Adventures in Southern Seas A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

assed the night, to be looked at by the tribe, who had now collected in great numbers, and who encircled me with a ring of hazel eye

engraving tools and a sailor's sewing kit, given me by Anna, were taken from me, but to my great good fortune they did not rob me of my dagger-knife, or my flint and steel which lay concealed in the inner pocket of my leathern belt, nor

ly learned that these trophies were not, as I had at first supposed, the result of a massacre, but were the dri

their daily occupations, one of which consisted in the capture of wild-fowl from a lagoon close to the camp by the ingenious method of floating upon their quarry submerged up to the

rtly afterward a number of youths were led in procession through the camp. These young men presented a strong and muscular appearance. Their naked bodies bore evi

a piece of quartz formed a deep incision in the nape or the neck of each youth, cutting broad

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ed with clay in order to form the hands of gristle which they regard as an ornament upon their flesh. During this performance the lads showed no sign of pain,

ing noise. These natives were painted from shoulder to hip, with five or six stripes rising from the breast, their faces streaked with white perpendicular lines, making it appear as the dancing of dead men's bones. For some time the dancers continued to stamp to and fro, and then, assembling at a fire that burned close by, they simultaneously sat down. Other dancers then took their places, dressed in fur cloaks, and wearing white and yellow feathers in their hair, their black visages rendered hideous by fish-bones stuck through the cartilage of the nose above

also, together with snakes and lizards, were stewed in clay vessels, while the savages gathered round in gloating anticipation of this repulsive food. When all was prepared one of the women gave a peculiar cry, when there came from among the trees the young men who had that morning un

. Next morning I became ill, with violent pains and headache, which incapacitated me for some days, during whic

o her my desire to escape to the sea coast At first she would only shake her head, but I became so insistent that at length she consented to help me. A tribal ceremony was very shortly to be celebrated, so Moira informed me, when the n

id of these savages. I counted the days, dreading lest some change in the manner of my captivity might prevent the carry

propitiate the evil spirits whom alone they worship. Beyond the glow, darkness co

reckless of consequences, we fled