A Fair Deal for a Cannibal

      Cannibalism! It occurred as an occasional practice is some societies, such as Iroquois of North America and some of the tribes of north Australia, though in neither case was it a regular event. Among the Aztecs of Mexico it was a wholesale practice associated with human sacrifice. However, the areas where it was widespread, often involving raiding or hunting parties descending on neighbouring communities, was the steamy jungle belt of the tropics: the fringes of the Carribean Sea, Melanesia, and the tropical forests of central and west Africa. The following strange custom relates to what is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but was then called the Congo Free State - not because there was anything free about it, but because it was not controlled by any European country, but was under the personal rule of King Leopold of Belgium.