ned to Mouta. Here the bodies, which
had been carefully painted with vermilion and soot, were handed out and
placed, sitting up, in front of the king's house; but before proceeding
to their loathsome banquet they enacted scenes in which there was a
dreadful mingling of the ludicrous and the horrible.

The whole of the people being assembled, and dead silence secured, an
old man advanced to the bodies, and, laying his hand upon each, began
talking to it in a low tone, asking it, "why he had been so rash in
coming down the hill," and telling it, "that he was extremely sorry to
see him in such a predicament; and did he not feel ashamed of himself
now that he was obliged to encounter the gaze of such a crowd." By
degrees the old orator worked himself into a state of excitement, till
at last he shouted at the full strength of his voice, and finally
finished off by kicking the bodies down, amid bursts of laughter from
the spectators, who then rushed forward, and, seizing each by a leg or
an arm, dragged them over stones and dust and swamps for the general
amusement of the people.

At last they pulled them up to a place at the back of the town which was
used for the purpose of cutting up, cooking, and eating human flesh. In
front of this dreadful place lay a heap of human bones bleached by the
weather. Here the priest was seated, with his long beard hanging down
on a little table before him. On this table were two skulls converted
into drinking-cups, and several others were lying about the floor.

Without going further into the disgusting details, it may be sufficient
to add that the three bodies were cut up by the priest and cooked in an
oven heated by means of hot stones, after which they were devoured as a
great treat, and with infinite relish, by the king and his chief men.

It was long before people in the civilised world would give credit to
stories such as that just related; and even now there may be some who
doubt the truth of them. But the number and the characters of the
travellers who have visited these islands since the days of Cook, and
who have brought home similar reports, put the matter beyond question.
Men ought neither to doubt these shocking details because they seem
incredible, nor turn away from them because they are disgusting. Like
the surgeon who calmly and steadily examines the most hideous of wounds
or sores that can affect the human body, so ought the Christian and the
philanthropist to kno