The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-11-01

slowly Roast Them Until Dead
strange Defense III the CustOm-Cap'
Utnde's Remarkable Paper 81 Africa
Twenty Millions OF Msn-E Eating Saw
ages.
One of the most remarkable pa
pers aver read before a scientific asso
citation was that prepared by Capt. s
L. Hinde at the meeting of the Brit
ish Association recently. Capt
Hinde was one of Baron Dahnis' fore
on the Congo, and in his paper b.
gave a description of the cannibal ma
tiyes in that district and a startling
account of their customs.
After Capt. Hinde had concluded
Mr.. Elworthy took up the discussion
on behalf of the cannibal, claiming
that his appetite was not %altogethe
r~eprehensible and that it should be il
a measure considered with some len
iency because it had been the origin
of the most solemn of all Christian
rites, the Sacrament. He argued
that the idea underlying cannibalisn
was to be found in a primeval belle
of mankind, which supposed that the
person consuming another acquired In
that way many of the desirable quail
tiles that had distinguished the vic
tim.
He cited the we'll known belief on
the part of certain savage tribes that
in eating the heart of a particularly
vail ant enemy, they introduced into
their own nature the courage they
had been compelled to admire in the
man that was dead.
T,.u1 II;,Ia enid fhut panpihalJsm
prevailed almost universally through
out the Congo basin, and that in
stead of decreasing, is growing stead
lily, and a large trade is carried on
among the various tribes IN selling
and exchanging slaves intended to be
eaten. He stated, also, the heretofore
unpublished fact that women were sell
dom eaten, the savages, either from
an innate sense of %gallantry or from
some popularity of the palate, pre-
fer males as a diet, and furthermore
that a victim intended for a feast is
never dismembered before being
cooked, but is roasted entire, the fav.
orite Joints and portions being sliced
off after the subjects is done to a turn.
The only exception is hat the head
is cut off, kept for several Gays, and
then made into a stew. The brain
is considered the greatest d%elicacy.
and generally goes to the chief. The
meat of human flesh tastes not unlike
veal. The skin is never eaten, be-
cause when baked it becomes some
what leathery. and tough. That hu-
man beings are eaten for any religious
or superstitious reason, Capt. Hinde
denied. and said it was done purely
for food.
C; nnibals do not eat the flesh OF
members of their immediate family.
Cant. Hinde told of a man who having
been killed, his two sons handed the
body over TO a circle of friends who
ate it for him.
The most horrible of all the facts
given by Capt. Hinde was his descrip-
ton of the manner in which cannibals
prepare victims for eating. 1t has
been said that some of these people
keep a stock of prisoners on hand,
fattening them until suitable for kill
ing. Capt Hinde shows that among
the tribes of the Bangala race these
prisoners are frightfully tortured under
the belief that it makes their flesh
more tender and consequently, more
palatable.
: One method resembles, in a painful
degree, the way in which the goose is
for pate de foie gras, all the
Joints of the man being broken, even
10 those of his fingers and toes. He is
then buried up to his neck in a clayey
earth. while around his temporar. |
grave huge pits are dug wherein a fire
is kept constantly burning. The heat
keeps the buried man In a profuse
perspiration. Men attend to the fires,
SO that the temperature may be kept up.
Other men take turns IN feeding
the head that is above ground, forcing
into the mouth bananas, palm oil ami
other nutritious eatables that have a
tendency to fatten. There is hardly
any intermission in this compulsory
and drinking during the three
or four days the man is kept in this
awful position. At the end of that
time he is dug up, more dead than
alive, but considerably fatter and
softer than he was when he was put
down, and then he is promptly killed.
What merciful instinct prompts the
,annibal to kill his victim before
he roasts him is not known, but, with
very few exceptions, this is done.
A modification of this method is
keeping the victim under water for
the same length of time. In such
,ases the joints are broken, as de-
and the man is seated in a pit,
lis arms and feet being tightly tied to
and then the pit is filled with
to the victims neck. He is fed
IN the same manner as his unfortunate
brother under ground, and when the
lime comes he is dubbed to death pre-
to roasting.
The process of cooking is a rather
elaborate n Trenches are dug and
carefully lined with large round pieces
# rock, so as to to make a floor and
inc the walls. A day before the cook
enormous fires of branches and
wigs are built in trenches, and are
,ept alive until the stones are super
leated. The body of the man to be
aten is then laid in this pit, the ash
s of the branches and twigs being
he only protection between the skin
nd the stones. These ashes from the
vood keep the skin from being burned.
According to the captains estimate,
wenty millions of people in the Congo
Basin are eaters of human flesh. The
ntire population is %, 600, 600. The
avs made by the Belgians in the gov ,
rnment of this district punish canni !
alism with death, and a number OF :
eating chiefs have been hanged. Z
In addition to this custom of eating ]
uman beings, another equally hor- ,