Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The natives of New-Zealand and Feetee, as we learn from captain James Cook, eat those they take or kil in battle. The people of the Society-iles appear to have been formerly cannibals, and thofe of the Sandwich-ilands, and Nootka-found, are fo ftil.t

When the Caribbians brought home a prifoner of war from among the Arouagues, he belong'd of right to him who either seize'd on him in the fight, or took him runing away, fo that being come into his iland, after he had kept him fafting four or five days, he produce'd him upon fome day of folemn debauch, to ferve for a publick victim to the immortal hatred of his countrymen toward that nation. If there were any of their enemys dead upon the place, there they

ate them ere they left it. They had heretofore tafteëd of all the nations that frequented them, and affirm'd that the French were the most delicate, and the Spaniards of hardeft digestion. They are now nearly extirpateëd by the Christians.‡

ilanders of Java were cannibals in Le Blancs time, and fo were the Brafilians.

Voyage to the Pacifick ocean, II, 44, 169.

†lbi, II, 209, 210, 271.

History of the Caribby-islands, 1666, p. 326. The cu

The North-American Indians, though not cannibals at prefent, appear, from strong circumftanceës, to have been fo at no very distant period. They ftil, however, drink the blood, and even occafionally eat the hearts of their prifoners.

The Indians of Pozo, much the braveëst of all the natives of Peru, were fuch loveërs of human flesh that Cieza "one day faw them devour above an hundred Indian men and women they had kil❜d and taken in war." The Indians of

rious reader, from the next page but one, may become acquainted with their methods of cookry. See allfo Edwardses History of the W. Indies, I, 31. When the Spaniards first landed in Guadalupe, an iland of the cannibals," they founde in theyr kytchens mans fleshe, duckes fleshe, and goose fleshe, al in one pot, and other on the spyts, ready to be layde to the fyre. Entring into their inner lodgynges, they founde faggottes of the bones of mens armes and legges, which they referve to make heades for theyr arrowes; the other bones they caft away when they have eaten the fleshe. They founde, lykewyfe, the head of a young man fastened to a pofte, and yet bleedyng. In theyr houfes they founde allfo above thirtie children captives, which were referv'd to be eaten." (Edens History of travaile, 1577, fo. 12, b.)

* See Carvers Travels; Longs Voyages, p. 77. It is the general opinion of the southern Indians, a race in the neighbourhood of Hudsons bay, that when any of their tribe have been driven to the necessity of eating human flesh, they become fo fond of it that no person is fafe in their company. Hearnes Journey, p. 34.)

+ C. 21, p. 56.

Picara like'd mans flefh as wel as thofe of Pozo; for, when the Spaniards were there the first time, above 4000 of the natives follow'd them, "and fo order'd it, that they kil'd and ate at least 300 Indians."

* C. 22, p. 58. Some of the Indians, after eating the flesh, would ftuf the skin with ashes, and make a wax face to the fcul, fo as to give it the appearance of a liveing man : " and very often, when the people within were all asleep, at night, the devil enter'd into those bodys, which were full of afhes, and frighted the natives with fuch dreadful apparitions, that fome of them died for fear." (C. 28, p. 74.) Thefe devils were, probablely, Spaniards, the only demons, it is believe'd, which ever visited that coun..y.

[blocks in formation]

CHAP. VII.

ANIMAL FOOD PERNICIOUS.

"THESE flesh-eatings," fays Plutarch," are not onely preternatural to mens bodys, but, also, by cloging and cloying them, render their very minds and intellects grofs likewife: for, it is wel known to moft, that wine and much flesh-eating make the body, indeed, strong and lufty, but the mind weak and feeble."*

According to Festus, a contagious distemper fpred itsfelf in Rome, among women with child, in the reign of Tarquin the proud, which was ascribe'd to their eating the flesh of facrifice'd buls, the overplus of which the facrificeërs fold; and, on this occafion, the Taurian, or Taurilian games were inftituteëd, to appease the anger of the infernal gods.

* Of eating of flefb, tract i.

The Arabians, though not without animal food, feldom eat of it; it being thought very unwholefome in fuch hot countrys.

The indulgeing of flesh-meats and strong-liquors, according to doctor Cheyne, inflames the pasfions, and shortens life. †

No people in the world," fays doctor Buchan, eat fuch quantitys of animal food as the En-, gleish, which is one reason why they are so generally tainted with the fcurvy and its numerous train of confequenceës, indigestion, low-fpirits, hypochondriafm, &c."

It appears, by the general bil of all the christenings and burials, for the city and suburbs of London, from December 9, 1800, to December 15, 1801, that, of 17,814 children, males and females, christen'd in that or the four preceding years, not less than 5,395 dye'd under the age of two years, nor less than 2,063, between two and five a destruction, apparently, oweing to, and occafion'd by, the untimely and unnatural ufe of animal food. No other nation in the world, it is believe'd, much less that of the Hindoos, or any other people, who abstain from this diet, incuring fuch an untimely lofs.

*Niebuhrs Travels, II, 231. † Esfay on bealth, p. 94. Domestick medicine, p. 73.

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »