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

246 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

be forty years old. Everything about her is calm and
determined; while not handsome, she has such a
kind expression as to look very pleasant. She wears
a small loin-cloth, and her light coffee-coloured skin
is scrupulously clean. Around her neck and over
her left shoulder she wears a string of shells, and
around her ankles, small red heads. Near her squats
her little daughter, a pretty child of six; an adopted
daughter plays near the fire with a small, thick-bellied
orphan boy, who is always crying. The girls, too,
wear little ornaments; and their dainty movements,
curly heads, round faces and great dark eyes are
very attractive.

The midday meal is steaming under a heap of
leaves and dust, and a man is busily scraping cocoa-
nuts for the delicious cocoa-nut milk. Agelan sends
one of the girls for an unripe nut, which is opened
in three deft cuts, and I am offered the refreshing
drink as a welcome. Now Agelan, Who has been
brooding for days over these matters, questions me
as to my origin and plans, and he roars himself nearly
hoarse, for we cannot understand each other. The
other man, a fugitive from the east coast, is asked
to interpret, but he is sulky and awkward; not that
he is a bad sort, but he is sick, and spends most of
his time asleep in a shed he has built for himself in
a corner of the house, and only appears at meals.

The youngest son comes in, the last left to Agelan,
for the older ones have all joined the mission,——it is
the fashion. This boy is a quiet, cheerful lad of
twelve, already a high caste, for his father has killed