THE PEOPLE AND THE FARMS 103 



cottage which was the " farm-house." He was a 

 curious-looking undersized man with a small narrow 

 wizened face, small cunning restless eyes of no 

 colour, and reddish yellow eyebrows, perpetually 

 moving up and down. He reminded me of an 

 orang-utan and at the same time of a wild Irishman 

 of a very low type. 



I talked to him about the ravens, pointing to them, 

 and he, presently recalling 1 dare say some exciting 

 adventure he had met with in connection with the 

 birds, began to tell me the strangest story I had ever 

 listened to. It was absolutely unintelligible ; the 

 strangeness was in his manner of delivering it. He 

 grinned and he grimaced, swinging his long thin 

 sinewy monkey-like arms about, jerking his body, 

 and making many odd gestures, while pouring out a 

 torrent of gibberish, interspersed with Caffre-like 

 clicks and other inarticulate sounds ; then throwing 

 himself back he stared up at me, wrinkling his fore- 

 head, winking and blinking, as much as to say " Now 

 what do you think of that ? " 



" Yes, just so ; dear me ! very wonderful ! " I 

 returned ; and then, after treating me to another 

 torrent, he threw himself back on his swedes and I 

 walked off. 



I discovered that this little man, who, when ex- 

 citedly talking and gesticulating, was hardly like a 

 human being, was one of a type which is not ex- 

 cessively rare on this coast. He differed from others 

 of his kind whom I met only in his reddish colour. 

 The proper colour of this kind is dark. On the 



