mission connected with his profession, and had occasion 

 to prove the truth of the story he had doubted. 



Placed face to face with a native chief, he asked the 

 latter to exhibit his skill with the boomerang, taking 

 him as his mark ; and, folding his arms, he stood smil- 

 ingly awaiting the result. The chief, although some- 

 what surprised, asked nothing better, and, with a hasty 

 glance at the professor, hurled his weapon into the air.' 

 After describing several graceful curves, it came back 

 swiftly toward its mark whistling viciously, and it would 

 certainly have broken the doctor's sceptical skull, had 

 he not prudently thrown himself flat on the ground in 

 a paroxysm of terror, from which he emerged in a wiser, 

 if not a happier, frame of mind. 



We should have been glad to stop this unnecessary 

 slaughter of opossums ; but, as our host said, you could 

 no more convince the natives of the cruelty they were 

 needlessly inflicting, than you could induce them to alter 

 their religion in favor of one in which transmigration 

 should play a part. A sudden end was put to the f>port, 

 however, in an unlooked-for way, by the cries of terror 

 and pain which one of the natives uttered at this mo- 

 ment. We did not understand the language, but we 

 caught the feeling vividly ; and the whole camp rushed 

 toward the sufferer, rolling in agony beside the stream, 

 his head apparently wrapped in a black turban. 



" What 's the matter with him ? " shouted one of our 

 party. Without waiting to reply, the chief guide drew 



