27452: Dailey: Comment re 27435 Benson (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Dailey- Comment- Haitian Cannibalism

Although Spencer St. John's obscession with the idea of cannibalism seems 
pathological in origin, he occasionally sounds a note of skepticism. If I 
remember rightly he discounts the report of one European traveller from the 
1880s whose ship docked in Gonaives and who decided to talk a walk around town. 
Evidently while on his way he encountered a well dressed Mulatto gentleman to 
whom he introduced himself and who listened gravely as the traveler shared some 
of his observations of Haitian life. When he asked the man if it was true that 
Haitians practiced cannibalism, the Haitian's eyes lit up and he took his 
interlocutor by the arm and told him with a confidential air that it was 
absolutely true, and that while some people preferred this or that portion of 
the anatomy, the greatest delicacy was the liver of a freshly killed baby which 
he himself had feasted on many times and could highly recommend.

Peter Dailey