BLOODY LAWS OF THE ALFURA. 205 



remarked, tlieir eyes were like fire. It was easy to 

 understand that in such a state of temj)orary madness 

 they would no more hesitate to cleave off a head than 

 to cut down a bamboo. They are far-famed " head- 

 hunters." It is a custom that has become a law 

 among them that every young man must at least cut 

 off one liumcm head before he can marry. Heads, 

 therefore, are in great demand, and perhaps our 

 realization of this fact made these frenzied savages 

 appear the more shocking specimens of humanity. 

 The head of a child will meet the inexorable demands 

 of this bloody law, but the head of a woman is pre- 

 ferred, because it is supposed she can more easily de- 

 fend herself or escape ; for the same reason the head 

 of a man is held in higher estimation, and the head 

 of a white man is a j^roof of the greatest bravery, 

 and therefore the most glorious trojihy. 



On the north coast, near Sawai Bay, the Dutch, 

 a few years ago, had a war with these natives, and 

 when they had driven them to the mountains, they 

 found in their huts between two and three times 

 as many human skulls as it is probable there were 

 people in the whole village, men, women, and chil- 

 dren taken together. When a man is afraid to go 

 out on such a hunt alone, he invites or hires two 

 or three others to assist him, and all lie in wait 

 near a neighboring village until some one chances to 

 pass by, when they spring out and dispatch their 

 victim, and escape. This, of course, creates a deadly 

 enmity l^etween each tribe and every other near it ; 

 and the whole interior of the eastern half of the 

 island, where this head-hunting prevails, is one un- 



