58 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



drinking water, and at times when there was not much 

 fresh water coming down the river the ebb and flow 

 of the tide washed the refuse backwards and forwards 

 in front of the camp. Water was boiled and filtered 

 every day in quantities large enough for every man 

 in the camp to have as much as he wished, but the 

 value of this precaution was to a large extent neutralised 

 by the Malay habit of washing out the mouth with the 

 water in which the man bathes. 



A wooden landing stage for canoes was built out 

 over the muddy bank, and a bathing place was cut off 

 from the river by a wooden fence to protect bathers 

 from crocodiles and sharks, both of which were occa- 

 sionally seen, but as the natives bathed constantly 

 without showing any fear of either animal the precaution 

 was perhaps needless. 



At that time w^hen the ground was being cleared 

 we began to be plagued by large blue-bottle flies, which 

 swarmed about the camp and laid their eggs every- 

 where. One of their favourite laying grounds was 

 in our bedding, which in a hot damp climate must 

 alwa3^s be hung out to air when the sun shines. You 

 would find two folds of your blanket stuck together 

 with horrible masses of eggs and if, as sometimes hap- 

 pened, you did not scrape them all away you would 

 wake up at night and find yourself crawling with 

 maggots. There are some people who are afraid of 

 spiders, but the most timorous of mortals must find 

 the homely spider preferable to the loathsome blow 

 fly. The house where we mostly lived at Wakatimi 

 and where we had our meals was immediately filled 



