The Antiques Roadshow On Blocks

A random selection of exhibits on display at the Lightner Museum in Saint Augustine: a shrunken head; a malachite vase from Russia; a snowy owl (stuffed obviously); vintage shower attachments; an Egyptian mummy; a small collection of Venetian glassware; a bust of John Milton; an oil painting by the French artist Leon Comerre entitled The Maid at the Door; and a rocking chair in the neo-Classical style. Such a hodgepodge of curiosities, more closely resembling the contents of a superior junk shop than a mini-Met. But I liked it very much.
I had never seen a shrunken head before. It was about the size of a fist but the ears hadn't shrunk as much as the skull, making it easy to imagine some clumsy headhunter kneeling over his grisly task, thinking: "Damn. I've buggered up the ears again. Perhaps if I hang it around the back of my belt no-one will notice."
Or maybe the head just came from one of those tribes that practised ear elongating body modification, and so the ears were actually to scale.