the gods is
widespread, and we may trace to this origin Mexican cannibalism,
perhaps, too, that of Fiji. The Aztec worship of the god of war,
Huitzilopochtli, led to the sacrifice of prisoners, and the custom of
sacrifice to their frequent wars. The priest took out the heart, offered
it to the sun, and then went through the ceremonies of feeding the idol
with the heart and blood; finally the bodies of the victims were
consumed by the worshippers. (e) We reach an entirely different set of
motives in penal and revenge cannibalism. For the origin of these ideas
we may perhaps look to that of protective magic, dealt with above; but
it seems possible that there is also some idea of influencing the lot of
the criminal in a future life; it may be noted that the whole of the
body is seldom eaten in protective cannibalism; among the Battas,
however, the criminal, and in parts of Africa the debtor, are entirely
consumed. Other cases, especially where the victim is an enemy, may be
due to mere fury and bravado. (f) In the west of North America a
peculiar kind of cannibalism is found, which is confined to a certain
body of magicians termed "Hametzen" and a necessary condition of
admission to their order. Another kind of initiatory cannibalism
prevailed in the south of Australia, where a magician had to eat a
portion of a child's body before he was admitted. The meaning of these
ceremonials is not clear.

2. Most kinds of cannibalism are hedged round with ceremonial
regulations. Certain tribes, as we have seen above, go to war to provide
human flesh; in other cases it is only the nearest relatives who may not
partake of a body; in other cases again it is precisely the nearest
relatives on whom the duty falls. A curious regulation in south-east New
Guinea prescribes that the killer of the victim shall not partake in the
feast; in some cases the whole of the clan to which belonged the man for
whom revenge is taken abstains also; in other cases this clan, together
with any others of the same intermarrying group, takes part in the feast
to the exclusion of (a) the clan or group with which they intermarry and
(b) all outside clans. Some peoples forbid women to eat human flesh; in
others certain classes, as the Muri of the Bambala, a tribe in the
Kassai, may be forbidden to eat it. In Mindanao the only person who
might eat of a slain enemy was the priest who led the warriors, and he
was not permitted to escape this duty. In Grand Bassam