Cannibal 4H: Chapter Eight: The Judging by Eurytion
	
JUDGING DAY AT THE FAIR. The culmination of months of efforts for the entrants; the
culmination of far more than that for the entries. Never was the old joke about the chicken only
being involved with breakfast while the pig was committed ever truer. The human cattle that
would be appraised today were certainly committed.
	
Cow 701 presented some special considerations for the judging panel. Normally, because of the
difficulty involved in the raising, veal cattle weren't entered at the junior cattle raiser class. In
fact, almost all the human veal produced for sale came from giant commercial farms located in the
Northwest. It wasn't profitable to cultivate human veal on family farms.
	
After months of intensive research on the World Wide Web and consultations with extension
agents and other experts, Joey had designed his project as the first step in lowering the costs of
veal production for smaller, local operations such as Geryon Cattle Farms. Plans for the
operation had already been drawn up before Valerie had lost her identification badge at the fair.
	
While it still cost more to ready cow 701 for slaughter than her true cash market price would be
(prize winners at the fair were always auctioned off for far more than they would bring on the
open market), Joey believed that his new methods could allow smaller, family-owned cattle farms
to make, not lose, money on veal. 
	
His special veal pen had nearly the same per square foot operating cost as a regular barn. A
carefully run cow-calf operation with a breeding herd producing calves solely for veal combined
with the selective purchase of heifers and mavericks at auction could help make small scale veal
farms feasible and profitable.
	
First though Joey and cow 701 had to get through the judging.
	
The three judges preceded Joey into the transfer box. Closing the door behind them, Joey
explained about the need for the red lighting. When the time came for them to judge his girl's skin
tone he would place the goggles on 701 and replace the red lighting with white. But, for most of
the judging, the carmine illumination would have to suffice.
	
Complying with her master's hand signals, cow 701 exited her veal cage with the ease brought on
by nearly a year of practice. Her calm outward demeanour as she was examined revealed no trace
of the turmoil she felt inside. 
	
The Valerie-mind was silently screaming; as a real human she had attended enough Cannibal 4-H
Fairs to know she was being judged and what came afterward. But McCain's conditioning held,
even as she heard the judges speak of the high quality of her meat and joke with Joey about the
best ways to serve her.
	
In addition to the standard techniques, the panel used a new technology during the judging:
ultrasound examination. Based on the medical device used by doctors, a specially constructed
machine sent high-frequency sound waves into cow 701 and then recorded the waves as they
bounced off the various body tissues. 
	
The mechanism produced a visual outline of the girl's internal body structure on a small screen,
allowing the judges to gage proportions of fat to lean, fat thickness, and the size and quality of
the various cuts of meat on cow 701.
	
"Son," said Art Trubell after they had left the transfer box. "Even though I'm the foreman of this
panel, I'm probably speaking out of turn because as a panel we haven't made a decision yet. But
I have to tell you how impressed I am by your entry.  We serve a lot of veal at my restaurant and
if you didn't have that arrangement with Crenshaw I'd be top bidder on that girl of yours and
serve her at my next `by subscription only' meal."
	
Joey had rarely eaten at Brigliadoro. Widely considered to be the best and fanciest restaurant in
town, its prices usually kept him away. Having a hamburger and fries at the Hitching Post might
not be as elegant or as gourmet but it sure was closer to what he could afford. The last time he
had dined at Brigliadoro was after he had won his second blue ribbon.  Al Crenshaw had taken
Linda Sue and he there to celebrate and the bill had come to several hundreds of dollars.  Still,
praise from Art Trubell had to be taken seriously. A hard-dealing businessman, no one had ever
accused him of giving out compliments like candy at Halloween.
	
Jeff Myerson, who served as the county extension agent for the county to the south spoke up
next.  "I have to agree with Art. That's a fine heifer you've got there. The fact that she's a
conversion and you've only had her for ten months makes what you've accomplished even more
amazing. I don't have any doubt about how I'm going to vote."
	
The last judge was Peter Barton, the owner of an agricultural implements dealership in town.
Having grown up as farm kid and still involved in overseeing the raising of crops for the local
food bank, he was more than knowledgable about agricultural issues.
	
"Joey, I don't think there's any question about how well you've done with this project. I think
you deserve the Blue Ribbon for Best of Show and I'll push for it. Even though I knew that cow
before she was converted, she has me really looking forward to sitting down at a dining table and
enjoying some nice veal parmigiana.  
	
