shoulders and gazed at them with a startled look; then he darted into
the woods, where he was caught by one of the men and secured. Had he
not been enfeebled from recent illness, they could neither have caught
nor retained this man.

On being taken he exhibited signs of extreme terror. It was in vain
that his captors assured him they meant him no harm; he continued to
exclaim, "Ye are murderers, ye are murderers! do not murder me, do not
murder me!" Even after he had been taken to the settlement and treated
with great kindness, he could not be prevailed on to say anything more
than "Do not kill me," and did not rest until he had made his escape
into the woods!

CHAPTER NINE.

TOUCHES ON CANNIBALISM.

The cruelties inflicted on the wretched prisoners taken in these wars
were inconceivably horrible and disgusting. Some of our readers may,
perhaps, think we might have passed over the sickening details in
silence, but we feel strongly that it is better that truth should be
known than that the feelings of the sensitive should be spared.

Ellis tells us that the bodies of men slain in battle were usually left
to be devoured by the hogs and wild dogs. This was doubtless the case
in some of the groups of islands where cannibalism was perhaps not very
much practised, but in other groups--especially among those known by the
name of the Feejees--the slain were more frequently devoured by men and
women than by hogs or dogs. The victors used to carry off the lower
jaw-bones of the most distinguished among the slain as trophies, and
also the bones of the arms and legs, from which they formed tools of
various kinds and fish-hooks, and the skulls they converted into
drinking-cups. The dead bodies were sometimes laid in rows along the
beach, and used as rollers, over which the canoes were launched.

One of their practices with the dead was ludicrously horrible.
Sometimes, when a man had slain his enemy, in order to gratify his
revenge he would beat the body quite flat, and then, cutting a hole
through the back and stomach, would pass his head through it and
actually rush into the fight wearing the body round his neck, with the
head and arms hanging down in front, and the legs behind!

The bodies of celebrated warriors and chiefs were hung by a rope to a
tree, after the legs and arms had been broken; cords were attached to
their feet, and then they were drawn up and down for the amusement of
the spectators, while oth