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Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1924, Page 1

JUNGLE horrors. WILD ORGIES OF HEAD HUNTERS LONDON, January 17. The vast forest regions lying on either siJ: of the Amazon arc probably the least-known and the most- dangerous portions of the world. All this is brought out forcibly in Air Charles A\ . Domville-Fife’s remarkable book “Among Wild Tribes of the Amazons.” The tribes are full of strange and barbarous customs. Most of them regard the heads of slain enemies as great trophies. Mr Domville-Fife managed to discover in one tribe the place "where the heads were prepared. Here, at last, was the secret deathhouse of the Iluambisa. The floor was hard with congealed blood drained from human bodies for unknown years. At frequent intervals this fierce tribe attacks neighbouring villages, capturing the women and girls, and killing the men. The bodies of those slain are then decapitated and the heads brought- hack in triumph. These ghastly trophies are stuck on lances, and the tribe assembles round them for a wild night orgy. Drinking, feasting, and unnameable debauchery continue until dawn when the heads are removed by the witch-doctors to the death-house. One of the most mysterious stories told by Air Domville-Fife is about, the poison called vage which gives to I people who take it the pow or of describing events “of which they can never have either seen or heard in full consciousness. European cities, music, and current events have been pictured in detail unprovided for by the meagre vocabulary of the native dialect, anil only possible of communication with the aid of rough drawings.” Altogether this is an absorbing and exciting hook of adventure and observation.