"In fact, I'm halfway considering contracting with you to do the same thing with my step-
daughter, Patty. Even though she's only ten years old, she's made it plain that she doesn't
approve of her mom remarrying me and she's done everything she can to bust us up. If you don't
mind, I'd like to bring Patty around to the farm and maybe even to the butchering. Your cow used
to baby-sit for her and I want her to see what might happen if she doesn't start to behave and
treat me with some respect."
	
Joey beamed at the accolades he was receiving. At the same time he tucked Mr. Barton's request
away for further consideration. Families selling their unruly offspring at auction did happen
although the kids usually had to be really serious troublemakers before such a drastic step was
taken. Maybe there was a way to bypass the auction process and make direct purchases. It was
worth talking with his father about.
	
That evening Joey and Linda Sue went to the Polynesian-style long pig roast. Joey had spent
much of the previous day staving off his anxiety by working on the volunteer crew that helped to
dig the three cooking pits or lovos. Linda Sue had enjoyed herself by assisting in the preparation
of the three young Fijian girls for their roasting. 
	
Each lovo was a uniform 43 inches deep but their length and width varied to fit the girl who
would cooked within their confines. While everyone called it a pig roast, during cooking the girls
were more steamed than roasted.  
	
Four hours before the girls were to be lowered into the furrows, an iron pipe honeycombed with
1/4" holes was laid on the ground at the pit bottom. A standpipe reached up from one end to
stand about three foot higher than the earth's rim. The pipe, along with the outflow of a vacuum
cleaner, would be used to get air to the fire allowing it to burn more evenly.
	
Under the chef's direction, the pit was filled with wood; each piece of which had been carefully
cut to be the same size as all the others, another aid to even heat throughout the lovo. The fire
was lit without the use of chemical starters such as charcoal lighter and allowed to burn down
until the bottom of the excavation was covered with about two feet of red hot coals.
	
After the fire was underway, Linda Sue and the other volunteers began to prepare the Polynesian
long pig.  The young carcasses, each weighing about 120 pounds, were placed on plastic covered
tables. Large bowls of sea salt were set on each table.
	
As she rubbed her long pig with salt, Linda Sue was enchanted by how beautiful the Fijian girl
was.  Her dark, wavy hair, now encased in a transparent non-heat conducting hair net,  reached to
the small of her back.  Her face was given symmetry  by a broad flat nose spread over wide
pouting lips. Her skin was already a dusky bronze which would not noticeably darken during
cooking. Her most fascinating feature was the elaborate blue-black tattooing of geometric motifs
which encircled the girl's public area and extended into a wide band around her hips. The ornate
tattoos made it look as though the girl was wearing a pair of dark, skin-tight, intricately patterned
shorts.
	
"Be sure and cover every inch of that skin with the salt," the chef instructed Linda Sue. "That
means inside the body cavities as well as outside."
	
Linda Sue turned her attention from the body on the table to the chef.  If the girl was beautiful,
she thought, this man is more than a match for her. Knowing that he was being examined,
Cakkobau stepped back from the table to give Linda Sue a more comprehensive look.
	
Linda Sue liked what she saw. The Fijian stood a little over six foot. His hair was black and cut
close to his scalp, its waves reaching straight back on his head.  His skin colour was a match for
the girl on the table while his face was squarer, less elongated than the girl's. A blue shadow of
emerging beard outlined his upper lip and chin.
	
While the girl's tattoos only covered her waist, the chef's entire torso was decorated with an
intricate network of fine blue tatoos. Because of his role as chef, Cakkobau was not completely
nude. His loins were wrapped in a sulu made of red cloth with a white depiction of some sort of
tropical flower or plant.  His teeth, revealed as he smiled at her, resembled a line of square pearls.
	
"Come along now. Quit staring at me, you're falling behind the other women," he admonished the
smitten young girl. "If you really want to see what's under my sulu, come to my bure after
we've put these long pigs on the fire. Until then you've got work to do," he said giving her naked
ass a squeeze as he strode arrogantly toward the next preparation table. 
	
