TALISSE ISLAND 69 



my abode, although it was very much infested with the 

 white ants, and so rickety that a single footstep made the 

 whole house shake, for I might have been much worse off 

 in such an out-of-the-way island. In front of my house 

 was a sandy path which ran a distance of fifty paces to the 

 sea in one du-ection, and to the panchuran, a distance of 

 a hundred yards or thereabouts, in the other ; joining these 

 were the footpaths to the other parts of the island. 



By the sea-shore ran a path past Cursham's house to 

 the pier. On either side of this path had been planted a 

 number of aloes (?), yuccas, hibiscus shrubs, and other 

 garden plants, and it was shaded by two splendid casuarinas, 

 an Acacia casta, and a number of sour lemon trees. At the 

 back of the two houses were some banana plants, and in a 

 clearing round the flagstaff, which stood in front of the 

 opzichter\s house, a number of pineapples had been planted 

 by Mr. Eijkschroeff, a former opzichter. Immediately in 

 front of my house was a large bamboo kraal, in which two 

 stags and three does of the Cervus moluccensis were con- 

 fined, and in another, next to it, a fine specimen of the 

 babirusa pig. 



There was great excitement when, at the beginning of 

 September, the does gave birth to young ones ; but the 

 excitement was changed to disgust and disappointment 

 when the unnatural mothers stamped the young to death. 

 In every case, soon after the young was born, the mother, 

 in a fit of puerperal frenzy, stamped upon her offspring 

 with her fore-feet, and in this murderous intent she was 

 immediately joined by the other does and stags. At no 

 little risk — for the animals were aU more or less vicious 

 when the young were born — Manuel rescued for me one of 

 the young, and I tried for some days to feed it with bananas, 

 hoping that in time the mother would take kindly to her 

 offspring, but it was no good ; the doe remained inexorable, 



