126 NATIVES AT CAPE YOEK. 



the body woolly and groinng' in scattered tufts^ and 

 that of the head also woolly and twisted into long- 

 strands like those of a mop. On the right shoulder, 

 and occasionally the left also, they had a larg-e 

 comphcated, oval scar, only slightly prominent, and 

 very neatly made. 



The custom of smoking-, so g-eneral throughout 

 Torres Strait, has been introduced at Cape York. 

 Those most addicted to it were the Papuans above 

 mentioned, but many of the Australians joined 

 them, and were equally clamourous for tobacco. 

 Still it was sing^ar to notice that although choha 

 (tobacco) was in great demand, biscuit, which they 

 had corrupted to hisKJuir, was much more prized. 

 Their mode of smoking having elsewhere* been 

 described, I need not allude to it further than that 

 the pipe, which is a piece of bamboo as thick as the 

 arm and two or three feet long, is first filled with 

 tobacco-smoke, and then handed round the company 

 seated on the ground in a ring — each takes a long 

 inhalation, and passes the pipe to his neighbour, 

 slowly allowing the smoke to exhale. On several 

 occasions at Cape York, I have seen a native so 

 affected by a single inhalation, as to be rendered 

 nearly senseless, with the perspiration bursting out 

 at every pore, and require a draught of water to 

 restore him ; and, although myself a smoker, yet on 

 the only occasion when I tried this mode of using 



* Jukes' Voyage of the Fly, Vol. i. p. 1G5. 



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