FULL -DRESSED NATIVES 115 



Such mishaps during one's earlier opportunities are ahvays 

 most vexatious ; later we found monkeys very numerous in 

 the other islands. 



On 22nd February a Chinese junk passed northward, and 

 the same day another arrived, and anchored in the harbour ; 

 that night there was carousal in the village and the noise of 

 much singing. 



Visitors to the Terrapin were fairly continuous during our 

 stay here, and the appearance of some of them was as ludicrous 

 as it was striking. 



One man, who wore a battered " billycock " on his head, had 

 encased his feet and legs in a pair of rubber jackboots ; between 

 these extremities he sported a sailor's jersey, and the usual T 

 bandage. 



But, impressive as was this man's ajaparel, it was quite put 

 out of the running by the grande parure of a fellow-dandy who 

 arrived later. A top -hat worn sideways, and draped with a 

 spotted cotton handkerchief where a mourning band might 

 be, a gunner's jacket, thickly laced with yellow braid, and a 

 light-blue pair of Chinese breeches, combined harmoniously (!) 

 with heavy bead necklaces, and a face profusely bedaubed with 

 red oil-paint. This gentleman's idea of refreshment was brandy, 

 and to obtain it he had furnished himself with a supply of fowls, 

 with which he was prepared to purchase it at the rate of a 

 chicken a drink. 



When not arrayed in these exotic costumes, everyone wore 

 merely the neng, and perhaps a fillet of twisted cotton about 

 the head. 



A man who came to be doctored was treated with a glass 

 of Eno, and an aloes pill, which he slowly sucked ! This latter 

 is the sort of medicine natives like, and as the awful bitterness 

 of the drug became evident to his palate, the fellow doubtless 

 thought it very effective treatment indeed. Give a native 10 

 grains of quinine in sugar-coated tabloids, and he probably holds 

 you a very poor sort of doctor ; but dissolve that same quinine 

 in a large glass of water, and make him drink the solution slowly 



