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

212 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

at a festival in the near future; there was a set of
old masks, some with nothing left but the wooden
faces, while the grass and feather ornaments were
gone; old idols; a face on a triangular frame, which
was held particularly sacred; two perfectly marvellous
masks with long noses with thorns, carefully covered
with spider-web cloth. This textile is a speciality
of Ambrym, and serves especially for the preparation
and wrapping of masks and amulets. Its manufacture
is simple: a man walks through the woods with a
split bamboo, and catches all the innumerable spider-
webs hanging on the trees. As the spider—web is
sticky, the threads cling together, and after a While
a thick fabric is formed, in the shape of a conical
tube, which is very solid and defies mould and rot.
At the back of the house, there stood five hollow
trunks, with bamboos leading into them. Through
these, the men how] into the trunk, which re-
verberates and produces a most infernal noise, well
calculated to frighten others besides women. For
the same purpose cocoa-nut shells were used, which
were half fiLLED with water, and into which a man
gurgled through a bamboo. All this was before
my greedy eyes, but I could obtain only a very few
articles. Among them was a bull-roarer, which a
man sold me for a large sum, trembling violently
with fear, and beseeching me not to show it to
anybody. He wrapped it up so carefully, that the
small object made an immense parcel. Some of
the masks are now used for fun; the men put them
on and run through the forest, and have the right