IN BUBU. 397 



Sundown, and miglit not bo camped on it, we had to pass the 

 night again in the forest in a dense rain, on the slope above our 

 former camp, 1500 feet above the sea. At break of next day 

 we continued the ascent of Mount Makka to about 2000 feet 

 above the sea, passing through low sparse jungle full oi Dipterts 

 horsfieldii ferns and thickets of the bracken (which so often 

 accompanies it), till we came on the Kiiing region which had 

 been a great forest, but had only recently been burned down 

 leaving many of the lifeless stems standing, and from the 

 falling of whose dead limbs the Alefurus seemed to stand in 

 great dread. No one dared to speak to his neighbour during 

 our passage ; I was besought not to shoot, and above all no 

 one might use certain proscribed words for fear of disaster. 

 No Buruese of the interior, it is said, can dare to approach 

 the sea so near as to hear the beating of the surf without 

 falling ill. Whether the superstition has arisen from the fact 

 that the sea could be seen from the high elevation we were 

 on, or whether it was because it might be the residing place of 

 hostile spirits, I do not know. All along the way I could hear 

 them repeating some sort of invocation, and on quitting the 

 noxious region, one of the men stopped behind to erect another 

 of those little white stakes three to five feet high, which we 

 had seen at various places along the tabooed region — a branch 

 carefully stripped of all its bark, its extremity wrapped round 

 with a piece of scarlet cloth, and sharpened, to be tipped with a 

 morsel of pinang nut. I imagine these pillars to be thanks- 

 giving offerings to the spirit of the place for a safe passage. 



Descending to the river Wohangan, which we crossed at 

 about 1000 feet above the sea, we halted for lunch, the 

 Alefurus rubbing their limbs and bodies till they were quite 

 blistered, with the leaves of a very sharp stinging nettle, 

 TJrtica cvalifolia, " to take away their fatigue." We had at 

 last entered a more wooded country, and I noted on the damp 

 shade many fine Zingiheracese never seen before in flower, and 

 a Bidymocarpus with a white corolla margined with deep 

 indigo. Along the banks of the stream I observed also quite 

 a number of butterflies I had not seen elsewhere, and were 

 I to return to Buru I should certainly make a prolonged stay 

 near this river. 



Eain compelled us again to camp in the forest. After a 

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