nerous winner will fometimes release his unfortunate adverfary, upon condition of his killing a horfe, and making a public entertainment. A favorite diverfion with thefe people is horse-racing. They ufe no faddle; the bit of the bridle is of iron, and has feveral joints; the head-ftall and reins of rattan: in other parts the reins are of ejoo, and the bit of wood. They are faid likewife to hunt the deer on horfeback. They have, as was obferved in another place, a language and written character peculiar to themfelves; and the Malay has there made lefs progrefs than in any part of the island. It is remarkable, that the proportion of the people who know how to read and write, is much greater than of those who do not; an advantage feldom obferved in fuch uncivilized parts of the world, and not always found in the more polifhed. Their crimes against the order of fociety are not numerous. Theft is almost unknown among them; being ftri&tly honeft in their dealings with each other. Pilfering, indeed, from ftrangers, when not restrained by the laws of hofpitality +, they are tolerably expert in, and think no moral offence; because they do not perceive that any ill refults from it. Adultery, in the men, is punished with death; but the women are only difgraced, by having their heads fhaved, and are fold for flaves; which in fact they were before. The diftribution of juftice in this cafe, is, I think, perfectly fingular. It must proceed from their looking upon women as mere paffive fubjects. "Can you put butter near to a fire, fay the Hindoo fages, and fuppofe that it will not melt?" The men alone they regard as poffeffing the faculties of free agents, who may control their actions, or give way to their paffions, as they are well or ill inclined. Lives, however, are in all cafes redeemable, if the convict, or his relations, have property fufficient; the quantum being in fome measure at the difcretion of the injured party. But their most extraordinary, though perhaps not the most fingular cuftom, remains yet to be defcribed. Many old writers had furnished the world with accounts of anthropophagi, or of anthropophagi, or man-eaters, and their relations, true or false, were, in thofe days, when people + Mr. Miller gives the following inftances of their hofpitality in the reception of ftrangers." The raja of Terimbaroo, being informed of our intentions to come there, fent his fon, and between thirty and forty men, armed with lances and matchlock guns, to meet us; who efcorted us to their campong, beating gongs, and firing their guns all the way. The raja received us in great form, and with civility ordered a buffalo to be killed, and detained us a day. When we proceeded on our journey, he fent his fon and a number of armed people with us for our guard. Having made the accustomed presents, we left Terimbaroo, and proceeded to Samaffam; the raja of which place, attended by fixty or feventy men, well armed, foon met us, and escorted us to his campong, where he had prepared a house for our reception, and treated us with great hofpitality and respect.” were were addicted to the marvellous, univerfally credited. In the fucceeding age, when a more fceptical and fcrutinizing spirit prevailed, several of thefe afferted facts were found, upon fubfequent examination, to be false; and men, from a biafs inherent in our nature, run into the oppofite extreme. It then became established as a philofophical truth, capable almoft of demonftration, that no fuch race of people ever did, or could exift. But the varieties, inconfiftencies, and contradictions of human manners, are fo numerous and glaring, that it is fcarce poffible to fix any general principle that will apply to all the incongruous races of mankind; or even to conceive an irregularity which fome or other of them have not given into. The voyages of our late famous circumnavigators, the authenticity of whofe affertions is unimpeachable, have already proved to the world, that human flesh is eaten by the favages of New Zealand; and I can, with equal confidence, though not with equal weight of authority, affure the public, that it is also, at this day, eaten on the island of Sumatra by the Batta people; and by them only. Whether or not the horrible custom prevailed more extenfively, in antient times, I cannot take upon me to ascertain ; but the fa ne old hiftorians, who mention it as practifed by the Battas, and whofe accounts were undefervedly looked upon as fabulous, relate it alfo of many others of the eastern people, and thofe of the island of Java in par. ticular, who, fince that period, may have become more humanized *. They do not eat human flesh, as a means ef fatisfying the cravings of nature, owing to a deficiency of other food; nor is it fought after as a gluttonous delicacy, as it would seem among the New Zealanders. The Battas eat it as a fpecies of ceremony; as a mode of fhewing their deteftation of crimes, by an ignominious pu * Mention is made of the Battas and their customs, by the following writers. Nicoli de Conti, 1449, Ramufio. "The Sumatrans are gentiles. The people of Batach eat human flesh, and ufe the skulls of their enemies instead of money; and he is accounted the greatest man who has the most of these in his house.” Odoardus Barbofa, 1519, Ramufio. “In Aru (which is contiguous to Batta) they eat human flesh."