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animal, commited a greater violence to his own nature than the most beautyful and delicate female, accustom'd to animal food, would feel in fheding the blood of her fellow-creatures for fustenance; posfefs'd as they are of exquifite feelings, a confiderable degree of intelligence, and even, according to her own religious fystem, of a liveing foul.* That this is a principlein the focial dispofition of mankind is evident from the deliberate coolness with which feamen, when their ordinary provifions are exhaufted, fit down to devour fuch of their comrades as chance or contriveance renders the victim of the moment: a fact of which there are but too many, and those too wel-authenticateëd, inftanceës.† Such a

* Genefis, I, 20, in the margin.

+ See The melancholy narrative of captain Harrison of the floop Peggy, p. 21, &c.; Narrative of the shipwreck of the Nottingham galley, p. 19; Shipwreck and adventures of Pierre Viaud, p. 165 ;-Account of the loss of the brig Mary and Ann of London, in The morning chronicle of Decem. 22, 1791; Voyages and travels of an Indian interpreter (J. Long), p. 126. See allfo an account of fome Ufipians in Tacituses Life of Agricola. In the old testament, and in the history of Jofephus, at different fiegees of Jerufalem the Jewish women ate their own children. (See II Kings, vi, 26, and Whistons Jofephus, p. 931.) The foldiers of Cambyfes, in his frantick expedition against the Aethiopians, fed upon herbs fo long as they found any in the way; but when they arrive'd in the

crime, which no necesfity can justify, would never enter the mind of a starving Gentoo, nor, indeed, of any one that had not been previously accustom'd to animal food. Even among the Bedouins, or wandering Arabs of the defert, according to the obfervation of the enlighten'd Volney, though they fo often experience the extremity of hunger, the practice of devouring human flesh was never hear'd of. Content with his milk and his dates, the Bedouin has not defire'd flesh; he has fhed no blood; his hands are not accustom'd to flaughter, nor his ears to the crys of fuffering creatures; he has preferve'd

fandy deserts, some of them were guilty of a horrid action : for they caft lots among themselves, and ate every tenth man. (Herodotus, Thalia.) The Numantines, according to Valerius Maximus, being befiege'd by Scipio, were constrain'd to feed upon mans flesh. But necesfity, fays that authour, was no excufe for this; for there was no necesfity for them to live, to whom it was fo lawful to dye. The horrid impiety, however, of the Calagurritans, it feems, exceeded the obstinacy of the former: who, being befiege'd by Pompey, and haveing devour'd all other creatures in the city, fel to feaft upon their wives and children; and, to the end the armed youth might nourish their bowels with their own bowels the longer, they were not afray'd to falt up the unfortunate remains of the dead bodys. In comparison of thefe, he exclaims, ferpents and wild beafts are gentle and merciful creatures! (B. 7, c. 6.)

a humane and fenfible heart.

The habit of shed

ing blood, he fays, and tearing his prey, has familiarife'd the favage to the fight of death and fufferings. Tormented by hunger he has defire'd flesh; and finding it eafy to obtain that of his fellow-creature, he could not long hesitate to kil him, to fatisfy the craveings of his appetite. The first experiment made, this cruelty degenerates into a habit; he becomes a cannibal, fanguinary and atrocious, and his mind acquires all the infenfibility of his body.*

The Cyclops and Laeftrigons, in the Odyssey, are devourers of human flesh, as are, likewife, Scylla and the Syrens.

The Scythian drank the blood of the first prifoner he took; and made the fkin of his head ferve him for a handkerchief; and, fometimes, the skins of the entire bodys, for a coat. The Melanchlaenians, allfo, a Scythian nation, fed upon human flesh.t

The Callatii, a nation of India, when asked by Darius, for what fum they would confent to

* Travels, I, 409, 410.

+ Herodotus, Melpomene. The Scythians, according to Pliny, were anthropophagi, or eaters of mans flesh; they ufe'd to drink out of mens fculs, and to wear the fcalps, hair and all, inftead of ftomachers. (B. 6, c. 17; B. 7, c. 1.)

burn the dead bodys of their parents, were ftruck with horror at the propofal;-they onely ate them. The Padaeans, another Indian nation, ate raw flesh; and, when any one of the community was fick (or rather, it may be, found, plump, and in good plight), his best friends presently dispatch'd him; faying, he was in a wasteing condition, and the diseafe would corrupt his body. If he deny'd he was fick, they had no regard to his words, but kil'd him, and feafted upon his flesh. his flesh. A woman in the fame circumftanceës was treated in the fame manner, by other women.t

The Isfedons, whose country adjoined to Scythia, prefer'd the flesh of a sheep hafh'd with that of a parent. The Masfagetae, a Scythian na

* Idem, Thalia. The Greek foldiers in the Perfian army fustained not a fhock when the above monarch, to show the force of custom, demanded for how much they would devour the dead bodys of their parents, which they were accustom'd to burn. Idem, ibi.

Herodotus, Thalia.

Herodotus, Melpomene. This ceremony was obferve'd to a late period by the Samojedes, a word fynonymous with Anthropophagi, or man-eaters, and who were probablely of Scythian descent, who use'd to eat the bodys of their dead friends with venifon. See A relation of three embasfies perform'd by the E. of Carlisle, p. 83.

tion, had a fimilar tafte. The relations of an infirm perfon use'd to assemble, and haveing sacrifice'd him, along with an ox, or fome other animal, had all the flesh boil'd together, and fat down to it as to a feast.* This method is ad

mire'd by fome as a hapy thought of at once giveing a man burial, and celebrateing his funeral rites.f They did not, however, obferve the -fame honours toward thofe who dye'd a natural death a distinction which, in fome degree, is preferve'd among pious Christians, with refpect, that is, to the attendant animal. fays of the Tentyrites,

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Juvenal

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"An impious crew we have beheld, whose
Their enemy's very life cou'd not asswage,

rage

*Herodotus, Clio.

The Brasilians, according to Dellon, "don't even inter their dead friends, but devour them, even sometimes before the breath is out of their bodys. For, if they judge their friends paft all hopes of recovery, they kil them for fear they fhould grow lean before they dye; and, because they would husband their dead friends to the beft advantage, they dry their bones, which they beat to powder, and make up in a kind of pap, and fo eat it. When the Europeans upbraid them with their crueltys, they return us for anfwer, that we are a company of impious wretches, who fuffer our friends and parents to be confume'd in the earth by the vermin, when we might, with more reason, afford them our belly for their buryingplace." (Voyage to the E. Indies, p, 200.)

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