hough they eat chiefly enemies, and
rarely a woman. The women share the feast, sitting by themselves. He
says that it is, no doubt, "a depraved appetite." They are not at all
ashamed of it. Physically the men are very fine. "The cannibalism of the
Monbutto is unsurpassed by any nation in the world."[1046] Amongst them
human flesh is sold as if it were a staple article of food. They are "a
noble race." They have national pride, intellectual power, and good
judgment. They are orderly, friendly, and have a stable national
life.[1047] Ward[1048] describes the cannibalism on the great bend of
the Congo as due to a relish for the kind of food. "Originating,
apparently, from stress of adverse circumstances, it has become an
acquired taste, the indulgence of which has created a peculiar form of
mental disorder, with lack of feeling, love of fighting, cruelty, and
general human degeneracy, as prominent attributes." An organized traffic
in human beings for food exists on the upper waters of the Congo. It is
thought that the pygmy tribe of the Wambutti are not cannibals because
they are too "low," and because they do not file the lower incisors. The
latter custom goes with cannibalism in the Congo region, and is also
characteristic of the more gifted, beautiful, and alert tribes.[1049]
None of the coast tribes of West Africa eat human flesh, but the
interior tribes eat any corpse regardless of the cause of death.
Families hesitate to eat their own dead, but they sell or exchange them
for the dead of other families.[1050] In the whole Congo region the
custom exists, especially amongst the warlike tribes, who eat not only
war captives but slaves.[1051]

It is noteworthy that a fork[1052] was invented in Polynesia for this
kind of food, long before the fork was used for any other.

+340. Cannibalism not abominable.+ Spix and Martius[1053] asked a chief
of the Miranhas why his people practiced cannibalism. The chief showed
that it was entirely a new fact to him that some people thought it an
abominable custom. "You whites," said he, "will not eat crocodiles or
apes, although they taste well. If you did not have so many pigs and
crabs you would eat crocodiles and apes, for hunger hurts. It is all a
matter of habit. When I have killed an enemy it is better to eat him
than to let him go to waste. Big game is rare because it does not lay
eggs like turtles. The bad thing is not being eaten, but death, if I am
slain, whether our tribal ene