450 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



ing, gave and received from the group a tard stare ; but no 

 words were exchanged. "When we had gone a little way, he 

 looked back at the group. " These are Braves," he said, after 

 a little, with somewhat of admiration, I thought, in his tone. 



" Indeed I " I said, '' how do you know ? " 



"The tallest of them," he replied, with a coolness that 

 astonished me, *' cut off my father's head in their war with 



Bibi9U9U." 



*' Bo you not feel any rancour towards him ? Don't yon 



wish to have it out with him now ? " 



" Oh, no ! the two kingdoms are now at peace ; each has 



given back the heads they took, long ago." 



The custom of head-hunting, as carried on among the wild 



tribes of Borneo, is not practised among the Timorese except 

 during war, which is begun after the most explicit declaration. 



AVhen a raid by one tribe has taken place on the fields or 

 herds of a tribe in a neighbouring kingdom, a messenger is 

 sent with the intelligence to its Bajah. If the rulers of the 

 two kingdoms are united by the ordinary ties of friendship, or 

 by the sanctity of the blood-bond, the affair is settled after 

 long parleys and discussions, by the payment of an agreed-on 

 price. Kingdoms related to the belligerents by ties of marriage 

 or sworn brotherhood usually send a contingent to assist in 

 the war, or a kingdom may hire men from a neighbouring 

 or friendly power. If any of these are killed they must be 

 redeemed by a large sum, so much for the eyes, hair, mouth, 

 nose, and for every limb and organ of the body, much after the 

 custom of reckoning the value of a man in voffue in the island 

 of Buru or among our own early ancestors. " The freeman's 

 life and the freeman's limb had each on this (bloodwite) 

 system its legal price. *Eye for an eye/ ran the rough code, 

 and Mife for life,' or for each fair damages." 



If no goodwill exist between the two kingdoms, no satisfac- 

 tion will be obtained. War is prepared for, and by the sacred 

 rites described above the men who are to sustain their cause in 



T 



the field are selected. At length, when the armies meet, a last 

 discussion of the question is held by a representative of each 

 side who advances in front of the respective armies. If no 

 agreement is come to the fight begins. Being really of a very 

 cowarilly spirit, they never fight in the open but from behind 



