IX.] THE LIVISTONIA PALM. 189 



the bird gets fairly on the wing. Their note when disturbed 

 resembles the single bark of a dog — wov: ; v:qvj ; woio — and is 

 audible at a gxeat distance. 



We saw plenty of spoor and droppings both of the Babirusa 

 and Anoa, and before long came suddenly upon two of the latter. 

 Theii' appearance, however, was only momentary, and I did not 

 catch sight of them myself. Very shortly afterwards we disturbed 

 a Babirusa much in the same way, and it was evident that, in spite 

 of our precautions as to noiseless walking and the sharp eyes of the 

 natives, our game had decidedly the advantage of us. The forest 

 had occasional little muddy clearings about forty or fifty yards 

 across, which appeared to be the favourite haunts of these animals 

 and wild pigs, and at one of these I at length obtained a shot — the 

 only one that offered throughout the day — and secured a nearly 

 full-grown specimen of Sus celehciisis, a species which, like most of 

 the Celebes mammals, is peculiar to the island. 



I ate my tiffin beneath a gigantic iiokok sila, as the nati^'es 

 here call the Livistonia rotMndifolia, the most magnificent palm of 

 the Eastern tropics. Like the aloe, it flowers only to die. The 

 trunk of this one, nearly two feet and a quarter in diameter, rose 

 like an arrow for at least 140 feet, bearing little at the crown but 

 the dark inflorescence and a few dead leaves. A leaf of the same 

 species, circular and with deeply-toothed edges, formed my seat, 

 and as I extended myself at full length upon it to search the 

 summits of the trees above me with my glasses, there was at least a 

 foot to spare at my head and feet. These leaves are much used 

 for thatching by the natives, and, I daresay, for a dozen other 

 purposes undreamt of by the European, to whom the infinite 

 possibilities of palms and bamboos are unknown. Were he to visit 

 these jungles he would learn another, and far more pleasant use of 

 the rattan than that with which, as an errmg schoolboy, he may 

 have become acquainted. A piece of tliis, six or eight feet long, 

 will supply a good tumblerful of pure water, and the traveller in 

 the Malayan Archipelago, however much he may suffer from the 



