The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-06-12
Long Pig.

DIR. Mosely, of the scientific staff of
the Challenger expedition, says in his
+" Notes of Naturalist" Just published,
concerning the Fiji islanders
When visitors of distinction paid
great chief a visit, he was expected to
provide human flesh for their entertainN
ment. If there were no prisoners,
man whose special Office it was to obtain
such food for the chief went in search of
and often killed some girl or woman he
met with alone, belonging to q village
not far of.
Young woman was considered to be
the best eating; Europeans were not
thought 60 good to eat as natives, no
doubt because of their very mixed diet
and much grester consumption of ami
msl food. The bodies were prepared
with care for cooking, and were usually
baked in the well known oven in the
ground. A special vegetable, a species
OF solanum, was eaten with the baked
flesh, just as was the case in New Zsae
land. The vegetable was eaten with
human flesh as 8 suitable condiment, not
az an antidote. There is no reason to
suppose that i'll effects followed the eatN
ing of human flesh any more than from
the consumption Of any other kind of
flesh. The sturdy health OF the gray
haired Thackombau is sufficient evil
dence against each a supposition.
The flesh was eaten cold as well as hot,
and the cOld-cooked flesh was often sent
as 8 present to g distance by one chief to
] another. A four-pTonged fork of wood
was used in eating human flesh, and
was held more or less sacred, but it was
also used for eating other food occasions
ally.
The New Zealanders were, however,
proably the most profuseIy cannibal
race that has existed. As many as one
thousand New Zealand prisoners have
been slaughtered at one time after a sue
cessiul battle, that their bodies might be
put into the ovens.
In 1888 the captain of an English
merchant ship, named Stewart, made an
agreement with tribe of Maoris under
3 renowned chief, TIE Rauparaha, to
convey War-party to a distant village
on the coast, Tor the remuneration of 8
cargo of New Zealand fax. The warri
Ors were landed at night, exterminated
the village and brought off the bodies Of
the slain to the ship, where they cooked
them in the ships cOppers; the captain
nevertheless duly received his cargo.
In 1882 or 1888 a large party o.
MsOris was landed by another English
merchant vessel on the Chatham islands
small outliers of New Zealand. The
islands were inhabited by weaker race
Maoriori," fifteen hundred in number
The Maoris simply ate their way through
the islands, killing the Maorioris a
they required them for food and making
the victims dig the ovens in which they
were to be cooked in, and collect wooC
for the purpose. Their object in goinl
to the island was to feed upon the in
!, habltants, a Maori who had visited tn,
, islands, when engaged as a seaman on
. European vessel, having reported tbt
islanders as plump and well fed.
Whilst the New Zsalanders considered
the palms of the hands and the breast 81
! the best eating, the Fijisns especialI,
, preferred the flesh of the arm below tn
: elbow, and that of the thigh. No
more than FIVE and twenty years ago
white residents are said to have joine
the natives in their cannibal fessts q
Ovalau, Fiji.