CH.VP, XXXI.] 



ff'^EAPONS OF WAR, 



471 



tliem by a few simple experiments witli lens and magnet, 

 miracles witliout end would in a few years cluster about 

 me ; and future traveller, penetrating Uy Wanunibai, would 

 hardly believe that a poor English naturalist, who had re- 

 sided a few moutlis among them, could have been tlie 

 original of the superaatural being to whom so many 

 marvels were attributed. 



For soime days I had noticed a good deal of excitement, 

 and many strangers came and went armed with spears and 

 cutlasses, bows and shields. I now found there was war 

 near ns — two neighbouring villages having a quarrel about 

 some matter of local politics tliat I could not understand. 

 They told me it was quite a common thing, and that they 

 are rarely \nthout fighting somewhere near. Individual 

 quarrels are taken up by villages and tribes, and the non- 

 papncnt of the stipulated price for a wife is one of the 

 most frequent causes of bitterness and bloodshed. One 

 of the war shields was brought me to look at. It was 

 made of rattans and covered with cotton twist, so as to be 

 both light, sti"ong, and veiy tougli. I shoidd think it 

 would resist any ordinary bnllet About the middle there 

 was an arin-hule with a shutter or tlap over it. This 

 enables the arm to be pnt through and the bow drawn, 

 whde the body and face, up to the eyes, remain protected, 

 which cannot be done if the shield is canied on the arm 

 by loops attached at the back in the ordinary way, A 

 few of the young men from our house went to help their 

 friends, but I could not hear that aay of them were hurt, 

 or that there was much hard fighting. 



May Sth.~l had now been six weeks at Wanumbai, 

 but for more than half the time was laid up in the house 

 with ulcerated feet. ^ly stores being nearly exhau.sted, 

 and my bird and insect boxes fuU, and having no imme- 

 diate prospect of getting the use of my legs again, I 

 determined on returniiig to Dobbo. Birds had lately 

 become rather scarce, and the Paradise birds bad not yet 

 become as plentiful as the natives assured me they would 

 be in another month. The Wanumbai people seemed 

 very sorry at my departure ; and well they might be, for 

 the shells and insects they picked up on the way to and 

 from their plantations, and the birds the little boys shot 



