THE KINGS MILL ISLANDERS. 1QL 



our gentlemen thought was like that of a mixture of tobacco and 

 molasses. Both of these qualities it retains until it is worn out. 



The natives are very fond of ornamenting themselves : in the lobes 

 of their ears they wear strings of small leaves of the mangrove, and 

 the pith of a large species of Scsevola, which is common in the low 

 islands. This pith is cut into strips and put up into a long roll ; a 

 wreath of which surrounds the neck, and to which a white ovula-shell, 

 or a large whale's tooth, hangs suspended on their breast. This pith 

 is thought by Mr. Rich, to be the same as that called Chinese paper, 

 and obtained from the same plant. Long strings of beads or braided 

 hair are worn round the body, at times a hundred fathoms in length, 

 which serve to fasten the mat. The hair for this purpose is taken 

 from the female slaves, and is braided into a string about the size 

 of a packthread. The beads are manufactured by the old men who 

 are beyond doing any other labour, and are of the size of a small 

 button-moiild ; they are made of cocoa-nut and shell, and strung 

 alternately black and white, being ground down to a uniform size 

 and fitted together for the purpose. 



The food of the natives consists principally of fish, from the whale 

 to the sea-slug; shell-fish of every kind are also eaten. 



Whales are represented to have been much more abundant for- 

 merly, when they at times got aground on some of the numerous 

 shoals, and were killed by the natives with their spears. Even now 

 a carcass occasionally drifts on shore, which affords an acceptable 

 prize. Sharks are caught by enticing them alongside the canoe, with 

 a bait, and enclosing them in a noose. The smaller fishes are taken 

 in fish-traps, like eel-pots, made of withes : these the natives set on 

 the bottom, and place pieces of coral on them to keep them there. 



Great numbers of fish are also taken in weirs, or enclosures of 

 stone, which are made in the extensive coral flats, that are left bare 

 by every tide : into these the fish are driven at high water, by a 

 number of natives, who surround the shoal; the weir is then closed, 

 and left until the tide falls, when the fish are easily taken in scoop- 

 nets. Large seines are often used in places where the bottom renders 

 it practicable to draw them. Flying-fish are taken in the daytime, 

 by trailing a hook, attached to a short line, from the stern of a canoe. 

 At night they are caught in scoop-nets, as they fly towards a lighted 

 torch, held in a part of the canoe. Crabs are also decoyed out of 

 their holes at night, by torchlight, and captured. 



vol. v. 26 



