60 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



the company. Presently, everybody in the village 

 was saluting him ; from them it spread to other villages. 

 The village constables on the Gira thought it better 

 to fall in with the prevailing custom, and they com- 

 menced to salute ; if they did not, they were arraigned 

 before Tai-imi, and threatened with a visit from the 

 snake. In the meantime, Tai-imi's appetite for pigs 

 was growing and the victims began to murmur. They 

 complained to the Government, and this amusing 

 scoundrel was brought to heel and sent as a prisoner 

 to work on the roads. Probably when he has finished 

 his term as prisoner he will become a constable again. 

 Very many of the native constabulary are recruited 

 from prisoners who have served their sentences, and 

 whilst serving them have come to a useful knowledge 

 of the white man's wants. In fact there is a large 

 proportion of murderers in the Papuan police force : 

 and excellent law-abiding policemen they make. 

 Murder among the natives, of course, is not treated 

 as a serious crime. Its punishment is anything from 

 eighteen months' imprisonment to " discharged on his 

 own recognisances." Pretending to exercise sorcery 

 is quite as serious an offence in the eyes of the white 

 law. 



Having reached Samarai in the Mizpah I went 

 from Samarai to Cooktown in the trading schooner 

 Myrtle, encountering very heavy weather owing to 

 the north-west monsoon. The voyage occupied 

 thirteen days. I had no intention, in spite of the 



