at night, and for several days previous the women had
been busy bringing in fire-wood and cleaning rice.
On the day on which this gathering was held the culinary
operations were on an extended scale, and, at the
appointed meal time, great heaps of rice, vegetables, fish,
and fruit, were piled on fresh banana leaves right down
the centre of the house. A dignified green-coated old
hadji graced the repast with his presence, and he was
pleased to kill the fowl for my own dinner, according
to native rite, and evidently liked being noticed as a
traveller, for his dark eyes sparkled with pleasure when
I asked him of his voyage to Mecca. He complained
very much of the insults, losses, and hardships, to which
pilgrims were exposed, but his appetite was evidently
as good as ever, since the clearance of rice and fish he
made around him at dinner was something startling
to see.
These people had hut few domesticated animals. The
Muruts had plenty of dirty, half-starved black pigs running
about the jungle near their house, and a few goats.
They had also a peculiar race of small, brown dogs,
resembling terriers, which are very useful in pig hunting.
The Kadyans had cats wonderfully like our own,
hut with abnormal tails. Poultry are represented only
by cocks and hens. Some of the wild birds of the forests
are domesticated as pets, the most common being Java
and little red sparrows; a beautiful little green ground
pigeon; paroquets of two kinds, one very small like a
love-bird, the other having two long blue attenuated
feathers in its tail. Mino birds are not unfrequently
tamed, and they may be taught to speak words or
phrases quite readily. Some of the larger hombills,
the “ rhinoceros ” variety especially, are also tamed, and
are most amusing creatures. There was one in a house
where I stayed a week or two, and a more voracious bird
I never saw. At night it would perch itself on a stick
below the house and croak for hours together, but with
daylight in the morning it would enter the house to beg
for food, and the quantities it could consume during
the day were surprisingly large. Everything edible
seemed equally welcome — rice, fruit, vegetables, and
even the entire bodies of small birds which my hoy had
been skinning as specimens were gulped down with
apparent relish. Any trifles thrown towards it were
sure of being caught in its great bill, and then thrown
again in the air and caught previous to their being
swallowed.
The Kadyans have an ingenious way of capturing the
little green or puni pigeons (Chalcophaps indica) with a
bamboo call, by which their soft cooing notes are exactly
imitated. These birds are gregarious, and just before
breeding-time they arrive in large quantities.
“ The call is formed of two pieces of bamboo, a
slender tube, a short piece 3"—4" in diameter, and a
connecting piece of wood. In the short piece is a hole
similar to the embouchure of a flute ; and the lower end
of the blow-tube is fitted to this in such a manner that, on
blowing, a soft, low, flute-like ‘ cooing’ is easily producible;
and this can he readily modulated so as to be heard either
at a long distance or near at hand. This instrument is
figured in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, Part II., p. 346. The
native, who has taken up his position in the forest or
jungle where these little birds are found, blows very
softly at first; but if there be no answering call from
the birds he blows louder and louder, thus increasing the
radius of sound. I f there really be any pigeons of this
kind within hearing, they are sure to answer; and then the
hunter blows softer and softer until they are enticed into