The boys laughed. "That must be pretty well far-fetched," responded George.
"Do you think so?" answered John. "He reasons it in this way. It was, formerly the custom, among most savage tribes, to take the hair of victims, to be used as personal adornment, or to indicate the valor of the warrior. Among some tribes in the Philippines and also in the interior of Africa, the custom is to take the head of an enemy."
"Do you mean the Head hunters?"
"Yes; you have probably heard a great deal about them since we acquired the Philippines. When men began to get a little higher in the scale of civilization, the victor required some token of submission from the conquered, so the latter plucked a wisp of hair from his head and presented it to indicate defeat. During the seventeenth century it was the rule of the[p. 90] Spanish Court that all inferiors, in addressing superiors, must stroke the mustache, and this came from the old idea of the hair token."
"Do you suppose that the taking of the flower has any particular significance?"
"Most assuredly! There must be a flower before there can be fruit. This is the beginning of the season or the beginning of the year, to these people, and the largest-flower, at the top of the greatest tree is the one taken while it is at full bloom, and incinerated."
"Is that what they did in that bowl-shaped vessel?"
"Yes, and I imagine they will use the ashes in some part of their rites."