KARSTKN] BLOOD REVENGE, WAR, AND VICTORY FEASTS 29 



vites his friends and celebrates a small feast, consisting in drinking- 

 bouts and dancing, although he has not been able to capture a trophy 

 but only to kill his enemy. 



Contrariwise, it may happen in exceptional cases that a Jibaro, 

 although he has acquired a trophy, does not care to celebrate a feast 

 with it, either because he considers himself too poor to procure the 

 great supply of food necessary for the many guests at such a feast 

 or because he has not enough people in his house to prepare it or 

 friends to invite to it. Thus the great Jibaro chief Nayapi, of 

 Pastaza, has killed about 20 enemies, but has not celebrated a single 

 tsantsa feast, evidently in part because his many enemies haA^e not 

 given him the peace and tranquillitj^ necessary for preparing such a 

 feast. 



The rule is, however, among the Jibaros that a warrior who has 

 captured a head (tsanfsa) should celebrate a feast. The head feast 

 for the Jibaro opens tiie road to honor and fame, to material wealth, 

 to neAv victories over enemies, and a long life. It is the great mys- 

 tery feast of the Jibaro Indians; as will presently be seen, it in part 

 has a purely religious significance, inasmuch as the Jibaro through 

 the ceremonies thereby performed believes he acquires the same bene- 

 fits as most other savage peoples try to acquire by cult actions of 

 different kinds. 



As soon as a Jibaro warrior has killed an enemy of another tribe 

 he at once tries to secure his head, which he cuts off as close to the 

 trunk as possible. The warrior who has cut off the liead {oniika tsu- 

 pikma) is the "lord of the head" {muka hehidinyu) and the first 

 who, when the victors are many, has the right to celebrate a feast 

 with it. When several Indians in union have killed one enemy it is 

 customary for each of them in turn to celebrate a victory feast with 

 the trophy, which in this case is taken from one house to another. 



During the speedy return which generally follows upon a success- 

 ful attack there is not always time for the victors to at once begin 

 with the preparation of the trophy. They at first have to put them- 

 selves in safety from the eventually pursuing enemy. Thus it occurs 

 that they carry the bloody head with them during a couple of days 

 before they get an opportunity to " skin " it (muka sukurfinyu). In 

 this work only those warriors engage who have taken part in the kill- 

 ing of the enemy. If the victors are many, and they have been able 

 to acquire only one head, it happens that some of them separate 

 themselves from the rest, saying: "We go off to kill other enemies 

 nnd to capture our own heads." 



Those who remain now start to take off the scalp from the head. 

 At first the following small ceremony takes place : The head is placed 

 upon a large leaf on the ground. Upon the head there is placed 

 another leaf of the forest which the Jibaros call pingl nuka, and to 



