374 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER 



>' 



Snake on the top of the water, and made our way up the remark- 

 able canal-like channel, for the formation of which Mr. Wallace 

 found it difficult to account. The people of Wanumbai were 

 very much scared at the appearance of the pinnace, full of men 

 with guns, but we had taken some Malays from Dobbo with 

 us to act as pilots, and introduce us, and they jumped on shore 

 and addressed the people of Wanumbai (" Orang Wanumbai, 

 Ye men of Wanumbai/') and soon made matters right. They 

 told them that we had only come to shoot " dead birds " {Burong 

 mate), the trade term by which the Birds of Paradise are known. 



On the margin of the narrow sea channel, was a compound 

 house, an oblong building raised on numerous posts above the 

 ground. Inside it had a central passage, leading from the door 

 to the back wall, and on either side of this it was divided into 

 small pens by low T irregularly made partitions. Each of these 

 pens held a family, and the women huddled together to hide 

 themselves in the corners of them, just as did those in Wokau 

 Island. 



We purchased bows and arrows from the natives. The 

 arrows are very like New Guinea arrows in the various forms of 

 their points, but are all provided with a notch and feathers, the 

 latter being often bright parrots' feathers. Some have a blade- 

 like point of bamboo, and a man who was watching a native 

 plantation, to keep wild animals off from it, told me he used 

 these for shooting pigs. Some are tipped with Cassowary bone, 

 some are many-pronged, and these are used for shooting birds, 

 and are not exclusively fish arrows, as is often supposed. 



Besides these, there are the arrows with a large blunt knob 

 at the end, used for stunning the large Birds of Paradise, with- 

 out spoiling their skins, as described by Wallace. Pointed 

 arrows are however used more frequently for this purpose, as 

 Mr. Wallace relates, because the birds are so strong as to escape 

 being stunned, and the points are more certain weapons. It is 

 curious that closely similar knobbed arrows are used in South 

 America by certain tribes, to kill Trogons and other fine 

 pluniaged birds. One man brought for sale a large Bird of 

 Paradise, dried in the usual manner for sale, but he wanted the 

 lull price for it asked by the Chinese dealers at Dobbo. 



