294 KERIAM NOW " GALLA." 



earnestness of Seewai that the information was 

 correct, and so it afterwards proved. I now saw 

 their " barreet," or bare-tailed opossum. It seemed 

 to be the same species I had got in New Guinea, 

 but larger and in better condition. It was kept in 

 a large cage made of split bamboo, and seemed quite 

 tame, but I could not induce them to part with it. 

 In the introduction to Flinders 's Voyage, one of 

 these animals is mentioned as found in the year 

 1798 in a cage on one of the islands to the west- 

 ward ; so that it seems an old and common prac- 

 tice among the islanders so to keep them. Whether 

 they have any especial reason for it, beyond their 

 general fondness for pet creatures, I could not 

 learn. 



The next morning I landed at daylight at Keriam, 

 and met Sapgob and some strangers. The houses 

 here were now all closed, and the largest, in addition 

 to boards across the door way, had a trellis work of 

 bamboo over it, and outside there stood a tall board, 

 cut into the profile of a man, like a sentry, standing 

 before the door. They called this figure maddoop, 

 which in Lewis's vocabulary is the word given for 

 mad or drunk. They said Keriam was now " galla ;" 

 and to my farther questions about this " galla," Sap- 

 gob answered, " coskeer backiam, keimear menna," 

 " wives go, men remain ;" as if the place were now 

 tabooed and not to be approached by the women. 



At ten a.m. the observations being taken, we 

 sailed from Erroob for the last time. The south- 



