bent their sightless eyeballs and grinning mouths over
the dancing crew below, as if they were laughing in ghastly mockery at
the utter inability of their enemies to hurt them now. These, we
discovered afterwards, were the men who had been slain in the battle of
the previous day, and were now on their way to be first presented to the
gods and then eaten. Behind these came two men leading between them a
third, whose hands were pinioned behind his back. He walked with a firm
step, and wore a look of utter indifference on his face as they led him
along, so that we concluded he must be a criminal who was about to
receive some slight punishment for his faults. The rear of the
procession was brought up by a shouting crowd of women and children,
with whom we mingled and followed to the temple.

Here we arrived in a few minutes. The temple was a tall, circular
building, open at one side. Around it were strewn heaps of human bones
and skulls. At a table inside sat the priest, an elderly man with a
long grey beard. He was seated on a stool, and before him lay several
knives, made of wood, bone, and splinters of bamboo, with which he
performed his office of dissecting dead bodies. Farther in lay a
variety of articles that had been dedicated to the god, and among them
were many spears and clubs. I observed among the latter some with human
teeth sticking in them, where the victims had been clubbed in their
mouths.

Before this temple the bodies, which were painted with vermilion and
soot, were arranged in a sitting posture; and a man called a "dan-vosa"
(orator) advanced, and laying his hands on their heads, began to chide
them, apparently, in a low, bantering tone. What he said we knew not,
but as he went on he waxed warm, and at last shouted to them at the top
of his lungs, and finally finished by kicking the bodies over and
running away, amid the shouts and laughter of the people, who now rushed
forward. Seizing the bodies by a leg or an arm, or by the hair of the
head, they dragged them over stumps and stones and through sloughs until
they were exhausted. The bodies were then brought back to the temple
and dissected by the priest, after which they were taken out to be
baked.

Close to the temple a large fire was kindled, in which stones were
heated red hot. When ready these were spread out on the ground, and a
thick coating of leaves strewn over them to slack the heat. On this
"lovo," or oven, the bodies were t