Chap. XV.] BALLASTING A GUIDE. 



319 



good stead on other occasions, and which can be recommended 

 to naturalists. Soon after I got on shore I examined a lar<^e 

 stone with care and interest, turning it over once or twice, and 

 then gave it him to carry, and when he had this ballast in addi- 

 tion to my vasculum, I found that I could keep on pretty good 

 terms with him. In the evening, when we reached the boat, I 

 conveyed the stone on board the ship with due solemnity and 

 threw it overboard. 



I was amused at the manner in which my guides met a heavy 

 storm of rain. They had of course no umbrellas, but did not 

 wish to get their clothes, which consisted merely of two coths, 

 one worn round the shoulders and the other round the loins, 

 wet. They simply stripped naked, rolled their clothes up tight 

 inside a large Pandanus leaf, and so walked along with me till 

 the rain, was over, when they shook themselves dry and put 

 their clothes on again. Meanwhile my clothes were wet through 

 and had to dry on me. 



A very large species of Screw-pine {Fandani/s), with a fruit 

 as big as a man's head, is common along the shore. It is a 

 common east Indian littoral plant. The stem, though large, 

 is soft and succulent, and hence with a small axe one can 

 enjoy all the pleasure of felling a large tree without any fatigue. 

 The deep cut made by a single blow is most gratifying to one's 

 feelings of power, and having cut down one tree to obtain a 

 specimen of the fruit, I found myself felling two or three others 

 wantonly. 



On the Island of Wokan, not far from the anchorage. Sago 

 Palms abound in the swamps. Several parties of natives from 

 the back country were living near the shore, having come from 

 a distance in their boats, to prepare a store of sago to take 

 home with them. 



They lived in small low-roofed houses made of poles and 

 reeds, and raised on posts about two feet above the swampy 

 ground. These temporary houses were so low that the natives 

 could only squat or lie in them. The men were darker than 

 the inhabitants of Wokan in the neighbourhood, and looked to 

 me more Papuan in appearance. They were armed with finely- 

 made spears with iron blade-like points, six or eight inches 

 long, and ornamented worked wooden handles. They would 

 not part with these at any price. 



They resented my looking into their house, no doubt because 

 the women were there. The women seemed extremely shy, 

 and huddled together out of the way, and the same was the 

 case at Wanumbai. The men had wrist ornaments, closely 

 similar in make to those common in New Guinea, at Humboldt 

 Bay, and at the Admiralty Islands. These are broad band- 



