2G6 TEE CRUISE OF THE 'CUBAQOA.' 



intended, I imagine, for food. This marsupial lias no tail 

 beyond a sort of stump ; it is of a light brown, and diffuses a 

 stench like that of the American skunk, but not quite so 

 strong, and differs from the Australian opossum in having 

 shorter and wider feet, in being smaller, and of a colour 

 much less deep, &c. The same species is found at Uji, as 

 I learnt from some live specimens which the natives of 

 that island had brought on board tlie ' Cura^oa.' Besides 

 the dead opossum, the natives were also carrying a fruit 

 they called Imri, and with which they cement the planks 

 of their canoes together ; it seemed a soapy sort of fruit 

 inside, and did not appear to me very adhesive, but yet 

 it must be so, though when I pressed some of it between 

 my lingers they did not stick together ; but this sometimes 

 happens witli other glutinous substances. This fruit is oval, 

 rather flattened on the sides, brown outside, speckled with 

 a darker brown, about 3 or 3.\ inches long, 2 or 2^ inclies 

 in thickness, and 2 to 2.\ in widtli. 



I crossed a village, situated not fur from the sea, where 

 some forty huts were so arranged as to form narrow streets. 

 Several of them were of a good size, and had a species of 

 verandah in front ; the woodwork or sticks of which the 

 fronts of the houses were made being crossed like basket- 

 work, was sometimes painted witli curious devices. A 

 figured piece of wood in the centre of the roof, going 

 up from the front to where the two sides of the roof 

 met at tlie to.p, was carved and painted with some 

 strange figures, surmounted by a man with a hat on 



