Cannibalism seems to have prevailed to a considerable extent among the primitive inhabitants of Europe, and still more in America. The fact that no traces of it have been found dating back to Palaeolithic times, while the lower animals rarely devour their own species, seems to show that a certain degree of intelligence was first attained. With this may be compared the remark of Peschel, that the custom is most prevalent among tribes distinguished by a certain social advance... While instances of resort to human flesh as food in times of famine are widely diffused, the most common motive seems to be the well-known superstition that by eating the heart or other part of an enemy — to which the practice is often restricted — his prowess is acquired.

In Polynesia and in Central America it occurs most frequently in