Primitive Games. 295 



two parties now return each to their own homes, and 

 there occupy themselves until the day of strife in the pre- 

 paration of their shields and of as much in the way of body 

 ornaments as the simple means at their disposal allows. 

 After the strife, it may be as well here to say, the van- 

 quished will, in the case above supposed, good-temper- 

 edly pay to the vi6tors the amount of the damage which 

 by ordeal they have been shown to have done. 



The shields, one of which each man and each boy 

 prepares for himself, are made in this way. One stands 

 before me as I write. Three sticks of light wood, the 

 centre one much slighter, but also nearly double the 

 length of the other two, are laid at distances of about 15 

 inches parallel to each other on the ground. The two 

 outer sticks are perhaps 4 feet long, the middle one 7 

 or even 8 feet. Across the front of these parallel sticks, 

 pieces of the leaf-stems of the aeta palm, all cut to one 

 length, perhaps 30 inches, are laid parallel to each other 

 and close together. These are then tightly bound with 

 the fibre from the aeta leaf in the place which they now 

 occupy. The result is a compact, dense shield of aeta 

 stalks, square or oblong in shape, above the top of which 

 the two outer of the three upright sticks proje6l 5 or 

 6 inches, while the centre of these sticks projects several 

 feet. To give additional strength to the shield a stick of 

 light strong wood is bound across the top of theaeta stalks, 

 crossing the three projecting sticks at right angles; and 

 another stick, this time a stout piece of palm leaf-stalk is 

 bound on similarly at the bottom of the shield. Into three 

 holes made in this lowest horizontal stick the lower ends 

 of the three upright projecting sticks are inserted. 

 Great tassels of flowing aeta fibre, partly dyed red, are 



