atrocity stood up and embraced
me, and asked me to show him my firearms. His fierce eyes gleamed
with pleasure as he turned them about in his filthy paws, and he was
especially pleased with the size of a Sharp's rifle cartridge and bullet
which would, he grinned, 'make big fellow hole in man.' Then, with
further expressions of goodwill on both sides, we parted.

At dusk Parker bade me good-bye, and urging me to put the utmost
confidence in Bobaran and drink plenty of gin whenever it rained--to
keep the fever from 'gettin' holt' of my system--he walked down to the
beach and stepped into the boat. For a few minutes I stood watching till
he was hidden from view by a point of land, and then, feeling somewhat
depressed at my future loneliness, I walked back to the house.

Bobaran, the Mesdames Bobaran (three), and the Masters and Misses
Bobaran were sitting on the verandah awaiting me. None of them were as
much dressed as their father, who had, as I have said, a leather belt
around his loins, and all were chewing betel-nut and expectorating the
scarlet juice thereof vigorously about the premises. Being aware of the
fact that a New Britain woman is never abroad at night, and a man but
seldom, I was surprised at such a family gathering, for the village was
some distance away. Bobaran, however, explained that as he and two
of his sons intended keeping guard for me that night, the rest of the
family had come with them--and that they should like some tobacco.

Leaving his wives and children outside to smoke, my protector came
into the sitting-room, and as he had acquired a considerable amount of
unpolished sailor man's English, I found him very entertaining and also
instructive. First he told me that the Kabaira people were perfectly
safe; it was a very peaceful village, and the people liked white men,
and he hoped I would not carry arms whenever I went out--it made them
frightened, and when people were frightened of a man they naturally
tried to kill him. Agreed to. Secondly, they were not cannibals--all
their neighbours were, however. (I said I was pleased to hear it, no
doubt someone had maligned them.) But they were all thieves, and I must
take prompt action to prevent myself from being robbed--(here one of his
wives crept to the door on all fours and asked her lord and master for
a match, but was struck with great violence in the mouth with an empty
salmon tin instead, for interrupting). To-morrow I should do as 'Parka'
d