214 PRESERVATION OF ENEMIES* HEADS. 



mediately; and I suppose that were they to give them- 

 selves in exchange for the slain, they would not, with 

 their wives and children, be sufficient in number to 

 compensate for them. 



The heads of their enemies are, amongst the 

 sea-tribes, preserved with the flesh and hair still ad- 

 hering to the skull, and these trophies are not, as 

 amongst the land-tribes, the general property of the 

 village, but the personal property of the individuals 

 who capture them, though the honour of the tribe is 

 augmented by their being in the village. The skull 

 being freed from the brain, which is extracted by the 

 occiputal hole, the head is dried over a slow and smok- 

 ing fire until all the animal juices have evaporated : they 

 are preserved with the greatest care, and baskets full 

 of them may be seen at any house in the villages of 

 the sea- tribes, and the family is of distinction accord- 

 ing to the number of these disgusting and barbarous 

 trophies in its possession ; they are handed down from 

 father to son as the most valuable property, and an 

 accident which destroys them is considered the most 

 lamentable calamity. An old and grey-headed chief 

 was regretting to me one day the loss he had sus- 

 tained in the destruction by fire of the heads collected 

 by his ancestors. As I heard nothing of his property, 

 which had been very considerable, I supposed that he 

 had succeeded in saving it, until, on making inquiries, 

 he told me that it had been all destroyed, but he 

 would not have regretted it so much if he could have 



