It has been made a question whether the Indians can be justly charged
with cannibalism. It is certain that all the terms by which they
designate their inhuman mode of putting a prisoner to death bear
reference to this horrid practice. The expressions are to throw him into
the caldron, to devour him, to eat soup made of his flesh. It has hence
been plausibly inferred that this enormity really prevailed in early
times, but was changed, we can scarcely say mitigated, into the present
system of torture. Yet, as every action is described by them in terms
highly figurative, those now quoted may have been used as expressing
most fully the complete gratification of their revenge. Of this charge
they cannot now be either condemned or wholly acquitted. In the excited
fury of their passions, portions of the flesh are often seized, roasted,
and eaten, and draughts taken of the blood. To eat an enemy’s heart is
considered a peculiar enjoyment. Long mentions a gentleman who came upon
a party who were busy broiling a human heart, when he with difficulty
prevailed on them to desist. There is little hesitation among them, in
periods of scarcity, to relieve hunger with the flesh of their captives;
and during one war, this fate is said to have befallen many French
soldiers who fell into the hands of the Five Nations. Colonel Schuyler
told Colden, that, having entered the cabin of a chief who had some rich
soup before him, he was invited to partake. Being hungry and tired, he
readily agreed, till the ladle, being put into the great caldron, brought
up a human hand, the sight of which put an immediate end to his appetite
and meal.