When a man dies, whether his death 

 "be natural or due to violence, the 

 other members of his family repair 

 by night to some village of their 

 enemies, cut pieces from their tur- 

 bans, and throw them down on the 

 ground. This is inteipreted as an 

 intimation that they will return and 

 take heads some time within six 

 months, and they believe that the 

 dead man knows no peace until this 

 is done. 



THi; ONLY CURE FOR A WIDOW's GRII:F 



A widowed wife starves herself 

 for days, discards her upper gar- 

 ment, and may not bathe during a 

 period of six months unless the men 

 of the family sooner succeed in 

 taking a head. During the entire 

 period of mourning, which is sup- 

 posed to end when a head is taken, 

 she gives away to hysterical fits of 

 weeping and shrieking, which last 

 for hours. 



The women of this tribe are cele- 

 brated for their chastity, and the 

 affection between husbands and 

 wives is undoubtedly deep and last- 

 ing. Their mourning is in many 

 cases the result of genuine sorrow, 

 rather than of the necessity for the 

 perfunctory carrying out of a time- 

 honored ceremonial. 



Many a night have I lain and 

 listened to some poor woman, half 

 a mile away, who called to her de- 

 parted husband from dusk to day- 

 light with hardly a moment's inter- 

 mission. These faithful women 

 often refuse to refrain from out- 

 ward manifestations of grief after 

 the prescribed period of mourning 

 has passed, but continue to call for 

 their husbands, and I know of no 

 more pathetic thing than their long- 

 continued efforts to bridge the mys- 

 terious gulf which separates them 

 from those whom they have loved, 

 ending, as not infrequently happens, 

 in their own death or in madness. 



Of the ceremonies which attend 

 the return of a war party with 

 heads, we at present know little, 

 except that the heads are ultimately 

 chopped into pieces, one of which 

 is given to each member of the war 

 party, who thereupon places it in 



AN INHABITANT OP* NO MAN S LAND 



Note his feathered head ornaments and his grace- 

 fully shaped head-axe. The men are noted for their 



superb physical development. 



927 



