Adventures in New Guinea James Chalmers

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to get tobacco and salt, their hopes are futile. We reached the village,
and Oriope did all he possibly could to keep us. No, on we will go; his
sleepy boys may sleep on. We gave him and his little grandchild who
accompanied him presents, bade him good-bye, and away.
6_th_.--Here, and in all the villages we have been, we have seen very few
women and girls, and very few of the young men seem to be married. Do
they kill the girls when born?
7_th_.--Left this morning for a mountain close by, hoping to see the
windings of the Laroki from it. We had to descend 1000 feet, and then
ascend 1800. From the droppings about, I should say the cassowary and
pig abound in the gullies about this mountain. We found on the top a
deserted village and five cocoanut-trees. We could make nothing of the
Laroki, because of thick bush on top. We saw that the Munikahila creek
flows west and south, until, due north of this, it turns sharp and flows
north-by-east and falls into the Goldie. We reached camp with thoroughly
whetted appetites, and enjoyed breakfast and dinner of pigeons and taro.
We call the mountain Mount Elsie. It is north of Vetura, and west and
south of Keninumu. We have seen four new villages close to one another
where a teacher could work well. We have now five positions for
teachers, and I hope before we have finished with this inland trip to
have thirty, giving four and five villages to each teacher. In crossing
one of the spurs, a native and his son brought us bananas, and water in a
bamboo. It is difficult to drink out of a bamboo. Place the open end to
the mouth, raise gradually, look out, here it comes--steady. Ah, too
much raised; it is a deluge streaming over you and nearly choking you.
Try again--well, a little better, yet far from perfect. Choking, are
you? Never mind, practise, and you will soon be an expert--a native in
drinking, truly. The natives have been having a feast. They began with
boiled bananas and finished with a large snake cooked in pots. It was