268 NEJF GUINEA. [chap. 



larger than any 1 had ever seen before, and rismg in a tliick mass 

 to a height of about forty feet from the ground. It was impossible 

 to allow such a good specimen to pass, and accordingly, with some 

 little trouble, we took the camera there on the following day and 

 photographed it. 



Xext day the Eajah came on l)oard early, accompanied by a son 

 of the Sultan of Tidor, who had just arrived in a prau from the coast 

 of the mainland in the neiglibourhood of the ]\Iacluer Clulf. In- 

 stead of wearing the usual Malay dress, which is both dignified and 

 becoming, he was dressed in a suit of rusty black cut in European 

 style, and the eft'ect was anythmg but imposing. He was owner 

 of two or three small praus which traded in dammar, tortoise-shell, 

 and Paradise birds on the Xew Guinea coast, and hearing that he 

 had brought some birds' skins to Xapriboi — a village beyond 

 Saonek which we were desirous of ^isiting — we arranged to go 

 there without loss of time, and weighed anchor shortly after mid- 

 day. A great part of the south coast of "Waigiou is guarded by a 

 barrier-reef, inside of which we kept for the whole distance, at 

 times approaching the shore ahnost within stone's throw. Abreast 

 of Saonek Island we altered course to the northward, and shortly 

 afterwards came to anchor in the little bay of Xapriboi. 



Xapriboi, which, if not identical with ]\Ir. Wallace's Muka, must 

 be very close to it, was in every respect a more attractive place 

 than Momos. It consisted of half a dozen huts built over the 

 waters of the bay, remarkable for having high-pitched roofs, an 

 unusual shape for huts among the Papuans. In one of these 

 the Eajali Mudah had his collection of birds, which were of four 

 species only — the Lesser Bird of Paradise, the Twelve -wired 

 Seleucides, the little scarlet King Bird, and the ]\Iagnificent {JDiphyl- 

 lodes magnifica) — none of which we had as yet obtained in full 

 plumage, although we had shot some females and immature males 

 of the King Bird. They had all been lirought from the neighbour- 

 hood of the Macluer Gulf, and ha\dng been skinned by the natives, 

 were perfectly useless to us, tlie legs of nearly every one having 



