ur nature, ran into the opposite extreme. It then
became established as a philosophical truth, capable almost of
demonstration, that no such race of people ever did or could exist. But
the varieties, inconsistencies, and contradictions of human manners are
so numerous and glaring that it is scarcely possible to fix any general
principle that will apply to all the incongruous races of mankind, or
even to conceive an irregularity to which some or other of them have not
been accustomed.

EAT HUMAN FLESH.

The voyages of our late famous circumnavigators, the veracity of whose
assertions is unimpeachable, have already proved to the world that human
flesh is eaten by the savages of New Zealand; and I can with equal
confidence, from conviction of the truth, though not with equal weight of
authority, assert that it is also, in these days, eaten in the island of
Sumatra by the Batta people, and by them only. Whether or not the
horrible custom prevailed more extensively in ancient times I cannot take
upon me to ascertain, but the same historians who mention it as practised
in this island, and whose accounts were undeservedly looked upon as
fabulous, relate it also of many others of the eastern people, and those
of the island of Java in particular, who since that period may have
become more humanized.*

(*Footnote. Mention is made of the Battas and their peculiar customs by
the following early writers: NICOLO DI CONTI, 1449. "In a certain part of
this island (Sumatra) called Batech, the people eat human flesh. They are
continually at war with their neighbours, preserve the skulls of their
enemies as treasure, dispose of them as money, and he is accounted the
richest man who has most of them in his house." ODOARDUS BARBOSA, 1516.
"There is another kingdom to the southward, which is the principal source
of gold; and another inland, called Aaru (contiguous to the Batta
country) where the inhabitants are pagans, who eat human flesh, and
chiefly of those they have slain in war." DE BARROS, 1563. "The natives
of that part of the island which is opposite to Malacca, who are called
Batas, eat human flesh, and are the most savage and warlike of all the
land." BEAULIEU, 1622. "The inland people are independent, and speak a
language different from the Malayan. Are idolaters, and eat human flesh;
never ransom prisoners, but eat them with pepper and salt. Have no
religion, but some polity." LUDOVICO BARTHEMA, in 1505, asserts that the
peopl