CANNIBALISM. 
275 
the produce is converted into merissa for the support of the 
sorrow of connections and acquaintances. 
The disposal of the dead by the Abarambo^ the chief of whom, 
Minoni, is father-in-law to Ombiro, a Neam Neam chief in the 
district of Mackraka, still southward and westward, is far more 
summary. As soon as life is extinct, the body is sold to the 
highest bidder, in lances ; and a well-conditioned corpse will realize 
from fifteen to twenty. The purchaser, after cutting off the quan- 
tity required for his own consumption, will retail the remainder as 
a butcher would a sheep ; the currency consisting of iron manu- 
factured into ornaments or arms. The only respect paid to the 
body of the deceased by the family consists in their not partaking 
of any portion thereof themselves. 
On the convalescence of my wife, a gastric fever laid me up ; 
and whilst confined to my bed, on December 15th, our men, with 
upwards of one hundred porters, returned from my station at 
Wayo — I was unable to move, and as the agent of the latter sta- 
tion accompanied our men, I was glad to be able to allow him to 
proceed to a Neam Neam chief, with whom he had left some 
months previously a quantity of merchandise to exchange for 
elephant tusks. The advent of so large a company had consider- 
ably disconcerted the chief of this place, as he assured me it would 
be impossible for him to provide so many people with food. 
Already fights had taken place between the people of this settle- 
ment and the newly-arrived porters, in quest of grain; consequently, 
with a view of preventing any further disturbance, and the support 
of my attendants in a better provisioned district, Awat, the Wayo 
agent, accompanied by hunters and thirty men, and the whole of 
our porters, set out on their journey, there, to the great relief of 
myself, and especially Neangara, to abide my recovery. 
18 — 2 
