mouth. In the
early morning thousands of metallic green and cream-coloured pigeons
and large green doves came to feed on the golden yellow fruit of a
species of fig tree (_Ficus_), which grew on the edge of the forest
near the chief's hut. They made a tremendous noise, fluttering and
squeaking as they fought over the tempting looking fruit.

We took five Negritos to carry the rice and my baggage--two men,
two women, and a boy. The women, though not much more than girls,
were apportioned the heaviest loads; the men saw to that, and looked
indignant when I made them reduce the girls' loads. As we continued
on our journey, I noticed that our five Negrito carriers were joined
by several others all well armed with bows and extra large bundles of
arrows, and on my asking Vic the reason, he told me that these Buquils
we were going to visit were very treacherous, and our Negritos would
never venture amongst them unless in a strong body. As we went along
the narrow track in single file some of the Negritos would suddenly
break forth into song or shouting, and as they would yell (as if in
answer to each other) all along the line, I could not help envying them
the extreme health and happiness which the very sound of it seemed to
express; my own head meanwhile feeling as if about to split. I shall
never forget that walk up and down the steepest tracks, where in some
places a slip would have meant a fall far down into a gorge below. If
Vic was to be believed, I was the first white man to try that track,
and I would not like to recommend it to any others. Deep ravines, that
if one could only have spanned with a bridge one could have crossed in
five minutes or less, took us fully an hour to go down and up again,
and I could never have got down some of them except for being able
to hang on to bushes, trees and long grass. Whenever we passed a
Negrito hut we took a short rest. My Negritos, however, wanted to
make it a long one, as they seemed to be very fond of yarning, and
when I insisted on their hurrying on, Vic got frightened and declared
they might clear out and leave us, which would certainly have been
a misfortune. At length we arrived at a chief's hut, where we had
arranged to spend the night. It was situated at the top of a tall,
grassy peak, from which I got a wonderful view of the surrounding
country: steep wooded gorges and precipices surrounded us on all
sides, and in the distance the flat country from whence we had come,