eir work, the nipples of the breasts were then cut,
the muscles of their arms and legs, and, lastly, the whole of the flesh
covering the abdomen, which they took and placed in the pots over the
fire. Then the hearts were extracted, and, finally, the fat of the
entrails of each body. After this mutilation and disfigurement of the
dead, the head of each body was cut off and placed on the end of pointed
poles, to be borne around the camp during the ceremonial song.

Within half an hour the water had boiled sufficiently, and the magic
doctors, taking the wonderful gourds filled with pebbles in their hands,
began to shake them to the tune of a monotonous chant, in the chorus of
which the warriors, bearing the heads aloft on poles, joined, marching
slowly as they sang around the circle. The words ran thus, as well as
they may be translated:

Oh, the horrible, fearful battle,
Where warriors slew and were slain,
Where dead lay unnumbered, and wounds were made,
Till the field ran red with blood that was shed
In the horrible, fearful battle.
_Chorus_. With the blood that was shed
In the horrible, fearful battle.

Ferodia the chief, Ferodia the strong,
The lion and leopard in war,
Tifum Byah, Maro, and Wafanyah,
Great chiefs of the unconquer'd Watuta,
In the horrible, fearful battle,
_Chorus_. In the horrible, fearful battle.

They heard the loud note, the war-horn's note,
Olimali, their friend, was distress'd;
They rose from the bush, they rose from the ground,
They rush'd to Kwikuru, and hemm'd them round,
For a horrible, fearful battle.
_Chorus_. For a horrible, fearful battle.

The Arabs and blacks who came from afar.
Who came from near the sea,
To give the Warori and Watuta, King Olimali and Ferodia,
A horrible, fearful battle.
_Chorus_. A horrible, fearful battle.

Warori were brave, the Watuta were strong,
'Gainst those who came from afar.
The Arabs lie dead by hundreds around;
They will hear never more the war-horn's sound,
For a horrible, fearful battle.
_Chorus_. For a horrible, fearful battle.

Then, drink, warriors! drink the true magic drink!
The strength of your enemies slain!
Drink of the blood, of the fat, and the heart,
Drink to commemorate before we part,
The horrible, fearful battle.