326 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER 



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force their hair. Joe said that he had been and bathed there 

 when young. 



We passed numerous villages on the river side and landed at 

 some to buy clubs, spears, kaava bowls, and other implements, 

 and the river was lively with canoes laden with yams and cocoa- 

 nuts. In most places the people crowded to the banks to stare 

 at us, and the girls and boys shouted as we passed. On the 

 upper part of the river I heard a call used which reminded me 

 somewhat of a European mountaineer's jodel ; it sounded like 

 " He, Hah, ho, ho, ho." Our guides to the top of the mountain in 

 Matuku, used the same call when at the summit. Mountaineers 

 in all parts of the world seem to have some such cry. The echo 

 no doubt provokes it. 



One village, Navusa, some few miles above Naclawa, inte- 

 rested me, as having its fortifications still perfect. It occupies 

 an oblong rectangular area, two sides of which are protected by 

 a natural water defence. On the other two a deep ditch is dug 

 and the earth has been thrown up inwards to form a bank, on 

 the summit of which is set a strong palisade, which is extended 

 around the whole area. Three narrow openings, only wide 

 enough to admit one man at a time, give means of access. The 

 openings are guarded by a sort of stile, over which a slab with 

 notches for the foot leads up on one side, a similar one leading 

 down the other. 



The whole site of the village has been levelled and raised. 

 Nearly all the houses rest upon raised platforms of earth, a foot 

 or six inches in height ; the chief's house being especially 

 elevated. Around all the houses were immense heaps of the 

 shells of the fresh-water mussel (Unio), which is very common 

 in the river. The site of an old village on Mr. Storck's estate 

 was made up of beds of these mussel shells. We saw at Navusa 

 canoe-building going on. For an adze, a broad chisel was used, 

 fixed into what had been the handle of an old stone adze, just 

 as the Admiralty Islanders fix blades of iron tub hoop into the 

 old handles of their shell adzes. A chisel of hard wood was 

 used for caulking, shaped just like our own caulking irons. 



Near Nadawa, on the road to Nakello, is the village of Tonga- 

 drava, which has also been strongly fortified. It is of an oval 



