How tobacco was introduced into Formosa, where now it grows practically wild--the leaves being gathered by the women--is a mystery. Probably, however, it was first brought to the island by the Dutch; and, once having been planted in a soil favouring its growth, it continued to flourish and to spread, in spite of what in Europe and in America would be called lack of cultivation. Now smoking is universal among all the tribes of the main island of Formosa. Among the Yami alone--of Botel Tobago--it is, up to the present time, unknown; as is also, apparently, the drinking of any intoxicating liquor. Another thing that differentiates these gentle people from their neighbours of the main island, just to the north of them, is the fact that none of them are head-hunters. [Illustration: TAIYAL TRIBESPEOPLE.] [Illustration: SKULL-SHELF IN A TAIYAL VILLAGE.] To return for a moment to the present chief head-hunting tribe, the Taiyal. At the time of feasting and dancing in celebration of a victory, the head of the victim is placed on the “skull-shelf” of the village--being often the last addition to a pile of others--and food and millet-wine are placed in front of it, food being sometimes inserted into its mouth. The chief (often a woman), or high-priestess, of the village offers to the last-decapitated head an invitation to the following effect: “O warrior, you are welcome to our village and to our feast! Eat and drink, and ask your brothers to come and join you, and to eat and drink with us also.” This invocation is supposed to have a magical effect in bringing about other victories, and thus adding more heads to the skull-shelf (see illustration). The knives with which the heads of enemies have been cut off are held in great reverence by all the tribes. Among one tribe--the Paiwan--it is believed that the spirits of ancestors dwell in certain knives, which have been in the possession of the tribe for several generations.