The Ethics Of Cannibalism

By Julian Hillas

BARELY a generation separates the present-day, Ford-owning Cook Is lander from his cannibal ancestors. Any living man of 60 whose father reached the age of 75 may claim with tolerable accuracy that his parent tasted human flesh in early youth.

Maretu, one of the pioneer mission aries attached to the London Missionary Society in the Cook group, has left be hind a written record of his times, the greater part of which, translated by the late Dr. Wyatt Gill, has appeared in the Journal of Polynesian Research. Maretu died on January 25, 1880. Assuming that he was 75 at the time of his death, he would have been a boy of 15 when the first white man, Captain Goodenough, landed on Rarotonga in 1820 —a period at which cannibalism was in general vogue.

Maretu makes it quite clear that the prevalence of this custom was not due to an acquired taste. It was, he states most emphatically, the result of revenge for acts of arrogance, spiteful oppression, and sacrilege. The high chiefs of Raro tonga never had human ovens; such cul inary possessions were the property of warriors and others below the chiefly ranks.

The reason for this abstinence on the part of the ruling class appears to have been a fear that by indulging themselves their example would be followed by the common people, who would subsequently acquire a craving for human flesh.

When it was known that a man had been slain, in peace-time, the chief would send instructions that the body was to be removed to the shrine of the god Tan garoa, as an offering, and its place taken at the feast by pigs or fowls. To eat human flesh, except on specially pres cribed occasions, was a serious offence against ariki law.

In this respect, the Rarotongans wore far more conventional than the majority of their neighbours, particularly the Fijians, with whom “long” or “short” pig was a matter of indifference, and any body at any time was liable to go into the family cooking-pot with perfect im partiality.

The Marquesans, on the other hand, seem to have been governed by much the same principles as the Cook Islanders.

Like the latter, revenge appears to have been the main motive behind a human killing. Frederick O’Brien mentions a case, that occurred not so long ago, of a man and his wife who were both found guilty of having lured a child into the bush, killed it and cut up the body, which they distributed among their relations in small pieces, each person’s share being placed in an empty match-box!

Maretu, who confesses that as a youth he ate human flesh cooked in his father’s oven at Ngatangiia, describes the fat of man as delicious, being neither so strong tasting nor smelling as that of fish or hogs. Moreover, it was particularly

sweet. Through Maretu’s acquired veneer ot civilisation one discerns an almost heathen longing, when he dilates upon the edible qualities of human thighs and kidneys.

The last case of cannibalism on a large scale in Rarotonga took place a few years before the arrival of the missionaries in 1826.

Pa-ariki, hereditary high chief of the Ngatangiia district, is supposed to have given the sacred maro . or girdle belong ing to the god Tangaroa, to Tinomana ariki, chief of Arorangi, on the west side of the island. But whether this was so or not, a great madness descended upon the Ngatangiia people and, led by Pa, a number of them “went like animals, bereft of reason’’ to Arorangi. On reach ing here they were treated as “pet pigs,” and divided out among the villagers, each man being adlotted his share of the new arrivals, whom he was at liberty to kill and eat as he chose.

For some extraordinary reason, all these people quietly submitted to their horrible fate, and sat in the houses assigned to them without making any attempt to escape. The explanation prob ably lies in the same obscure pathological causes that were responsible during the Middle Ages for those strange hysterical epidemics which swept through Europe and led to bands of men and women wandering about the countryside dancing, singing, or flagellating one another.

After the butchery had continued for some time, Pa aroused himself srffici ently to escape and return to Ngatangiia where he collected the remainder of his

tribe and with them descended upon Aro rangi. During the fighting which ensued the villagers were defeated and a number of them killed and eaten in revenge for their former arrogance. For two days, their bodies were kept in specially pre pared holes at the shrine of Tangaroa and then, being nicely softened, were dug up again and cooked.

As a result of this quarrel the Aro rangi people subsequently abandoned their homes along the edge of the lagoon and built a new settlement inland on the lower slopes of Maunga-roa, where they remained until the coming of Chris tianity put an end to the feud. But, even to-day, a vague resentment exists, and it is no exaggeration to say that any of the older men in Ngatangiia could tell

you promptly which and how many of their ancestors were eaten at Arorangi.

It has so long been the custom to exalt our own virtues at the expense of the South Sea islanders that it is salutary to find the position occasionally reversed.

Probably, few people are aware that we have in our own annals a case of canni balism on such a lavish scale that, be side it, the exploits of individual Raro tongans pale to utter insignificance. On this count alone it is worth relating.

Sawney Beane was born near Edinburgh in the last quarter of the 16th century.

His parents were poor hedgers and ditchers, who brought him up to follow the same occupation. But, being by nature idle and fond of dissolute pur suits, he soon left them and, in company

with a woman as viciously inclined as himself, took up his abode in a large cave on the Galloway coast.

Here he dwelt for 25 years, during which time his family increased to eight sons, six daughters, 18 grandsons and 14 grand-daughters, all of whom were be gotten in incest.

With this devil’s brood, he methodically hunted down, robbed and murdered all who passed insufficiently armed or guarded. The bodies of his victims were quartered, and such limbs as were not required for immediate consumption were pickled in brine. The flesh of these un fortunate people provided the family with its sole source of meat, and report has it that they were seldom short of commons.

As time went on, their depredations became so numerous that widespread alarm was caused throughout the countryside and, several innocent persons having been executed on suspicion, inn keepers and others abandoned the dis trict lest they should suffer a similar fate.

Everything, indeed, favoured the real culprits. The cave in which they lived, besides penetrating almost a mile under ground, was entered at high tide by the sea for nearly 200 yards, so that the search parties which were from time to time sent out by the authorities, not un naturally supposed the place to be un inhabited.

Sawney believed in the safety of num bers and made a point of always attack ing in vastly superior force. at length, having ambushed a man and his wife, the former put u$ such a stout resistance that he made good his escape and spurred into Glasgow, where he an nounced what had befallen him.

King James of Scotland (afterwards James I. of England) happened to be in the city when the news arrived, and he immediately led out in person a force of about 400 men and several bloodhounds.

They reached the vicinity of the cave, but they would have passed by, had not one of the hounds entered and set up such a hideous howling that the King ordered the place to be searched. Torches were accordingly procured and as many as could threaded their way along the twists and turnings which led to the huge inner recess.

Here, to their horror, they found the whole vast cavern hung with legs, arms and thighs, while other human members stood in casks of brine against the wall.

Gold, silver, weapons and clothing, repre senting the spoils of quarter of a century, were also discovered. Although no exact record is available, it has been computed that during Sawney Beane’s cannibal career he was directly responsible for the death of no less than 1,000 men, women and children.

Conveyed under strong guard to Edin burgh, Sawney and his family were com mitted to the Tolbooth, whence they were removed the following day to Leith and there executed. The men had |their arms and feet amputated, so that they bled to death; while the females, down to the smallest child, were burned in three separate fires. All, it may be added, died utterly unrepentant, giving

vent to the most obscene imprecations.

Sawney Beane was a contemporary of Shakespeare and Spenser. He lived at a period when Englishmen considered themselves the salt of the earth. But one cannot help wondering what a Polynesian of the same generation would have thought of this interpretation of “the roast beef of Old England.”