[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

PORT OLRY AND A “SING-SING” I I 5

and only a few days after my departure war broke
out. The gamal is bare, except for a few wooden
dishes hanging in the roof, and weapons of all kinds,
not in full sight, but ready at any moment. We can
see rifles, arrows and clubs. The clubs are very
simple, either straight or curved sticks. Old pieces
are highly valued, and carry marks indicating how
many victims have been killed with them : I saw one
club with sixty—seven of these marks. In former
years the spear with about two hundred and fifty
points of human bones was much used, but is now
quite replaced by the rifle. The bones for spear-
points and arrow-heads are taken from the bodies of
dead relatives and high-castes. The corpse is buried
in the house, and when it is decayed the bones of
the limbs are dug out, split, polished and used for
weapons. The idea is that the courage and skill of
the dead man may be transmitted to the owner of the
weapon, also, that the dead man may take revenge
on his murderer, as every death is considered to
have been caused by some enemy. These bones are
naturally full of the poisons of the corpse, and may
cause tetanus at the slightest scratch. On the arrows
they are extremely sharp and only slightly attached
to the wood, so that they stick in the flesh and
increase the inflammation. Besides, they are often
clipped in some special poison.

All over the archipelago the arrows are very
carefully made, and almost every island has its own
type, although they all resemble each other. Many
are covered at the point with a fine spiral binding,