IN BUIiU. 897 



sundown^ and miglit not Lc camped on it, we liad to pass the 

 night again in the forest in a dense rain, on the slope above our 

 former camp, 1500 feet above the sea. At break of next day 

 we continued the ascent of Mount Makka to about 2000 feet 

 above the sea, passing through low sparse jungle full oiDipteris 

 hoTBJieldii ferns and thickets of the bracken (which so often 

 accompanies it), till we came on the Kiiing region which had 

 been a great forest, b\it had only recently been burned down 

 leaving many of the lifeless stems standing, and from the 

 falling of Avhose dead limbs the Alefurus seemed to stand in 

 great dread. No one dared to speak to his neighbour during 

 our passage ; I w^as besought not to shoot, and above all no 

 one might use certain proscribed words for fear of disaster. 

 No Buruese of the interior, it is said, can dare to approach 

 the sea so near as to hear the beating of the surf without 

 falling ill. Whether the superstition has arisen from the fact 

 that the sea could be seen from the liigh elevation we were 

 on, or whether it was because it might be the residing place of 

 hostile spirits, I do not know. All along the way I could hear 

 them repeating some sort of invocation, and on quitting the 

 noxious region, one of the men stopped behind to erect another 

 of those little white stakes three to five ieet high, which we 

 had seen at various places along the tabooed region— a branch 

 carefully stripped of all its bark, its extremity wrapped round 

 with a piece of scarlet cloth, and sharpened, to bo tij^ped with a 

 morsel of pinang nut. I imagine these pillars to be thanks- 

 giving offerings to the spirit of the place for a safe passage. 

 Descendinn; to the river Wohangan, which we crossed at 



j^ ^^ *..*VV ^...V.* , , V«.^^j-, 



about 1000 feet aboA^e the sea, we halted for lunch, the 

 Alefurus rubbinir their lim1)s and bodies till they were quite 

 blistered, with the leaves of a very sharp stingin«r nettle. 



lifoli 



iLnie." Wc had at 



ted 



) 



shade many fine Zingiheracese never seen before in flower, and 

 a Didijmoearpus with a white corolla margined with deep 

 indigo. Along the banks of the stream I observed also quite 

 a number of butterflies I had not seen elsewhere, and were 

 I to return to Buru I should certainly make a prolonged stay 

 near this river. 

 Eain compelled us again to camp in the forest. After a 



27 



