IN TIMOM, 



451 



trees and cmga. Hostilities are carried on mostly by the 

 offensive army pillaf^inf? and ravftginfj^ all they can lay hands 

 on, robidng evt^ry uudefeDded dwelling, ruthlessly decapitating 

 helpless men, women, and children, and even infanta. 



In most districts all the warriors fig;ht on foot ; hnt the 

 Lamkitos, who live Wtween Alias on the sonth coast and the 

 great mountain of KaUdaki, fight from horseback with their 

 legs tied under their horses' bellies, so that, in case of their 

 beinf^ wounded or killed, they may be carried back to their 

 own village with their heatls on their shoulders. 



When one of their number has fallen, sorely wounded or 

 killed, there is in general a grand stampede of all bis com- 

 panions. The valiant marksman rushes torward, and, standing 

 over his fallen foe. calls out to his friends, •* Hot what is the 

 name of this man? " His friends call back, "Ho ! that is so 

 and so ; " to which the response is, *'Know, then, that I am so 

 and so," and, lifting np his enemy's head by the ear or the 

 hair, he decapitates him at a blow. He carries off the head in 

 triumph, retires to his own house, and seta about preparing and 

 preserving the head, by removing the brain and drying the 

 flesh and skin before a slow fire. He never washes his hands 

 till he retnnis with the army to its own capital, when those 

 who come back carrying heads are salutecl by the women, who 

 along with the Baio-LuU have come out to meet them with 

 music, with the cry of Osimi! Oswai! (** Braves ! braves! *') 



For every head the fortunate warrior brings back he 

 receives a present from the liajah, and a cii'cular disk, or lua 

 of gold, which he henceforth continually wears round his neck 

 — a Timorese Victoria Cross. The captured heads are carefully 

 preserved by both sides in the conflict, till such time as 

 amicable relations can be established between them, when a 

 genettd assembly of the two kingdoms is held whither the 

 heads taken in the war are brought also, and amid terrible 

 bowlings and lamentations they are restored by each side, to 

 the relatives of the deceased. Each "Brave," in giving up 

 the head he has taken, gives a small gift to the relatives that 

 friendship between them may be restored, which is cemented 

 by, m nsual, a boisterous feast, concluded by hea\y drinking, 

 and the wild dancing of the Tahidu already described. The 

 recovered heads are now placed with the unburied members, 



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