With a humph that could be heard throughout the tent, Linda Sue grabbed another handful of sea
salt and rubbed it vigorously inside the girl's body cavity. Cheeky bastard, she thought, although
Joey would be out having a beer with his friends and she really didn't have that much to do this
afternoon. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a stroll down toward the visitor's tents, just for the
sake of maintaining friendly international relations. Who knows she might even be able to pick up
a few pointers to use at the Geryon Farm celebration.
	
After the trench full of logs had been reduced to a bed of coals, Joey and the others added more
wood, stirring with metal paddles to mix the coals and new wood together. Next to each lovo
stood a 3-foot high pyramid of round river rocks anywhere from five to eight inches in diameter. 
Fireplace tongs were used to carefully create an even layer of rocks over the fire bed.
	
Out came the prepared long pigs. Each had been thoroughly salted, stuffed with dressing and laid
out on a burlap sheet. The sheets had been soaked in water until they were dripping then covered
with banana stumps and ti leaves. The burlap was wrapped around the girls, making sure that
each body was fully covered with the stumps and leaves. These would help permeate the human
pork with the smoky steamed flavour characteristic of long pig. 
	
The burlap had then been sown together at the top using steel thread to attach a series of rings.
These rings would be used to place and remove the pigs from the lovos. The final step in
preparing the girls was to wrap a layer of chicken wire around the burlap. This would help keep
the girl's meat from falling off of the bones before serving. Each burlap bundle was doused with
twenty litres of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and lowered into the lovo.
	
The remaining stones were layered around and on top of the long pig. Joey helped to dump 100
pounds of lit charcoal over each lovo's second stone layer then wrestle a metal sheet across the
opening. Beside him Billy  shovelled dirt onto the metal sheets until each was topped with a
grave-like mound.
	
"This isn't exactly my idea of fast food," Billy commented to Joey. "Even my mom's
Thanksgiving turkey doesn't have to cook for 24 hours. I hope the wait and all this work is
worth it.  I still say nothing can beat a quality human cow roasted over an open fire."
	
Twenty-four hours later, as he reached out to pull some thigh meat off the still steaming girl,
Billy was ready to admit that he was wrong. "Man, this is delicious. This girl's meat is so tender
just falls off the bone. I've never tasted any girl at the fair that was this flavourful or so juicy.  I
think I may even have thirds of this long pig. We've got to do this more often."
	
Joey, who had been washing a mouthful of meat down with a swallow of yaqona, a mildly
narcotic drink made by the Fijians from the kava root, could only nod in agreement. After passing 
the wooden tanoa bowl to the person next to him, he clapped his hands three times as custom
required.
	
Turning around to look behind him, Joey spoke to Linda Sue. "I heard you spent a couple of
hours with Cakkobau yesterday after the girls were ready for the lovo. Did you learn anything
we could use?" Linda Sue's face, already ruddy from the reflection of the fire, seemed to increase
in its redness.
	
"I learned more about their customs and mores than I did about their cooking techniques," she
said carefully choosing her words to traverse a mine field. "Those tattoos that all the girls had
were part of the veiqia rite. The Fijians use bamboo sliver or sharp shells dipped in ink to draw
the lines and a special pick made of coconut shell dipped in inks driven into the skin by a mallet
to make the dots. Cakkobau says they don't use any anesthetic so it's very painful. The girls
have to be held down by other girls and they say the men can hear their screams echoing out into
the bay. It takes almost a year for the tattooing to be completed but, when it is, it's a sign that
the girls are now young women and eligible to be married.
	
"Cakkobau offered to have his duabati, the woman who does the tattoos, start on mine now and
complete it at next year's fair. Or I could just go back with him to Oneata, that's his island, after
the fair is over and have it done properly in his village.
	
Having fallen under the influence of the yaqona Joey and Billy, began to giggle.
	
"I don't see what's so funny you two," Linda Sue replied huffily. "I could go to Fiji if I wanted."
	
Billy managed to regain his self control long enough to explain to Linda Sue that Cakkobau had
ulterior motives for his friendly invitation.
	
"I was talking with Max Mignon, you know the guy that does all the purchasing of human cattle
for the food court. Max told me that Cakkobau asked about the cost of buying human cattle and
having them shipped back home. Max said that Cakkobau said the price Max quoted was
outrageous and that he'd get his own Long Pig from America much cheaper than that.
	
"Max asked how he intended to get volunteers to be eaten. Cakkobau told him he wasn't going to
tell the women they were volunteering to be eaten; he was just going to get them down there for
other reasons. Said they'd find that out they were on the menu just before the ritual slaughtering
started."
	
