The Italones
of the Philippine Islands drink the blood of their slain enemies,
and eat part of the back of their heads and of their entrails raw to
acquire their courage. For the same reason the Efugaos, another
tribe of the Philippines, suck the brains of their foes. In like
manner the Kai of German New Guinea eat the brains of the enemies
they kill in order to acquire their strength. Among the Kimbunda of
Western Africa, when a new king succeeds to the throne, a brave
prisoner of war is killed in order that the king and nobles may eat
his flesh, and so acquire his strength and courage. The notorious
Zulu chief Matuana drank the gall of thirty chiefs, whose people he
had destroyed, in the belief that it would make him strong. It is a
Zulu fancy that by eating the centre of the forehead and the eyebrow
of an enemy they acquire the power of looking steadfastly at a foe.
Before every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes
used to take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble them in
boiling water to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was
then drunk by the warriors.
Pages:
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397