The victims of the practice were adulterers, spies, traitors, committers of incest, and war captives. Rules governing the eating of human beings were, however, strict. No criminal could be condemned to be eaten without a trial, and prisoners of war could be eaten only on the battleground or in the near vicinity, soon after the contest. Two points in the philosophy of the Bataks concerning the practices seem clear. In the first place, being eaten was considered the supreme punishment and deepest disgrace, and secondly, there was a vague idea of enriching one’s own soul stuff (tondi) by devouring the flesh of another man. Sometimes only the ears and palms of the hands were eaten, the rest of the body being given to the priests to use for magic and medicine. The head and hands were dried and hung up as trophies in the village pavilion. A relative who wished to remove the head of an executed kinsman could do so on payment of a ransom.

The feast always had to take place outside the house, either in the village pavilion or in the open. The condemned man was tied to a post as if he were a sacrificial buffalo, and killed with lance thrusts, or, in some cases, slowly sliced to death as choice bits were hacked off his living body. Originally, it seems that every man in the village was compelled to consume some of the flesh, probably to assure distribution of responsibility.²

²Kennedyn/an/an/an/an/an/a, , 71–72.