EVENTS FOLLOWING THE BATTLE
CELEBRATION OF THE VICTORY
After the fight is over the warrior chiefs perform a ceremony of which I have been able to learn but few details. They are said to become possessed by their tutelary war spirits. They dance and jump around the lifeless body of their chief enemy.12 After performing their dance they open the breast of the enemy and remove the heart and liver, and place their charm collars13 in the opening. When the heart and liver have been cooked, they consume them. But as several war chiefs have assured me, it is not they that partake of the flesh, but their protecting deities. Be that as it may, lemon14 whenever obtainable, is mixed with the gory viands. Some warriors informed me that their deities preferred the heart and liver raw.
12Their tongues are said to loll out of their mouths "one palm-length." This may seem somewhat exaggerated but I can throw no further light on the matter.
13Ta-li-hán.
14Sú-ái. It is interesting to note the frequency of the use of lemons or limes in religious proceedings.
It is perfectly legitimate to despoil the enemy's house and to bear away such few valuables as may be found. The house, or houses, are then burnt, and the victors, leaving the slain where they fell, hasten back with their captives to cheer the fond ones at home.15
15I have heard it said that the bodies of the slain are doubled up and put into holes in the ground in an upright position. As far as I know this is an exceptional proceeding.
It is said that, as a rule, the aggressors are victorious, for rarely do they attack an enemy that is too strongly entrenched. They prefer to wait, even for years, till an occasion favorable in time, place, and circumstances, presents itself. It is only under special provocation, such as continual attacks by their enemy, that they attack him while he is in a strong position and then more with a view to destroying his crops than with the hope of securing a victim.