Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-10-25
STORIES OF CANNIBALISM.

| STORIES OF CANNlBALlSM
The St. Louis Post Dispatch prints long
list of cannibalistic stories, and says that
the fact that men under the stress of hunger
will eat men is as old as the stone age OF
Europe Remains of human banquets are
to be found in the lately-opened caves OF
France and the pre- historic remains OF Den
mark. Savage tribes the world over nave
| eaten their enemies, a fact which lnduced
the philosopher Compte 10 declare that lhe
greatest step forward 10 civilization made
bv man was the invention Of slavery, which
substituted service for food. When the
early explorers came first to America, they
| found the West Indian Islanders all man
caters, whence the name Gambia! comes,
"Carribaln being the word used by the
| Spanish discoverers These Indians were
! exceedingly partial 10 human flesh, eating,
however, ouly that of their enemies. In
| Marco Paulo's travels in the East, he de-
scribed markets in which human flesh was
offered for sale in Tagtary, and later travel
ers have confirmed !his fact. The same
open sale is said to be the custom among
the wild tribes near the Congo i'll Africa,
and in other parts Of the interior OF the
| dark continent. III New Zsaland and the
South Sea islands generally, especially at
| Fiji, cannnalism was the rule rather than
the execution. 1t was associated with the
religious beliefs Of the people, and the most
horrible excesses were continued down into
times within the memory of men now living.
In the South Seas the chief epicures III an
throDophagy were TO be found, the New
| ZealNnders, and, indeed, all those with
educated palates, estcemlnS the PAIN OF
the human hand the choicest tld-bit oi gas
tronomy Singularly enough, the Australian
carni5als, after Il number OF experiments,
declared that civilized man had so saturated
himself with salt and tobacco that his flesh
was ruined for cookery, and the white man
among the cannibals Of the South Seas is
| looked upon much as we regard a fish
eating duck. Instances arc on record where
| in crews Of wrecked vessels were preserved
| for the soi:. reason that they were unfit TO
| eat.
| Among white men canniha!ism has always
| been regarded with deepest loathng and hcr-
ror 1t has only been under the dlrest stress
| of famine that food so unnatural has been
restored to- There has always been an
| idea, amounting almost to superstition: ina"
once man partakes of the ghoullsh repast
the foul appetite grows upon him, ana ihat
no fear of punishment or detection can
| keep him from seeking new victims. ms
is said to be a mania and name has been
given to it, anthropophaSia," of Which
| many well authenticated cases arc 10 be
| found in the books.
4 Mianese womaD, u&insd Elizabeth,
was burned in the middle CT the thirteenth
century for numbering and dcrouring a
number Of children. In Saxnny the Gel
ebrated Goldsmith case will be re1nem-
bered This wretch had killed man, and
in order 10 conceal the body burnt and ate 1t.
| He then committed several other murders
for the same purpose, being finally executed
in 1882.
In the wars that devastated Italy in the
| thirteenth and fourteenth centuries cannl-
baIism was common in the prolonged seges
and determined resistance of the besieged.
At the siege of the castle Of Borretino, III
| 1910 the soldiers who formed the ward OF
the castle ate their horses, dogs, and such
other domestic animals as they could lind,
and then ievoureu the servants, women
and children in the fortress. When the cas-.
tie fell, The constable was burned and the
soldiers still living executed at once. When
Cortcz was besieging the city of Mexico the
inhabitants were driven to the last extremes
of famine, and slaughtered and ate their
prisoners making the most desperate salies
| in quest of human food. During the con-
quest of Peru instances oT cannibalisn are
numerous, both on the part of the Spaniards
and the Peruvans, the former learning
the habit from the latter When the
Spaniard De Narvaes was making
his explorations in Florida, after a
complete failure Of provisions, those of his
troops who died of the famine were devour-
ed by the others, to the horror of the 1ndi-
ans, who exclaimed against the sacrilege of
eating ones friends. Exploring parties in
the Rocky Mountains were driven to the
same dreadful necessity; one case, that of
McCalmont and Hughes being as recent as
that of 1858, the latter killing and eating his
comrsde, aud subsequently going crazy. lie
was finally found raving maniac beside the
mutiated body OF his friend.
Shipwrecks and the consequent suffering
and starvation have often tinged the pages
of history red with the consequent records
of inhuman and ghoulish feasts.
Perhaps the best known case i'll recent
times followed the wreck Of the Medusa in
1876, The Medusa frigate with several 9th
pr ships set sail June II, 1916, from Roche
port. France, for Senegal, Africa. and went
aground on the Arguin bank on the west
coast. a raft was constructed, upon which
over hundred soldiers and some or the
passengers of the ship were put. Most OF o,
the officers took to the boats and made OIL,
leaving the others to get to the African
coast the best way possible.
There was no food and no instruments
on the raft; there was plenty of wine
and some water. The raft was the scere
of the most ndescribable suffering.
storm arose. and many Of the unfortu,
mates were washed away others committed
suicide before they had been day afioat.
Irrt | 5or0 nj ad
ing the wine and drinking themselves into .
: state of intoxicaton. They then tried to de-
stroy the raft, so that all might be involved in
one common ruin. desperate fight between
the passengers and the officers on the one slde
and tho drunken mutneers on the other followed
, in which many Rere slain, the raft being simply