nmity, more clever and industrious, and not
so sleepy.

Assisted by my excellent guide, I set about collecting, which was not
always a simple matter. I was very anxious to procure a "bull-roarer,"
and made my man ask for one, to the intense surprise of the others;
how could I have known of the existence of these secret and sacred
utensils? The men called me aside, and begged me never to speak
of this to the women, as these objects are used, like many others,
to frighten away the women and the uninitiated from the assemblies
of the secret societies. The noise they make is supposed to be the
voice of a mighty and dangerous demon, who attends these assemblies.

They whispered to me that the instruments were in the men's house,
and I entered it, amid cries of dismay, for I had intruded into their
holy of holies, and was now standing in the midst of all the secret
treasures which form the essential part of their whole cult. However,
there I was, and very glad of my intrusion, for I found myself in a
regular museum. In the smoky beams of the roof there hung half-finished
masks, all of the same pattern, to be used at a festival in the near
future; there was a set of old masks, some with nothing left but
the wooden faces, while the grass and feather ornaments were gone;
old idols; a face on a triangular frame, which was held particularly
sacred; two perfectly marvellous masks with long noses with thorns,
carefully covered with spider-web cloth. This textile is a speciality
of Ambrym, and serves especially for the preparation and wrapping of
masks and amulets. Its manufacture is simple: a man walks through the
woods with a split bamboo, and catches all the innumerable spider-webs
hanging on the trees. As the spider-web is sticky, the threads cling
together, and after a while a thick fabric is formed, in the shape
of a conical tube, which is very solid and defies mould and rot. At
the back of the house, there stood five hollow trunks, with bamboos
leading into them. Through these, the men howl into the trunk, which
reverberates and produces a most infernal noise, well calculated to
frighten others besides women. For the same purpose cocoa-nut shells
were used, which were half filled with water, and into which a man
gurgled through a bamboo. All this was before my greedy eyes, but I
could obtain only a very few articles. Among them was a bull-roarer,
which a man sold me for a large sum, trembling violently with fear,
and beseech