Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers

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understand them. It is very convenient at times not to understand what
is said--it is thoroughly native. We have been asking them if they will
receive teachers, and they all say yes, and at once, for it means
tomahawks, knives, and salt. They say, "To-morrow we'll all go and get
the two teachers at Munikahila and bring them here now." We here are in
excellent health and spirits; a little disappointed at not being able to
cross. Certainly we have not lived on the best, and we have camped
anywhere. I like these mountaineers--free, independent, and kind. When
they cook taro, if near, we get a hot taro to eat, and often they bring
hot taro to the house. They bring their presents of taro and sugar-cane
and at once walk away. They have very good houses, thatched with grass,
some with a verandah on two sides, and all built six feet and more from
the ground. When we were away yesterday, a wild boar from the bush took
possession of the village. Often when the natives are in the bush they
have to seek refuge in climbing trees from the savage tuskers, especially
if they have been speared, and are determined to fight. Our flag is
flying, to signify that it is "resting day."
The natives very seldom bury their dead, leaving the body in a house set
apart for it, which they often visit. When a number of deaths take
place, they leave the village and settle somewhere else not far off.
There is one grave here, near to our house, on which a tobacco plant is
growing, a bamboo pipe, the property of the deceased, alongside, and a
few sticks on end with yams on top. When they do bury, the body is
placed standing in the grave.
4_th_.--We left Kenakagara this morning, accompanied by natives. Our
friends soon left us, and we lost our way, and after some hours'
travelling found ourselves in a thick bush and surrounded by precipices.
It has been up hill and down dale with a vengeance, trying hard to get to
the south-west. At last, wet through and thoroughly tired, we camped to