t of the harvest which is
brought in is made into a loaf in human shape, supposed to represent the
spirit of corn or of fertility. It is broken up and distributed amongst
all the villagers, who eat it.[1104]

A Mongolian lama reported of a tribe, the Lhopa of Sikkim or Bhutan,
that they kill and eat the bride's mother at a wedding, if they can
catch no wild man.[1105]

+352.+ A burglar in West Prussia, in 1865, killed a maid-servant and cut
flesh from her body out of which to make a candle for use in later acts
of theft. He was caught while committing another burglary. He confessed
that he ate a part of the corpse of his first-mentioned victim "in order
to appease his conscience."[1106]

+353. Food taboos.+ It is most probable that dislike to eat the human
body was a product of custom, and grew in the mores after other foods
became available in abundance. Unusual foods now cost us an effort.
Frogs' legs, for instance, repel most people at first. We eat what we
learned from our parents to eat, and other foods are adopted by
"acquired taste." Light is thrown on the degree to which all food
preferences and taboos are a part of the mores by a comparison of some
cases of food taboos. Porphyrius, a Christian of Tyre, who lived in the
second half of the second century of the Christian era, says that a
Phoenician or an Egyptian would sooner eat man's flesh than cow's
flesh.[1107] A Jew would not eat swine's flesh. A Zoroastrian could not
conceive it possible that any one could eat dog's flesh. We do not eat
dog's flesh, probably for the same reason that we do not eat cat's or
horse's, because the flesh is tough or insipid and we can get better,
but some North American Indians thought dog's flesh the very best food.
The Banziris, in the French Congo, reserved dog's flesh for men, and
they surround meals of it with a solemn ritual. A man must not touch his
wife with his finger for a day after such a feast.[1108] The inhabitants
of Ponape will eat no eels, which "they hold in the greatest horror."
The word used by them for eel means "the dreadful one."[1109] Dyaks eat
snakes, but reject eels.[1110] Some Melanesians will not eat eels
because they think that there are ghosts in them.[1111] South African
Bantus abominate fish.[1112] Some Canary Islanders ate no fish.[1113]
Tasmanians would rather starve than eat fish.[1114] The Somali will eat
no fish, considering it disgraceful to do so.[1115] They also reject
game and birds.[111