skin to
dry, and following his guidance till nightfall we got back to our hut by
the sea-shore, where the boat lay perfectly safe, and being too tired to
make a fire and cook, we lay down and fell asleep at once.

It was still dark when I was awakened by a hand shaking my arm, and,
starting up, there was the black face of Ebo bent over me.

"Ikan-ikan," he kept on repeating.

"Ikan--fish," said my uncle, starting up. "Yes, we may as well get some
for a change, Nat;" and in a few minutes we were all down on the sand
launching the boat, which rode out lightly over the rollers.

We had plenty of fishing-lines, so fine that Ebo shook his head at them,
and proceeded to show us how easily they would break; but after trying
over and over again without success, and only cutting his hands, he
grinned and jumped up to dance, but evidently thinking there was no room
he settled down again and began to examine some hooks and glittering tin
baits which we had in a box.

These he scanned most carefully as the boat skimmed along, my uncle
steering, and after trying the sharpness of the hooks he performed what
always seemed to me a conjuring trick, in bringing a couple of
mother-of-pearl baits out of his waist-cloth, with a roll of twine.

The savages of the East, in fact most of the eastern people, wear a cord
round the waist made of a material in accordance with their station.
The poorer people will have it of cotton or twisted grass, the wealthier
and chiefs of silk, while some have it threaded with gold. This thin
cord is used as a support for their waist-cloth, and is rarely taken
off, but is fastened so tightly that I have seen it appear completely
buried in the flesh, just as if the wearers had an idea that they ought
to make themselves look as much like an insect as possible.

Ebo wore a very tight _lingouti_--as it is called--round and over which
he tucked the coarse cotton cloth which formed his only article of
attire, and it was by means of this cotton cloth that he performed what
I have spoken of as being like conjuring tricks, for somehow or another,
although he had the appearance of carrying nothing about with him, he
had always a collection of useful articles stored away in the folds of
that waist-cloth.

Upon the present occasion he brought out two mother-of-pearl baits such
as would be used to attract the fish when no real bait could be
obtained.

It was a sight to see Ebo comparing his pearl baits with our