476 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



clump, ^vhich pcrliaps migU not be LuU, and, like a drowning 

 man catching at His last opportunity, I gathered with a wiU, 

 unhindered for a long time ; and it was not till I had another 

 great pile heaped up on the ground that their excitement and 

 superstitions fears became too marked to be longer disregarded. 

 Luckily, the thick mist which had been restin*>- on the moun- 



momm 



and gave me a good excuse to return to quarters, with my 

 trophies a five-men's load, without appearing to have recog- 

 nised that I had been offending. It was useless to attempt to 

 force an ascent to the top ; there would have been an outbreak, 

 for the crest of the mountain was evidently one of their most 

 sacred spots. What I had already done excited them greatly. 



The rain that fell cleared off with it the mist, and revealed 

 from our high vantage-ground a magnificent view of the 

 country, both to the south and to the north— especially to the 

 north, as far as the islands of Kanibing, Wetter and Allor,— 

 which was of itself worth the long climb from Samoro's guarda. 



I he careful arranging and packing of each species in 



separate bundles of cool banana-leaves, convenient for the 



seven or eight porters to transport, took a long time, so that it 



was late, m the afternoon when we mounted for our return 



journey. If our ascent in broad daylight round the foce of the 



liuarahu valley was eerie, it was foolhardy when, by the time 



we retraced our steps, it was so dark that we could not see a 



single foot of the way. I throw my horse's r.ins on its neck 



and trusted to my general good-fortune ; and it was really 



witJi no affected tliankfulness that I embraced the neck of my 



suro-footed black steed, when I leaped down safely on the 



little flat plateau of Manulu homestead. Here after a deal of 



boisterous shouting to the inhabitants to awake-they seemed 



to sleep with the soundness of the dead— on the part of the 



Kajah s son, in whose harangue the most intelligible word to 



me was the vigorous use of Diabo, an old man the only male 



m the place, made his appearance. Tinding the quality of 



his g-iiests, he was at once all alacrity'as far as it was possible 



tor a Timorese to be, and proceeded to rouse the womankind to 



prepare for us something to eat, and a place to pass the night 



in. A kid and some Indian corn supplied the first, and for 



aleepmg.quarters >ve were actually installed in a LuU hut, 



