It was difficult to imagine that these people were cannibals; but one day I was given a sudden revelation of their blood-lust. I had bought one of their tame pigs, and asked the headman of the village, a young warrior by the name of Momakowa, to kill it for me. He was normally a calm, peaceable fellow, not without a certain natural dignity; but when he set about killing the pig with his club, the joy of slaughter shone in his eyes and he battered the club again and again upon the head of the beast, although it had been killed by the first blow. He kept on till the blood spurted out; the children and women, who had gathered round him, screamed with delight. That incident enabled me to appreciate the reports of the reconnaissance patrols, and to believe what Jack had told me of the barbarous habits of the Kukukukus.