176 



A NATUBALIST IN CELEBES 



CH. vn 



but I have no pity for a man who is superstitious where the 

 superstition is his protection. In our more highly organised 

 European communities we can afford to dispense with such 



primitive ideas, and even to dis- 

 courage them as mischievous, 

 but among savage races these 

 superstitions are essential fea- 

 tures of their social system, and 

 their sudden abohtion without 

 anything to replace them might 

 lead to endless mischief in their 

 communities. 



A little while after we came 

 to anchor I went ashore with 

 the Eesident of Manado, the 

 Dominie, and Controleur. After 

 a considerable walk along a nar- 

 ^ row path in a field of allang- 

 ^^^^pfi allang grass {Imperata arundi- 



■nacea), kussu-kussu grass {Chry- 

 Fis. 23. — XJro, a coco-nut fetich . n , ,,->, 



fromSangir. sopogon), and glaga {Phragmi- 



tas), we came to a nice broad 



road lined by groves of coco-nut palms leading to the 



village. We passed the house of the rajah, which was 



decorated with festoons of palm leaves, and protected 



by four sentries, each of whom wore curious grass hats, 



shaped like an old-fashioned ' chimney-pot ' with a tuft of 



chicken's feathers stuck jauntily on one side of it, and armed 



with wooden spears and curious little wooden shields ; and 



then we came to the church, a large substantial building 



of coral concrete, well seated and well Ughted. The village 



was tolerably tidy and clean, but did not present the same 



signs of progress and prosperity that I have seen in other 



Sangirese villages. 



The next morning the Dominie Wielandt and I left the 



