th a dance--in another, a group of natives were being
initiated in the mysteries of the Jew's harp, or kept amused by the
performance of various antics. Mr. Huxley as usual, was at work with his
sketch-book, and I employed myself in procuring words for an incipient
vocabulary. My principal informant was called Wadai, a little withered
old man with shaved head, on which someone had stuck a red night-cap
which greatly took his fancy. Not being of so volatile a nature as the
others he remained patiently with me for half an hour.

(*Footnote. Although not understood at the time, he referred to an affray
between two boats detached from the ship on surveying service and some
Joannet Island canoes, which had occurred only a few hours before at the
place indicated; of this we had not yet heard, but the news had reached
Brierly Island, and occasioned our strange reception. This is a
remarkable instance of the rapidity with which intelligence may be
conveyed from one island to another.)

MODE OF USING THE BETEL.

He showed me the mode of using the betel, which, as practised by these
people has this peculiarity, that the leaf of the siri or betel pepper is
not employed, as is universally the case among the Malays. A small
portion of the green betelnut (the fruit of the Areca catechu) which here
curiously enough is named ereka--is broken off with the teeth and placed
in the mouth; then the spatula, formerly described, moistened with
saliva, is dipped into a small calabash of lime in fine powder, with
which the tongue and lips are smeared over by repeated applications. The
bolus is then kept in the mouth, and rolled over and over until it is
thought requisite to renew it. The practice of betel chewing is not
confined to the men, for the few women whom we had seen alongside the
ship in Coral Haven, had their teeth blackened by it.

One of the natives seen today exhibited a remarkable case of malformation
of the teeth. The lower incisors were wanting, and the upper ones had
coalesced and grown downwards and outwards, forming an irregular dark
protruding mass which I at first took to be a quid of betel. Another man
with a diseased leg had lost one hand at the wrist, and the long
shrivelled arm presented a curious appearance.

Several dogs were also seen close to, for the first time--they were
wretched half-starved objects of various colours, but agreed in being
long-bodied, short-legged, and prick-eared, with sharp snout and long