292 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



Of the bride of his youth history has no word — for Tom 

 is the only historian of that period, and he ever bears 

 sorrows in silence. 



Nelly, whose country borders the beach of the mainland 

 opposite, could not speak his language when he fought for 

 her fairly and honourably, and won her from her first man. 

 Though reared but a little over 2 miles apart, these twain 

 have totally different words for the same objects. During 

 married life each has added to the vocabulary of the 

 other. 



When we took possession of the island, Nelly would 

 glide into the jungle like a frightened snake and hide for 

 days. She was wild, suspicious, uncleanly, uncouth — a 

 combination of all the shortcomings of the savage. Now 

 she lights the fire every morning, kneads the bread, makes 

 the porridge and the coffee, feeds the fowls, washes plates 

 and clothes, scrubs floors, and generally does the work of a 

 domestic. She is cheerfully industrious, emphatic in her 

 admiration of pictures, and smokes continuously, preferring 

 a pipe ornamented with " lead," for she has all the woman's 

 love of show. From the most quarrelsome and vixenish 

 gin of the camp she has been transformed into a decent- 

 minded peacemaker — always ready to atone for the mis- 

 behaviour of others, and to display without a trace of self- 

 glorification the virtue of self-sacrifice. Nelly is never 

 happier than when working about the house, except when 

 she saunters off on a Sunday morning, in the glare of a new 

 dress, and with the smoke curling from her ornamented 

 pipe, beneath a hat which, in variety of tints, shames the 

 sunset sky. 



Students of ethnology who may scan these lines may 

 find food for reflection in the fact that Tom and Nelly offer 

 exceptions to the rules that the totems of Australian blacks 

 generally refer to food, and that those whose totems are 

 alike do not marry. Tom's totemic title, " Kitalbarra," is 

 derived from a splinter of a rock off an islet to the south- 

 east of Dunk Island. " Oongle-bi," Nelly's affinity, is a rock 

 on the summit of a hill on the mainland, not far from her 



