INACTION AND AN EXCURSION 
attempt had been made to thrust them into European 
clothes. Dr. Laws did everything in his power to 
render our visit pleasant, and to him and his wife 
we are indebted for much kind hospitality. There 
is much that is enviable in his pleasant dwelling- 
place, and he seems to be on excellent terms with 
the natives. As I have elsewhere had occasion to 
remark, it is doubtful whether this generation of 
Papuans is capable of much spiritual enlightenment 
at the missionary’s hands, but the seeds of industrial 
progress at any rate are being sown, and the order 
and apparent prosperity of Kappa-Kappa say much 
for the work of the pioneer. There is no Paradise, 
however, without its serpent, and the scourge of Kappa- 
Kappa is the black snake, which attacks the natives. 
The poison is most virulent, and Dr. Laws told me 
that if he could see the sufferer immediately he could 
save him, but if only a few minutes elapse before help 
is available death must inevitably ensue within an 
hour. This snake also kills the missionary’s horses, 
which it invariably bites on the instep. He keeps the 
horses for his little trap, in which, at the close of our 
visit, he drove us down to the coast, a distance of 
about four miles. 
Besides the things I have mentioned, we found little 
else to interest us in Hula, and after a short stay we 
set off to walk round Hood’s Bay to Kalo, the next 
village of any importance, situated a little way from 
the coast. On the way we passed the little village of 
Babacca, the headquarters of a copra trader called 
Joher. 
Formerly Kalo was the centre of strange cere- 
174 
