A Chinaman they consider as good for eating as
a black man, his food being chiefly vegetable.
"The most horrible development of cannibalism among the
Australian blacks is the eating of defunct relatives. When a
person dies there follows an elaborate ceremony, which terminates
with the lowering of the corpse into the grave. In the grave is a
man not related to the deceased, who proceeds to cut off the fat
adhering to the muscles of the face, thighs, arms, and stomach,
and passes it around to be swallowed by some of the near
relatives. All those who have eaten of the cadaver have a black
ring of charcoal powder and fat drawn around the mouth. The order
in which the mourners partake of their dead relatives is duly
prescribed. The mother eats of her children and the children of
their mother. A man eats of his sister's husband and of his
brother's wife. Mothers' brothers, mothers' sisters, sisters'
children, mothers' parents, and daughters' children are also
eaten by those to whom the deceased person stands in such
relation. But the father does not eat of his children, nor the
children of their sire.
"The New Zealanders, up to very recent times, were probably the
most anthropophagous race that ever existed.
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