434 



A NATURALIST'S IVANDmtJXQS 



Fatiiiiaba, Indeed, life of hH kinds had been exceedingly 

 conspicious by its absence ; save a scarlet Trichof/hssus or a 

 cockatoo flying across our path, and a few crows at Erlnra, I 

 had seen no birds, and the veget^ition since crossing the 

 Ligidoik river had been very poor indeed. A few casuarinasj 

 acacias, gum-trees, and some roagh-leaved Compositw being 



the only vegetable forms. The 

 slopes on the other side looked 

 somewhat more tree-dotted, how- 

 ever, but the bare red ground 

 displayed itself over a largt^ part, 

 of its area. A few hundred yards 

 from the homestead gate we 

 passed a jiranary-looking hut in 

 the top of a high tree with a 

 number of bundles dangling from 

 its floor. On inquiring what they 

 were, I was surprised to be told 

 that they were dead bodies — 

 folded at the thighs, and wTspped 

 in mats— relatives of the Dato 

 waiting to be buried ! 



Entering through a high-barred 

 gateway, we Ibund the homestead 

 to consist of eight or ten weU- 

 built houses of a somewhat dif- 

 ferent style of architectnre from 

 thiit prevalent near the const. 

 Hurronnded by a high stone wall 

 surmounted by a cactus hedge, 

 and built on a rocky buttress jut- 

 ting out over a precipitous gorge, 

 it was nnai>proachable except on 

 the one side by which we entered. When we had settled in the 

 empty gnarda to which we were at once conducted l>y the Dato 

 himself, the first civility and token of friendship that passed 

 between the chief and my Hindu guide, as representing me, 

 was the exchange of siri, pinang, and chalk. Each prepared 

 his quantum, and stuffed it into his mouth, but before adding 

 to it the chill k, of which each Imd taken the proper quantity 



TftEE-HtTf WITH DBAO BODIEB BLS- 



