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

188 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

hardly ever tasted rice or tinned meat, were delighted.
One old hag actually made me a declaration of love,
which, unfortunately, I could not respond to in the same
spirit.

Night crept across the wide sea, and a golden
sunset was followed by a long afterglow. Far away
on the softly shining silver we saw a sail, small as a
fly, that drifted slowly seaward and was swallowed up
by the darkness, from which the stars emerged one
by one. The women had disappeared in the huts;
the men were sitting outside, around the fires, and,
thinking I was asleep, talked about me in biche la mar.

First they wondered why a man should care to
climb up a mountain simply to come down again; and
my boys told them of all my doings, about my collect—
ing curios and skulls, of my former wanderings and
the experiences we had had, and how often the others
had tried to shoot me, etc. In short, I found out a
great many things I had never known, and I shivered
a little at hearing what I had escaped, if all the boys
said was true. At last, when I had been sufficiently dis-
cussed, which was long after midnight, they lay down,
each beside a small fire, and snored into the cool, clear
night.

The following morning was brilliantly fine. We
took a hearty leave of our hosts, and raced, singing
and shouting, down the steep hills, and so home.
The fine weather was at an end. The sky was
cloudy, the barometer fell and a thin rain pierced
everything. Two days later the steamer arrived, and
I meant to go aboard, but a heavy swell from the