July 3rd.
After the good understanding which appeared to have been established yesterday, I was rather surprised at observing the suspicious manner in which we were received today by the people on Brierly Island. In two boats we went round to a small sandy point on the northern side of the island where seven or eight canoes were hauled up on the beach, but some time elapsed before any of the natives came close up--even to a single unarmed man of our party who waded ashore--the others remaining in the boats--although tempted by the display of pieces of iron hoop and strips of calico. One of the natives, carrying a wooden sword, and apparently a leading man among them, made some signs and used gesticulations expressive of sleep or death with reference to a part of Joannet Island which he repeatedly pointed to. This we could not understand.* After a certain degree of confidence had been restored, five or six of us remained on shore, and great harmony appeared to prevail throughout the combined party. In one place the sergeant of marines was seated on the sand with a ring of people round him whom he was drilling into the mode of singing a Port Essington aboriginal song, occasionally rising to vary his lesson with 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 tail, slightly bushy, but tapering to a point. They do not bark, but have the long melancholy howl of the dingo or wild dog of Australia.
THEIR VILLAGE. DESCRIPTION OF THEIR HUTS.
