NARRATIVE OF MR. CARRON. 213 



larg'e fan-palm leaves. Their girdles were made of 

 the leaves of the Cordyline. Both men and wo- 

 men were very stout, strong-, well-made people — 

 some of the men standing- six feet hig-h. They 

 broug-ht us some fish, which they called " ming-ii," 

 but it was such as they would not even eat them- 

 selves 5 also a kind of paste, made of different kinds 

 of leaves and roots, mixed with the inside of the 

 roasted mang-rove seeds, all pounded up tog-ether, 

 then heated over a fire in a larg-e shell. This paste 

 they call " dakiaa."* Althoug-h we did not much 

 like the taste of the paste, and it was very full of 

 sand, we ate some of it as a veg-etable. 



Nov. 19 fh. — This morning- about fifty or sixty 

 natives, all strong-ly armed with spears, made their 

 appearance, and by their g-estures and manner it 

 was quite evident that they intended to attack us if 

 opportunity offered. As we always kept our fire- 

 arms in readiness, we stood out in a line, Avith our 

 g-uns in our hands. I made sig-ns to them to keep 

 back, but they pretended not to understand us, 

 holding" up pieces of fish, crying- out muigii, mhigiij 

 (fish, fish), to induce us to come for them, but their 

 desig-ns upon us were too transparent for that. They 

 kept us standing" a g"ood while, for I was anxious 

 to refrain from firing- on them if possible, and at 

 leng-th they left us without any actually hostile 



* This is identical with the bit/u of Cape York. — See Vol. II. 

 p. 26. . 



