The rajah or the injured person, such is his privilege, now cuts off the first piece of flesh, which he generally selects from the inner side of the forearm (this being esteemed the most delicate morsel), or from the cheek when sufficiently fat, holds it up triumphantly, and tastes some of the flowing blood, his eyes at the same time sparkling with delight. He then hurries to one of the fires that have been kindled close by to broil his piece of meat before swallowing it, while the whole troop falls upon the miserable wretch, who, hacked to pieces, and bleeding from a hundred wounds, in a few moments expires. The avidity with which they devour his quivering flesh, untouched by his shrieks and supplications, is the more to be wondered at as in other cases they show themselves susceptible of a tender pity for the sufferings of others. As if scenes like these were not sufficiently horrible, it has even been affirmed that the Battas eat their aged parents alive, but we hardly need the authority of Dr. Junghuhn, who, during a residence of two years among the Battas, only heard of three cases of public cannibalism, that this report has no foundation in truth. So much, however, is certain, that this singular people have a great liking for human flesh, and in all cases where a simple execution takes place seize the opportunity of quietly carrying home some favourite joint. The Battas have no priests, no temples, no idols.[23] They believe in a number of evil spirits, or Begus, who have their seat in the various diseases of the human body, and in a few good spirits, or Sumongot, the immortal souls of great forefathers, who reside on the high mountain tops. The souls only of such persons as die of a violent death ascend into the invisible land of immortality, and this may be some consolation to the poor wretches whom they horribly cut up at their cannibal feasts, while all persons dying of illness are considered as having fallen into the power of the Begus, and as totally annihilated. They have no idea of a Supreme Being, and their only religious ceremony, if such it may be called, is that on festival occasions they scatter rice to the four quarters of the wind, in order to propitiate the Begus. In consequence of the general state of anarchy in which their unfortunate country is plunged, they live in small fortified villages, surrounded by palisades and deep ditches so as to leave but two gates for a passage.