Taiwan, which is also called Formosa, is the largest of the Chinese islands. It is separated from the mainland by a stretch of water called the Formosa Strait. The oval-shaped island has an area of 35,834 square kilometers. The sixty-six small islands that lie scattered about Taiwan are not much more than rocks in the ocean. Their combined area is only about 127 square kilometers.

Far inland, in the mountains of Taiwan, live a tribe of aborigine people descended from the first inhabitants of the island before the Chinese came. These tribes, numbering about 200,000 refuse to any contact with modern civilization. They have a reputation for being fierce and some of them are thought to be cannibals. The aborigines often fight among themselves but their battles are more part of a religious attitude than a display a hatred for one another.

Before they go to battle these people free a bird which shows by the direction of its flight where the warriors must go. This ceremony shows there is no hatred for any particular enemy and the custom of fighting, regrettable as it may be, is pure ritual. It is through fighting that one group of aborigines asserts its right to live rather than another.

In this sense the ritual has a social significance as well as a religious one. Every member of the village takes part in the campaign against the enemy.