The Skin Of An Animal Thus Killed Is, Of Course,
Worthless, And In This Case The Skull, Which I Had Begged Mr.
Ball To Secure For Me, Was Hacked To Pieces To Divide The Teeth,
Which Are Worn As Charms.
After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of the
mountain, to a village named Djapannan, which was surrounded by
several patches of forest, and seemed altogether pretty well
spited to my pursuits.
The chief of the village had prepared two
small bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard to
accommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist me as much as he
could. The weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having
fallen for several months, and there was, in consequence, a great
scarcity of insects, and especially of beetles. I therefore
devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a good set of the birds, and
succeeded in making a tolerable collection. All the peacocks we
had hitherto shot had had short or imperfect tails, but I now
obtained two magnificent specimens more than seven feet long, one
of which I preserved entire, while I kept the train only attached
to the tail of two or three others. When this bird is seen
feeding on the ground, it appears wonderful how it can rise into
the air with such a long and cumbersome train of feathers. It
does so however with great ease, by running quickly for a short
distance, and then rising obliquely; and will fly over trees of a
considerable height.
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