THE KINGSMILL ISLANDERS. 93 



the meditated attack, before, or just as the hostile fleet touches their 

 shore, assail their invaders to great advantage, while the men, stiff from 

 being cramped in their canoes, and still under the effects of their sick- 

 ness, are easily overcome. 



It is only the young and vigorous who go on these expeditions, 

 with a few of the older warriors to direct their operations. In their 

 civil wars the old men and the women join in the combat, and the 

 victors make no distinction of age or sex in the massacre which 

 generally ensues. 



The bodies of the slain are not generally eaten, but, according to 

 their own account, it occasionally happens that when some noted 

 warrior has been killed, the young men eat portions of his flesh from 

 hatred, and through a desire to appear fierce and terrible. Kirby 

 stated two cases in which he knew human flesh to have been eaten. 

 One was that of an old man of Kuria, who had offended a chief on 

 Apamama, and the other, of four slaves of the king, who had attempted 

 to escape from the island in a canoe. All these were killed, and par- 

 ticular parts of their bodies eaten. The act, it was thought, was 

 prompted by vindictiveness, and a desire to taste an unusual kind of 

 food. We may therefore conclude that they are not to be considered 

 as cannibals, though, according to Kirby, they seem to have no appa- 

 rent disgust at eating human flesh. 



In Makin, where they have had no wars for a hundred years, they 

 are much less bloodthirsty, and during the seven years Wood was on 

 the island, only one man was put to death. He does not believe that 

 the people are cannibals, but he has frequently heard the old men 

 relate, that during times of scarcity their ancestors sometimes ate 

 human flesh. 



The weapons used among them are spears, clubs, and swords, 

 which are made of cocoanut-wood, and after the simplest fashion. 

 Few of their clubs are carved, and they seem to bestow very little 

 labour upon them ; this, however, is appropriated to a different kind 

 of weapon, which they consider much more effective: these are the 

 shark's-teeth spears and swords, wood-cuts of which have been hereto- 

 fore given. The natives of most of the islands show the effects of 

 these weapons on their bodies and limbs. The armour they use as a 

 protection also claims much of their attention. According to Kirby, 

 this armour has been only a short time introduced or in use on the 

 islands, and is not yet common in all of them. As defences, they 

 seldom resort to strongholds, — indeed they have none in the northern 

 islands; but at Taputeouea they have palisades or pickets, about eight 

 or ten feet high, which surround the towns. Utiroa had a protection 



