was a big time at Unity when you
returned."

"I think," said Harry, "that was the queerest performance I ever heard
of. What a foolish thing to cut a flower from the top of a tree, and go
through all that ceremony, using Old Fantastic with his flourishing
spear to conduct the ridiculous rites."

"Do you think it is any more foolish than many things which civilized
people do?" asked John.

Harry mused a while, and then continued: "Probably not, when I think of
it, but with us the ceremonies really mean something; at least, it seems
to me that they are intended to."

"Yes, and that is generally so with the native rites. Sometimes the
origin is rather obscure, but everything of this character comes from
something in the past, of which it is symbolic. Spencer, in his work on
'Evolutions of Ceremonial Forms of Government,' recites a curious
instance of this, where he shows that the habit of stroking the mustache
is a survival of scalping."

The boys laughed. "That must be pretty well far-fetched," responded
George.

"Do you think so?" answered John. "He reasons it in this way. It was,
formerly the custom, among most savage tribes, to take the hair of
victims, to be used as personal adornment, or to indicate the valor of
the warrior. Among some tribes in the Philippines and also in the
interior of Africa, the custom is to take the head of an enemy."

"Do you mean the Head hunters?"

"Yes; you have probably heard a great deal about them since we acquired
the Philippines. When men began to get a little higher in the scale of
civilization, the victor required some token of submission from the
conquered, so the latter plucked a wisp of hair from his head and
presented it to indicate defeat. During the seventeenth century it was
the rule of the Spanish Court that all inferiors, in addressing
superiors, must stroke the mustache, and this came from the old idea of
the hair token."

"Do you suppose that the taking of the flower has any particular
significance?"

"Most assuredly! There must be a flower before there can be fruit. This
is the beginning of the season or the beginning of the year, to these
people, and the largest-flower, at the top of the greatest tree is the
one taken while it is at full bloom, and incinerated."

[Illustration: _Fig. 7. The Mistletoe._]

"Is that what they did in that bowl-shaped vessel?"

"Yes, and I imagine they will use the ashes in some part of their
rites."

"Did you ever know of