- MD
Sidestep: Cannibalism
Cannibalism was formerly prevalent amongst the New Zealanders and occured up until about 1865. The implacable desire of revenge which is characteristic of these people, and the belief that the strength and courage of a devoured enemy are transferred to him who eats him, were, without question, the causes of this unnatural taste—not the pleasure of devouring human flesh, which was certainly secondary, and, besides, not at all general. A chief was often satisfied with the left eye of his enemy, which was regarded as the seat of the soul. They likewise drank the blood, from a similar belief.
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The heads of vanquished enemies were stuck up on poles round their "pahs" or villages. Preserved New Zealand heads, which are frequently to be met with in European museums, and in the cabinets of the curious, were prepared in the following manner. If they were heads of enemies taken in battle, the lips were stretched out and sewn apart; if, on the contrary, it was the head of one of the chiefs of their own tribe, who had died, and they were preserving it with all customary honours, they sewed the lips close together in a pouting attitude. A hole was dug in the earth, and heated with red-hot stones, and then the eyes, ears, and all the orifices of the head, except the windpipe, being carefully sewn up, and the brains taken out, the aperture of the neck was placed over the mouth of the heated oven, and the head well steamed. This process was continued until the head was completely free from moisture, and the skin perfectly cured; fern root was then thrust into the nostrils, and in this state the heads were either placed in a sacred place, and rendered "tapu," or they were bartered in exchange for muskets or blankets to the whalers and Sydney traders. To the shame of Europeans thus engaged, it must be told, that so eager were they to procure these dried heads for sale in England and elsewhere, that many chiefs were persuaded to kill their slaves, and tattoo their faces after death, to supply this unnatural demand, until the practice was put a stop to, by the New South Wales government inflicting a penalty of fifty pounds on any persons arriving in Sydney with a dried head in their possession.
Cook and others recorded the cannibal feasts that occurred. More on the Maori from an old journal can be found here. The old journals were recorded as seen and as understood in the early 19th century. There is no political motivation involved, they just recorded what they saw and heard. http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-AngPoly-t1-body-d7.html#n160
