. The new New Guinea. one, and apparently took no interest atall in the unheard-of phenomenon of a steamer. Wejudged them to be sentries of some kind—not anunnecessary precaution in this part of Papua. Here we got twenty or thirty men, and some bundlesof sago, and in the afternoon proceeded twenty para-sangs—(I beg the readers pardon)—we left Kairu andwent a few miles down the nearest river, and then gotlost again, trying up wrong creeks and rivers that ledto nothing. The current in the narrower rivers wasvery strong, and in consequence every half-hour orso brought a warning cry from the helms
. The new New Guinea. one, and apparently took no interest atall in the unheard-of phenomenon of a steamer. Wejudged them to be sentries of some kind—not anunnecessary precaution in this part of Papua. Here we got twenty or thirty men, and some bundlesof sago, and in the afternoon proceeded twenty para-sangs—(I beg the readers pardon)—we left Kairu andwent a few miles down the nearest river, and then gotlost again, trying up wrong creeks and rivers that ledto nothing. The current in the narrower rivers wasvery strong, and in consequence every half-hour orso brought a warning cry from the helmsman, Lookout 1 clearing everybody immediately off the deckand into the nearest shelter, while the ship plungedher violent way into the bank, carrying off branchesof trees wholesale and strewing the deck with frag-ments. After she had been backed off the passengerswould come out again and begin hunting about forinsects, which always came on board in thousands onthese occasions. Ants of every kind were passed over. PRAYING MANTIS 151 as uninteresting (would that they had consented topass us over in like fashion !) ; grasshoppers werecommon ; but now and then something really oddrewarded our search. A praying mantis was one ofthe most amusing. It was a brown stick-like creaturesome three inches long, with four ordinary legs andtwo long serrated forelegs. Every now and then itraised itself upright in a kneeling posture and heldup its forelegs devotionally before its face. This piousaction was always followed by shrieks of laughterfrom the travellers. Its head, perched on a longslender neck, was usually drooped on one side in amanner suggesting extreme weariness of the world ingeneral, and of its present company in particular. Attimes, however, especially when deluded into climbingan endless ladder of someones fingers, presented oneafter the other, it wakened up to wrath and squaredat the offender fiercely, challenging him to come the challenge passed unnoticed, it made
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1911
