242 COLLECTOR'S KAMBLES 



pain in the jaw, after a time. I had one thing in my 

 favor, however. I could peel off the woody outside 

 bark with a strong knife, leaving only the inside fibre 

 to chew. But the natives had no knives except those 

 we gave them, and they were regarded as too precious 

 to be used in peeling sugar-cane. 



Seated in the door of his house, with a stick of cane, 

 six or eight feet long, the native would commence at 

 the large end and rip off the bark with his teeth, using 

 force enough to pull or break the teeth of a Caucasian. 

 No wonder their teeth were good. If we could grow 

 a well-flavored sugar-cane here, and get people into 

 the habit of chewing it for a few generations, store 

 teeth would become unpopular. But if we got the 

 cane to suit in every way, some enterprising Yankee 

 would invent some machine to do the chewing for us, 

 and we should soon be as badly off as ever. 



The Papuan utilizes the great strength of his jaws 

 and teeth in another way. The forests are often thick 

 with vines and creepers, and one frequently becomes 

 so entangled that it is a work of several minutes to get 

 free. I carried a strong knife to cut the vines ; but the 

 native uses his teeth, and clips them off much as a 

 seamstress bites thread while at her sewing. 



They will bite through a tough creeper, or rattan, 

 the size of a pencil, at one snap, leaving the two ends 

 dangling from the trees. I once tried to see what I 

 could do in that line on a rattan about the size of a 



