CHAP. XII. CHARMS AGAINST UNPLEASANT DREAMS. 311 



with the skin on, was brought as my share. It is astonishing 

 what excitement the killing of a bullock produces. The 

 men are as busy as bees, and, on each of these joyful oc- 

 casions, I had reason to expect that nothing but cooking 

 would be done for the rest of the day. WTiile resting here, 

 one of the chiefs cautioned me against walking so much, es- 

 pecially in the woods, as the fatigue of walking, added to the 

 damp of the forest, would be very likely to produce fever. 



When the bearers gathered around my door on the follow- 

 ing morning, I noticed that a number of them had spots of 

 white clay, like paint, upon the cheek or forehead, and under 

 the ear, and one or two had a white circle roimd the eye. I 

 had noticed the same once or twice before upon the face of 

 one of the chiefs, as well as others of our party ; and, on in- 

 quiring the cause, I was told that the mark round the e3^e 

 was a medicinal application, but that the others were put on 

 as a sort of charm, to avert the evil apprehended after the 

 unpleasant dreams of the past night. I could not help 

 thinking that the quantity of beef they had eaten, after the 

 slaughtering of the ox on the previous day, had probably more 

 to do with their dreams than either witchcraft or evil spirits. 



On leaving the village, we ascended and kept chiefly along 

 the lateral hills which extend from the sides of the high 

 mountain ranges, running north and south along this part 

 of the island. 



Near one of the villages, we passed the newly-made grave 

 of a Hova chief. It consisted of a space thirty feet square, 

 enclosed by stone walls four or five feet high. The inside 

 was filled with earth to the level of the top of the walls, and 

 had a smaller stone structure standing in the centre. The 

 grave stood upon the summit of a circular hill overlooking 

 the village, and surrounded by an amphitheatre of wooded 

 mountains. There was somethin* peculiarly affecting to me 

 in the solitude and loveliness of the spot which the chief, 



X 4 



