my asking them about birds and animals I have not yet
seen, and showing an acquaintance with their forms,
colours, and habits. These facts are brought against me
when I disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to tell
them. “You must know,” say they; “ you know everything:
you make the fine weather for your men to shoot;
and you know all about our birds and our animals as well
as we do; and you go alone into the forest'and are not
afraid.” Therefore every confession of ignorance on my
part is thought to be a blind, a mere excuse to avoid telling
them too much. My very writing materials and books
are to them weird things; and were I to choose to mystify
them by a few simple experiments with lens and magnet,
miracles without end would in a few years cluster about
•me; and future travellers, penetrating to Wanumbai, would
hardly believe that a poor English naturalist, who had resided
a few months among them, could have been the
original of the supernatural being to whom so many
marvels were attributed.
For some days I had noticed a good deal of excitement,
and many strangers came and went armed with spears and
cutlasses, bows and shields. I now found there was war
near us—two neighbouring villages having a quarrel about
some matter of local politics that I could not understand.
They told me it was quite a common thing, and that they
are rarely without fighting somewhere near. Individual
quarrels are taken up by villages and tribes, and the nonpayment
of the stipulated price for a wife is one of the
.most frequexit causes of bitterness and bloodshed. One
of the war shields was brought me to look at. It was
made of rattans and covered with cotton twist, so as to be
both light, strong, and very tough. I should think it
would resist any ordinary bullet. About the middle there
was an arm-hole with a shutter or flap over it. This
enables the arm to be put through and the bow drawn,
while the body and face, up to the eyes, remain protected,
which cannot be done if the shield is carried on the arm
by loops attached at the back in the ordinary way. A
few of the young men from our house went to help their
friends, but I could not hear that any of them were hurt,
or that there was much hard fighting.
May 8th.—I had now been six weeks at Wanumbai,
but for more than half the time was laid up in the house
with ulcerated feet. My stores being nearly exhausted,
and my bird and insect boxes full, and having no immediate
prospect of getting the use of my legs again, I
determined ,on returning to Dobbo. Birds had lately
become rather scarce, and the Paradise birds had not yet
become as plentiful as the natives assured me they would-
be in another month. The Wanumbai people seemed
very sorry at my departure ; and well they might be, for
the shells and insects they picked up on the way to and