ht, was very
busy again, giving each guest his due share of the feast. The large
pigs were dressed, cut up and cooked. This work lasted all day, but
everybody enjoyed it. The dexterity and cleanliness with which the
carcases are divided is astonishing, and is quite a contrast to the
crude way in which native meals are usually dressed and devoured. We
whites received a large and very fat slice as a present, which we
preferred to pass on, unnoticed, to our boys. Fat is considered the
best part of the pig.

The lower jaws of the tuskers were cut out separately and handed over
to Palo, to be cleaned and hung up in his gamal in the shape of a
chandelier, as tokens of his rank.

Palo is a weather-maker. When we prepared to go home, he promised to
smooth the sea, which was running too high for comfort, and to prevent
a head-wind. We were duly grateful, and, indeed, all his promises were
fulfilled: we had a perfectly smooth sea, and such a dead calm that
between the blue sky and the white sea we nearly fainted, and had to
row wearily along instead of sailing. Just as we were leaving, Palo
came to the bank, making signs for us to come back, a pretty custom,
although it is not always meant sincerely.

Late at night we arrived at home once more.

CHAPTER X

CLIMBING SANTO PEAK

Some days later I left Talamacco for Wora, near Cape Cumberland,
a small station of Mr. D.'s, Mr. F.'s neighbour. What struck me most
there were the wide taro fields, artificially irrigated. The system
of irrigation must date from some earlier time, for it is difficult to
believe that the population of the present day, devoid as they are of
enterprise, should have laid it out, although they are glad enough to
use it. The method employed is this: Across one of the many streams
a dam of great boulders is laid, so that about the same amount of
water is constantly kept running into a channel. These channels are
often very long, they skirt steep slopes and are generally cut into
the earth, sometimes into the rock; sometimes a little aqueduct is
built of planks, mud and earth, supported by bamboo and other poles
that stand in the valley. In the fields the channel usually divides
into several streams, and runs through all the flat beds, laid out in
steps, in which the taro has only to be lightly stuck to bring forth
fruit in about ten months. Taro only grows in very swampy ground,
some varieties only under water, so that it cannot be grown in the