small porch in which my fire was kept constantly burning. When we had
captured a dugong the blacks would come rushing into the sea to meet us
and drag our craft ashore, delighted at the prospect of a great feast.
The only part of the dugong I preserved was the belly, which I cut up
into strips and dried.

The blacks never allowed their fires to go out, and whenever they moved
their camping-ground, the women-folk always took with them their
smouldering fire-sticks, with which they can kindle a blaze in a few
minutes. Very rarely, indeed, did the women allow their fire-sticks to
go out altogether, for this would entail a cruel and severe punishment. A
fire-stick would keep alight in a smouldering state for days. All that
the women did when they wanted to make it glow was to whirl it round in
the air. The wives bore ill-usage with the most extraordinary
equanimity, and never attempted to parry even the most savage blow. They
would remain meek and motionless under a shower of brutal blows from a
thick stick, and would then walk quietly away and treat their bleeding
wounds with a kind of earth. No matter how cruelly the women might be
treated by their husbands, they hated sympathy, so their women friends
always left them alone. It often surprised me how quickly the blacks'
most terrible wounds healed; and yet they were only treated with a kind
of clay and leaves of the wild rose.

I am here reminded of the native doctor. This functionary was called a
_rui_, and he effected most of his cures with a little shell, with which
he rubbed assiduously upon the affected part. Thus it will be seen that
the medical treatment was a form of massage, the rubbing being done first
in a downward direction and then crosswise. I must say, however, that
the blacks were very rarely troubled with illness, their most frequent
disorder being usually the result of excessive gorging when a
particularly ample supply of food was forthcoming--say, after a big
_battue_ over a tribal preserve.

In an ordinary case of overfeeding, the medicine man would rub his
patient's stomach with such vigour as often to draw blood. He would also
give the sufferer a kind of grass to eat, and this herb, besides clearing
the system, also acted as a most marvellous appetiser. The capacity of
some of my blacks was almost beyond belief. One giant I have in my mind
ate a whole kangaroo by himself. I saw him do it. Certainly it was not
an excessively big ani