I ought to mention, though, that I was unable accurately to determine the sound made by the advancing rats owing to my partial deafness, which you will remember was caused by the great wave which dashed me on to the deck of the _Veielland_, just before landing on the sand-spit in the Sea of Timor.

I often found this deafness a very serious drawback, especially when hunting.

I was sometimes at a loss to hear the "coo-ee" or call of my natives.

Fortunate men! _they_ did not even understand what deafness meant.

Lunacy also was unknown among them, and such a thing as suicide no native can possibly grasp or understand.