328 A NATUBALI8T IN CELEBES ch. xiii 



there can be no doubt that many valuable trees and flower- 

 ing plants at present unknown to scientific men lie hidden 

 away in the deep recesses of the forests. 



Perhaps one of the most important lessons a naturalist 

 learns when he lives for a few months with wild men in 

 their native forests is the extraordinary value of the vege- 

 table productions to them. The numerous little devices they 

 have for making traps, baskets,, -cages, string or rope, pro- 

 jectiles of various kinds, out of leaves, bark, sticks, and 

 the like, often struck me as extremely ingenious. In my 

 expeditions in the forest I was frequently at a loss to know 

 how to proceed for the want of some trifling article such as 

 a piece of string, a pin, a little box or basket to carry some- 

 thing home in, or a trap to catch some strange creature 

 with ; and I was amazed sometimes at the ready resource 

 shown by my boys in helping me out of such difficulties with 

 materials ready to hand in the forest. 



With the progress of civilisation and the speciahsation 

 of manufacture we have grown to be so dependent upon 

 articles which can be bought in shops that we have lost 

 much of our independence in small matters. If a native 

 of North Celebes, on the other hand, can buy or borrow a 

 knife, he will be his own tailor, hatter, house-builder, boat- 

 builder, and purveyor; and he will manufacture aU the 

 string, rope, nails, pins, baskets, weapons of offence and 

 defence, that he requires from the natural productions of 

 his fields and the forests. 



In these respects there are some plants which are 

 undoubtedly of much more value than others. These are 

 carefully preserved in the neighbourhood of the villages, 

 and are regarded in some cases with especial reverence as 

 the gift or discovery of their popular deities or heroes. 



Of the bamboo it is hardly necessary for me to speak, 

 for the importance of this grass has been already referred 



