CURIOSITY OF THE NATIVES. 5 



Hitherto I had been known to them chiefly on account of niy 

 rock -breaking- propensities, but during that particular visit I was 

 making a collection of plants. 1 he chief men of the village re- 

 ceived me very civilly, made me sit down, and began at once to 

 speculate on the nature of my new pursuit, the botanical line 

 being anew object for wonder with them. " Patu, he finish ? " (patie 

 meaning stone) was the question put to me by more than one of 

 their number ; and on mv telling them that I was going to turn mv 

 attention to " bulu-bulu " — their general name for plants they have 

 no name for — I had to explain to further inquirers that a parti- 

 cular fern, named " sinimi " in the native tongue (a species of 

 Gleichenia), which flourished on the higher slopes of their island, wa.s 

 one of the objects of my excursion. 



My usual plan on arriving at a village, which I had never 

 visited before, was to distribute a little tobacco amongst the curious 

 throng that pressed around, and then to light my pipe and look 

 pleasant whilst my guides were endeavouring to explain the 

 character of my pursuits. \ A white man without tobacco in these 

 islands is worse off than a man without any money in his purse in 

 London : for very little is given for nothing by these natives, and 

 the acceptance of a gift binds you to give an equivalent in return. 

 I remember once when landing on the beach of a village where the 

 natives seemed a little uncertain as to what kind of reception 

 they should give me, what a rapid transformation was produced by 

 the gift of a little tobacco to the chief Where there had been 

 scowls and sullen looks a few moments before, smiles and laughter 

 now prevailed. The chief led me into his house, introduced me 

 to his principal wife, and in another minute I was dangling his 

 little son of about two years old upon my knee. This pleasing 

 transformation had been effected by the expenditure of a half- 

 pennyworth of tobacco ; and I could not resist framing at the time 

 the following doggrel rhyme, the excuse for which must be the 

 occasion that gave rise to it. 



Shade of Exeter Hall ! emerge from thy pall. 

 Learn the token of union 'twixt white man and black : 

 Not a brisk cannonade, nor the attractions of trade, 

 But the mysterious influence of the fragrant tamhak.'^ \ 



1 This is the manner of pronouncing "tobacco" amongst these islanders. In the Ma lay 

 Archipelago it is pronounced " tambaku. " (" Crawfurd's Malay Grammar and Dictionary.") 



