to raid from their enemy's plantations. On
reaching the scene of battle they adopt methods of spying and scouting
and sentry duty, though only on simple and unscientific lines. They
have apparently no generally recognised systems of signs of truce or
truce envoys or hostages. There are certain recognised cries, which
respectively signify the killing of a man and the taking of a prisoner,
by which, when such an event occurs, the fighters on both sides are
aware of it. An enemy wounded on the battlefield may be killed at
once or may be taken prisoner. All prisoners, wounded or otherwise,
are taken home by the party that secures them, and are then killed,
apparently without any prior torture, and generally eaten. A prisoner
thus carried off would be regarded as a man killed, which in fact he
shortly will be. The women of a community follow their fighting men
in the expedition, their duty being to encourage the fighters on the
way out, and during the fight, by their singing; but they remain in
the rear during the battle, and do not actually fight. These women,
of course, also run the risk of being killed or wounded or taken
prisoners.

Fighting between two communities may go on intermittently for
years. Then perhaps the communities may get mutually weary of it,
and decide to make peace. This act is ratified by an exchange between
the two communities of ceremonial visits, with feasts and pig-killing,
but no dancing, the pigs and vegetables and fruit distributed by the
hosts among the visitors on the return visit being exactly similar
in character and quantity to what the latter have given the former
on the prior visit.

The Mafulu war spears are made out of a very hard-wooded palm tree and
another hard red-wooded tree, the name of which I do not know. They
are round in section, tapering at both ends, and are generally from
10 to 12 feet long, and about three-quarters of an inch in diameter at
the widest part. There are three forms of point. The first (Plate 73,
Fig. 1) is simply a tapering off in round section. The second (Plate
73, Fig. 2) is made square in section for a distance of 2 to 2 1/2 feet
from the tip. The third (Plate 73, Fig. 3) is in section a triangle,
of which two sides are equal and the other side is a little larger,
this triangular form being carried for a foot or less from the tip,
and the larger surface being barbed bilaterally. This last-mentioned
form is also generally decorated with a little tuft of