NEW GUINEA CALLED DOWDEE. 211 



but frequently mentioned Dowdee, saying it was 

 " ow gaed " (a large country) ; " Erroob kabbi gaed 1 ' 

 (holding their hands a few inches apart) ; " Dowdee 

 ow gaed " (opening their arms to the full extent). 

 They also said that in Dowdee there was "barreet, 

 barreet, barreet " (a plenty of barreets). In this 

 Dowdee they gave me the following list of names of 

 places apparently in the order of their occurrence : 

 Samarree, Dodee, Keewai, Eemaree, Parrem, Baeb, 

 Kereged, Erro, Mowat, Saibar, Dowar (distinguish- 

 ing it from the Murray Island Dowar by saying 

 " Dowar Dowdee,'' and pointing to the north, then 

 pointing south, and saying " Dowar nerroot," 

 another Dowar), Oige, Katatai, Sowee, Kagga, 

 Coer, Baigoo ; all these, they said, were in Dowdee, 

 expressing it Samarree Dowdee, Keewai Dow- 

 dee, &c. In order to try them, I went over the 

 names, and inserted Merad, the neighbouring 

 sand bank, amongst them, on which there was 

 an immediate shout of " Lola ! lola! Merad meik, 

 Dowdee mazepkor," or " No, no ! Merad is near — 

 Dowdee far off." I have, therefore, no doubt that 

 they are acquainted with a very considerable extent 

 of that part of the south coast of New Guinea which 

 lies immediately north of them, and that their 

 general name for the country is Dowdee. 



When the men went off to their dinner at noon, I 

 was left ashore alone with the natives. They sat 

 down in groups under the shade of the cocoa-nut 

 trees, eating their roots and shell-fish. In order to 



p 2 



