Seen and Lost. 381 
o 
the man’s extraordinary appearance. Ido not think 
that a sufficient explanation ; for however strange 
a man’s appearance may be, his intimate friends 
and associates soon lose all sense of wonder at his 
strangeness, and even forget that he is unlike others. 
My belief is that this curiosity, or whatever it was 
they showed in their faces, was due to something in 
his character—a mental strangeness, showing itself 
at unexpected times, and which might flash out at 
any moment to amuse or astonish them. There 
was certainly a correspondence between the snarling 
action of the mouth and the dangerous form of the 
teeth, perfect as that in any snarling animal; and 
such animals, it should be remembered, snarl not 
only when angry and threatening, but in their 
playful moods as well. Other and more important 
correspondences or correlations might have existed ; 
and the voice was certainly unlike any human voice 
I have ever heard, whether in white, red, or black 
man. But the time I had for observation was 
short, the conversation revealed nothing further, 
and by-and-by I went away in search of the odorous 
kitchen, where there would be hot water for coffee, 
or at all events cold water and a kettle, and materials 
for making a fire—to wit, bones of dead cattle, 
* buffalo chips,” and rancid fat. 
I have never been worried with the wish or am- 
bition to be a head-hunter in the Dyak sense, but on 
this one occasion I did wish that it had been possible, 
without violating any law, or doing anything to a 
fellow-creature which I should not like done to 
myself, to have obtained possession of this man’s 
head, with its set of unique and terrible teeth. For 
