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out of the darkness head.

At last there was a pause in the proceedings, and during the interval one of the dancers, who had been to Queensland and "savvy talk b'long you too much," approached us and said apologetically, "Now white man he go. Altogidder mary (he here indicated a group of women now beginning to form up) "he danish (dance). "Tomorra, sun he come up, planty man come makey danish, white man he come, altogidder he come."

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over- half-past seven, just as the ground and the glistening trees were beginning to be dried up by the fast ascending sun. A few natives were collected at the Emil, and on our arrival emissary small boys were sent out to announce us, and soon crowds began to flock in, many of them having come from the mainland and from other islands by canoe the evening before. It would be difficult to say how many there were. Many of them were evidently complete strangers, speaking a different dialect; some, we were told, were from the high bush of the centre of Malekula, and some even from its western coast.

It was tantalising, for here were the ladies in question exactly opposite us, intriguingly costumed in grass petticoats, their bodies covered with tassels and beads and shell jewellery of armlets and leglets, while their entire faces were painted with red-lead colour. Whether these further performances were considered to be unfit for our young eyes (as was probably the case), or whether it was shyness on the part of the corps de ballet (which was possible, but unlikely), cannot be said, but we thought it wiser not to attempt to force matters, and baling out the expected "tambakka as far as it would go round the company, we departed.

They had never seen white man before, with his quite unnecessary garments, and they felt us all over curiously, both as to the skin where it was visible, and almost especially our clothes. My own proportions, in loose white cotton garments, seemed quite gigantic to their slim nakedness, and occasioned much delight. My shorts were pulled up at the knee, and my stockings pulled down, disclosing a not immoderate, but to them enormous, pair of calves. The Queenslander who was superintending this fat-boy exhibiThe next morning was fine, tion remarked admiringly, "My but the skipper had by this word, you, you kaikai bulltime become so much interested amacow too much " (meaning, in the Maki that he decided I hasten to add, not so much not to go about our proper that I had overeaten myself, business with the sun, and sex- as that I was lucky to be able tants, and chronometers, but to get sufficient bullamacow to stay on to see the rest of to attain such proportions). it. We landed therefore at Further comments by the by

standers on the appearance of all the white man party being in the native language, were unfortunately lost to us, but they produced roars of joyous laughter from all who understood. We inquired what had been said, but merely were told, "Man-bush he laugh, he talkeum, 'Oh, bigfella man you altogidder, too much, my word '!"

But I expect the real remarks were something much more scandalous than so tamely polite a comment. In such pleasant if somewhat personal causerie we passed about half an hour. While it was proceeding, pigs had been brought to the Emil in considerable numbers, and on arrival each was daubed with large streaks of red ochre paint, apparently in token of sanctification for the coming feast.

As soon as pigs and people had all assembled, the opening performance began. A sound of chanting, soft and pleasant if wild, was heard "off" among the trees, and presently there came on to the ground a party of about sixty men, painted and feathered for the occasion.

The dancers came by in a single line at a jog-trot, every naked right foot telling, falling flatly and simultaneously on the bare ground as the line advanced. Without turning their heads even to glance at us, they went by snapping their fingers, and singing in an undertone. They made a complete tour of the Emil, passing out and in, out and in, by the various entrances through the

trees that surrounded it, and finally disappearing down that by which they had originally come on to the stage. They were soon followed by a second band of sixty or seventy men, similarly got up, prancing along with a new and higher step, also smacking the ground in time together with their bare feet. Each of these men waved aloft a large wild-banana leaf, with bright crimson midrib and stem. The scene was infinitely picturesque. The now brilliant sunshine was pouring down through the intervals in the branches overhead, and every leaf in the still wet shade beneath the trees was glittering with last night's rain, so that the feeling of dark and savage mystery that had accompanied the night dance was exchanged for one of colour and wild rejoicing.

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The passage of the second party of men completed the purgation of the dancing ground for the ceremonies to follow, for, so far as we could learn, the purpose of what we had just witnessed was the driving away of devils. Altogidder man he fight planty b'long debbleum, he send him he go quick, too much." Then began the dance. A strong party of drummers mustered at the drums, and a tripping measure was thumped out. A plumed and painted party of men appeared all in a line, bearing feathery coconut leaves, banana leaves, clubs, spears, and muskets.

They were headed by three girls in trailing grass tassels and fancy waist-cloths

of coloured matting with long fringes. Their hair was frizzed out to its farthest extent, and was adorned with fluffy tufts of white feathers in rows. Two of them had painted their faces all over with bright red paint, and one with deep purple. In their hands each girl bore a curious and graceful emblem, from the form of which we presumed that the dance was one connected with growth and increase, for it was a newly sprouted coconut. The husk had been removed from the nut, and the shell was painted in many colours and devices. The young sprouting leaves, each about four feet long, had been stripped of their feathery fronds, and the backbone of the leaf pared down till it was thin and supple as a whip-lash. There were four or five of these sprouts to each nut, and they, like the girls' hair, were decorated with little bunches of white feathers, tied on at even intervals along them. These curious young ladies, each bearing a similarly treated coconut, trod a solemn measure in front of the male mob of warriors. They passed once round the drums, and disappeared among the trees at the side. Three or four similar groups of dancing men, with girls leading them, now followed, but all differently adorned, and bearing in each case different emblems-in one case a sucking-pig.

