OUR RELATIONS WITH THE NATIVES 167 



time, held up his rifle, a weapon the use of which tlicy 

 very weU understood, and signalled to them that unless 

 they went away he would hre. As they took no notice 

 of his warning he flred, aiming at the legs of the ring- 

 leader, but unfortunately he hit him in the groin. 

 Shortly afterwards, so little animosity did they show 

 and so complete was their confidence in us, they brought 

 the wretched man over to our camp, but nothing could 

 be done for him and in a few hours he died. 



They were very appreciative of medical treatment 

 and at different times we were able to do a good deal 

 for them. One man actually went so far as to pay a 

 fee of half a dozen coconuts for the saving of his little 

 daughter's ulcerated foot, which was rapidly going from 

 bad to worse under native treatment. They often cut 

 themselves severely with our axes and knives before 

 they learnt their sharpness, and their wounds healed 

 astonishingly quickly with ordinary clean methods ; 

 the only trouble was that they liked to take off the 

 bandages and use them for personal adornment. 



As well as acting as carriers for us, the people at 

 Parimau did a considerable amount of work for us 

 about the camp in cutting down trees, an occupation 

 which they always enjoyed, and in helping to build 

 some of the houses. They were even more useful to us 

 as naturalists and, thanks mainly to them, we made a 

 very complete collection of the reptiles of the district. 

 They were particularly adept at catching snakes and 

 often five or six men in a day would stroll into the 

 camp carrying a deadly poisonous snake wrapped up 

 in leaves. One day Goodfellow was walking through 



