heads. When in full dress, however, this abundance
of hair is confined by a red handkerchief, obtained
from the natives on the coast, and ornamented with
parts of a small shell, the JVassa, in place of beads.
Their clothing is a strip of the inner bark of a
tree beaten with stones until it becomes white and
opaque, and appears much like white, rough paper.
This garment is three or four inches wide and about
three feet long. It passes round the waist and covers
the loins in such a way that one end hangs down in
front as far as the knee. On the arm, above the
elbow, some wore a large ring, apparently made from
the stalk of a sea-fan, Gorgonia. To this were fastened
bunches of long, narrow green leaves, striped with
yellow. Similar ornaments were fastened to the elbows
and to the strip of bark at the waist. Each
of the warriors was armed with a pa/rang or cleaver,
which he raised high in the right hand, while on his
left arm was a shield three or four feet long but only
four or five inches wide, which he held before him as
if to ward off an imaginary blow. Their dance was
merely a series of short leaps forward and backward,
and occasionally whirling quickly round as if to defend
themselves from a sudden attack in the rear.
Their only musical instrument was a rude tifa, which
was accompanied by a monotonous song from the
women, children, and old men. At first the time of
the music was slow, but by degrees it grew quicker
and louder, until all sang as fast and loud as they
could. The dancing warriors became more excited,
and flourished their cleavers and leaped to and fro
with all their might, until, as one of our company
remarked, their eyes were like fire. It was easy to
understand that in such a state of temporary madness
they would no more hesitate to cleave off a head than
to cut down a bamboo. They are far-famed u headhunters.”
It is a custom that has become a law
among them that every young man must at least cut
off one hvmum head lefore he com mcvrry. Heads,
therefore, are in great demand, and perhaps our
realization of this fact made these frenzied savages
appear the more shocking specimens of humanity.
The head of a child will meet the inexorable demands
of this bloody law, but the head of a woman is preferred,
because it is supposed she can more easily defend
herself or escape; for the same reason the head
of a man is held in higher estimation, and the head
of a white man is a proof of the greatest bravery,
and therefore the most glorious trophy.
On the north coast, near Sawai Bay, the Dutch,
a few years ago, had a war with these natives, and
when they had driven them to the mountains, they
found in their huts between two and three times
as many human skulls as it is probable there were
people in the whole village, men, women, and children
taken together. When a man is afraid to go
out on such a hunt alone, he invites or hires two
or three others to assist him, and all lie in wait
near a neighboring village until some one chances to
pass by, when they spring out and dispatch their
victim, and escape. This, of course, creates a deadly
enmity between each tribe and every other near i t ;
and the whole interior of the eastern half of the
island, where this head-hunting prevails, is one un