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standing stones at Longkhai on which is a carved wooden skull |
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The hill between the Ang house and Ang morung where euphorbias grow and the stones for captured heads are erected has been cleared of weeds and grass. Right across two branches of the euphorbia a short board has been placed and on it is the skull with palm leaf fringes. (47) At first I thought it was a real human skull and noticed only later that it was carved of wood and that the small piece of skull I had given to Longkhai was tied to the top. The vertical stones fall into two groups, one for the people of the Ang clan, the other for the capture of a head by a Ben man. A new stone has been put up yesterday behind the first group in the name of one of the Ang brothers and another young man of the Ang clan. The ceremony is the same as in Shiong and the two who set up the stone carry it themselves from the jungle into the village. A tiny fraction of the skull was placed underneath the stone where originally the victims ears and tongue would have been buried. (Notebook 8 p. 171 ff.) Today is an ordinary working day as the genna for the Pangsha head finished yesterday while the U-ya-bu starts only tomorrow. |
