ith many spears stuck into it to show who had been the
murderers. This explained the fire, so another was lit in reply to the
challenge, and at night a party of Kowraregas in six canoes, containing
all the men and lads of the tribe, crossed over to the main. They came
upon a small camp of Yigeiles who had not been at all concerned in the
murder, and enticed one of them to come out of the thicket where he had
concealed himself by the offer of a fillet of cassowary feathers for
information regarding the real murderers. As soon as the man stepped out,
he was shot down with an arrow, his head cut off, and pursuit made after
the rest. Towards morning their second camping-place was discovered and
surrounded, when three men, one woman, and a girl were butchered. The
heads of the victims were cut off with the hupi, or bamboo knife, and
secured by the sringi, or cane loop, both of which are carried slung on
the back by the Torres Strait islanders and the New Guinea men of the
adjacent shores, when on a marauding excursion;* these Papuans preserve
the skulls of their enemies as trophies, while the Australian tribes
merely mutilate the bodies of the slain, and leave them where they fall.

(*Footnote. See Jukes' Voyage of the Fly Volume 1 page 277.)

CANNIBALISM.

The Kowraregas returned to their island with much exultation, announcing
their approach by great shouting and blowing on conchs. The heads were
placed on an oven and partially cooked, when the eyes were scooped out
and eaten with portions of flesh cut from the cheek;* only those,
however, who had been present at the murder were allowed to partake of
this; the morsel was supposed to make them more brave. A dance was then
commenced, during which the heads were kicked along the ground, and the
savage excitement of the dancers almost amounted to frenzy. The skulls
were ultimately hung up on two cross sticks near the camp, and allowed to
remain there undisturbed.

(*Footnote. The eyes and cheeks of the survivors from the wreck of a
Charles Eaton (in August 1834) were eaten by their murderers--a party
consisting of different tribes from the eastern part of Torres Strait.
See Nautical Magazine 1837 page 799.)

In the beginning of 1849 a party of Badulegas who had spent two months on
a friendly visit to the natives of Muralug treacherously killed an old
Italega woman, married to one of their hosts. Two of her brothers from
Banks Island were staying with her at the time, and o