Pirie WOkRK OF THE DEMON 41 
So the naked black man waits behind his screen 
for the Great Birds of Paradise to come, and as soon 
as they come and begin to spread their plumes, he 
shoots first one and then another of them with 
his great wooden arrows, and they fall down dead 
underneath the tree. And, do you know, they are 
so occupied in showing off their beautiful plumes, and 
so happy and excited as they spread them out and 
look through them, or fly like little feathery cascades 
from branch to branch, that it is not till quite a 
number of them have been killed (for the black 
savage does not often miss his aim) that the others 
take fright and fly away. Then the black man 
climbs down from the tree and picks up the poor, 
beautiful, dead birds and takes them to another man 
who is yellow and not quite so naked as he is, who 
gives him something for them, but not so much as he 
ought to. The yellow man cheats the black man, 
and, when he has cheated him, he takes the skins to a 
white man, who is quite dressed and civilised, and sells 
them to him, and the white man cheats him a good 
deal more than “e has cheated the black man—for, of 
course, the white man is the cleverest of the three. 
(You see there are yellow men in those countries— 
called Malays—as well as black men, and a good 
many white men go there as well.) Then the white 
man puts all the beautiful skins that he has bought 
