102 THE WOODLANDS ORCHIDS 



weapons. But collectors were not unfamiliar beings, if 

 incomprehensible, so near the port. After some anxious 

 moments, the headmen or priests consented to take a heavy- 

 fine, and drove them from the spot. 



Their arrival at Malela had been announced, of course, 

 and they found an uproarious welcome. All the people of the 

 neighbourhood were assembling for a great feast. While 

 their men built a hut of branches outside the fortifications — 

 for no house was unoccupied — they sat beneath the trees in 

 the central space. Such was the excitement that even white 

 visitors scarcely commanded notice. Chief after chief arrived, 

 sitting crosswise in an ornamented hammock — not lying — his 

 folded arms resting on the bamboo by which it was sus- 

 pended. A train of spearmen pressed behind him. They 

 marched round the square, displaying their magnificence to 

 the admiration of the crowd, and dismounted at the Prince's 

 door — if that was his title— leaving their retainers outside. 

 The mob of spearmen there numbered hundreds, the common 

 folk thousands, arrayed in their glossiest and showiest lambas 

 of silk or cotton. No small proportion of them were beat- 

 ing tom-toms ; others played on the native flutes and fiddles ; 

 all shouted. The row was deafening. But doubtless it was 

 a brilliant spectacle. 



One part of the vast square, however, remained empty. 

 Beneath a fine tree stood three posts firmly planted. They 

 were nine or ten feet high, squared and polished, each branch- 

 ing at the top into four limbs ; tree trunks, in fact, chosen 

 for the regularity of their growth. In front was a very large 

 stone, unworked, standing several feet above the ground. 

 The travellers were familiar with these objects now. They 

 recognised the curious idols of the country and their altar. 

 On each side of the overshadowing tree barrels were ranged, 

 one on tap, and another waiting its turn. This also they 

 recognised. However savage the inland population, how- 



