Note 19 — Chapter IV

Hamburgh. Neue Zeitung, 151. St. 1782. “Hungary, 4th of September.—The following is to be added concerning the murderers and man-eaters. Forty of these miscreants have already undergone their deserved punishment, in three separate places. Some, as lately communicated, were broken upon the wheel from below upwards; two of the most atrocious were quartered alive; and the remainder, one hundred and fifteen in number, will shortly be proceeded against in the same manner. This band has existed twenty-one years, and in the course of that time sacrificed eighty-four people to their cruelty. Every feeling mind must be struck with horror at the infernal rage of these European cannibals, on hearing their confession—that once at a wedding they killed three people, whom they ate with their guests, in the greatest festivity and joy! They prefer the flesh of a young person from sixteen to eighteen years old. They burnt the bones, which, according to their account, make excellent coals. A life-guard man of the country undertook to secure and succeeded in taking their harumpascha or leader. This cannibal hero was magnificently dressed, and wore ornaments in his cap to the value of six thousand guilders.”