hly, Bastin, who was rather clever at this kind of thing, managed
to trap four fish weighing two or three pounds apiece, wading into the
water to do so. It was curious to observe with what ease he adapted
himself to the manners and customs of primeval man, so much so, indeed,
that Bickley remarked that if he could believe in re-incarnation, he
would be absolutely certain that Bastin was a troglodyte in his last
sojourn on the earth.

However this might be, Bastin's primeval instincts and abilities were of
the utmost service to us. Before we had been many days on that island
he had built us a kind of native hut or house roofed with palm leaves in
which, until provided with a better, as happened afterwards, we ate and
he and Bickley slept, leaving the tent to me. Moreover, he wove a net
of palm fibre with which he caught abundance of fish, and made
fishing-lines of the same material (fortunately we had some hooks) which
he baited with freshwater mussels and the insides of fish. By means of
these he secured some veritable monsters of the carp species that proved
most excellent eating. His greatest triumph, however, was a decoy which
he constructed of boughs, wherein he trapped a number of waterfowl. So
that soon we kept a very good table of a sort, especially after he
had learned how to cook our food upon the native plan by means of hot
stones. This suited us admirably, as it enabled Bickley and myself to
devote all our time to archaeological and other studies which did not
greatly interest Bastin.

By the time that we got back to camp it was drawing towards evening,
so we cooked our food and ate, and then, thoroughly exhausted, made
ourselves as comfortable as we could and went to sleep. Even our
marvelous experiences could not keep Bickley and myself from sleeping,
and on Bastin such things had no effect. He accepted them and that was
all, much more readily than we did, indeed. Triple-armed as he was in
the mail of a child-like faith, he snapped his fingers at evil spirits
which he supposed the Sleepers to be, and at everything else that other
men might dread.

Now, as I have mentioned, after our talk with Marama, although we did
not think it wise to adventure ourselves among them again at present, we
had lost all fear of the Orofenans. In this attitude, so far as Marama
himself and the majority of his people were concerned, we were quite
justified, for they were our warm friends. But in the case of the
sorcerers, the