188 HABIT OF SMOKING. 



not have learnt to smoke from any of the Malay na- 

 tions, since those people, even if they ever reached 

 thus far, rarely or never smoke tobacco, but only 

 chew it with their betel. All the evidence seems to 

 me to be against the notion of tobacco, or the custom 

 of smoking it, being indigenous in the east, and in 

 favour of its having been introduced by the Portu- 

 guese, and Spaniards, and Dutch, after the discovery 

 of America. Can the habit of smoking have spread 

 from the Philippines through New Guinea into 

 Torres Strait, or has the custom and the plant been 

 introduced from the south-eastward, from New Ire- 

 land, or New Caledonia, where, I believe, we must 

 look for the paternal seats of the Torres Strait 

 Islanders ? 



I was dining to-day with Yule on board the 

 Bramble. There were two young natives on board, 

 to whom I pointed out a young pig that had just 

 been killed, and which was hanging up forward. 

 They at first called it " omai "' (a dog), but on my 

 shaking my head, and saying " lola, lola ' (no, no), 

 they called it " burroom,*' a word I afterwards heard 

 applied to some boars' tusks I saw among them, and 

 which came from New Guinea. There were two 

 sheep on board, with which they were much 

 puzzled, but at last called them " burroom " too. 

 On seeing some onions, they asked for some of them, 

 and promised to set them in their gardens ashore. 



I have no doubt that they might be very easily 

 taught to cultivate the ground to a much greater 



