c sounded and the men danced
the greater part of the day; and toward evening carried them away
in procession through all the campongs except three or four just
about me. The women, in these processions, crowd round the heads as
they proceed from house to house, and put sirih and betel-nut in
the mouths of the ghastly dead, and welcome them! After this they
are carried back in the same triumph, deposited in an airy place,
and left to dry. During this process, for seven, eight, or ten days,
they are watched by the boys of the age of six to ten years; and
during this time they never stir from the public hall--they are not
permitted to put their foot out of it while engaged in this sacred
trust. Thus are the youths initiated.

"For a long time after the heads are hung up, the men nightly meet
and beat their gongs, and chant addresses to them, which were rendered
thus to me: 'Your head is in our dwelling, but your spirit wanders to
your own country.' 'Your head and your spirit are now ours: persuade,
therefore, your countrymen to be slain by us.' 'Speak to the spirits of
your tribe: let them wander in the fields, that when we come again to
their country we may get more heads, and that we may bring the heads
of your brethren, and hang them by your head,' &c. The tone of this
chant is loud and monotonous, and I am not able to say how long it is
sung; but certainly for a month after the arrival of the heads, as one
party here had had a head for that time, and were still exhorting it.

"These are their customs and modes of warfare; and I may conclude by
saying that, though their trophies are more disgusting, yet their
wars are neither so bloody, nor their cruelties so great, as those
of the North American Indian. They slay all they meet with of their
enemies--men, women, and children; but this is common to all wild
tribes. They have an implacable spirit of revenge as long as the war
lasts, retort evil for evil, and retaliate life for life; and, as I
have before said, the heads are the trophies, as the scalps are to the
red men. But, on the contrary, they never torture their enemies, nor do
they devour them; and peace can always be restored among them by a very
moderate payment. In short, there is nothing new in their feelings,
or in their mode of showing them; no trait remarkable for cruelty; no
head-hunting for the sake of head-hunting. They act precisely on the
same impulses as other wild men: war arises from passion or inter