fully before any step was taken that he sailed to the very
island. I do not mean that it is wonderful to find an orchid on the first
day's search when once its habitat is known. Dendrobiums cover a great
tract of land. It is the nicety of calculation ten thousand miles away
which should be admired.

There were no plants, however, just around the little port. After some
days spent in making arrangements, Micholitz received an intimation that
the chiefs were going to a feast and he might accompany them; there is no
lack of interpreters on that coast, whence so many poor wretches are
enticed to English or French colonies--some of whom return nowadays. The
Captain could not go. In refusing he looked at Micholitz with a quizzical,
hesitating air, as though inclined to make a revelation.

'Is there any danger?' Micholitz asked.

'Oh no! not a bit!--not a bit of danger! I answer for that. You'll be
amused, I daresay. They're rum chaps.'

The chance of making a trip beyond the narrow friendly area in safety was
welcome, and at daylight he started with the chiefs. It was but a few
hours' paddling--to the next bay. The feast was given, as is usual, to
celebrate the launch of a war-prau. In martial panoply the guests
embarked, paint and feathers, spears and clubs. They were met by their
hosts in the same guise upon the beach. After ceremonies probably--but I
have no description--all squatted down in a circle, and a personage,
assumed to be the priest, howled for a while. Then the warriors began to
dance, two by two. It was very wearisome, and besides, very hot. Micholitz
asked at length whether he might leave. The interpreter said there was no
objection. He walked towards the forest, which stood some distance back,
even as a wall, skirting the snowy beach. The grey huts of the village
glimmered among palms and fruit-trees on one hand.

A sunken way had been dug from the edge of the surf to a long low building
a hundred yards back; within it lay the prau doubtless, ready to be
launched. Micholitz skirted this channel. He noticed a curious group of
persons sitting apart--an old man, two women, a boy, and a girl. The
elders were squatting motionless upon the sand, so bowed that the long
wool drooping hid their faces; the children lay with their heads in the
women's laps. None looked up; in passing he observed that these latter
were bound.

The boat-house--so to call it--spanning the channel, was a hundred feet
long, built of pa