of the Old World. 103 



from whence the arrows appeared to come, I following 

 at some little distance with my gun and one or two 

 of my people, to protect him should it be necessary. 

 When we got out of sight of the fire she made a 

 queer noise, like the cooing of the imperial pigeon, 

 which sound was almost immediately taken up in 

 two places from behind some clumps of bushes. 

 Again she uttered a curious note, and shortly after- 

 wards I saw other figures join her in the gloom. 

 At first I felt rather apprehensive for Chineah's safety, 

 but, as they did not seem inclined to offer him any 

 violence, I did not join their party, fearing to give 

 them alarm. After a consultation, which seemed to 

 last nearly a quarter of an hour, between the old 

 woman and her people, they followed her towards our 

 fire. When I came up I found the group consisted 

 of three men, two women, and a child, all in the same 

 state of nature as those we had discovered in the tree. 

 The men were but little over four feet, and the 

 women considerably shorter, and they all wore their 

 hair tied with a piece of creeper at the back of their 

 head, and spreading out behind like a peacock's tail. 

 They had short bamboo bows, the strings of which 

 were formed of the sinews of some animal, and the 

 arrows were reeds hardened by fire, and tipped with 

 the quills of peafowls. They were in great fear when 

 we first approached, but seemed to get over it by 

 degrees, and ate sugar, raw potatoes, and rice with 



