The flesh of a man intended for eating.
Derived from 'puaa oa', a phrase originating in the Marquesan language to euphemistically refer to cannibalism.
The phrase first appeared in
Fredrick O’
Brien's 1919 travelogue of French Polynesia, "
White Shadows in the South Seas".
"Upon it once stood the temple and about it were enacted the rites of mystery, when the priests and elders fed on the '
long pig that speaks,' when the drums
beat till
dawn and wild dances maddened the blood." (p. 175, ibid.)