My House at Bessie. 



535 



mat on the ground with my ■\vicker-chair upon it, hung up 

 another mat on the windward side, and then found that, by 

 bending double and carefully creeping in, I could sit on my 

 chair Avith my head just clear, of the ceiling. Here I lived 

 pretty comfortably for six weeks, taking all my meals and do- 

 ing all my work at my little table, to and from which I had to 

 creep in a semi-horizontal position a dozen times a day ; and, 

 after a few severe knocks on the head by suddenly rising from 

 my chair, learned to accommodate myself to circumstances. 

 We put up a little sloping cooking-hut outside, and a bench 



MY HOUSE AT BESSIR, IN WAIGIOU. 



on which my lads could skin their birds. At night I went up 

 to my little loft, they spread their mats on the floor below, and 

 we none of us grumbled at our lodgings. 



My first business was to send for the men who were accus- 

 tomed to catch the birds of paradise. Several came, and I 

 showed them my hatchets, beads, knives, and handkerchiefs ; 

 and explained to them, as well as I could by signs, the price I 

 would give for fresh-killed specimens. It is the universal cus- 

 tom to pay for every thing in advance ; but only one man 

 ventured on this occasion to take goods to the value of two 

 birds. The rest were suspicious, and wanted to see the result 



