CHAP. XXXI.] 3I0DE OF LIVING. ■ 229 



seems to have its use, and we may easily conceive that 

 the black cockatoos have maintained themselves in com- 

 petition with their more active and more numerous white 

 allies, by their power of existing on a kind of food M'hich 

 no other bird is able to extract from its stony shell. The 

 species is the Microglossum aterrimum of naturalists. 



During the two' weeks which I spent in this little settle- 

 ment, I had good opportunities of observing the natives at 

 their own home, and living in their usual manner. There 

 is a great monotony and uniformity in every-day savage 

 life, and it seemed to me a more miserable existence 

 than when it had the charm of noveltv. To becrin with 

 the most important fact in the existence of unci\'ilized 

 peoples — their food — the Avu men have no regular supply, 

 no staff of life, such as bread, rice, raandiocca, maize, or 

 sago, wJiich are the daily food of a large proportion of 

 mankind. They have, however, many sorts of vegetables, 

 plantains, yams, sweet potatoes, and raw sago ; and they 

 chew i;p vast quantities of sugar-cane, as well as betel- 

 nuts, gambir, and tobacco. Those who live on the coast 

 have plenty of fish ; but when inland, as we are here, 

 they only go to the sea occasionally, and then bring 

 home cockles and other shell-fish by the boatload. Now 

 and then they get wild pig or kangaroo, but too rarely to 

 form anything like a regular part of their diet, which is 

 essentially vegetable ; and what is of more importance, 



