When  a  party  of  chiefs  signify  it  is  their  pleasure  to  go  rat-
shooting,  the  attendants  incontinently  busy  themselves  in  the
preparation  of  a  supply  of  roasted  cocoa  nut.  The  scene  of
action  is  the  high  road,  and  when  these  bait  distributors  have
ascertained  what  ground  the  archers  intend  sporting  over,  they
walk  slowly  along,  chewing  the  roasted  nut  very  finely,  and
spitting,  or  rather  blowing  some  fragments  with  considerable
force  on  the  road  as  they  proceed.     The  skill  of  the  bait  men


ROVING,   OR    RURAL   ARCHERY.  413

consists  in  scattering  the  particles  sufficiently  thick  to  attract
the  attention  of  the  rat,  and  in  pieces  small  enough  to  tempt
him  to  stop  and  eat,  instead  of  seizing  and  racing  off  to  his  hole
with  the  prize.  Should  this  novel  hunting  ground  be  intersected
by  cross-ways,  a  reed  is  stuck  upright,  just  where  the  latter
unite  with  the  main  road,  as  a  iabooy  or  mark  of  prohibition,
warning  all  passengers  to  avoid  the  baited  road,  that  the  rats
may  not  be  driven  off;  and  by  a  tacit  understanding  among  these
people,  none  will  violate  the  taboo.  A  petty  chief  or  man  of
the  lower  orders,  would  do  so  at  the  peril  of  his  life,  and  even
when  a  chief  of  the  highest  dignity  becomes  aware  of  this  pro-
hibition, he  halts  and  remains  quietly  at  some  distance,  out  of
respect  and  politeness  to  his  peers.
