendship between the flesh-eating god and themselves. The peoples who offer human sacrifices to the vd eat of these sacrifices, believing that by so doing they directly and surely become possessed of the divine virtues supposed to proceed from such sacrifices. With the Khonds it was the custom for a girl representing the goddess Tari to be sacrificed and torn limb from limb by the worshippers eager to obtain a piece of the deified victim. Cannibalism as a purely re ligious exercise among people possessing a high degree of culture is best and most notoriously illustrated by the Mexican custom of offering human sacrifices to the god Huitzilopochtli. "The victims were enemies or slaves and were offered before the images of the gods. The priest cut open the breast with an obsidian knife, tore out the heart and offered it to the gods; then he sprinkled his assistant and the offerers with the blood. After this a cannibal feast on the body took place, priest and offerers partaking.) Early writers say these cannibalis tic sacrifices reached yearly into the thousands. To obtain rain from the rain-god Quiateot, children and adults were sacrificed to him and his images were sprinkled with their blood. As Magic and of the most varied forms of cannibalism is that orig. inating in the belief that by eating human flesh or certain parts of the human body very im portant advantages would be gained. Dead rel atives in some instances are eaten in the belief that the soul of the deceased will thus pass into the eater, and he thereby become possessed of all the desirable qualities of the dead man. In other instances the body of an enemy was eaten because that was the way to destroy the soul and thus put an end to further menace. Landor reports that in Tibet the dead is eaten partly by the Lamas and in part by the relatives, it being believed that the spirit whose flesh has been eaten will always remain friendly. The Boto cudos ate an enemy to render themselves invul nerable against the arrows of the hostile tribe. Among some peoples at the founding of a new town a human victim was slain and the heart and liver eaten by all present so that they might not die within the year. In I Kings xvi, 34, is reflected a survival of a similar custom. The idea that the eating of human flesh endows the eater with distinctly magical or supernatural powers is frequently met with in the savage world. In East Central Africa it is quite gen erally believed that the uncanny powers sup posed to be possessed by witches and wizards are obtained by the feeding of the latter upon human corpses. From this comes, naturally enough, the belief that whoever feeds on human flesh will have the power of witches and wizards. Not infrequently cannibalism has arisen from an almost uncontrollable passion for re venge, and a savage belief that eating an enemy is the surest way of bringing about his lasting disgrace. The ferocious natives of New Cale donia do not consider that revenge is complete until they have devoured the slain. The can nibal practices in Samoa seem to have had hatred and revenge as the motive. aI will roast was the greatest insult that could be offered a Samoan. For a long time after the practice was abandoned, captives, in token of submission, would offer burning wood and say •Kill and cook us when it seems good to The Tupis of South America ate their dead enemies, and the children were brought home captive and cared for till the age of 14 when they were slain and eaten. Instances have been met with where the criminal enemies within the tribe are slain and eaten. Where this is the custom it is usually the chief alone who has the privilege of eating the offending tribesmen. In some cases it is not easy to distinguish between this custom and that of mere glut tonous cannibalism. The chief goes so far as to cause a tumult to be raised. As a punishment the offender is slain and the chief invites guests to share in the meal of human flesh. So power ful an incitement to cannibalism is this passion for revenge that quite civilized peoples have been guilty of it. Other are several other motives leading to cannibalism more or less dis tinct from those mentioned. Among some peo ples the flesh of a fallen enemy was eaten after the fight by both contending parties as a token of entering into a binding' covenant of peace. At the coronation of a king in the Sandwich Islands it was the custom for the new king to swallow the left eye of a human victim that he might thus receive an accession of strength. Among the Indian tribes of the Northwest of America cannibalism took the form of initia tion into certain secret societies—a sort of ritualism. At the beginning of the initiation into the cannibal society the person is supposed to become possessed of the cannibal spirit, and so of a violent desire to eat human flesh. In olden times, when the cannibal was in a state of ecstasy, slaves were killed for him and he devoured them raw. Cannibal practices are of almost infinite variety, and perhaps all, except where human flesh is eaten simply as food, have their root in a superstitious view of life and the world. Naturally the practice has been disap pearing before the progressive enlightenment of the world, and even the tribes who are still guilty of eating human flesh as food are in creasingly ashamed of it, very often carrying on the practice in closely guarded secrecy. The bibliography of the subject covers a multitude of publications. Articles on an thropology and ethnology in journals devoted to such subjects will yield much information; also the narratives of travel and adventure by well-known explorers of early and later times. A few might be mentioned simply as sugges tions: Weeks, 'Among Congo Cannibals' ; Frazer, J. K., (Totemism and Exogamy); Stan ley, H. M., In Darkest Africa) ; Landor, W. S., 'In the Forbidden Land); Rannie, 'My Ad ventures South Sea ; Dennys, 'Folklore of China.>