Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice

I t may well be asked : What purpose is served by the writing of a book on such a subject as cannibalism? Indeed, this was my own reaction when my publisher invited me to undertake the task. There is, however, a quite simple answer to the question: No book covering the subject generally exists in the English language. Inquiries from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland elicited the reply : ' We know of no comprehensive work on cannibalism. The material on the subject is unfortunately scattered through many books and periodicals. Subsequent inquiries at the British Museum met with the same result : on the 80 miles of shelves in that incomparable library of 8,000,000 books, there is no single work in the English language that covers the immense field of cannibalism and human sacrifice. The Germans would appear to be the only people who have made any attempt to deal comprehensively with the subject on a large scale, and the work in question has not been translated into English.