When the roasting is completed, the time required being dependent upon the number of stones in a pit and the age of the victim, the pits are opened and the bodies eaten. The choicest pieces go to the men who have done the killing and the rest are divided equally among the remaining inhabitants of the village. All partake of the feast, from the youngest infant able to masticate solid food to the oldest member of the tribe. The dogs come in for their share and as a rule are given the bones to squabble over, though occasionally some of these are kept to be made into ornaments.
Intelligence tells us that one bagoose laki laki (good man) will satisfy the hunger of ten persons, but adds with a smile that it is better to have enough babi panjang (long pig) so that one body need be divided among only five or six. All the flesh is consumed at one sitting and after the feast is over the place is usually cleaned up and the pits covered carefully with earth and brush to hide the evidence of guilt, for the feasters are sure that sooner or later they will be visited by members of other kampongs who are curious to learn whether or not they know anything of the disappearance of certain people of Kampong Sangase or Watambi, or whatever the name may be.
Under the influence of the wady, exhilarated by the wild dance, the men finally take part
They again threaten the men with total exclusion from all intercourse with their families
With the coming of dawn in the kampong the hunting-party visited, there is weeping and wailing when the absence of the visitors together with their victims is discovered. The men vow vengeance and make a warlike showing, and even venture a short distance into the jungle, where they gather and discuss the situation. They will remain there a while and upon returning to the kampong they will tell wild tales of how they chased their visitors many miles but could not overtake them.
The matter, by reason of their cowardice and utter inability to bring themselves to engage in open warfare, finally passes into the limbo of forgotten things, although in time some of their bravest may go on a round of a few kampongs to see if anything can be learned regarding the tribe responsible for the outrage. If they identify the guilty tribe, they may lie in ambush for some lone member hunting in the neighborhood of his own kampong and murder him. This is the most common course followed in reprisal. In fact, a large percentage of the cannibal feasts are thus inspired.
Absorbed in the chase of wild pig or other game, the hunter often enters the preserves of another tribe, and if he is discovered he more often than not disappears. It is for this reason that the men hunt only when driven to it by the women or when game is plentiful within reasonable distance of their own village.
We ask Intelligence the reason for waking the victim up before killing him rather than simply striking him while asleep. For a moment he ponders, for putting things so that we can understand him taxes his powers of narration. He finally makes us understand that the purpose is to obtain a name for the next male child born in the hunting-party’s kampong, for the first word spoken is bestowed on the infant. Intelligence himself was named in that manner, he tells us. His Kia Kia name is Geki. He promises to show us the skull of the unfortunate man who supplied it. Probably the “namee” falls heir to the skull of the man responsible for the christening, though this is only conjecture on our part.