220 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



manner of propelling the disks was curious. The player, 

 placing his shell flat on the ground, turned his back to the 

 goal, and, firmly grasping his quoit between his heels, with a 

 circular motion of the one leg he caused the disk to shoot 

 forward, describing on its rim a cycloidal curve towards the 

 goal. It was surprising with what accuracy the best players 

 calculated the force necessary to make it describe a curve 

 whose circumference should just pass through the disk aimed 

 at. The players were divided into two unequal parties, 

 the smaller being "out." As long as a player was able to 

 strike with three tries the first goal-shell, and then the others 

 in succession, he remained an " in "-player, and was carried 

 back each time to the stance on the back of one of the out- 

 players. When he failed he became an out-player, and had to 

 deposit his shell at the goal to be played at by the others. If 

 a disk discharged from the stance described a curve " out of 

 bounds," one of the out-players croqueted it from the stance as 

 far as he could, and from the spot where it came to rest the 

 player's second stroke had to be made. They played with 

 wonderfully good humour, and compared favourably with an 

 equal number of boys at home. I never witnessed a case of 

 ill-temper or sourness at losing, or quarrelling during the 

 many days I was in the village. 



I was not very fortunate, owing to my illness, in obtaining 

 many new birds, but some of the sun-birds, which frequented 

 the cocoa-palm flowers and the blossoms of shrubs close at 

 hand, were of reniarkable beauty, especially a species of 

 Cinnyris (G. hasselti) with a forehead of deep metallic ultra- 

 marine blue ; its neck and back of the darkest lake, passing 

 into green and orange on the rump, where the black wings 

 cover it ; below the wings the tail protruded, of a deep blue. 

 Its neck and throat were of the richest scarlet, down which 

 ran, from the angles of the jaws, two lines of the intensest 

 blue. It was such a thing of beauty that I could scarcely dare 

 to handle it for fear of injuring its gorgeous tinting. 



From Batu Pantjeh I moved down as soon as I was able to 

 Tebbing-Tinggi, a large village sheltering under a forest-clad 

 hill, with a considerable Arab and Chinese population, who 

 have good shops and carry on a large and prosperous trade 

 with the surrO'Unding districts. To me, who had so long been 



