OVER OUR PIPES. 7 



Tieach where the canoe had been drawn up, we found that some of 

 the natives had captured a wild boar by the aid of their dogs and 

 spears. The animal was already disembowelled and was being- 

 quartered. Whilst we were preparing our evening meal, some of 

 the men made temporary couches for the chief, his three sons, and 

 m3^self, these couches being merely a layer of poles resting at their 

 ends on two logs and raised about six inches above the ground, the 

 materials being quickly obtained in the adjoining wood. As night 

 fell, we la}'- down on our couches and smoked, whilst the natives, 

 who had lit about half-a-dozen fires, were waiting for their roast pig, 

 the quarters of which had been placed on a large pile of burning 

 logs, built up in laj'crs to a height of three feet, with three poles 

 placed like a tripod over the pile to draw the fire up. When it was 

 quite dark, the numerous fires lit up the wood around, wdiilst the 

 natives made the place resound with their sincrino; and lausfhter. 

 Over our pipes, Gorai and I had some conversation on his ideas of a 

 future state, which he summed up concisely in the phrase " go 

 ground." In the middle of the night heavy rain came on ; and since 

 there was no shelter, I had simply to lie still and let it come down. 

 My companions, however, used their pandanus mats to cover them- 

 selves from head to foot, and did not appear to be, in the slightest 

 degree, inconvenienced by the wet. 



On anotlier occasion, I spent a night on the summit of Treasury 

 Island, in the company of four natives, one of whom, named Erosini, 

 kn^w a little English. Leaving the anchorage in the early morning, 

 ■a three hours' tramp brought us to the large stream named Tella- 

 tella, on the north-east side of the island. Another four hours were 

 occupied in wading up the stream, when we commenced to ascend 

 the hill-slopes, arriving at the summit late in the afternoon. From 

 here we could see, at a distance of about sixty miles, the lofty peaks 

 of Bougainville, and midway between us lay the white beaches of 

 the Shortland Islands. As it was getting dusk, we began to look 

 around for what Erosini had described to me as a house where we 

 might pass the night. . It turned out, however, to be a very dilapi- 

 dated " lean-to," which had been temporarily occupied by a native 

 who had come up to look after his sago palms a year or more before. 

 My men immediatelj'- set to work to make it habitable for the night, 

 and then they began to prejiare their evening meal, consisting of a 

 two-pound tin of beef, three opossums, and a large fresh-water eel 

 which had been captured during the day. With the night-fal!, the 



