ITINERARY. Ixv 



basket-work, they were slung through the nostril on the fine string 

 of a tightly-bent bow, the bow being carried in the hand ; and the 

 plumage was thus not in the slightest degree rntfled. 



The boys were so keen it was difficult to get them to come in befoie 

 evening, when it was rather late to sort out the sets and settle up. 

 For the skinning it did not much matter, as in the cool atmosphere 

 there was no difficulty in keeping them till the next day, though Cozier 

 would frequently keep at it till late in the night. He quite understood 

 this was his busy part of the trip. The boys soon found it was to their 

 advantage to bripg in the less common forms, as they got better pay, 

 and most for those not previously brought in. McConnell would often 

 remind them of those we did not want, of which enough had already 

 been prepared, but naturally not always with success, though the boys 

 were quite content to take them away to be eaten. They were always 

 eager and interested in looking over the skins, remarking with 

 animation on individual forms secured in special places ; and many 

 of them just as eagerly watched and tried to imitate Cozier's work, 

 occasionally with remarkable success. The collections being incorpo- 

 rated in this work, no detailed mention of them is necessary : as was 

 to be expected they were mostly Passerine birds, and many only 

 obtainable in the Roraima district. 



As the houses were safe from any infection, and some of them only 

 occupied by two or three women, our Indians soon left the cold church 

 to sleep where they could have a fire under their hammocks at night, 

 as is the Indian habit. It apparently suited all parties, until one 

 woman came to tell us that none of the men came to sleep in her 

 house: she was by no means satisfied with our assurance that it was 

 the men's own business. They frequently made bargains for beads, 

 and I suppose this was the object behind the complaint. 



McOonnell's narrative has already mentioned the perfect passion or 

 mania among the native peoples for church-going. Any person of any 

 sort of authority, or claiming it, would be quite i-eadily accepted as 

 parson, especially if he could sing anything or read or pretend to read 

 from a book : and the people would come to church whenever they 

 were called or a bell should ring. The bell seems to be the great thing, 

 however small a hand-bell it may be. And at the gatherings the 

 people are perfectly decorous. It is a fine survival, in its way, of the 

 services that used to be held in the former missions on the great 

 savannahs, and has been kept alive by the visits of the people to the 

 various missions along the lower parts of the rivers. Within recent 

 years there have been established branches of various sections of the 

 diflferent churches in the savannah districts, and the Indians have been 

 more than satisfied. At Roraima, with the chief Jeremiah as parson, 

 services were every day in full swing, though we occupied the gi'eater 

 part of the building. 



Many years ago a young deacon of the Church of England had 

 spent quite a long tirne at one of the large villages on the Upper Ireng 

 river, not very far from Roraima, under urgent request from the chief, 

 who exercised great authority in the district, and people had flocked 

 thither from all directions, Jeremiah and his villagers among them ; 

 and in the building which he had put up afterwards on his return to 



