IN TIMOR 477 



from which, however, the sacred weapons were most carefully 

 removed and at the owner's earnest request all our tobacco 

 was excluded. Notwithstanding my sore disappointment that 

 I had not set foot on the highest peak of Sobale, I slept with 

 my head on my saddle the sleep of the contented, for I had 

 gathered rare plants enough to delight any botanist's heart. 



At five o'clock in the evening of the next day I reached our 

 old quarters, but it was the early morning hours before all the 

 plants were, under torch- and lamp-light, safely put away in 

 botanical paper and placed over the fire of the drying-house, 

 in attending to which and turning the bundles several men 

 were employed all through the night. Before eleven o'clock 

 in the forenoon they were dry enough to carry safely to 

 Manuleo, my next station, where they would be again placed 

 over the camp fire. 



Retracing our steps, as if to Sobale, we descended to the 

 right into and across the Buarahu river, ascending to Manuleo 

 — 4000 feet above the sea — through a rich grassy landscape 

 in which thousands of sheep ought to have been pasturing, 

 were a shepherd's not too peaceful a calling to be attracted to 

 a region where keros might be a possible feature of their 

 fields. Such a warning pole raised its ghastly arms against 

 the sky before us. It was surmounted .this time with the 

 veritable head of a thief caught in the act of abducting a 

 horse, whose skull seemed to mock with its grinning line 

 of teeth, its abductor's, to which it was joined by the halter 

 which in former time encircled its neck. It does seem a sin- 

 gular custom for the owner to sacrifice his stolen horse the 

 moment it is recovered, to add to his retribution of the thief. 

 A horse once stolen is gone for good, it would seem. 

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