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Show I Cannibalism a Habit, Not a Moral Disease If Mv "The cannibal," says Adolphe k LouiB Cureau, "Is not necessarily, as j iH too often thought, a ferocious ln- ILl dividual, a blood-tainted tiger, a ! murderous monomaniac. I should not care to have tho appearance' of ;i attempting to rehabilitate an odious I ; custom. "But, whatever ono may say. there I ' is nothing in common between the ' negro mancatcr and our own enm- inal degenerate. The homo delln- qucnto is a monstrosity, a being - outside nature's pale. One fears for ; one's life In quarters frequented by : such degenerates, uhilo ono is safe among cannibals unless one is at i var with them. There is no cam- 'parlaon to bo made between these I two tvpes, one place at the birth of '! society, tho olhcr at its decUne' Th0 second belongs to social pathology; J the first is a healthy, normal piod- , "Cannibalism, then, is not an lull! lu-ll! stinct. but a custom. Jesting apart. P it depends upon a peculiar concep-f concep-f tlon which Is doubtless barbarous fe nd savage, o one's relationship lift with the stranger and the slave. This in no wise hinders one who indulges In it from being In everyday life a gentle, merry, playful individual, with whom intercourse is pleasing, at least for his friends. CANNIBALISM A CUSTOM. "Do not look for conscious wickedness wick-edness in him, nor for depravity. Outsido tho tribe, and in a moro restricted re-stricted senso outside tho family, he recognizes no humanity, or as we should say, no 'kindred.' Every other oth-er man is a 'barbarian' in tho ancient an-cient sense of the word, and as such is an abject and contemptible being, of stiange and ridiculous manners and customs, with whom treaties are mado when necessity compels, but who is hunled and ferreted out when possible, and Nwho is eaten like butcher's meat. "In spite of the denials of certain pel sons, I have often had proof and havo personally ascertained that some tribes take prisoners of war or buy slaves in ordor to keep them In reserve, and afterward to slaughter th'cm and eat them accoidiug to their needs. UOAT LEAVES WITHOUT II Of. "Tho appointed victims enjoy comparative com-parative freedom while awaiting their end, and are denied none of the delights which render the negro's ne-gro's life attractive, such as idleness, good food, a soft bed and so on. "A captain of a French steamer who had put in at one of theso villages vil-lages hi order to buy provisions and wood, recognized in the crowd which camo running down, to the river bank, a man who was a stranger In that district, and who had lately served as steersman on his boat. When questioned as to what he was doing there the man replied that he was a captive in tho village, and as such was destined some day or other oth-er to fill the cooking pot of his masters. Tho captain thereupon offered of-fered to carry him off. "It would havo been an easy matter, mat-ter, for the man would only have had to leap to the bridge of the vessel ves-sel while tho crew overawed the vil lagers with their guns, and tho boat would then have steamed off at full speed. Ho refused, because at tho tlmo he was enjoying all tho luxuries luxu-ries of life, and tho prospect of tho knife had consequently no power to. disturb him. Tho boat left without him." AMERICANS MIGHT nSHOCIC SAVAGES. According to this It would seem that tho cannibal, in his own peculiar pecu-liar way is not such a bad fellow after all. Ho is not congcnitally cruel no moro so than his white brother, who, when he dinea on a fowl or a joint of beef, is as festive and gorgcshlmsclf just as tightly. Perhaps tho cannibal, wero he to visit these modern parts, would be just as shocked over (he whlto man's meals of fresh killed meat as the latter lat-ter Is over the mid-African tasto in banquets. The sight of an American abattoir, with its wholesale slaughter of cattle, cat-tle, probably would fill a cannibal wlthhorror, I"T"3W"""'T5,r5CTrcr"5!"r,i,t"-i3I |