During the above conversation the forest had given place to a large collection of huts, disposed in a circle round a clear space. In the center rose an extraordinary tree. Joe cried out when he saw it: "Well, if that tree has produced such flowers as those for 4,000 years, I shall not pay it any compliment."
It was a gigantic sycamore, whose trunk was completely concealed by a heap of human bones. The "flowers" of which Joe spoke were human heads lately cut off, and suspended by daggers fixed in the bark.
"The 'war-tree' of the cannibals," said the doctor. "The Indians take the scalp, the Africans the entire head."
"A matter of taste," said Joe.
But the village of the bleeding heads was fast disappearing on the horizon; yet another farther on offered a not less horrible spectacle. Half-eaten human bodies, crumbling skeletons, human remains, were scattered about, and were left to be devoured by the hyenas and jackals.
"Those are doubtless the bodies of criminals, and, as is the practice in Abyssinia, they are exposed to the attacks of wild beasts, who devour them at their leisure, having first killed them with teeth and claws."
"It is not much more cruel than hanging," said the Scot, "it is more horrible, that's all."
"In the south of Africa," replied the doctor, they merely shut the offender up in his own hut with the wild beasts; perhaps his family is also included. The hut is then set on fire and the occupants are all roasted together. I do call that cruelty, but I agree with Kennedy that if hanging be less cruel it is equally barbarous."
Joe, with the excellent sight which served him so well now, cried that he could perceive some birds of prey appearing above the horizon.
"They are eagles," replied Kennedy, after having examined them with his telescope; "splendid birds!—their flight is as rapid as our own."
"Heaven preserve us from their attacks!" said the doctor; "they are more to be dreaded than the most ferocious beasts or the most savage tribes."
"Bah!" replied Dick, "we shall drive them off with our rifles."
"I should very much prefer not to be obliged to resort
