AMUSING NATIVES. 161 
While collecting near the camp, I saw a tiny sun-bird 
in a mimosa-tree, and fired at it with my collecting-gun, 
thinking it was a new species. As the bird fluttered to 
the ground wounded, I was startled by a most ludicrous 
burst of laughter and clapping of hands on the part of a 
lot of natives whom [ had not noticed before. The poor 
savages thought I had simply frightened the bird to death! 
They believed here, as natives of other parts frequently 
did, that I collected insects, lizards, and scorpions, in order 
to eat them, — one man bringing mea spider, and smilingly 
requesting me to eat it. 
A lot of them, after standing quietly and gazing at me 
for a long time, inquired of my boy Abdi what I was doing 
looking at that one thing in my hand for sucha long time; 
but upon my trying to make them understand that it was 
a book I was reading, and that this told me stories such as 
they repeated to each other at night over their fires, they 
burst into an incredulous laugh. Later on, however, their 
curiosity got the better of them, for they came shyly around 
and peered over my back again to see what that wonderful 
thing, a book, was. The volume in question was nothing 
more or less than Raper’s “ Practice of Navigation;” but 
now I put this aside and drew from a box a picture-book 
full of illustrations from animal life. The astonishment on 
the part of my audience was great as they beheld one 
animal after another colored and drawn as they had been 
accustomed to see them in nature, — the little children leav- 
ing me in terror, while their parents clapped their hands 
and applauded vociferously. 
Savages do not have a great command of language, but 
express their emotions in pantomime, accompanying each 
gesture with loud shouts; and so my readers may well 
imagine how ludicrous the scene was when, finally, I 
showed the little porcelain doll, — that toy that had in- 
iit 
