140 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



up in the roof, where it becomes brown with smoke and 

 poHshed by frequent handling. 



Though the people take the trouble to bring the 

 skulls into their houses, they show no real respect for 

 them, and they are eager enough to part with them if a 

 chance occurs. Two of us went one day to Obota, a 

 village a few miles from Wakatimi, in the hopes of 

 buying some bananas. In one of the huts we saw a skull 

 and offered to buy it, not at all expecting that the owner 

 w^ould be willing to sell, but the offer of (I think) a piece 

 of cloth was gladly accepted and the skull was ours. 

 In a few minutes, when it became known that we had 

 given good cloth for a common skull, everybody was 

 anxious to sell his family remains, and outside every 

 doorway were placed one or two or even three grinning 

 skulls. They do not treat the skulls very carefully, 

 and a good many were damaged, so we only bought 

 about half a dozen that were perfect. 



One day a man walked into our camp at Wakatimi 

 carrying a skull under his arm. He stood outside our 

 house for some time, grinning and saying nothing, then 

 he gave us unmistakably to understand that it was 

 the skull of his wife, who, as we knew for a fact, had only 

 died a short time previously. The skull was indeed 

 so fresh that we declined the offer. 



