Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CAN'NI-BAL, n. [This word is probably of Indian origin. Columbus, in his narration of his discoveries, mentions certain people called Canibals; but in the isles, he remarks, the natives lived in great fear of the Caribals, or people of Cariba, called in Hispaniola, Carib. Hence it seems that Canibals and Caribee are the same word differently pronounced.]

A human being that eats human flesh; a man-eater, or anthropophagite. – Bacon. Bentley.