-Mendez Pinto, in 1539, was fent on an embassy to the king of the Battas.-Beaulieu, 1622. "Inland people independent, and fpeak a language different from the Malayan. Idolaters, and eat human flesh. Never ransom prisoners, but eat them with pepper and falt. Have no religion, but fome polity."-De Barros, 1558. "The gentiles retreated from the MaJays to the interior part of the island. Thofe who live in that part oppofite to Malacca, are called Battas. They eat human flesh, and are the most favage and warlike people of the island. Those which inhabit to the south are called Sotumas, and are more civilized."-Captain Hamilton. "The inhabitants of Delley (on a river which runs from the Batta country) are said to be cannibals.” "Vartomanus, in 1504, writes that the Javans were man-eaters, before that traffick was had with them by Chinefe, which the people faid was no more than an hundred years. The fame cuftom has been attributed to the Gucos, inland of Cambodia, and also to the inhabitants of the Carnicobar islands. nishment; nishment; and has a horrid indication of revenge and infult to their unfortunate enemies. The objects of this barbarous repaft, are the prifoners taken in war; and offenders convicted and condemned for capital crimes. Perfons of the former defcription may be ranfomed or exchanged, for which they often wait a confiderable time; and the latter fuffer only when their friends cannot redeem them by the customary fine of twenty beanchangs, or eighty dollars. Thefe are tried by the people of the tribe where the fact was committed, but cannot be executed till their own particular raja, or chief, has been acquainted with the fentence; who, when he acknowledges the juftice of the intended punishment, fends a cloth to cover the delinquent's head, together with a large difh of falt and lemons. The unhappy object, whether prifoner of war, or malefactor, is then tied to a ftake; the people affembled throw their lances at him from a certain distance, and when mortally wounded, they run up to him, as if in a tranfport of paffion; cut pieces from the body with their knives; dip them in the dish of falt and lemon juice; flightly broil them over a fire prepared for the purpose; and fwallow the morfels with a degree of favage enthufiafm. Sometimes (I pre. fume according to the degree of their animofity and refentment) the whole is devoured; and inftances have been known, where, with barbarity ftill aggravated, they tear the flesh from the carcafe with their mouths. To fuch a depth of depravity may man be plunged, when neither religion nor philofophy enlighten his feps! All that can be faid in extenuation of the horror of this diabolical ceremony, is, that no view appears to be entertained of torturing the fufferers; of increafing or lengthening out the pangs of death; the whole fury is directed against the corfe; warm indeed with the remains of life, but paft the fenfation of pain. I have found a difference of opinion in regard to their eating the bodies of their enemies flain in battle. Some perfons long refident there, and acquainted with their proceedings, affert that it is not customary; but as one or two particular inftances have been given by other people, it is just to conclude, that it fometimes takes place, though not generally. It was fuppofed to be with this intent that raja Neabin maintained a long conflict for the body of Mr. Nairne, a most respectable gentleman, and valuable fervant of the India Company, who fell in an attack upon the campong of that chief, in the year 1775 *. Character I find that fome perfons ftill doubt the reality of the fact, that human flesh is any where eaten by mankind, and think that the proofs hitherto adduced are infufficient to eftablish a point of fo much moment in the hiftory of the fpecies. It is objected to me, that I never was an eye witness of a Batta feast of this nature, and that my authority for it is confiderably weakened by coming through a fecond or perhaps a third hand. I am fenfible of the weight of this reafoning, and am not anxious to force any man's belief, much leis to deceive him by pretences to the highest degree of certainty, when my relation can only lay C 3 claim Character of Luther, by Bishop Atterbury; extracted from his "Anfwer to fome Confiderations on the Spirit of Martin Luther, &c." MA ARTIN Luther's life was a continual warfare; he was engaged against the united forces of the Papal world, and he ftood the fhock of them bravely both with courage and fuccefs. After his death, one would have expected that generous adverfaries fhould have put up their pens, and quitted at leaft fo much of the quarrel as was perfonal. But, on the contrary, when his doctrines grew too ftrong to be taken by his enemies, they perfecuted his reputation; and by the venom of their tongues fufficiently convinced the world, that the religion they were of allowed not only prayers for the dead, but even