264 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap. xxxi. 



my asking them about birds and animals I have not yet 

 seen, and showing an acquaintance with their forms, 

 colours, and habits. These facts are brought against me 

 when I disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to te^^ 

 them. " You must know," say they ; " you know every- 

 thing : you make the fine weather for your men to shoot ; 

 and you know all about our birds and our animals as well 

 as we do ; and you go alone into the forest and are not 

 afraid." Therefore every confession of ignorance on my 

 part is thought to be a blind, a mere excuse to avoid tell- 

 ing them too much. My very writing materials and books 

 are to them weird things ; and were I to choose to mystify 

 them by a few simple experiments with lens and magnet, 

 miracles without end would in a few years cluster about 

 me ; and future travellers, penetrating to Wanurabai, would 

 hardly believe that a poor English naturalist, who had re- 

 sided a few months among them, could have been the 

 original of the supernatural being to whom so many 

 marvels were attributed. 



For some days I had noticed a good deal of excitement, 

 and many strangers came and went aimed with spears and 

 cutlasses, bows and shields. I now found there was war 

 near us — two neighbouring villages having a quarrel about 

 some matter of local politics that I could not understand. 

 They told me it was quite a common thing, and that they 

 are rarely without fighting somewhere near. Individur' 



