464 -A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



engraved on the pipe figured on p. 429, closely resembles 

 that on some of the ancient British remains found at Taplow 

 in 1882. Another pattern is represented on page 463. 



I was told that rarely a month passed without once, or 

 oftener, the market being suddenly broken up by a drunken 

 brawl, as few of the men ever leave it sober. 



I myself witnessed the preliminary blaze of passion in a 

 fiery spirit who, aggrieved in some way, had sought his foe in 

 the market-place, whither he had come, however, just too late 

 to find him. It was a sight to remember — the flashing eyes 

 and passionate mien of that wild savage, the hasty and signifi- 

 cant look at the priming of his flint-lock, as he dashed away in 

 hot pursuit (a wild cry being passed down the valley to the 

 pursued), bounding from rock to rock in the river bed like a 

 chamois, his coi and long knife dangling by his sides, and his 

 tais flowing out behind him with the fleetness of his pace. I 

 watched him till he disappeared behind a bend of the river ; 

 but I never recall the features of the man without wondering 

 what was the issue of that passionate chase. 



They are a vindinctive people, without a vestige of pity, 

 as might be expected from their having always had the 

 dealing out of punishments for wrong done to them by their 

 own hands. A man I knew, whose neighbour had by accident 

 (or design) killed his pig, failing to obtain the restitution he 

 demanded, seized his neighbour's child and ran off with it, 

 holding it on his shoulder as a shield against the father 

 should he wish to fire on him, and. carried it to the coast, 

 where he purchased a horse with the proceeds of its sale. I 

 do not know certainly, but I am strongly of impression, from 

 what I know of the character of the people, that the vendetta 

 exists among them. 



While in the act of turning from watching this human hunt 

 to continue my journey my eye lighted on an object that 

 riveted my interest more than all else among these savage 

 marketers — a red-haired youth (first one, then a few others), 

 some with straight, some with curly hair, with red eyelashes, 

 blue eyes, and the hair over his body also reddish. I 

 found, on inquiry, that a little colony of them, well known 

 for their peculiar colour of hair and eyes, lived at Aitiiha, 

 at no great distance off. Though they lived in a colony 