"Al Crenshaw told me the same thing," said Joey,  filling in for Billy who was now giggling so
hard his sides hurt. "And that Cakkobau said he'd not only get his meat cheaper, he'd get them to
pay their own shipping and handling costs.  I guess he must of had his eye on you. If you fly
down to visit him on his island, I'd give you two months tops before they were pulling you up
out of a lovo, steaming hot and ready to serve.
	
"Hon, if you want to go and be a long pig instead of a cow, I'd be the last to stop you. Just let
me know ahead of time so I can be there for the feast. After all our time together, I wouldn't want
you to be eaten by strangers."
	
Seething with anger Linda Sue got up and left the fire. She wasn't sure who see was madder at:
Cakkobau for deceiving her or Joey for enlightening her.  After a few minutes a staggering Joey
caught up with her.
	
"Hey, sweetheart, come on. I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to make you mad. I thought you knew
what the deal was. You've always been quick to figure out all the angles. You've made most of
the deals; you got my dad to let me enter the first fair; you got Al Crenshaw to sponsor me; you
found Valerie and made sure I claimed her --- it was just funny to see that the Fijian had you so
fooled about what he really wanted."
	
Linda Sue stood still, her fury toward Joey somewhat abated. The young farmer took her by the
hand and began to lead her back to the party.
	
"Don't worry about it," he told her. "It could have been much worse. You know that Alma
Henderson from the aid society is actually going to go. She's already bought her ticket. Told
everyone she was going to serve the needs of the heathens. She's stuck her pointy nose into so
many other people's business that nobody felt like telling her she was going to serve their needs
on a wooden platter.
	
"Lucy Dorsey's also going.  She's using her tip money from the restaurant to pay her way.
Jonny Quigley caught her in the tent with Cakkobau; she was licking the last of his sperm off her
face and the sides of his cock. Anyway, they had a big fight and Lucy broke up with Jonny. Her
mom's too drunk most of the time to care what happens so she won't stop her. Jonny knows
but he's so mad about that blow job he's going to let her go. Says it'll serve her right. Like
Jonny's never stepped out on Lucy.
	
"So what if Cakkobau had you on his list. It just shows he's got good taste. I think you'd
probably taste pretty good myself, although if you were my cow I'd have you spitted for a
barbecue, not steamed in a lovo.  Since it's you I'd even give in and use an oak fire. But I'd still
use a spicy red sauce, that'd be a good match with you.
	
"Anyway, come on back. It's a shame to let the rest of this feast go to waste," Joey cajoled.
"Hey, you want to hear the strangest part about Lucy? Jonny says that Cakkobau's tattoos go
all the way down to his feet and even cover his dick. Can you believe that?" Sure that she
couldn't be seen blushing in the dark, Linda Sue said that she could.
	
The couple had returned to the lovo. The Fijian girl had been served face up, her legs stretched to
their full length, her arms laid out parallel to the sides of her chest.Her wavy, dark hair had come
through the heat unscathed and was fanned out to the sides and back of her head. While she was
surrounded by limp ti leaves and wilted banana stalks, she did not have an apple in her mouth. 
	
The girl's bones were beginning to show their whiteness where her flesh had been pulled away
for consumption by the country cannibals. Some of the people were breaking the girl's fingers
and toes off from the torso and then sucking the meat from the bones before throwing them into
the lovo which received the offerings with hissing and crackling.
	
Linda Sue noted that the area around the girl's cunt was hardly touched. Usually this was
considered a prized piece of meat at the fair. When she wondered out loud why, a diner on the
other side of the lovo complained about the taste.
	
"It's like eating overcooked raw fish, even though that sounds funny.  That meat is oily just like
raw fish, it's gritty and well, too smoky, or something. Whatever caused it, it sure makes it taste
nasty. That cunt steak just isn't edible."
	
Linda Sue wanted to tell him that the taste was a result of the dye the Fijians used to tattoo the
girl with. Made of soot and ashes mixed with fish and turtle oil, it would account for why such a
usually prime cut of human cattle was so unpalatable. But it was better not to direct Joey's
attention to any portion of her encounter with the Fijian cook. It wouldn't do to have him start
wondering about whether or not she too had seen the full extent of Cakkobau's tattoos.
