The _Paramahausans_ of Hindostan, says Bucke, ate the putrid bodies which they found floating down the Ganges, and that they esteemed the brain the most exquisite of all food; many of them have been seen near Benares, repellant as is the language, feasting upon dead bodies. Solinus relates that the _Derbices_ so far forgot their filial relation that, having slain their fathers ate them, and regarded the act in the light of a solemn duty. When a certain monarch of India enquired of the Greeks what reward would induce them to follow such an unnatural example, replied, “No recompense under heaven.” The bare suggestion was not only an impiety, but it fairly sickened them to think of consuming those to whom they were indebted for life. Later, when the Indian king was advised by the more humane Greek to cinerate their dead, he in turn rebelled against such an unholy suggestion. The religious doctrine that the soul outlives the body, continuing in ghostly shape to visit the living, and retaining a certain connection with the mortal remains it once inhabited, has evidently led many to propitiate an honored and dreaded spirit by respectful disposal of the corpse. Taking this combination of causes into consideration, it is readily understood why aversion to cannibalism as a rule must have been established at a very early period, and it is well to consider what causes have from time to time led to its adoption. The principal of these have been the pressure of famine, the fury of hatred, and sometimes even a morbid kindness, with certain motives of magic and religion; to which must be added the strong tendency to cannibalism, when once started in any of these ways, to develop a confirmed appetite which subsequently is indulged for its own sake. Pass we now to Europe and other countries where the same customs have existed as were practiced by the peoples named. The records of shipwrecks and sieges prove that famine will sometimes overcome the horrors of cannibalism among men of the higher nations. During the great famine which smote the city of Moscow with such severity, it was estimated that no less than half a million of human beings died from hunger. Along the most public of the streets as well as in the narrow lanes-where lived the poor, multitudes fell down dying with no friendly person near them, and others too much exhausted to take the few crumbs proffered. Children sold their aged parents for such food as they could purchase, and as in many prolonged sieges parents were compelled to partake of their own children after famine had wrought in them its dreadful work.