CHAPTER XIII
A Kangaroo Hunt
The men of the kampong are planning a kangaroo hunt in the lowlands not far distant from the kampong. They say the hunt will take two days and that if we wish to go with them it will be necessary to make provision ourselves for our food and shelter. They, of course, sleep in rude palm-leaf lean-tos and subsist on their staple sago cake. The prospect of witnessing a kangaroo drive fills us with enthusiasm, and with all speed we prepare to accompany them. Early the next morning we set out with a light outfit and enough food for two days. By dint of much coaxing and promises of much tobacco we have persuaded three of the young men of the tribe to carry our barang.
This man confessed to having eaten many human beings. To estimate the number accurately was beyond his power of reckoning
The sharp-edged stone war-club in the hands of such men as these makes quick work of a victim
The way leads up the coast for about ten miles and thence into the jungle through swampy tangles of tapa grass to a point three miles from the ocean. Here we strike camp, and after a hurried meal the hunters go out to reconnoiter. There are kangaroos in the vicinity; in the course of our hike into the swampy region we see several of the timid creatures, which turn at sight of us and bound away to the protection of the thickets. They are a very small variety of kangaroo and not at all like the giant bush animal of Australia. The kangaroos of New Guinea seldom reach a height of over three feet when standing erect.
About seventy of the natives have come to participate in the hunt and these soon take to the jungle, where they make their way silently to points which form a semicircle a mile in radius. The center of this half-circle is a swamp where the water is a foot or so in depth and the rushes scarce. It is to this place the natives will drive the little animals when the hunt begins in the morning.
With the earliest signs of dawn the men are up and stirring. A hasty breakfast concluded, they spread out and start slowly toward the swamp, beating the brush and thickets with flails and at the same time shouting at the top of their voices. In this manner they slowly drive the game before them, though at first the jungle seems to be deserted, so wary are the animals.
As the men advance and the circle closes up we see now and then swift-moving dun-colored objects bounding ahead of us through the half-light of the jungle. The men on the right and left of us nod their satisfaction, for there seems to be a good-sized herd of kangaroos enclosed in the converging human trap. Now and then one of the animals tries to break through the line, but it is almost invariably headed off and driven back into the thickets ahead.