176 



PICKING POCKETS, 



very cordially reciprocate, saying, he would not like 

 to stay with them, for fear they should eat him. 

 Macgillivray had had his pocket picked of his pow- 

 der flask, and as it was better to put a stop to this 

 kind of operations at once, we determined to have 

 it restored. Taking our guns in our hands, we 

 assembled together, with very grave faces, and pro- 

 ducing my flask, we explained, by signs, that a simi- 

 lar one had been stolen, and that it must be 

 returned. None of them, at first, seemed to know 

 what was the matter, but after some palaver, we 

 observed a boy go to one of the huts, and imme- 

 diately on his return he pretended suddenly to find 

 the flask on the ground where we had been sitting, 

 and brought it to us. This passing off, we sat down 

 again, and renewed our friendly intercourse. See- 

 ing me very hot, they brought me a cocoa-nut to 

 drink, and then a group sitting down around me, 

 commenced blowing in my face to cool me, a process 

 with which I very shortly dispensed. On the 

 dances being resumed, one of the men went and 

 fetched a drum. This was in shape like a very 

 elongated hour-glass, made of a hollow piece of 



