ing camp. Poaching is one of the things punishable
with death, and even if any woman is caught hunting for food in another
country she is seized and punished. I will tell you later on how even
Yamba "put her foot" in it in this way.

The blacks are marvellously clever at tracking a man by his footprints,
and a poacher from a neighbouring tribe never escapes their vigilance,
even though he succeeds in returning to his own people without being
actually captured. So assiduously do these blacks study the footprints
of people they know and are friendly with, that they can tell at once
whether the trespasser is an enemy or not; and if it be a stranger, a
punitive expedition is at once organised against his tribe.

Gradually I came to think that each man's track must have an
individuality about it quite as remarkable as the finger-prints
investigated by Galton and Bertillon. The blacks could even tell a man's
name and many other things about him, solely from his tracks--how, it is
of course impossible for me to say. I have often known my blacks to
follow a man's track _over hard rocks_, where even a disturbed leaf
proved an infallible clue, yielding a perfectly miraculous amount of
information. They will know whether a leaf has been turned over by the
wind or by human agency!

But to continue my narrative. Yamba was very anxious that I should stay
and make my home among her people, and so, with the assistance of other
women, she built me a substantial beehive-shaped hut, fully twenty feet
in diameter and ten feet high. She pointed out to me earnestly that I
had everything I could possibly wish for, and that I might be a very
great man indeed in the country if only I would take a prominent part in
the affairs of the tribe. She also mentioned that so great was my
prowess and prestige, that if I wished I might take unto myself a whole
army of wives!--the number of wives being the sole token of greatness
among these people. You see they had to be fed, and that implied many
great attributes of skill and strength. Nevertheless, I pined for
civilisation, and never let a day go by without scanning the bay and the
open sea for a passing sail. The natives told me they had seen ships at
various times, and that attempts had even been made to reach them in
catamarans, but without success, so far out at sea were the vessels
passing.

Gradually, about nine months after my strange return to my Cambridge Gulf
home, there came a