For his place of residence poor “French Jack” had chosen one of the brightest spots on the island and built his hut in the most approved style, with an uninterrupted view of the sea. Close by his hut was a long shed where his servants, or “boys” as they are called, slept after their work of drying the copra, husking ivory, and attending to the other light duties of a trader’s establishment. At the back of his house was his yam patch and banana grove; behind that the wild thick scrub and the bush. A lonely spot for any one to live, but such are many of the settling places of a trader, and to those who live in the bush there is no feeling of loneliness: in the crowded streets of a big city these same men might be overpowered by their solitude. {94} CHAPTER IX Solomon Islands—Ingova’s head-hunters—How whole tribes were wiped out—Savage invasions and clever tactics. The Solomon Islands, not being of such importance as New Guinea, have had much less attention paid to them. No doubt the extreme danger which has always attached to a visit to these islands has made the white man give them as wide a berth as possible, only going there when compelled to either for trading or scientific purposes. It is here that cannibalism flourishes, and the head-hunters go forth on expeditions in all their savage grandeur to strike down the unsuspecting neighbour. If there is uncertainty about life in New Guinea, there is precious little in the Solomon Islands, for the chances are ten to one against one’s living to tell the tale, unless he keep strictly to the trading parts of the islands. [Illustration 30: PORTRAIT OF A SOLOMON ISLAND CANNIBAL This man was said to have “kaikaied-man plenty” (to have eaten plenty of men). He told me in island English that I was no good to eat. His teeth were stained red by chewing the betel-nut.] Travellers, scientists, and traders still visit the {95} interior, and some come out all right, but to every one that survives a dozen succumb, simply because cannibalism is to a certain extent a religious ceremony to these natives. They do not kill and eat human beings for the sake of their taste, or because they are hungry, as some writers will insist on having us believe. The cause is farther back than this; in nearly every case when human beings are killed and eaten, it is on occasions when such a sacrifice is necessary, according to the natives’ religious beliefs.