Page:Picturesque New Guinea.djvu/208

 reply to the Secretary's whispers and dumb show. This nocturnal interview between an Oxford B.A. and a native prince is surely without precedent. I greatly regretted that the time and place afforded insuperable obstacles to my taking a picture of it. The warrior chief, in addition to his other embellishments, had more than thirty crosses tattooed on his breast and back, each of which indicates a life violently taken. We landed at Parimata shortly after ten o'clock next morning, not without difficulty, as the water is shallow, and the surf rough. Sir Peter had arranged to visit Koapenas Village, Moapa, without loss of time, as we were to start for Suau and Dinner Islands on the morrow. Our walk to Moapa, after leaving the beautiful hard beach, lay through plantations of cocoa-nut trees, the road being fringed on either side with nuts put out to sprout, forming a border two feet high. When the roots begin to penetrate the soil, they are transplanted, and fresh ones put in their places. The milk, which we quaffed abundantly at every halt, is most refreshing. Each nut contains fully a pint, and the quantity we put away I should not like to estimate. Every now and then we met troops of people engaged at the plantations, the young men bedecked with wreaths of flowers and twigs of bright crotons stuck through their armlets. My dark goggles produced a sort of terrified amazement among the women and girls, and when I took them off curiosity overcame fear, and they expressed their wonder and surprise without stint. I put them on one of our carrier boys to show that they were transferable, and he indicated by signs that he understood perfectly well that they served to guard the eyes from the glare of the sun. After a pleasant walk of about three miles, we neared the beach, the soil becoming sandy and barren, and, passing the Mission House, we came upon Moapa, a considerable village situated in a sandy flat, protected from the sea breezes by a belt of hills covered with Pandanus trees, and timber somewhat similar to the honeysuckle. The population of Moapa is about 600, and the houses, built facing each other so as to form regular streets, show an order and regularity which would not disgrace a European town. All the houses are two-storey structures, and some of them have a kind of third floor close to the ridge. The