A garland of quotations XV

Culled from the finest gourmands in literary history, and re-woven every Monday

As man may eat of the flesh of beasts, so may gods eat of the flesh of man.
•Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Gods of Mars (1913).

There have been cases of cannibalism in Scotland, but no bestial transformation is hinted at in connection with them.
•Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of Were-Wolves (1865).

Rumor had it that the Khmer Rouge made a practice of sneaking up behind young virgin girls, killing them with axes, then removing their livers, grilling them and eating them, and swallowing the bile raw. They believed that this gave them immortality. It also turned the whites of their eyes permanently red-yellow. I have heard that there are instances, on every continent, of warriors eating the livers of their adversaries to gain power. I have met several of my countrymen who admitted doing this in wartime. To this day, I can spot someone who has eaten the liver of another human being—their eyes remain permanently discolored. This all sounds so warped, but there are many other practices in the world that make just as little sense.
•U Sam Oeur, Crossing Three Wildernesses (2005).

A cannibal elder sister
raised me,
and we lived on.
When she went hunting in the mountains,
she would [come back] carrying on her back
equal amounts of
human flesh and deer flesh.
She would cook
the deer flesh for me,
and she would cook
the human flesh for herself.
This is the way
we lived
on and on.
•Hiraga Etenoa, “Song of the Young God Okikurmi (Dream Song)” (1932).

He was better than average. He could read and write, and had never eaten a child of his own.
•Daniel Pinkwater, Fish Whistle (1989).

At that time the flesh of young children tasted sweet—so Ahura Mazda took that delicate flavor away.
•Charles Phillips, “Flames of Wisdom” (1999).

He wants to build you a house
out of your own bones, but
that’s where you’re living
                any way!
•Richard Brautigan, “Cannibal Carpenter” (1970).

Monomachus (The Gladiator), remarked that as far as he could see, there was only one way by which they could manage to reach Italy. When Hannibal asked him to explain what he meant, Monomachus replied that they must teach the army to eat human flesh and accustom themselves to this. Hannibal could say nothing against either the audacity or the practicality of the idea, but he could not persuade himself or his friends to entertain it.
•Polybius, Histories (C2 BC).

They went into her house, where they saw a person with only one arm, one side, and one leg. ¶The person said to them : “See, the cannibal has eaten the rest of me; take care of yourselves.”
•Geo. McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-Lore (1882).

This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.
•Ezekiel 11:3b–4.

He thought of the Phoenix Excrementi, a race of men he had invented one Sunday afternoon when in bed, and trembled, thinking he might well meet one in this place. And he had good cause to tremble, for the Phoenix Excrementi eat themselves, digest themselves, and give birth to themselves by evacuating their bowels.
•Nathanael West, The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931).

“What’s beyond Siberia?” Feivel asked.
“That’s the end of the world. Giants live there who have three eyes in the center of their bellies.”
“What do they eat?”
“Each other…”
•Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Growing Up” (1976).

There be few of us left, but—Komal must be fed.
•Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1916).

References: Hiraga: from Donald L. Philippi, ed., Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans: The Epic Tradition of the Ainu (Princeton UP, 1979); Phillips: from Allan, Phillips, & Kerrigan, Wise Lord of the Sky: Persian Myth (Time-Life, 1999); Brautigan: Rommel Drives On Deep into Egypt (Delacorte, 1970); Polybius: Ian Scott-Kilvert, trans., Rise of the Roman Empire (Penguin, 1979); Singer: Naftali the Storyteller, and His Horse, Sus, and Other Stories (Dell Yearling, 1979); some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.