6 CANNIBALISM. 



and lads of the tribe, crossed over to the main. They 

 came upon a small camp of Yig'eiles who had not 

 been at all concerned in the murder, and enticed one 

 of them to come out of the thicket where he had con- 

 cealed himself by the offer of a fillet of cassowary 

 feathers for information reo-arding" the real mur- 

 derers. As soon as the man stepped out, he was 

 shot down with an arrow, his head cut off, and pur- 

 suit made after the rest. Towards morning- their 

 second camping" place was discovered and surrounded, 

 when three men, one woman, and a girl were but- 

 chered. The heads of the victims were cut off with 

 the hiipiy or bamboo knife, and secured by the sringi, 

 or cane loop, both of which are carried slung- on the 

 back by the Torres Strait islanders and the New 

 Guinea men of the adjacent shores, when on a ma- 

 rauding* excursion;* these Papuans preserve the 

 skulls of their enemies as trophies, while the Aus- 

 tralian tribes merely mutilate the bodies of the slain, 

 and leave them where they fall. The Kowrareg-as 

 returned to their island Avith much exultation, 

 announcing' their approach by g-reat shouting' and 

 bloAving' on conchs. The heads were placed on an 

 oven and partially cooked, A\'hen the e^^s were 

 scooped out and eaten with portions of flesh cut from 

 the cheek ;t only those, however, Avho had been pre- 



* See Jukes' Voyage of the Fly, Vol. i. p. 277. 



f The eyes and cheeks of the survivors from the wreck of the 

 Charles Eaton (m Aug. 1834) were eaten by their murderers, — a 

 party consisting of different tribes from the eastern part of Torres 

 Strait, See Nautical Magazine, 1837, p. 799. 



