Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/274

224 We received a visit from several of the natives who swam to the vessel. They were at great pains to assure us that they were not in the number of those who had committed acts of hostility against us, and they told us they had eaten two of those robbers, or kaya, one of whom had received a ball in the thigh and another in the belly in the engagement with us, but we did not give entire credit to this story, supposing they had fabricated it to screen themselves from suspicion.

They brought with them an instrument which they called nbouet, a name which they likewise gave to their tombs; it was formed of a fine piece of flat serpentine stone, with sharp edges, and nearly of an oval form, perfectly well polished, and of the length of nearly seven inches. It was perforated with two holes, through each of which passed two very flexible rods, whereby it was fixed to a wooden handle, to which they were fastened with bands made of bat's-skin. This instrument was supported by a pedestal made of a cocoa-nut shell, which was likewise tied with strings of the same kind, some of which were longer (See Plate XXXVIII, Fig. 19). We could not till then discover the use of this instrument; these savages told us that it was to cut up the limbs of their enemies, which they divided amongst them after a battle. One of them shewed us the man-