238 THE CRUISE OF THE ' CURAQOA.' 



upon a tree, and two or three little birds, one of wliich was 

 very pretty with a light j'ellow breast. We got sight of 

 swallows which looked like those of the New Hebrides. 

 I heard occasionally the notes of small singing birds, but 

 without being able to see them. I picked up a handsome 

 grasshopper, with claws so formidable as to wound my 

 finger through my glove. 



Having reached the middle of the wood, we came upon a 

 village in which the greater part of the huts were shut up, 

 the occupants being out on their business. These huts, low 

 and of a mean appearance, are thatched Avith Avild sugar- 

 cane and banana leaves, and have extremely small entrances. 

 There was but a slight amount of cultivation round about 

 the village, and neither cocoaruut nor banana trees exist 

 in any quantity. The bishop pointed out to me a large 

 building which he called by the name of ' Club house,' 

 seventy-three feet in length by ten feet in width, divided 

 into seven compartments, freely communicating with each 

 other, very cleanly kept, though having no other floor than 

 the soil, while in the centre of each of them was a circular 

 fireplace or oven, from eight to ten inches deep, and 

 eighteen in diameter. Near these ovens were heaps of 

 cocoa-nut husks with which to light their fires by the usual 

 method of rubbing two sticks together, the one being harder 

 than the other. This building, the bishop said, built at the 

 public expense, was intended to receive those who, at 

 certain times, came from all parts of the district on public 

 business ; a fact which he thought rather tended to prove 



