young men, who proceeded to the following remarkable ceremonies. They began by removing the skin, together with the head, rolling it round a stake, and drying it over the fire. While this was being done, the parents, who had been uttering loud lamentations, took the flesh from the legs, cooked and ate it. The remainder of the body was distributed among the friends of the deceased, who carried away their portions on the points of their spears; and the skin and bones were kept by the parents, and always carried about in their wallets."[1]
The Rev. Mr. Taplin states that the Tattiara natives are reputed to be cannibals. They are called Merkani, and are hated by the Narrinyeri, because the Merkani have a propensity to stealing fat people and eating them. If a man had a fat wife, he was always particularly careful not to leave her unprotected, lest she might be seized by the prowling Merkani.[2]
A correspondent of Mr. Howitt's, referring to the statements made in the Rev. Mr. Taplin's work, says that cannibalism amongst the Tattiara blacks is not well authenticated. Isolated cases of man-eating are told of all the tribes by their neighbours, but they themselves invariably deny that the practice is indulged in. The Tattiara countiy is in lat. 36° 20’ S., and extends for some miles both on the west and east of the 141st meridian, the boundary between Victoria and South Australia. The Tattiara blacks are nearly allied to the Glenelg tribe, are warlike, and in many points like the Narrinyeri.
Gason's account of cannibalism, as existing amongst the Dieyerie tribe, near Cooper's Creek, is given elsewhere.
From a manuscript report placed in my hands by the Rev. Lorimer Fison I learn that the natives of Fraser Island (Great Sandy Island), Queensland, are cannibals; and that in former times cannibalism was much more common than now. They eat the young men and young women that are fat. Their word to express hunger after flesh is said to be Nulla-peethung.
The Jardines, on their overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York, found "at a native fire the fresh remains of a negro roasted: the head and thigh-bones were alone complete; all the rest of the body and limbs had been broken up, and the skull was full of blood. Whether this was the body of an enemy cooked for food, or of a friend disposed of after the manner of their last rites, must remain a mystery—until the country and its denizens become better known."[3]
It must be admitted that the condition of the body was in the highest degree suspicious.
Sir Thomas Mitchell says the Australian savage is not a cannibal.[4] In this he is right, if the term be restricted to such practices as were followed in some parts of Europe, up to the end of the fourteenth century, and to the feasts on human flesh in which the men of Fiji and New Zealand indulge. The Australian is not a man-eater as the New Zealander is. When severely pressed by hunger, he has been known to eat human flesh; and for the proper performance of certain ceremonials he is required by his laws to use the fat of the kidneys and
- ↑ The Natural History of Man, vol. II., p. 62.
- ↑ The Narrinyeri, p. 2.
- ↑ Overland Expedition, 1867, p. 12.
- ↑ Eastern Australia, 1838, vol. II., p. 344.