curfes too. Among the reft that have engaged in this unmanly defign, our author appears: not indeed after the bluftering rate of fome of the party, but with a more calm and better diffembled malice: he has charged his inftrument of revenge with a fort of white powder, that does the fame bafe action, though with lefs noife. It is cruel thus to interrupt the peace of the dead and Luther's fpirit has reason to expoftulate with this man, as once the fpirit of Samuel did with Saul Why haft thou difquieted me, to bring me up?" He knows the fequel of the ftory: the anfwer that was given was no very pleafing one; it only afforded the enquirer an account of his own difcomfiture. Let us fee whether this difturber of Luther's afhes will have any better fortune. claim to the next degree. I can only fay, that I thoroughly believe the fact myfelf, and that my conviction has arisen from the following circumftances, fome of lefs, fome of more authority. It is, in the first place, a matter of general and uncontroverted notoriety in the ifland: I have talked on the fubject with natives of the country, who acknowledge the practice, and become ashamed of it when they have refided among more humanized people: it has been my chance to have had no less than three brothers, chiefs of the fettlement of Natal and Tappanooly, where there is daily intercourfe with the Battas, and who all affure me of the truth of it: the fame account I have had from other gentlemen who had equal, or fuperior opportunities of knowing the cuftoms of the people; and all their relations agree in every material point: a refident of Tappanooly (Mr. Bradley) fined a raja a few years fince, for having a prifoner eaten too clofe to the company's fettlement: Mr. Alexander Hall made a charge in his public accounts of a fum paid to a raja in the country, to induce him to fpare a man whom Mr. Hall had feen preparing for a victim: Mr. Charles Miller, in the journal before quoted, fays, "In the fappeou, or houfe where the raja receives ftrangers, we faw a man's fkull hanging up, which the rajah told us was placed there as a trophy, it being the tkull of an enemy they had taken prisoner, whofe body (according to the cuftom of the Battas) they had eaten about two months before. Thus the experience of later days is found to agree with the uniform tellimony of old writers; and though I am aware that each and every of thefe proofs, taken fingly, may admit of fome cavil, yet in the aggregate I think they amount to fatisfactory evidence, and fuch as may induce any perfon not very incredulous to admit it as a fact, that human flesh is eaten by inhabitants of Sumatra, as we have pofitive authority it is by inhabitants of New Zealand, The The method of the pamphlet is every way infufficient; and let the fpirit of Martin Luther be as evil as it is fuppofed to be, yet the proof of this would not blaft any one fingle truth of that religion he profeffed. But to take off all feeming objections, and ftop the mouths of the most unreafonable gainfayers, I have examined even this little pretence too; and find, upon a faithful enquiry, that Luther's life was led up to thofe doctrines he preached, and his death was the death of the righteous. Were I not confined by the character of an answer merely to wipe off the afperfions that are brought, I could fwell this book to twice the bulk, by fetting out that belt fide of Luther which our author, in the picture he has given us of him, has, contrary to the method of painters, thrown into fhade, that he might place a fuppofed deformity or two the more in view. He was a man certainly of high endowments of mind, and great virtues: he had a vaft understanding, which raised him up to a pitch of learning unknown to the age in which he lived; his knowledge in fcripture was admirable, his elocution manly, and his way of reafoning with all the fubtilty that thofe honeft plain truths he delivered would bear: his thoughts were bent always on great defigns, and he had a refolution fitted to go through with them: the affurance of his mind was not to be thaken or furprised; and that is of his (for I know not what else to call it) before the Diet at Worms, was fuch as might have become the days of the Apolles. His life was holy; and, when he had leifure for retirement, fevere: his virtues active chiefly, and homilitical, not thofe lazy fullen ones of the cloyfter. He had no ambition but in the fervice of God: for other things, neither his enjoyment nor wishes ever went higher than the bare conveniences of living. He was of a temper particularly averfe to covetoufnefs, or any bafe fin: and charitable even to a fault, without refpect to his own occafions. If among this crowd of virtues a failing crept in, we must remember that an Apoftle himself has not been irreprovable: if in the body of his doctrine one flaw is to be feen; yet the greatest lights of the church, and in the pureft times of it, were, we know, not exact in all their opinions. Upon the whole, we have certainly great reafon to break out in the phrafe of the Prophet, and fay- How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings!" |