palms. These
rattans, of which there were three double strings, are twisted in
such a way as to support the pieces of wood which form the steps. In
one case a ladder led from the ground in the usual way to a house
built in a small tree about thirty feet from the ground, but a second
ladder connected this house with another one in a much larger tree
about eighty feet off the ground. I climbed the first ladder, but
the second one swayed too much.

These tree-houses axe built partly as look-out houses, from which the
approach of the enemy is discovered, and partly as vantage points
from which the natives hurl down spears at their opponents below
when attacked.

Resuming our journey, after a brief halt in this village, we soon
came to the Barigi River again, which we crossed, camping in a small
deserted village close by. Here I noticed several more tree-houses in
the larger trees. This had been a very hot day, even for New Guinea,
and I could not resist taking a most refreshing bathe in the river,
though I must confess I was glad to get out again, having rather a
dread of the crocodiles, which infest parts of this river, though
they were not nearly so numerous up here as in the lower reaches of
the river which we had traversed in the morning.

We were up the following morning before sunrise, and were all
much excited at the prospect before us of discovering this curious
tribe. This day would show whether or no our journey was to prove
fruitless. Soon after leaving the village we entered a dense forest,
the growth of which was wonderfully beautiful. Tall _pandanus_
trees, some of them supported by a hundred and more long stilted
roots, which rose many feet above our heads, reared their crowns of
ribbon-like leaves above even some of the giants of the forest. Palms
of all shapes and sizes, dwarfed, tall, slender and thick, surrounded
us on every side, and at least three different species of climbing
palms scrambled over the tallest trees. The tree trunks were hidden
by climbing ferns and by a white variegated fleshy-leafed _pothos._
Orchids, though not numerous, were by no means scarce on the branches
of some of the larger trees, and were intermixed with many curious and
beautiful ferns. There were many large-leafed tropical plants somewhat
resembling the _heliconias_ and _marantas_ of tropical America.

Flowers were not very plentiful, but here and there the forest
would be literally ablaze with what is said to be the