stimony of those who have actually visited
New Zealand, in so far as it has been recorded, is unanimous upon this
head.

To the authorities that have been already adduced, may be now added that
of Rutherford, whose evidence, both in the extract from his journal that
has been already given, and in other passages to which we shall
afterwards have occasion to refer, is in perfect accordance with the
statements of all preceding reporters entitled to speak upon the
subject. The facts that have been quoted would seem to show that the
eating of human flesh among this people is not merely an occasional
excess, prompted only by the phrenzy of revenge, but that it is actually
resorted to as a gratification of appetite, as well as of passion.

It is very probable, however, that the practice may have had its origin
in those vindictive feelings which mix, to so remarkable a degree, in
all the enmities and wars of these savages. This is a much more likely
supposition than that it originated in the difficulty of procuring other
food, in which case, as has been remarked, it could not well have, at
any time, sprung up either in New Zealand or in almost any other of the
countries in which it is known to prevail. Certain superstitious
notions, besides, which are connected with it among this people,
sufficiently indicate the motives which must have first led to it; for
they believe that, by eating their enemies, they not only dishonour
their bodies, but consign their souls to perpetual misery. This is
stated by Cook.

Other accounts, which we have from more recent authorities, concur in
showing that the person who eats any part of the body of another whom he
has slain in battle, fancies he secures to himself thereby a portion of
the valour or good fortune which had hitherto belonged to his dead
enemy. The most common occasion, too, on which slaves are slain and
eaten is by way of an offering to the "_mana_" of a chief or any of his
family who may have been cut off in battle.

All this would go to prove that the cannibalism of the New Zealanders
had, on its first introduction, been intimately associated with certain
feelings or notions which seemed to demand the act as a duty, and not
at all with any circumstances of distress or famine which compelled a
resort to it as a dire necessity. There is too much reason for
apprehending, however, that the unnatural repast, having ceased in this
way to be regarded with that disgust with which it