No ceremony or taboo appears to be adopted in anticipation of proposed hostilities for the purpose of securing success; but individual fighters often wear charms, upon whose efficacy they rely.  Nor do there appear to be any omens in connection with them other than certain general ones to be referred to hereafter.  The preparations for a fight and its conduct can hardly be regarded as subjects of much organisation, as the chiefs are not war chiefs, and there are no recognised permanent leaders or commanders of the forces, and no recognised war councils or systematic organisation, either of the fighting party or of the conduct of the fight.  All adult males of the community engaged are expected to take part, and the leadership will generally fall upon someone who at the moment is regarded as a strong and wise fighter.

The men start off on their expedition as an armed, but unorganised, body, their arms being spears, bows and arrows, [83] clubs, adzes and shields, and none of their weapons being poisoned.  During their progress to the enemy’s community they are generally singing, and their song relates to the grievance the avenging of which is the object of the expedition.  The warriors do not, I was told, as a rule carry a full supply of provisions, as they rely largely upon what they can find in the bush, and what they hope to raid from their enemy’s plantations.  On reaching the scene of battle they adopt methods of spying and scouting and sentry duty, though only on simple and unscientific lines.  They have apparently no generally recognised systems of signs of truce or truce envoys or hostages.  There are certain recognised cries, which respectively signify the killing of a man and the taking of a prisoner, by which, when such an event occurs, the fighters on both sides are aware of it.  An enemy wounded on the battlefield may be killed at once or may be taken prisoner.  All prisoners, wounded or otherwise, are taken home by the party that secures them, and are then killed, apparently without any prior torture, and generally eaten.  A prisoner thus carried off would be regarded as a man killed, which in fact he shortly will be.  The women of a community follow their fighting men in the expedition, their duty being to encourage the fighters on the way out, and during the fight, by their singing; but they remain in the rear during the battle, and do not actually fight.  These women, of course, also run the risk of being killed or wounded or taken prisoners.

Fighting between two communities may go on intermittently for years.  Then perhaps the communities may get mutually weary of it, and decide to make peace.  This act is ratified by an exchange between the two communities of ceremonial visits, with feasts and pig-killing, but no dancing, the pigs and vegetables and fruit distributed by the hosts among the visitors on the return visit being exactly similar in character and quantity to what the latter have given the former on the prior visit.