Eating human flesh is now illegal in Vanuatu but whoever wants to become a chief has to prove that he can kill. The victims are pigs nowadays. During the ceremony of a nomination of a new chief they wait turn quietly (or sometimes not so quietly), tied to a palm tree on a plaza in front of a nakamal. A band playing on slit drums sits next to the entry to the nakamal. A throng of dancers circles the victim. The candidate for a chief is easily recognisable, he is the one who wields an axe. At the correct moment the axe splits the pigs scull, the pig falls in convulsions, blood running down its snout. The dancers in the meantime circle another victim. (This is no literary fiction, I witnessed a ceremony like this on Pentecost island).
