i88 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



cut the creepers, but if a tree did not fall we cut down 

 those about it until they all fell together in one splendid 

 crash. On sloping ground the best method of felling 

 trees is to cut their trunks only half way through and 

 leave them, and then to cut completely through a big 

 tree above them in such a way that it ^-;ill fall down 

 hill and complete the felling of those below it. 



Some of the trees that we cut down in our clearing 

 fell in the most unexpected directions, but though there 

 were some narrow escapes, there were no accidents. 

 The most unpleasant was a tree which fell midway 

 between two houses, one full of coolies and the other 

 full of stores, and shaved off the projecting roof of 

 both ; it might easily have killed half-a-dozen sleeping 

 men, but the only harm it did was to fill the camp with 

 a swarm of large and furiously biting ants, which had 

 had a nest in its topmost branches. The natives, who 

 never tired of using our steel axes, helped a good deal 

 in felling the trees and in this way some of them earned 

 large quantities of coloured beads. 



Another occupation for the coolies in their idle 

 moments, and at the same time a very necessary work, 

 was the business of keeping the camp in a state of repair. 

 When the high river bank opposite the village of Parimau 

 was chosen for a camping ground, it was thought that 

 floods at all events could do no harm. The houses 

 nearest to the river were built five or six yards back from 

 the edge of the bank, which was there about fifteen feet 

 above the usual level of the water, and it seemed quite out 

 of the question that the river could ever invade the camp. 

 It was necessary, in order to prevent it from becoming 



