Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs= AMONG THE HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA [Illustration: MAN AND WOMAN OF YAMI TRIBE IN REGALIA WORN AT THE SPRING FESTIVAL IN HONOUR OF THE SEA-GOD. (_See page 149._)] AMONG THE HEAD-HUNTERS OF FORMOSA _By_ JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN, B.L. _Diplomée in Anthropology, University of Oxford_ WITH A PREFACE BY R. R. MARETT, M.A., D.Sc. READER IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD ILLUSTRATED T. FISHER UNWIN LTD LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE _First published in 1922_ (_All rights reserved_) TO W. M. M. MY SON AND THE COMPANION OF MY WANDERINGS “No human thought is so primitive as to have lost bearing on our own thought, or so ancient as to have broken connection with our own life.” E. B. TYLOR, _Primitive Culture_. PREFACE To treat her as a goddess has always been accounted a sure way of winning a lady’s favour. To the cynic, therefore, it might seem that Mrs. McGovern was bound to speak well of her head-hunting friends of the Formosan hills, seeing that they welcomed her with a respect that bordered on veneration. But of other head-hunters, hailing, say, from Borneo or from Assam, anthropologists have reported no less well, and that though the investigators were accorded no divine honours. The key to a just estimate of savage morality is knowledge of all the conditions. A custom that considered in itself is decidedly revolting may, on further acquaintance with the state of culture as a whole, turn out to be, if not praiseworthy, at least a drawback incidental to a normal phase of the ruder life of mankind. The “grizzled warrior,” we are told, who made oblation to our authoress, bore on his chin the honourable mark of the man-slayer. To her Chinese coolie that formidable badge would have been enough to proclaim the wearer _seban_--the kind of wicked animal that defends itself when attacked. Thus, if it merely served to warn an invading alien to keep his distance, this crude advertisement of a head-hunting habit would be justified, from the standpoint of the survival of the hard-pressed aborigines. Even had a threat of cannibalism been thrown in, its protective value could hardly be denied; for, much as men object to be killed, they commonly deem it worse to be killed and eaten. Though reputed to be man-eaters, however, the savages of Formosa are not so in fact. Indeed, the boot is on the other foot. I remember Mr. Shinji Ishii telling us at a meeting of the Folk-lore Society that, despite their claim to a higher form of civilization, the Chinese of the adjoining districts will occasionally partake of a head-hunter, chopped up small and disguised in soup: the principle implied in the precaution being, I dare say, sound enough, namely, that of inoculation, though doubtless the application is unfortunate.