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

64 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

We gave them to understand that they must first put
down their muskets, and when they hesitated we
cocked our rifles and waited. Some of them Went
back to the forest and laid down their guns, while the
others sat down at a distance and watched. We
promptly put down our rifles, approached and showed
our trade-goods——tobacco, matches, clay pipes and
calico. Hesitating, suspicious, yet tempted, they
crowded round the boat and offered their yams,
excitedly shouting and gesticulating, talking and
laughing. They had quite enormous yams, which
they traded for one or two sticks of tobacco or as
many pipes. Matches and calico were not much in
demand. Our visitors were mostly well-built, medium-
sized men of every age, and looked very savage and
dangerous. They were nearly naked, but for a belt
of bark around their waists, about 20 cm. wide,
which they wore wound several times around their
bodies, so that it stood out like a thick ring. Over
this they had bound narrow ribbons of braided fibres,
dyed in red patterns, the ends of the ribbons falling
down in large tassels. Under this belt is stuck the
end of the enormous nambas, also consisting of red
grass fibres. Added to this scanty dress are small
ornaments, tortoise—shell ear—rings, bamboo combs,
bracelets embroidered with rings of shell and cocoa-
nut, necklaces, and thin bands bound under the knees
and over the ankles.

The beautiful, lithe, supple bodies support a
head covered with long, curly hair, and the face is
framed by a long and fairly well-kept heard. The