IN TIMOR-LAUT. 329 



discovered that the subject of their excited wrangling was 

 whether I should be permitted to leave at all. My guide, after 

 whispering to me not to be alarmed and adding a remark I did 

 not comprehend, went away, luckily leaving rhe door open, 

 intending, as I imagined, to return soon ; but he either joined 

 some other drinking party and forgot to do so, or purposely 

 left me to my own resources. Pretending to be quite pleased 

 to prolong my visit, I presented my cup for more spirit, and 

 as successive rounds were filled my companions became in- 

 capable of observing that I did not drain my cup till I had 

 passed its contents through the floor, and was imperceptibly 

 nearing the now open trap-door. I took the first opportunity 

 of diving through the orifice, and with a bold step shaped my 

 course for the stairway at the top of the rock, where I felt I 

 could dispute my departure on even terms. My guide appeared 

 with rather a hang-dog look, and we wasted no time in getting 

 to our boat and rowing out some distance from the shore. 



I did not venture a second time amongst them, although 

 the villagers of Waitidal in order to secure a share of the cloths 

 and other goods I was disposing of, came over constantly to 

 our village in twos or threes, to barter provisions, carved 

 work, and ethnological objects. On one occasion an amusing 

 incident occurred during the purchase from a Waitidal man of 

 a cranium. He had brought me, with the usual secrecy, a fine 

 skull, but fitted with a lower jaw which I saw did not belong to it. 

 I pointed out the fact, and urged him to make a search for the 

 corresponding bone. After arguing the point along time with- 

 out effect, he thought he had settled matters by saying, " There 

 is really no mistake ; I remember quite well when my father 

 was alive he had just this sort of under jaw ! " Finding it was 

 no good and that I would not trade, he went his way ; but in a 

 few hours he came back with a beaming face — he had found 

 his father's lower jaw. His father's brother had been laid down 

 on the same stone, hence the mistake. I traded to his dutiful 

 son's satisfaction, who, before giving me possession, inserted a 

 piece of pinang nut between its teeth, and in a most reveren- 

 tial manner paid his last invocation to the Head of his line. 

 That son's welfare is regulated now from the Mammalian 

 Gallery of the British Museum ! 



The Postholder, backed by the action of the Waitidal 



