2o6 PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



speak to him, and I think it was due to him that we 

 were never aUowed to see the women. We were par- 

 ticularly anxious to see some of the women of the tribe, 

 and we offered them large rewards of knives and axes 

 merely for the sight of them. The other men were 

 willing enough to produce the women, and several times 

 they were on the point of fetching them, but were 

 always prevented by the old man. Finally we had a 

 personal interview with him, and held out three bright 

 axes, which made his one eye glisten with greed, but 

 he still remained obdurate. 



Though we never saw the women I have no doubt 

 that they saw us ; at night we saw their camp fires up 

 on the hillside opposite the village, and when we departed 

 we heard their shrill voices quite close to us before we 

 had gone a quarter of a mile from the place. They had 

 no reason to distrust us when we assured them that our 

 only wish was to see their women, and I think the reason 

 for their keeping them hidden was the presence of the 

 Papuans who accompanied us from Parimau. The supply 

 of Papuan women is very scanty, and it is likely enough 

 that the men would seize any chance of abducting a 

 Tapiro woman, as indeed they boasted of having 

 done. 



The language of these Tapiro pygmy people is cer- 

 tainly different from that of the Papuans, but I regret to 

 say that we were unable to make even the smallest 

 vocabulary of it. Their voices are rather high-pitched 

 and nasal, and many of their words contain curious 

 throat sounds, which I was not able to spell much less 

 to imitate. In talking the}^ have a curious habit of 



