ANOTHER TRIP TO THE SOLOMONS 139 



stories of the savage nature of the inland tribes of 

 British Papua, nor the objection of the coast tribes 

 to penetrate inland, nor that of the tribes on the slopes 

 to go higher up the mountains; for my experience 

 of the mountain tribes was generally most favourable. 

 In this particular district I found them on the whole 

 singularly hospitable. Always when I arrived at a 

 mountain village I had a pig presented to me by the 

 chief of the village. It would have been a serious 

 breach of good manners if I had not given a return 

 present. The pig presented to me I usually handed 

 over to my carriers. But on the mountains of New 

 Guinea I do not object to a joint of pork for my own 

 consumption. The mountain pig is a good, honest 

 animal which is fed by the natives on potatoes and 

 other clean food. The coast pig, on the other hand, 

 is a scavenger, and I would never think of eating 

 pork on the coast. 



The Cingalese who had told me of the short cut from 

 the coast to the country below the Owen Stanley 

 Ranges proved to have been a good guide, for with 

 comparatively little trouble I reached to a height 

 corresponding with the spot to which I had before 

 travelled from Manna Manna, and went past it to 

 higher country, to a place at the Angabunga River, 

 which flows into the St. Joseph River. I found 

 these highlands singularly beautiful and wholesome. 

 The gardens round the villages have their boundaries 

 marked with croton hedges, which, with their leaves 



