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IN TIMOR'LAUT, 829 



1 



discovered that the subject of their excited ^vrangling was 

 whether I should be permitted to leave at all My guide, after 

 whispering to mo not to be alarmed and adding a remark I did 



as 



not comprehend, went away, luckily leaving rhe door op<»n, 

 intending, as I imagined, to return soon ; but he either joined 

 some other drinking party and forgot to do so, or purposely 

 left me to my own resources. Pretending to bo quite pl<'ase(l 

 to prolong my visit, I presented my cup for more spirit, and 

 successive rounds were fdled my companions became in- 

 capable of observing that I did not drain my cup till I had 

 passed its contents througli the floor, and was imperceptibly 

 nearing the now open trap-door. I took the first o])portunity 

 of diving tlirough the orifice, and with a bold step shaped my 

 course for the stairway at tlie top of tlie rock, wliere I felt I 

 could dispute my departure on even terms. My guide ajipeared 

 with rather a hang-dog look, and we wasted no time in getting 

 to our boat and rowing out some distance from the t»hore. 



I did not venture a second time amongst them, although 

 the vilhigers of Waitidal in order to secure a share of the cloths 

 and other goods I was disposing of, came over constantly to 

 our village in twos or threes, to barter provisions, carved 

 work, and ethnological objects. On one occasion an amusing 

 incident occurred during the purchase from a AVaitidal man of 

 a cranium. He had brought me, with the usual secrecy, a fine 

 skull, but fitted with a lower jaw which I sa\A did not belong to it. 

 I pointed out the fact, and urged him to make a search for the 

 corresponding bone. After arguing the i>oint along time with- 

 out effect, he thought he had settled matters by saying, "TIut*^ 

 is really no mistake; I remomber quite well when my father 

 was alive he had just this sort of under jaw ! " Finding it was 

 no good and that I would not trade, he went his way ; but in a 

 few hours he came back with a beaming face — he had found 

 his father's lower jaw. His father's brother ha*! br^en laid down 

 on the same stone, hence the mistake. I traded to his dutiful 

 son's satisfaction, who, before giving me possession, iuscTted a 

 piece of pinang nut between its teetli, and in a most reveren- 

 tial manner paid his last invocation to th^ Head of his line. 

 That son's welfare is regulated now from the Mammalian 

 Gallery of the British Museum ! 



The Postholder, backed by the action of the Waitidul 



