40 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



implies, in a Dahoman king, a character generating 

 fear among enemies and obedience among subjects, is 

 obvious. In Northern Celebes, where, before 1822, 

 &quot; human skulls were the great ornaments of the chiefs 

 houses,&quot; these proofs of victory in battle, used as symbols 

 of authority, could not fail to exercise a governmental 

 effect. And that they do this we have definite proof in the 

 fact that among the Mundrucus, the possession of ten 

 smoke-dried heads of enemies renders a man eligible to the 

 rank of chief. 



That heads are offered in propitiation of the dead, and 

 that the ceremony of offering them is thus made part of a 

 quasi-worship, there are clear proofs. One is supplied by 

 the Celebes people just named. * When a chief died his 

 tomb must be adorned with two fresh human heads, and if 

 those of enemies could not be obtained, slaves were killed 

 for the occasion.&quot; Among the Dyaks, who, though in 

 many respects advanced, have retained this barbarous prac 

 tice sanctified by tradition, it is the same: &quot; the aged war 

 rior could not rest in his grave till his relatives had taken a 

 head in his name.&quot; By the TCukis of Northern India 

 sacrificial head-taking is earned still further. Making raids 

 into the plains to procure heads, they &quot; have been known in 

 one night to carry off fifty. These are used in certain 

 ceremonies performed at the funerals of the chiefs, and it 

 is always after the death of one of their Rajahs that these 

 incursions occur.&quot; 



That the possession of these grisly tokens of success 

 gives an influence in social intercourse, proof is yielded by 

 the following passage from St. John: &quot;Head-hunting is 

 not so much a religious ceremony among the Pakatans, 

 Borneo, as merely to show their bravery and manliness. 

 When they quarrel, it is a constant phrase How many 

 hojtds did your father or grandfather get? If less than 

 his own number Well then, you have no occasion to 

 be proud. &quot; 



