V.] THE OCEANIC NEGROES: PAPUASIANS. 133 



with more hilarious jubilation, dancing, drum-beating, conch- 

 blowing, and so on. 



Then the wretched captives' palms are pierced, a string 

 passed through the holes and the hands tied together at the 

 back. On the return voyage they are jeered at and taunted 

 with the prospect of torture, and when the flotilla arrives they 

 are thrown into the water and fished out by those on the 

 beach, sticking barbed spears into the less vulnerable fleshy 

 parts, the use of hands being barred by custom. In the village 

 they are put on mats, a rope secured to a tree is passed round 

 their necks to make them sit with head erect, and their hands 

 held down, while the nearest female relative of the man to be 

 avenged steps forward armed with a sharp-pointed stick. " Is 

 it with this right eye," she asks, "that you have seen my son 

 [or brother, &c.] captured? Is it with this right eye you 

 saw him cut to pieces, cooked and eaten ? Well, this is the 

 payment for it," thrusting the stick into his right eye. All the 

 other female relatives then follow, each in her turn inflicting some 

 fresh but not deadly gash, after which he is wrapped in dry coco- 

 nut leaves, hoisted some six feet from the ground, and slowly 

 roasted with firesticks. "When the rope by which the body is 

 hung is burnt and the body falls to the ground the wildest and 

 most savage scene takes place. The natives rush with knives in 

 their hands, each slashing a piece off the body, which may be still 

 alive, in the midst of diabolical noise and yells of rejoicing 1 ." 



It is to be feared that such scenes are still rife in many parts 

 of the interior, which lie beyond the reach of the 



. . _-, Cannibalism. 



British, German, and Dutch administrations. Even 

 in some of the coast districts cannibalism in its most repulsive 

 form was universally practised before the British occupation, and 

 the Rev. James Chalmers tells us that at a periodical feast, which 

 he had been invited to attend, he found the guests strutting about 

 "with pieces of human flesh dangling from their neck and arms." 

 A child destined for this banquet " was spared for a future time, 

 it being considered too small 2 ." 



These and many other shortcomings are redeemed by scarcely 



1 Dr Lamberto Loria, Official Report, 1895, Appendix S, p. 44 sq. 

 ~ Work and Adventure in X'e'v Guinea, 1885. 



