h a yell, several warriors leaped
into each trench and stuck spears through the big "joints." And the
moment the roasted carcasses were taken out of the trenches the whole
tribe literally fell upon them and tore them limb from limb. I saw
mothers with a leg or an arm surrounded by plaintive children, who were
crying for their portion of the fearsome dainty.

Others, who were considered to have taken more than their share, were
likewise fallen upon and their "joint" subdivided and hacked to pieces
with knives made from shells. The bodies were not cooked all through, so
that the condition of some of the revellers, both during and after the
orgy, may best be left to the imagination. A more appalling, more
ghastly, or more truly sickening spectacle it is impossible for the mind
of man to conceive. A great _corroboree_ was held after the feast, but,
with my gorge rising and my brain reeling, I crept to my own humpy and
tried to shut out from my mind the shocking inferno I had just been
compelled to witness.

But let us leave so fearful a subject and consider something more
interesting and amusing.

CHAPTER VI

A weird duel--The tragedy of the baby whale--My boat is destroyed--A ten
miles' swim--Gigantic prizes--Swimming in the whale's head--I make use of
the visitors--A fight with an alligator--The old craving--Bitter
disappointment--My mysterious "flying spears"--Dog-like fidelity--I
present my "card"--The desert of red sand.

The women of the tribe lived amicably enough together as a rule, but of
course they had their differences. They would quarrel about the merits
and demerits of their own families and countries; but the greatest source
of heartburning and trouble was the importation of a new wife--especially
if she chanced to be better looking than the others. In such cases, woe
to the comparatively pretty wife. The women certainly had a novel way of
settling their differences. The two combatants would retire to some
little distance, armed with _one stick between them_. They would then
stand face to face, and one would bend forward meekly, whilst the other
dealt her a truly terrific blow between the shoulders or on the head--not
with a cane or a light stick, be it remembered, but a really formidable
club. The blow (which would be enough to kill an ordinary white woman)
would be borne with wonderful fortitude, and then the aggressor would
hand the club to the woman she had just struck.

The latt