i68 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



the jungle with some natives and the man in front 

 of him stooped down and picked up a poisonous viper 

 without even pausing in his stride. 



^ye always encouraged the natives to bring us snakes 

 in the hope of getting new species, and when we did 

 not want those that they brought, they were quite 

 content to take them away and eat them. They seemed 

 to have a peculiar knack of catching poisonous things, 

 for besides snakes they often brought scorpions and 

 centipedes in their parcels of leaves. With the more 

 delicate creatures such as lizards they were less suc- 

 cessful and among the hundreds that they brought us 

 there were very few which they had not damaged. 

 They always assumed an air of importance and some- 

 what of mystery, when they brought some animal for 

 sale, and you always knew that when you had bought, 

 or refused, as the case might be, the creature that was 

 offered, the man would instantly produce something 

 else, but the puzzle was always to know whence he 

 produced it, for his scanty costume does not admit of 

 pockets. 



