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H. Wilfrid Walker - Wanderings Among South Sea Savages
that Monckton and I agreed no painting could do them justice. It is sometimes known as the
DALBERTIA, but its botanical name is MUCUNA BENNETTI. It has been found impossible to
introduce it into cultivation. Among other flowers were some very large sweet-scented CRINUM lilies
and some very pretty pink flowering BEGONIAS, with their leaves beautifully mottled with silver. Here
and there we would notice a variegated CROTON or pink-leafed DRACAENA, but these were
uncommon.
As we proceeded, I noticed that in spite of the very dry weather we had been having, the ground each
moment became more moist, which indicated that we were approaching the swamps we had heard about.
It was a rough track over fallen trees and dry streams, but before long we passed along the banks of a
creek full of stagnant water.
We at length left the forest and found ourselves in open country, covered with reeds and rank grass,
through which we slowly wended our way. Suddenly, however, we halted, and looking through the tall
grass, saw some of the houses of the Agai Ambu tribe close at hand. Down we all crouched, hiding
ourselves among the grass, while two of our Baruga guides, who speak the language of the Agai Ambu,
went forward to try and parley with them and induce them to be friendly with us. We soon heard them
yelling out to the Agai Ambu, who yelled back in reply. This went on for some minutes, when the
Baruga men called out to us to come on.
Jumping up, we rushed forward through the grass and witnessed a remarkable scene. In front of us was a
lake thickly covered with water-lilies, most of them long-stemmed and of a very beautiful blue, with a
yellow centre, and with large leaves, the edges of which were covered with a kind of thorn; there were
also some white ones with yellow centre.
On the other side of the lake were several curious houses built on long poles in the water, the houses
themselves being a good height above the water. The lake presented a scene of great confusion. The
inhabitants were fleeing away from us in their curious canoes, which, unlike most Papuan canoes, had no
outrigger whatever. Their paddles also were peculiar, the blades being very broad. Close to us were our
two Baruga guides in a canoe with one of the Agai Ambu tribe, who directly he saw us plunged into the
lake and disappeared under the tangled masses of water lilies.
He remained under some time, but on his coming to the surface again, one of the Baruga men plunged in
after him, and we witnessed an exciting wrestling match in the water. The Baruga man was by far the
more powerful of the two, but he was no match for the almost amphibious Agai Ambu, who slipped
away from his grasp like an eel, and swam away, with the Baruga man in close pursuit. All this time a
canoe full of the Agai Ambu was rapidly approaching to the rescue, waving their paddles over their
heads, and the Baruga man, seeing this, climbed back into his canoe and paddled back to us.
Meanwhile the police had made a rush for a canoe which was close at hand; but it at once upset, having
no outrigger and being exceedingly light and thin; it was, in fact, a species of canoe quite new to our
police. In any case they would not have had the slightest chance of overtaking the fleet Agai Ambu in
their own canoes. It looked very much as if after all we were not to have the chance of verifying the
strange reports about the formation of these people. As a last resource we sent over our two Baruga
guides in a canoe to speak with those of the tribe who had not fled. As the guides approached they
shouted out that we were friends, and that as we were friends of the Baruga tribe, we must be friends of
the Agai Ambu tribe as well.
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