591 



over, the left side red, the right white. A V-shaped ornament 

 of these same colours was painted on their breasts; a white 

 band passing from the front of the right shoulder down to 

 the sternal notch, when it met a corresponding band in red 

 (the painting was called TJmii). On the ankles and below the 

 knees strips of pandanus leaves were bound, and they wore 

 the boar's tusk ornament (MaUi) suspended from a shell neck- 

 lace (Kema). During fights, as during dances, they put the 

 boar's tusk into their mouth. Sometimes, as amongst the 

 tribes of the Central Division, the Musikdka (Motuan name) 

 ornament — a flat piece of wood, inlaid with the red seeds of 

 jequirity, edged with boar's tusks, and with a pair of eyes 

 made of shell in the middle — ^was used as a "mouthpiece" in 

 fighting. This ornament is well represented in many Museum 

 collections. 



The Mailu were not cannibals and, except on their island 

 border, where their neighbours, the Uddma, possibly prac- 

 tised anthropophagy, they were not in contact with any 

 cannibal tribe. (^^) 



They practised head hunting — that is, the killing of a 

 human being, man, woman, or child, solely with the object of 

 securing the victim's head. The body was left on the spot 

 where the individual had been killed, and the head was cut 

 off and taken to the village. The amputation of the head was 

 done with a bamboo knife ( K dfakapa ) , which the warrior 

 carried suspended from a string round the neck, the knife 

 hanging down the back. The head was carried to the slayer's 

 Dilhu, and there boiled in a pot, which was directly afterwards 

 thrown into the sea. Then the skin and flesh were removed, 

 and the skull, being thus roughly cleaned, was placed in the 

 smoke and dried, so as to prevent the putrefaction of the 

 incompletely removed soft parts. During this time the people 

 used to prepare a feast, gathering bananas, taro, and cooking 

 sago, fish, etc. When the skull was sufficiently smoked and 

 dried it was prepared for hanging in the Duhu by drilling a 

 hole in the top of the skull, through which a string was passed. 

 Then the feast took place, during which a dance, called Ma^o, 

 was performed. In this the slayer, holding the skull under his 

 arm, danced ceremonially. 



The homicide had to undergo the usual taboo — that is, 

 abstention from boiled food and fish — for a time after the 



(43) On the west their neighbours were the Aroma people, who 

 also were not cannibals. On the east their immediate neighbours,, 

 the Bonahona, were the only Southern Massim who did not adopt 

 this practice. The line of demarcation between the anthro- 

 pophagous Massim and the Bonahona runs between Fife and 

 Farm Bays. The natives of the former did not eat human flesh, 

 and the first village in Farm Bay (Savdia) did so. 



