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Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called Padaeans, who
are wanderers, and live on raw flesh. This tribe is said to have the
following customs: If one of their number be ill, man or woman, they
take the sick person, and if he be a man, the men of his acquaintance
proceed to put him to death, because, they say, his flesh would be
spoilt for them if he pined and wasted away with sickness. The man
protests he is not ill in the least; but his friends will not accept
his denial - in spite of all he can say, they kill him, and feast
themselves on his body. So also if a woman be sick, the women, who
are her friends, take her and do with her exactly the same as the men.
If one of them reaches to old age, about which there is seldom any
question, as commonly before that time they have had some disease or
other, and so have been put to death - but if a man,
notwithstanding, comes to be old, then they offer him in sacrifice to
their gods, and afterwards eat his flesh.
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