120 BESIEGING A PA. [PART I. 



party, stripped of their clothes, bedaubed with red 

 ochre, and distorting their faces even more fright- 

 fully than the men. All the warriors have their 

 hair dressed, tied round on the top of the head, 

 and ornamented with feathers, but their bodies and 

 limbs are entirely naked. The combat is carried on 

 by alternate advance and retreat. If a party retreats 

 in flight, they carry, if possible, their dead with 

 them, or the enemy seizes them for the purpose of 

 devouring them. 



In an engagement on the sea-shore, in which 

 muskets were used, I saw both parties advance, 

 guarding themselves by trenches rapidly dug as they 

 pushed forward. They fire continually, but irregu- 

 larly, and a great deal of powder is wasted, as they 

 rarely take aim. But, notwithstanding this, krge 

 numbers are often killed. 



Their mode of besieging is rude, but not without 

 cunning. The besieging party digs trenches and 

 erects high structures of blocks of wood, from which 

 their fire can reach into the pa. Both parties have 

 fosses with loopholes, and outposts ; but they are little 

 careful to conceal their arrangements, each knowing 

 the other's forces too well ; and strangers or neutrals 

 are allowed to pass from one party to the other, the 

 combatants politely ceasing to fire during the time. 



If a pa is taken, in most cases nothing but a gene- 

 ral slaughter of the men satisfies the thirst of the 

 victors for revenge, and women and children are 

 carried off as slaves. When the two parties are 



