Only One Person Has Passed Lebunge This
Year, Except Two Officials And A Policeman.
There was still a red glow on the water, and one horn of a young
moon appeared above the
Wooded headland; but the loneliness and
isolation are overpowering, and it is enough to produce madness to
be shut in for ever with the thunder of the everlasting surf, which
compels one to raise one's voice in order to be heard. In the
wood, half a mile from the sea, there is an Aino village of thirty
houses, and the appearance of a few of the savages gliding
noiselessly over the beach in the twilight added to the ghastliness
and loneliness of the scene. The horses were unloaded by the time
I arrived, and several courteous Ainos showed me to my room,
opening on a small courtyard with a heavy gate. The room was
musty, and, being rarely used, swarmed with spiders. A saucer of
fish-oil and a wick rendered darkness visible, and showed faintly
the dark, pathetic faces of a row of Ainos in the verandah, who
retired noiselessly with their graceful salutation when I bade them
good-night. Food was hardly to be expected, yet they gave me rice,
potatoes, and black beans boiled in equal parts of brine and syrup,
which are very palatable. The cuts and bruises of yesterday became
so very painful with the cold of the early morning that I have been
obliged to remain here.
I. L. B.
LETTER XLI
A Group of Fathers - The Lebunge Ainos - The Salisburia adiantifolia-
-A Family Group - The Missing Link - Oshamambe - Disorderly Horses -
The River Yurapu - The Seaside - Aino Canoes - The Last Morning -
Dodging Europeans.
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