456 A NATUEALIST ON THE " CHALLENGER 



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species. Amongst the plants was a new Tree-fern; and one 

 Orchid formed a new section of the genus Dendrobium. 



All my spare time was devoted to studying the habits and 

 language of the natives. I several times visited Wild Island, 

 and roamed about with a native guide. The guides always 

 went armed. The natives were much frightened and astonished 

 at first at the sound of a gun. One of my guides, when I was 

 shooting birds, stopped his ears at first, and bent down trem- 

 bling every time that I fired. The natives were, however, not 

 much scared by our firing our ship s guns and rockets at night, 

 but came off next day to the ship to trade as if nothing had 

 happened. 



I obtained about 55 words and the numerals of the islands, 

 and have published the results elsewhere in a paper, a large part 

 of which is here reprinted, reference to which will be found at 

 the end of this chapter. The difficulty of obtaining correct 

 vocabularies from savages, of whose language the investigator 

 is entirely ignorant, is well known, and has been commented on 

 by many writers on anthropology and philology. I was well 

 aware of these difficulties, and I used great caution, and believe 

 that the words which I obtained are mostly correct. 



I met with the following special difficulties with the 

 Admiralty Islanders in obtaining words from them. The 

 natives seemed always ready enough to give the names of 

 particular birds which had been shot, as of two kinds of Pigeons 

 and a Parrot, or of a Cuscus, Hermit-crab, or any such object 

 which they considered was strange and novel to the inquirer, 

 and one for which, as they thought, he wished to learn a name ; 

 but immediately they were asked for the word for the nose, or 

 arm, or any such object common to the inquirer and themselves, 

 they seemed to grow puzzled and suspicious, and to wonder 

 why one could want to know the name of a thing for which one 

 must have a name already. Some men were suspicious from 

 the first, and refused sullenly to give any words at all, and 

 prevented others from giving any. Some would give one or 

 two only, and then refuse further information, whilst I came 

 across two who gave me at least ten words each, quickly one 

 after another, but then, like the rest, failed me. 