When this was concluded, the most important stage in the proceedings of the day

VOL. CCXXI.-NO. MCCCXXXVIII.

was reached-namely, the formal offering of the sanctified pigs to their appropriate demits. Representatives of the family that was offering a pig or pigs appeared, and after a short dance and a feu de joie from their muskets, they lined up across the Emil, facing the effigy of the effigy of the ancestor. As

many young men as were necessary now seized up from the ground one or more of the sacrés cochons, which, since their daubing with red ochre, had been lying in rows with tied legs, poor brutes, not suspecting, let us hope, what was in store for them. Hugging closely in their arms the loudly expostulating sacrifices, the young men ran with them round the drums, and placed each on the ground in front of the demits to whom it was dedicated. A man then advanced with a wooden spear and stuck it into the pig, but not sufficiently deeply to kill it. Squealing horribly, and gushing blood, it was taken up and laid on the stone altar of the demits to whom it had been dedicated.

When all the pigs had been distributed a small fire was lighted in front of the altar of each demits and its still squealing or, happily, dying pig, and the ceremony was over. All, that is, except the baking of the pigs and the succeeding feast, when the demits had finished with them, which was pretty soon afterwards. For this part of the Maki we would not wait. The missionary warned us of its horrors of

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cruelty, and of the equally the other side of the world, horrible scene of gluttony that bearing our sheaves of charts would follow; scenes that not and other results with us. A even the presence of man b'long man'wa'" could prevent. We went back to the ship as quickly as possible, with the shrieks of the unfortunate pigs pursuing us as we pulled off in the boat.

These ceased shortly after we had got on board, and we heard no more than the incessant booming of the drums through the remainder of the waning day and all through the succeeding night. It was a savage and horrible ending to a day that had begun so innocently and interestingly.

The fine weather held, and on the following days we ran the postponed Meridian Distance to Efate and back to Port Stanley three times. The results worked out very satisfactorily, which was fortunate, as these days proved to be the very last of the fine weather season in the New Hebrides. We sailed for Noumea in New Caledonia, and thence to Sydney, to arrive there in the morethan-tropical temperature of Christmas - time. We felt it severely after the islands, especially as in Sydney one must be dressed as if in England, and you make a guy of yourself if you put on "whites." We bore up under it, however, remembering that in three months' time, when the "fair sheets "

were draughted and our New Hebrides survey set down definitely on paper, we were to return to our homes on

New Commission " was already being gathered together, officers and men, to relieve us, and to continue the New Hebrides survey from the point where we had stopped at Port Stanley.

After three years of the Queensland coast and the islands, to be home in April seemed to be as unbelievable as it was desirable. At the appointed date the good ship Ballarat bore us away. As she came off from the wharfside the golden ball at the end of our long "paying off pendant," hoisted at the steamer's masthead, flipped about over the heads of the see-you-off crowd assembled on Circular Quay, while the chorus of the old Dart's ship's company (now mere passengers) arose—

"The an-chor's weighed,
The an-chor's weighed,
Fare-well, (fff) Fa-a-are-well!
Remem-ber me!"

Some of them did, I know, but some perhaps didn't.

There, as we passed her, was the little Dart in Farm Cove, off with her old loves and already on with her new, as at several previous changes of commission in her fickle career. She seemed to be satisfied, and so were we. Full of wonderful memories behind, full of wonderful anticipations ahead, both of them happy, we steamed down Sydney Harbour, round the Sow and Pigs, out between the Heads-homeward bound.

THE OLDEST INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD.

BY SIDNEY ROGERSON.

IN a little town in the eastern counties of England there still lingers on an industry which was immemorially old even when Stonehenge was still fresh from the builder's hands. Difficult though this statement may be to believe, it is even more incredible that any other trade can adduce a better claim to such distinct.on than flint "knapping," or the fashioning of flint stones for domestic use.

In the unpretentious country town of Brandon, situated half in Norfolk and half in Suffolk, on the Little Ouse-once a busy navigable waterway, but now a reed-girt, weed-choked stream, the retreat of countless water-fowl and the delight of the nature lover,-" flint-knapping" was a flourishing industry thousands of years before the first page of English history was written. Brandon has played a romantic part in English history. It was on Brandon Warren, so legend relates, that Hereward the Wake, disguised as a minstrel, visited the camp of William the Conqueror. Brandon was the scene of Hereward's last stand and death.

Less than two hundred years ago, before the great eighteenthcentury reclamation of these East Anglian swamps, Hereward's stronghold of Ely was

an island in fact as well as in name. The sea came so close to Brandon that a beaconlight was kept burning on the sturdy church-tower to guide storm-driven mariners. This long arm of the sea was the treacherous Wash where in 1216 the fugitive King John lost his kingly baggage a few days before gorging himself with the surfeit of lampreys that caused his death. Though the sea is now twenty-five miles away, they still catch lampreys beneath the ancient crooked bridge which spans the river— a bridge purposely built crooked, so tradition goes, to prevent the mounted pikemen of the Middle Ages from carrying it at the charge.

Yet Brandon's true claim to fame lies not so much in its history as in its possession of the unbroken link connecting this engine-ordered twentieth century with those misty primæval ages thousands of years before history was born. Here are men still working on the same tasks, performing them by almost the identical methods as their prehistoric ancestors, countless thousands of years ago.

Typically English as Brandon is, the same cannot be said of the country around, for on at least three sides of it there stretch wide sandy wastes, des

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