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Chalmers, James, 1841-1901

"Adventures in New Guinea"


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
cut up and divided out amongst all--sixteen eggs were found in her, a
little larger than a good-sized fowl's egg.


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