The victim's hands are behind her back. Her blouse has been partially unbuttoned and yanked down, to reveal her round, firm breasts, and her skirt is lifted in front by the captor on her left to show that the captive wears no panties and is of transsexual status, having a semi-erect penis, in lieu of a vagina.
The African-American women, who are clearly intended to represent tribal natives, wear little else besides their hair bands: additional bands around their necks, a bracelet around their biceps, stockings, and sandals. They have large, firm, round breasts, and the penis of the captor at the captive's left bears an erect penis, which reveals her transsexual status. The genitals of the native on the Caucasian woman's right are obscured by the captive's right hip and thigh, but this native is also presumably a shemale, as is, in fact, the captive woman herself. The native to the captive's right seems to be holding the white woman's hands behind the captive's back, and the native on the other side of the victim holds a sharpened hatchet in her raised left hand.
In the foreground, a great cauldron with handles on either side of its belly rests atop a number of flaming logs that have been laid in a circle; steam rises from the bubbling liquid within the pot, and a femur (perhaps used as a stirrer) protrudes from the vessel. To the right of the cauldron, a bowl stands, atop a column, holding a collection of severed penises--seven or eight in number--which suggests that the native women have enjoyed similar repasts to the one which they are about to prepare.
Interestingly, Wilder has reversed the natural gradations of shading, so that the circle of radiance nearest the fire below the cauldron is darkest, with successive concentric bands of light becoming less dark as their distance from the pot increases. This reversal of the natural effects of lighting surprises the viewer and causes him or her to examine the drawing's details longer and more closely than he or she might otherwise and has the added benefit of emphasizing the masculine members of the characters, one black, the other white, one erect, the other semi-erect, whose genitals are displayed.
