The earliest references to this subject among the English, are certain accusations brought against the Saxon conquerors of that country in the chronicles called the Welsh Triads. In these historical documents it is alleged that _Ethelfrith_, King of England, encouraged cannibalism at his court; and that _Gwri_, a truant Welshman, became so enamored of human flesh that he would eat no other food. It was his custom to have a male and female “Kymry” killed for his own eating every day, except Saturday, when he slaughtered two of each, in order to be spared the sin of breaking the Sabbath. St. Jerome has the following passage in one of his works: “Cum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia viderim Attacottos gentem Britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus; et cum per sylvas porcorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari.” The quotation appears in “Gibbons’ Decline and Fall,” and may be rendered: He learned that the _Attacotti_, the people of the country now called Scotland, when hunting in the woods, preferred the shepherd to his flocks, and chose only the most fleshy and delicate parts for eating. Gibbon, in comparing the people of Scotland with the natives of the gorilla country, makes what may be considered rather an equivocal compliment. “If,” says he, “in the neighborhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has already existed, we may contemplate in the period of Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life.” There is reason to fear that cannibalism was not quite extinct in Scotland, even in an age which must be called civilized. Andrew Wyntoun has a grisly passage in his Rhyming Chronicle, regarding a man who lived so brief a time before his own day, that he might easily have heard of him from surviving contemporaries. It was about the year 1339, when a large part of Scotland, even the best and most fertile, had been desolated by the armies of Edward III. “About Perth, there was a countrie Sae waste, that wonder wes to see; For intill well-great space thereby, Wes nother house left, nor herb’ry. Of deer there was then sic foison[1] That they wold near come to the town. Sae great default was near that stead. That many were in hunger dead. A carle they said was near ther by, That wold set settis[2] commonly, Children and women for to slay, And swains that he might over-ta: And ate them all that he get might: _Chrysten Cleek_ till name be hight. That sa’ry life continued he, While waste but folk was the countrie.” Footnote 1: Abundance. Footnote 2: Traps.