enter into the festivity with as much zest as they do. On the last day but one he is
bound to a stout pole, the top of which carries the peacock emblem of the Tado
Pumor; and around him wheel and wheel the revellers, protesting in their wild
rude songs that they do not murder a victim, but sacrifice one who has been
fairly purchased, and that, therefore, his blood will not be upon their heads. The
Meriah, being stupefied with drink, makes no answer; and his silence is
interpreted as a willing assent to his immolation. Next day he is anointed with
oil, and carried round the village; after which he is brought back to the post, at
the bottom of which a small pit has been dug. A hog is killed, and the blood
poured into the pit, and mixed with the soil until a thick mud is formed. Into this
mud the face of the Meriah is pressed until he dies from suffocation. It should be
added that he is always unconscious from intoxication when brought to the post.
The zani, or officiating priest, cuts off a fragment of the victim’s flesh, and
buries it near the pit; as an offering to the earth; after which the spectators
precipitate themselves upon the body, hack it to pieces, and carry away the
fragments to bury in their fields as a propitiation to the rural deities.
In Sumatra exists a tribe, that of the Battas, which has not only a religion and a
ceremonial worship, but a literature, a kind of constitution, and a penal code.
This code condemns certain classes of criminals to be eaten alive. After the
sentence has been pronounced by the proper tribunal, two or three days are
suffered to elapse, to give the people time to assemble. On the day appointed, the
criminal is led to the place of execution, and bound to a stake. The prosecutor
advances, and selects the choicest morsel; after which the bystanders in due
order choose such pieces as strike their fancy, and, terrible to relate! hack and
hew them from the living body. At length the chief releases the poor wretch
from his long agony by striking off his head. The flesh is eaten on the spot, raw
or cooked, according to each man’s taste.
We have seen that in some of the “sunny Eden-isles” of the Pacific, the natives
consider that they render a service to their aged and infirm parents by putting
them to death, and that, by eating them, they provide the most honourable mode
of sepulture. In others, as in New Zealand, the belief prevails that a man, by
devouring his enemy, gains possession of all the virtues with which the latter
may have been gifted. This conviction is cherished by certain tribes on the river
Amazon.