78 THE EEV. J. G. WOOD. 



had to be sought out and applied to for information 

 on subjects merely touched upon or even altogether 

 neglected in the books. And then, of course, there 

 came the constant supervision of the artists nearly 

 every one of whose ' blocks had in some way to be 

 altered before passing into the hands of the engraver 

 the revision of the proof-sheets, the ceaseless search for 

 sources of further information, and the necessary cor- 

 respondence which the work involved. 



In the three years during which this book was in 

 progress, my father added very considerably to the 

 collection of savage weapons, utensils, tools, ornaments, 

 and articles of costume which he had already been 

 accumulating for several years. I do not think that 

 this hobby ever cost him very much money, for, with 

 the exception of a few odds and ends picked up chiefly 

 at old curiosity shops in London, he purchased very 

 few of his trophies, but obtained them partly as gifts, 

 and partly by exchange, from those with whom the 

 preparation of the book brought him into contact. 

 And soon the collection began to attain to really im- 

 posing proportions. The walls of the entrance hall, 

 staircase, and my father's own study were hung so 

 closely with spears, swords, blow-guns, bows and 

 arrows, and other weapons of war that scarcely any- 

 where was there a spare inch of space available. Here 

 hung a Kaffir cradle, roughly constructed from a strip 

 of hide, and carefully and elaborately set with beads. 

 There was a Kaffir girl's dancing-belt, made of large 

 seeds, and so constructed as to rattle loudly at ever 



