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*ardino" 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 g'irl w^ere but- 

 chered. The heads of the victims Avere cut off with 

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

 or cane loop, both of w Inch are can*ied 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 

 retmnied to their island with much exultation, 

 announcing" their approach by g-reat shouting* and 

 blowing* on conchs. The heads were placed on an 

 oven and partially cooked, when the eyes were 

 scooped out and eaten with portions of flesh cut from 

 the cheek jf onl}^ those, however, who had been pre- 



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



f The eyes and cheeks of the survivors from the vrreck 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. 



