e amazement and audible admiration of my new
friends. This feat I performed a second and a third time, and then led
the party to the target, that they might see for themselves how firmly
were the arrows embedded in it; and this evidently provoked in them
further admiration, for they at once plunged into an animated discussion
of the matter, some at least of them already appreciating the value of
the bow as a lethal weapon, for one of the party, admirably mimicking
the action of an ape coming up the beach, then drew an imaginary bow,
and, instantly clapping his hand over his heart, fell back in an
imitation of the death-agony.

I patted him approvingly on the shoulder, nodded, and said: "Yes, that
is the idea, old chap; that is precisely what I want you fellows to
understand," and again they seemed to comprehend me, for they all nodded
vigorously. Then, wrenching the arrows from the target, I conducted the
party back to the hundred-yard mark, and placing the bow and an arrow in
the hands of the chief, signed to him to try his hand.

Of course he made a terrible bungle of it to start with. First, he
failed to put enough strength into the pull, and the arrow flew only a
few yards; by dint of patient coaching on my part, however, he gradually
improved, and when, after practising diligently for about an hour, he
succeeded in sending an arrow as far as the target--although several
yards wide--his delight and pride knew no bounds. I then showed him
that it was possible to hit the target at double the distance; after
which I took him to the boat and presented to him the remaining seven
bows, with their sheaves of arrows, which filled the simple fellow's cup
of joy to the brim. He insisted on conducting Billy and me through the
plantations of maize and sugar-cane, directed our attention to the
orchards of fruit-trees, and finally led us to the cliffs, which I now
saw were honeycombed with rock-dwellings, and introduced us to his own
particular mansion, which was a cave of some twelve feet wide by twenty
feet deep, very stuffy and malodorous. Here we were entertained to a
luncheon of boiled green maize cobs, and several varieties of delicious
fruits. His household consisted of an elderly woman whom I conjectured
to be his mother, two young men who, I understood, were his sons, and
five girls who might be either his wives or his daughters. When at
length we were able to effect our escape from his rather pressing
hospitali