3IO CAPE YORK. 



As I have said, Longway was always completely naked. He 

 not only had no clothing of any description, but no ornament 

 of any kind whatsoever, and he was not even tattooed. Further, 

 he never carried, when he walked with me, any kind of weapon, 

 not even a stick. His boy, who was always with him, was in 

 the same absolutely natural condition. It was some time 

 before I got quite accustomed to Longway's absolute naked- 

 ness, but after I had been about with him for a bit, the 

 thing seemed quite familiar and natural, and I noticed it no 

 more. 



On one of our excursions, Longway begged me to shoot him 

 some paroquets to eat. I shot half a dozen at a shot. I 

 should not have done so if I had known the result. Longway 

 insisted on stopping and eating them there and then. I was 

 obliged to wait. Longway and his boy lighted a fire of grass 

 and sticks, tore a couple of clutches of feathers off each of the 

 birds, and threw them on the fire for the rest of the feathers 

 to singe pardy off. Before they were well warm through, they 

 pulled the birds out and tore them to pieces, and ate them all 

 bleeding, devouring a good deal of the entrails. 



On one occasion, when I wished to start very early on a 

 shooting expedition, in order to come upon the birds about 

 daybreak, which is always the best time for finding them in 

 the tropics, I went to the camp of the Blacks to fetch Longway, 

 just as it was beginning to dawn. The Blacks were not by any 

 means so easily roused as I had expected ; I found them all 

 asleep, and had to shout at them, but then they all started 

 up scared, as if expecting an attack. I had great difficulty in 

 persuading Longway to go with me at that early hour, and he 

 complained of the cold for some hours. I think the Blacks 

 usually lie in camp till the sun has been up some little time, 

 and the air has been warmed. 



With regard to expression, I noticed that the Gudangs used 

 the same gesture of refusal or dissent as the Api men, namely, 

 the shrugging of one shoulder, with the head bent over to the 

 same side. Their facial expressions were, as far as I saw them, 

 normal, I mean like those of Europeans. 



Altogether, these Blacks are, I suppose, nearly as low as 

 any savages. They have no clothes (some have bits of European 

 ones now), no canoes, no hatchets, no boomerangs, no chiefs. 

 Their graves, described in the " Voyage of the ' Fly,' " are 

 remarkable in their form. They are long low mounds of sand, 

 with a wooden post set up at each of the corners. There is 

 far more trouble taken with them than would be expected. 



The beach at Somerset is composed of siliceous sand. One 

 becomes so accustomed when amongst coral islands, to see the 



