detailed in Rutherford's journal, somewhat more
minutely. According to him the skull is first completely emptied of its
contents, the eyes and tongue being likewise extracted; after which the
nostrils and entire inside of the skull are stuffed with flax. At the
neck, where the head has been cut from the body, they draw the skin
together like the mouth of a purse, leaving, however, an open space
large enough to admit the hand.

They then wrap it up in a quantity of green leaves, and in this state
expose it to the fire till it is well steamed; after which the leaves
are taken off, and it is next hung up to dry in the smoke, which causes
the flesh to become tough and hard. Both the hair and teeth are
preserved, and the tattooing on the face remains as plain as when the
person was alive. The head, when thus cured, will keep for ever, if it
be preserved dry.

Cruise says that the heads are only exposed to a current of dry air;
but it appears, from Rutherford's account, that they are hung in the
smoke of a wood fire, and are thus, in fact, preserved from decaying
principally by being impregnated with the pyroligneous acid. That the
New Zealanders are well acquainted with the antiseptic powers of this
extract is proved also by what was formerly stated as to their method of
curing mussels. A French writer considers that this art of preserving
heads is a proof of some original connection between the New Zealanders
and the ancient world; as the process is as effective as that by which
the Egyptians prepared their mummies.

In savage countries the spirit of war is very much a spirit of personal
hostility; and both because of this, and from the state of society not
admitting of the erection of expensive public memorials which elsewhere,
or in another age, are employed to preserve the renown of military
exploits, the barbarian victor generally celebrates his triumph on the
body of his slain enemy, in disfiguring which he first exercises his
ingenuity, and afterwards in converting it into a permanent trophy of
his prowess.

The ancient Scythian warrior, Herodotus tells us, was wont to carry away
the heads of all those whom he slew in battle, to present to his king;
and the ancient Gauls, it is said, used to hang these bloody spoils
around the necks of their horses. The Gauls are asserted also to have
been in the practice of embalming the heads which they brought home from
their wars, of which they had large collections, which the