52 I N A G U A 



other islands of the Bahama Archipelago except its large size 

 and peculiar shape. On the opposite side of the island was a 

 settlement called A4athewtown. I asked the boys how distant 

 was the settlement. They replied that it was "far, far, far." The 

 repetition puzzled me somewhat but I found later that to re- 

 peat a word a number of times was a favorite Inaguan method 

 of emphasizing distance or quantity. The Lagoon Christophe 

 was only far, the farm far, far, and Mathewtown was far, far, 

 far. 



I also discovered that there were some sailboats at the farm 

 and that the boys would be glad to lead me there. We headed 

 directly into the scrub, crossed a shallow lagoon and wound 

 into an almost invisible trail. It was a miserable thing at best, 

 beset with thorny cacti and was apparently used only by ani- 

 mals, for at shoulder height the branches locked together in 

 thorny embrace. This made it necessary to progress stoop- 

 shouldered, a most uncomfortable posture after a few minutes. 



Occasionally the path dipped into muddy lowland or through 

 large patches of swamp mangrove. At times it vanished or be- 

 came so vague as to be scarcely discernible. The noise of our 

 approach flushed large flocks of birds, hordes of tiny ground 

 doves that fluttered ahead for a few yards, settled and flushed 

 again. Wild pigeons burst away amid a sudden whirring of 

 whistHng wings and once there was a great disturbance as a 

 hundred small parrots took wing at once screeching in anger. 



Frequently we came upon small lakes or ponds with white 

 egrets and herons standing like figures from a Japanese print 

 along the borders. These were very tame and allowed us to 

 approach within a few feet before flapping away on gracefully 

 beating wings. The place was an ornithologist's paradise. Droves 

 of small sandpipers lined the edges of the ponds; myriads of 

 warblers slipped daintly among the branches, trilling and call- 

 ing in the lighthearted way of warblers— among these I recog- 



