THE SCENE: Herodotus describes a tribe of roaming cannibals whose social fabric was under constant threat by their tendency to regard each other as uncooked meat.
THE TEXT: [These] nomads eat raw flesh; they are called Padaei. It is said to be their custom that when anyone of their fellows, whether man or woman, is sick, a man’s closest friends kill him, saying that if wasted by disease he will be lost to them as meat; though he denies that he is sick, they will not believe him, but kill and eat him. When a woman is sick, she is put to death like the men by the women who are her close acquaintances. As for one that has come to old age, they sacrifice him and feast on his flesh; but not many reach this reckoning, for before that everyone who falls ill they kill.
– The Histories, Herodotus, 5th Century BC
