Amongst The
Palm Family New To Me Was A Very Beautiful LICUALA, Perhaps The Most
Beautiful Of All Fan-Leaved
Palms, and a climbing palm, one of the
rattans (KORTHALZIA sp.), with pinkish stems and leaves resembling
a gigantic maidenhair
Fern, which looked very beautiful scrambling
over the trees, together with two or three other species of rattans.
Our combined force was over two hundred strong, the Notus leading the
way, then came most of the police, then we three white men, then more
police, and our Kaili-kaili, Arifamu and Okeina carriers brought up
the rear bearing our tents, baggage and bags of rice.
As we wended our way down the narrow track there were several moments
of excitement, and the Notus several times fell back on to us in alarm,
but their fears seemed groundless.
We continued our march for many hours, and just as we came to the
end of a long bit of forest, the Notus came rushing back on to us in
great confusion. We soon learned the reason. At the end of a grassy
stretch of country was a village surrounded by a thick grove of coconut
and betel-nut palms, and some of the enemy's scouts had been seen,
and we heard their distant war-cry, a prolonged "ooh-h-h, ah-h-h,"
which was particularly thrilling, uttered as it was by great numbers of
voices. The Notus all huddled together, then replied in like language,
but their cry did not seem to possess the same defiant ring as that
of the Doboduras.
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