The cannibals

They were cannibals.
Every special event was celebrated by horrible sacrifices, after which the corpses of the victims were devoured. Here is how they went about these horrible feasts.
The victims having their hands cuffed in their back, a knife was stuck through each one of their cheeks, and another one under each scapula. Their back, arms and legs were slashed along. Then they were walked, with a rope passed through their nose, to the sound of music. Finally they were killed, their bodies cut to pieces, which were seasoned with kolla nut, and these awful dishes were eaten with relish.
The ear was prepared with pepper and it was considered an incomparable delicacy.
Robert-Robert and his companions could see that a similar fate was awaiting them and that the cannibals, when they had learnt of the shipwreck, had started looking for them to add a dish to the culinary side of the party.
As brave as one may be, death can’t be considered without fear when it comes in such a slow and atrocious guise.
But one circumstance that our prisoners could not explain too well, was the strange moves the great Zamba-Mac-Paounga made with his lips while looking at them, and his waving at them from up on his altar, as though he was trying to tell them something.
Was this part of a rite?
Was he just not feeling well?
The nauseous smell rising from the sacred bucket seemed to bother him very much. He often pinched his nose, and he looked like he wasn’t accustomed to this kind of scent.
However the chief walked in, late, like every chief in the world, and the dreadful ceremony began.
All the heads of distinguished prisoners put to death under his reign were carried as in a parade to the bottom of the seat where he was squatted.
The head-bearers carried out dances, or rather they twisted their bodies and faces in a horrible fashion.
The music which accompanied them consisted in the loud thud produced by the beat of two hundred knives hitting on two hundred skulls filled with thyme.
When this was over, the eleven prisoners were brought in front of the bloody bucket. Eleven executioners stepped forward, seized them and got ready to perform their horrible duty.
Knives were already raised, when the great Zamba-Mac-Paounga stretched out his long white rod above the head of the victims, as a sign of protection.
He then waved it towards the crowd, as though to dismiss it.
His bearing was impressive, his move compelling.
The crowd thought that some terrible carelessness in the preliminary rites had made the great Zamba angry.
It obeyed the command of the sacred rod, with regret, but the soul filled with a holy terror, and went outside, to wait for Zamba to let his supreme will be known.

Extract from Adventures of Robert-Robert, by L. Desnoyers, illustrated by F. de Courcy, 1839