ANOTHER TRIP TO THE SOLOMONS 145 



were brought to my camp by the boys. They would 

 come to me often wrapped up with leaves in a cleft 

 stick, and yet had been handled so delicately that 

 they were perfect specimens. After a native had 

 proved that he knew something of butterfly collecting 

 I would give him a net to work with. Altogether I 

 stayed in this district some three or four months, and 

 I can put to the credit of the place some hundreds 

 of new discoveries, including some very beautiful 

 day-flying moths. There were, however, not many 

 new birds to be discovered. 



About the habits of the natives in that hilly district, 

 I found that the people were much given to inter- 

 tribal fighting as an amusement. In the village where 

 I had my camp the natives were at loggerheads with 

 the villages higher up, and would make expeditions 

 to the hills with the object of killing some of their 

 enemies. I did not notice that they were particularly 

 anxious to collect heads, and if cannibalism were 

 associated with these expeditions it did not come 

 directly under my notice. I fancy that the fact that 

 a white man was living at my village prevented the 

 natives of the higher villages from descending upon 

 our village for return raids. I have a suspicion that 

 the people of our place represented that I was very 

 powerful " magic," and took advantage of my 

 presence among them to make raids without fear of 

 reprisals. Certainly (as is usual where the presence 

 of the white man was before unknown) there was a 



