JOURNAL 



THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 



OP 



GREAT BRITAIN. 





THE MODE OF PREPARING HUMAN HEADS AMONG THE 

 NEW ZEALANDERS, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON 

 CANNIBALISM*. 



By GEORGE BENNETT, 



Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, &c. &c. 



TT is now fully ascertained, that the natives of the New 

 Hebrides, the Marquesas, New Zealand, and other Poly- 

 nesian islands, are cannibals ; yet it is among the New Zea- 

 landers only that the custom obtains of preserving the heads 

 of their enemies as tokens of victory, and as objects of con- 

 tempt. There is something analogous to this among certain 

 tribes of Africans, who preserve the skulls of their enemies for 

 purposes similar to those of the New Zealanders. Captain 

 Tuckey observes, respecting this custom among the natives 

 on the river Zaire or Congo, ' the first objects that called our 

 attention were four human skulls, hung to the tree, which we 

 were told were those of enemies' chiefs taken in battle, whose 

 heads it was the custom to preserve as trophies ; these victims, 

 however, seemed to have received the coup dc grace previous 

 to the separation of the head, all the skulls presenting com- 

 pound fractures/ page 101. The New Zealanders some- 

 times, however, preserve the heads of their friends, but for 

 very different purposes those of paying respect to the memory 

 of the deceased ; to show to their relations who have been 



* The plate was given in the last Number. 

 You II. Nov. 1831. Q 



