1770 WAR SONG TROPHIES OF HEADS 247 



iris ; in short, nothing is omitted which could render a 

 human shape frightful and deformed, which I suppose they 

 think terrible. During this time they brandish their 

 spears, hack the air with their patoo-patoos, and shake their 

 darts as if they meant every moment to begin the attack, 

 singing all the while in a wild but not disagreeable manner, 

 ending every strain with a loud and deep-drawn sigh, in 

 which they all join in concert. The whole is accompanied 

 by strokes struck against the sides of the boats with their 

 feet, paddles, and arms ; the whole in such excellent time, 

 that though the crews of several canoes join in concert, you 

 rarely or never heard a single stroke wrongly placed. 



This we called the war-song ; for though they seemed 

 fond of using it upon all occasions, whether in war or 

 peace, they, I believe, never omit it in their attacks. They 

 have several other songs which their women sing prettily 

 enough in parts. They were all in a slow melancholy style, 

 but certainly have more taste in them than could be ex- 

 pected from untaught savages. Instrumental music they 

 have none, unless a kind of wooden pipe, or the shell called 

 Triton's Trumpet, with which they make a noise not very 

 unlike that made by boys with a cow's horn, may be 

 called such. They have, indeed, also a kind of small pipe 

 of wood, crooked and shaped almost like a large tobacco 

 pipe, but it has hardly more music in it than a whistle with 

 a pea. But on none of these did I ever hear them attempt 

 to play a tune or sing to their music. 



That they eat the bodies of such of their enemies as are 

 killed in war, is a fact which they universally acknowledged 

 from our first landing at every place we came to. It was 

 confirmed by an old man, whom we supposed to be the 

 chief of an Indian town very near us, bringing at our desire 

 six or seven heads of men, preserved with the flesh on. 

 These it seems the people keep, after having eaten the 

 brains, as trophies of their victories, in the same manner as 

 the Indians of North America do scalps ; they had their orna- 

 ments in their ears as when alive, and some seemed to have 

 false eyes. The old man was very jealous of showing them ; 



