A Scientist Among Savages.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 192, 19 February 1887, Page 2

A Scientist Among Savages.

Tiik Russian scientist, Dr. Maclay, had a very hard time among the natives of New, Guinea. One morning they found him sitting on his trunk on the beach, and as they had never seen a white man before, and had not seen the ship which landed him there in the night, they made up their minds that he had descended from heaven. The Doctor encouraged Them in this belief, but he soon found that lie had accepted a character which it was very difficult to fill in a manner to satiafy his hosts. As they had nev«>r before entertained a living inhabitant of the sky, they did not want to loee him, co they kept him closely imprisoned. If he was from the godp, they thought nothing 3hould frighten him, and so they shot arrows close to his head and neck ; indeed, two of the arrows wounded him severely. They tied him to a tree, and pressed their spears against his teeth until he was obliged to open his mouth, though what divine attribute this action was intended to test it is difficult to imagine* Then they deprived him of food for sol ong a time that his life was endangered, for surely, they thought, one who had come from the gods could have no use for earthly food. Finally, they decided that a person who ate as much as the good doctor could hardly be a heavenly being, and as he must have come from somew here, they decided that ho was a recent arrival from the moon. This was fortunate for Dr Maclay, as his captors did not eeem to expect so much from a mere moon creature, and his life among the naked inhabitants of the islands was comparatively pleasant. They could not help but admire the pluck with which he had endured their too piessing attentions on bis first arrival, and when they found out that he was a very kind-hearted man, and that he had much pkill in medicine, they treated him with great respect as a superior being. An English traveller who visited the islands after the doctor had left, found the name of Maclay a •* name to conjure with,'* for no sooner had he spoken than the uative3 crowded around him, eager to do honour to Maclay'a brother, as they called him. — " Harper's Young People."