. Wanderings among South sea savages and in Borneo and the Philippines. d wild and savage though thesinger was, the song appealed to me more thanany other song has ever done. It looked as if hemight be a neer-do-weel or an idiot whom hisfriends could afford to experiment with beforetaking the risk of coming over themselves,but his song was no doubt a farewell to hisfriends, whom he possibly never expected to seeagain. He certainly looked horribly frightened as hestepped out of the canoe. We at once saw thatthere was some truth in the reports about thephysical formation of these people, althoug
. Wanderings among South sea savages and in Borneo and the Philippines. d wild and savage though thesinger was, the song appealed to me more thanany other song has ever done. It looked as if hemight be a neer-do-weel or an idiot whom hisfriends could afford to experiment with beforetaking the risk of coming over themselves,but his song was no doubt a farewell to hisfriends, whom he possibly never expected to seeagain. He certainly looked horribly frightened as hestepped out of the canoe. We at once saw thatthere was some truth in the reports about thephysical formation of these people, although therehad been exaggeration in the descriptions of theirfeet as webbed. There was, between the toes,an epidermal growth more distinct than in the caseof other peoples, though not so conspicuous as topermit of the epithet half-webbed, much less webbed, being applied to them. The mostnoticeable difference was that their legs below theknee were distinctly shorter than those of theordinary Papuan, and that their feet seemedmuch broader and shorter and very flat, so that. H. W. WALKER. L. DYKE-ACLAND. C. A. W. MONCKTON. [172 THE GOVERNORS VISIT 173 altogether they presented a most extraordinaryappearance. The Agai Ambu hardly ever walkon dry land, and their feet bleed if they attemptto do so. They appeared to be slightly bow-legged and walk with a mincing gait, lifting theirfeet straight up, as if they were pulling them outof the mud. Sir Francis Winter, the acting Governor ofBritish New Guinea, was so interested in ourdiscovery, that he himself made another expeditionwith Monckton to see these people, while I wasstiQ in New Guinea. On his return I stayed withhim for some time at Government House, PortMoresby, and he gave me a copy of his report onthe Agai Ambu, which explains the curiousphysical formation of these people better thanI could do. He says : On the other side of this mere, andclose to a bed of reeds and flags, was a little villageof the small Ahgai-ambo tribe, and abou
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