The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-09-02

COuSs the real sdNdNc, uldkluB the OH
locker turn cold and sick at the dis
play of cruelty which is carried on
with a systematic aplomb which leaves
no room for mercy or relenting,
A dance serious, touched with dig
ni6ed gravity, takes place about the
dying man. Each native keeps time to
the dlrge. 1t is all very intense and
hating, as though the vengeance Of
the gods worked like their mills
slowly. The dancers move automat!-
cally, as if drunk with some opiate
The consciousness of what the poor,
spiked wretch must be enduring, set
in the ring Of naked, revolving bodies,
fills the onloOked with a horror that
can sea. cely refrain from shrieking
aloud But there is no redress, for the
mind of the savage has tribunals and
iuries, and forgotten primitive laws
deduced from premises to which We
have lost the key. We and our JUS
tees, our pities, are strangers TO them.
as they and their crueltjes are TO us.
The chant Of vindctive hate drones
ph Api an SlSlhlNgt IL NOulu S6tul anu,
as before, changes with startling
abruptness. Lapsing into fanatical
abandon, with screams and cries and
a beating of tom-toms, the Igorrotes
execute a dance which degenerates in
10 an orgy, and, with glistening, fame
swept bodies, with flying elflocks and
heather amulets on wrists and ankles,
they seem nothing more than liberated
denizens Of the neither world-demons
of evil and fire.
beings, and no one could look into
these distorted faces, with the foam
fecked lips, and expect mercy. when
they are exhausted, the chief, whose
part has been more or less passive,
selects one of the strongest natives and
hands him a shield. The final execu-
tor embraces the chief, puts his arms
on the leaders shoulders, and, bowling
to his comrades, strides over TO the
prisoner He tips up the dropping
head and slips the neck into the open
ing fitted for such an object. There
is a solemn pause, and then one of
The youths advances with an axe aud
the victim is swiftly decapitated. The
feast is now served and consists in
the case of the Bontoc Igorrote, OF
stewed dog meat and a species of veui-
son, the deer being not much bigger
than a shepherd dog, while the lion
gotes deyour such delicacies as bugs,
worms and slugs.
The head of the murdered man is
sometimes dried anC kept as a mascot;
sometimes it adorns the pole of the
chiefs hut or becomes an incense
bowl; it all depends upon the import
ance of the one captured.
To DR.. G. A Dorsey of the Field Co.
lumbar Museum, came tidings the
other day Of the murder of a colleague
one DR.. William Jones, by the spear
and axe of the head hunters He was
taking extensive notes on the tribal
differences and had Just written a long
letter to his friend. Scientic research
had led him afar afield and the forfeit
was life in an alien land and at the
hands Of savages whom, in some man
ner, he had offended.
When a white man falls by the fury
of the head hunter the head is never
seen again; its fate is unknown. The
Bontoc Igorrote does not kill for the
lust of killing; some deadly feud must
be wiped out by life-taking and his
revenge never takes the form of mas
sacre and carnage. Nnlille the Moro
chief Of the Southern island, unlike our
own Indians, he does not seek and
collect either skull or scalp as a
trophy with which TO show his PROV
ess. He wants justice in his dim ele-
mental perception of that attribute,
and, If left unmolested, If his domain
is recognized as a territory to which
no one may enter without his permits
sion, will harm no man white or
brown. Once anger him and there is
little hope of succor unless surrounded
by the strong arm of Uncle Sam.
On several occasions when privates
have fallen on some lonely trail; when
our soldier boys have stumbled over
the headless thing lying in the path, a
thing uniformed in the familiar khaki,
the little brown savage has fed in ter
ror to his mountain fastness, fed be-
fore the wrath OF white furies sweep
ing on through jungle growths and up
steep ravines where unexpected alti-
tudes make blood hum in the ears and
wet the lips of undaunted white men,
When such hostilities occur there is
no beat of the tom-tom; the forests
primeyal are unlighted by inspiring
Hpac and tho cavaua lflFa tho ratrpnt,