At First I Thought They Might Be
Hostile Negritos Who Resented Our Intrusion, But They Belonged To
The Tribe Of The Chief Who Was With Me, And They Were Soon Talking
To Him In Loud, Excited Voices.
Our own party soon got excited, too,
and, as may be imagined, I was longing to find out the cause of all
this excitement.
Vic soon told me the reason. It appeared that on the
previous day a large party of our Negritos had gone into the territory
of the Buquils in order to get various kinds of forest produce (as they
had often done in the past), and had been treacherously attacked by
these Buquils, and many of them killed. One of these was the brother
of a sub-chief, who now approached us, and who was, I believe, the
husband of the frenzied woman. It was a very excitable scene that
followed. I suppose one might call it a council of war. It was a
mystery to me where all the Negritos came from and how they found us
out; but they came in ones and twos till there was a huge concourse
of them present, all gathered round their chief and squatting on the
ground. About the only one who behaved sensibly was my friend the
chief. He spoke in a slow and dignified manner, but the rest worked
themselves up into a furious rage, and twanged their bowstrings,
and jumped about and fitted arrows to their bows, and pointed them at
inoffensive "papaya" trees, whilst two little boys shot small arrows
into the green and yellow fruit, seeming to catch the fever from their
elders.
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