Arrival at Torong-Yauwise. 
147 
of tombstones we found notliing but the most extraordinary forms of 
granite needles and slalts rising, some higher, soine loAver, above the sur- 
face of tlie ground. It was a iiity that Sororeng had hurried off l>efore us 
and couhl not interpret the legends wliich seemed to liave attaelied them- 
selves to this peculiar rocky region and which the old chieftain had, 
unasked, related to us straight off the reel without stopping, ))ut of whicli 
we could unfortunately only understand a few odds and ends. From out 
of this rocky area so full of myth and wonder, we clind>ed once more a 
timbered range of hills up to the other side of which the provision fields 
of the Torong-Yauwise people extended. The cobs had already been reap- 
ed, and the cassava plantation was inconsiderable. 
.360. On emerging fr-om a small valley we saw on one of the hills cross- 
ways ahead of us, the settlement situate between several isolated trees 
which seemed to be decked witli unusually large l»right yellow flowers. 
My hopes of a new botanical discovery were already raised, when' I sud- 
denl.v saw the supposed Idooms all on the move and shifting their places 
- — they were tame kessi-kessi pari'ots that had sliifted (|ua)'ters with a 
devilish noise on our approach and^ flown to one of llie neigid)0uriug 
houses. The illusion was extraordinary. Torong-Yauwise consisted of four 
liouses: its residents, some 50 in number, standing together in groups, 
were expecting us. The men came forward and shook hands : tlie women 
and children, shy and tinvid, held back in the distance, but were unable 
to refrain from laugliing at our apytearance as a whole. If we looked 
ridiculous to them, they must have thought they saw goodness only knows 
what evil spirits in both oui' negroes, for these liad only to put one foot 
forward than the wliole of the younger folk took to flight, with everv 
sign of a panic, and hid tliemselves beliind the rocks near liy. 
•301. We had already anticipated from our visitois in the cam]i at 
Waikueh that fine figures with intelligent and pleasant featurc^s might 
not be quite the general rule at Torong-Yauwise: now that we could see 
tlie whole population of the village grouped around us. what we Imd pre- 
sumed turned out to l)e a fact. With the exception of the old chief and a 
few of the younger men and women, the inhabitants of Torong-Yauwise 
had the ugliest faces T had ever seen: marked racial siuiilarity stood out 
nrominently in a certain idiotic expression which Avas only increased 1)V 
tlie long black unkempt hair hanging down over the shoulders. For repul- 
siveness, a middle-aged man took the palm with a facial angle that could 
hardly liave measured 06 degrees in profile: I thought every minute that 
a monkey was in fi'ont of me. The chief's promise to accommodate us in 
the largest and most durable of the houses was honourably fulfilled : Soro- 
reng had already neatly packed our baggage inside close to the liuge 
heaped-up supplies of maize. According to the old man's assurance, cas- 
sava only prospered very slightly on the mountains, and that was why the 
inhabitants chiefiy had recourse to maize which grows so luxuriantly. 
They bake their bread out of a mixture of Manihot and maize-mi\al : 
yams, potatoes, many pumpkins and very excellent water-melons c(uisti- 
tute the remaining agricultural products. 
362. As we became a little more conversant with our immediate sur- 
roundings, and every single one of us sought a place to fix his hammock, 
