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

SANTO—PYGMIES I 69

husband with a look of the greatest confidence, the
old lady consented shyly, while he stood beside her
as if it was an everyday event to him, and a sort of
tribute I was paying to his age and position and the
beauty of his wife.

From this point I had a fine View of the cascade
that fell down in a wide silver ribbon through the
forest. Some months later all that wild scenery was
destroyed by an earthquake, which caused many land-
slides and spoilt the cascade. Following the roaring
river, jumping from one block of stone to another,
we soon reached our camp, a large gamal. As we
were nearing the coast its arrangements were adapted
to the customs of the tall Melanesians. There were
a few small individuals, but the tall race was pre-
dominant. The reign of the “ Suque ” was evident by
the floor of the gamal being divided by parallel sticks

into compartments corresponding to the number of
I fires and castes, and each man sat down in his division
and cooked his own food.

Next day, after having waded through the cold
water of the river, we arrived at the coast. From
‘ the last hills I sent a farewell look into the wild
green tangle of forest, rocks, ravines, cascades and
valleys, over which heavy rain-clouds were gathering.
Before me the greyish-blue mirror of Big Bay lay
in the mist, and in the Jordan valley the rain fell
heavily. The high reed-grass all around us rustled
dismally, and the damp cold was depressing. I
hurried home and arrived there in the night, wet as
when I had started on my expedition.