Pigflesh

Pigflesh in New Guinea, 125 / —⁠— compared with human in Fiji, 45-46

Then the old men say, “You must not make a garden until we have eaten the pigs.” These are then served out and the boys are told, “You must not eat anything until you are really hungry; just bite the food and then put it aside,” and accordingly the lads bite the pigflesh and set it aside. The women cook some taro in pots, which the boys are permitted to eat, while the pigflesh is consumed by the old men.

Despite ourselves, we’d gotten the footage we needed. Frame-by-frame analysis revealed how the pigflesh charred while the greedy napalm burned, the pigs’ innards curling out to embrace the flame, providing fuel from within.

He remembered how her eyes had shone with emotion. Yet it was all doomed to end here, at this awful table, with these horrible, still-quivering strips of fried pigflesh on the plate before him!