"Headhunting was like a football match, they took the heads for trophies," explains Twymy one of the Descendants of Tetepare, the largest uninhabited island in the Pacific, now operating as an small eco-resort. It's an incredible place with dugongs, sharks, crocodiles, sea eagles, monitor lizards, turtles, virgin rainforest and much more. Better than a trip to Millwall, anyway.
No-one knows why the residents of Tetepare, a large 35-kilometre-long island, scarpered 150 years ago, but Twymy says headhunting, dysentry and gossiping women annoying the spirits have all been put forward as possible reasons.
His football analogy is interesting - headhunters were perhaps similar to the ICF and their calling cards. It's sobering to think that had West Ham finished bottom of the SI league 150 years ago our lads' heads might have been on display in the Pacific equivalents of Wigan and Wolverhampton.
We've visited Skull Island today in the Western Province, where groups of skulls of ancestors and headhunting victims are displayed in trophy shelves on a mound of volcanic rock. Only one shelf was empty of skulls - presumably belonging to the headhunters' equivalent of West Ham...
2 comments:
If there's one team sure to lose their heads in a crisis it is us...
I'm sure we'll sign Kevin Davies soon who has knocked a few heads off with his elbows...
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