Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/104

 *surement of distance being generally liberal, I should suppose it double that distance. Their descent at this time to the plains, was to help in gathering in the present crop of uncut rice, for which purpose the owners of the fields had asked them to come down. The man appeared to be about five feet in height, remarkable for lightness and suppleness of limb, with the piercing and restless eye that is said to be peculiar to savages. His countenance was round and happy; the expression had both cunning and simplicity; the nose depressed between the eyes, and altogether a face that one laughed to look at. His black hair drawn tight up in a knot on the very top of the head, the ends fastened in with a wooden comb. His only clothing a small piece of linen bound around his middle. He carried a bow of hill bamboo, the string of which was formed out of the twisted rind of the bamboo, and the four arrows were of the common reed, headed with iron barbs of different shapes; one of the barbs was poisoned. The hill-man said he had bought the poison into which the barb had been dipped of a more remote hill tribe, and was ignorant of its nature: he begged us not to handle the point. The natives will not mention the name of the plant from which the poison is procured; it appears to be a carefully-guarded secret. On each arrow were strips of feather from the wing of the vulture. The boy was similarly dressed, and armed. The woman, who carried the child, appeared to be the favourite from the number of ornaments on her person. She was extremely small in stature, but fat and well-looking. Unlike the women of the plains, she wore no covering on her head, and but little on her body. Two or three yards of cloth were around her waist, and descended half way below the knees; whilst a square of the same was tied over her shoulders like a monkey mantle; passed under the left arm it was drawn over the bosom, and the ends tied on the shoulder of the right arm. Her hair was tied up in the same fashion as the man's. Around the rim of each ear were twenty-three thin ear-rings of brass; and three or four necklaces of red and white beads hung down to her waist in gradations. Her nose-ring was moderately large in circumference, but very heavy, pulling