FRIENDLY NATIVES. 407 



jungle, and a few nights' repose upon the ground, 

 soon took the respectability out of it, and I was as 

 ragged as any lover of freedom, or of nature, would 

 ever desire to be. My broad-brimmed hat was 

 considered a great curiosity, and greasy heads of 

 males and females, would frequently try it on to 

 see how it would fit. One of the old women too, 

 pulled on my boots, the tops of which scarcely 

 came up to the bottom of her skin petticoat. A 

 chase was made after her, for she started off with 

 them, and so long was she in returning, that I 

 began seriously to think, she had run away with 

 them under pretence of sport. 



The Sidee Ahbreu were certainly the most 

 lively and least quarrelsome of any of the tribes I 

 had yet seen. Neither was this friendship pur- 

 chased, for having disposed of everything I could 

 well part with, I took care that they should know 

 it by oft-repeated assertions that I had given all 

 away upon the previous march. The good resulting 

 from this was, that I had fewer beggars to satisfy 

 in this place than anywhere else. 



My stay with these people, led me to form a much 

 better opinion of the character of the Dankalli, 

 than I previously had done. Whether I had 

 become accustomed to my situation, or really liked 

 the life I was leading, I do not know ; but, for one 

 or the other reason, I enjoyed myself more here 

 than anywhere else, during the long period I had 

 been absent from England. 



