[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

PORT OLRY AND A “SING-SING” 119

which generally decay afterwards. Often the widow
had to sleep beside the decaying body for one

hundred days.
Being short of boys, I could not visit many of

the villages inland, and I stayed on at the mission
station, where there was generally something for
me to do, as the natives frequently came loitering
about the station. I made use of their presence as
much as possible for anthropological measurements,
but I could not always find willing subjects. Every-
thing depends on the humour of the crowd; if they
make fun of the first victim, the case is lost, as no
second man is willing to be the butt of the in-
numerable gibes showered on the person under the
instruments. Things are more favourable if it is
only fear of some dangerous enchantment that holds
them back, for then persuasion and liberal gifts of
tobacco generally overcome their fears. The best
subjects are those who pretend to understand the
scientific meaning of the operation, or the utterly
indifferent, who never think about it at all, are quite
surprised to be suddenly presented with tobacco,
and go home, shaking their heads over the many
queer madnesses of white men. I took as many
photographs as- possible, and my pictures made
quite a sensation. Once, when I showed his portrait
to one of the dandies with the oiled and curled wig,
he ran away with a cry of terror at his undreamt-
Of ugliness, and returned after a short while with
his hair cut.. His deformed nose, however, resisted
all attempts at restoration.