Primitive Games. 303 



the wall of the house in which the parasheera were to 

 drink, in the hope of obtaining some instantaneous pho- 

 tographs. Whether by accident or design, the long pro- 

 cession closed around me, yelling, shrieking, and roaring, 

 and waving their dancing sticks so closely round my 

 head that I had continually to duck to avoid them. Then 

 it passed on round the house; and just as I made a rush 

 for my larger camera, which I had before stationed in 

 position ready for another chance photograph, the pro- 

 cession, to my great disappointment, wended its way 

 into the house, the head man — who had led the proces- 

 sion — alone remaining outside, and there formed a circle, 

 faces inward, round the paiwarie trough. And now, as 

 Mr. RiDER HAGGARD would write, a thing most surprising 

 to me happened. The kimiti, with the exception of the 

 leader, instead of going in to share the feast with the 

 parasheera, retired quickly into their own house, washed 

 off their clay adornments, and came out and set about 

 their ordinary occupations. It was indeed remarkable 

 that except as a sort of a reception committee the men 

 of Araiwaparoo itself — the male hosts as it were — took 

 almost no part in the feast. 



The headman of the parasheera, who, as has been 

 told, instead of entering the drinking house with the 

 others remained without, now sat down outside the door 

 and was there entertained, not for one hour or two, but 

 until I left the place the next morning, by the leader of 

 the kimiti, with pepper-pot and cassava, with much pai- 

 warie, and with an endless interchange of every ejacu- 

 latory conversation. 



Meanwhile I entered the house, whence the most 

 fiendish noise was issuing. I found the whole party pos- 



