Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism

Sir James George Frazer (1854&endash;1941). The Golden Bough. 1922. On human Sacrifice.

Among the Lhota Naga, one of the many savage tribes who inhabit the deep rugged labyrinthine glens which wind into the mountains from the rich valley of , it used to be a common custom to chop off the heads, hands, and feet of people they met with, and then to stick up the severed extremities in their fields to ensure a good crop of grain.

They bore no ill-will whatever to the persons upon whom they operated in this unceremonious fashion.

Once they flayed a boy alive, carved him in pieces, and distributed the flesh among all the villagers, who put it into their corn-bins to avert bad luck and ensure plentiful crops of grain.

The Gonds of India, a Dravidian race, kidnapped Brahman boys, and kept them as victims to be sacrificed on various occasions.

At sowing and reaping, after a triumphal procession, one of the lads was slain by being punctured with a poisoned arrow.

His blood was then sprinkled over the ploughed field or the ripe crop,

and his flesh was devoured.