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

128 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

bearing, but the proprietors had every reason to
expect a very considerable income in a few years.
The cultivation of the cocoa-nut is extremely simple ;
the only hard work is the first clearing of the ground,
and keeping the young trees free from lianas. Once
they are grown up, they are able to keep down
the bush themselves to a certain extent, and then
the work consists in picking up the ripe nuts from
the ground, husking and drying them. The net
profit from one tree is estimated at one shilling
per annum. Besides the cultivation of their planta-
tion the Messrs. Th. plied a flourishing trade in coprah
and sandalwood all along the west coast of Santo, which
they visited frequently in their cutter. This same
cutter was often a great help to me, and, indeed,
her owners always befriended me in the most
generous way, and many are the pleasant hours I
spent in their company.

After dinner that first day we went to the village
where the “sing-sing” was to take place. There
was no moon, and the night was pitch dark. The
boys had made torches of palm-leaves, which they
kept burning by means of constant swinging. They
flared up in dull, red flames, lighting up the nearest
surroundings, and we wound our way upwards
through the trunk vines and leaves that nearly
shut in the path. It seemed as if we were groping
about without a direction, as if looking for a match
in a dark room. Soon, however, we heard the
dull sound of the drums, and the noise led us to
the plateau, till we could see the red glare of a