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Volume 5 9 |
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A–Z |  |
ON THE TRAIL OF AN IMAGINARY FOE
| A most military spectacle, truly. This war-dance, for such it is in reality, is popular among the natives of the Solomon Islands, and to the unaccustomed eye has a distinctly menacing appearance, increased by the accompaniment of banging shields and punctuated by deep growls. The tactics employed in real warfare are those which cunning and treachery suggest, and it is very seldom that a fair open fight occurs |
AT BAY! CRITICAL MOMENT IN THE DANCE
| Each individual stands on guard, with shield up and spear held back at arm's length, his attitude imposing in the extreme. Considerable care must be exercised in using these formidable weapons in mock fights, for sharp fishbones are bound to the spearheads, and they are often poisoned by inserting them into a decomposed body, tetanus invariably resulting from a wound inflicted by them |