118 NOTES ON THE INHABITANTS OF NEW IRELAND, ETC. 



intact. Betel-nut chewing was very general, and among 

 the people of Toolatt, or Fisher Island, it appeared to be 

 indulged in to a demoralising excess. The only displeasing 

 things to be seen among them, in matters of taste, are the 

 flexible, white rings worn in the septa of the noses, and the dis- 

 colourisation of the pretty teeth of the w^omen by the use of 

 the betel-nut. The men go absolutely nude, and the women 

 also, with the exception of a slight vegetable apron worn by 

 the latter, and there can be no doubt that the men, in outward 

 seeming, are, according to an Englishman's cultivated notions, 

 more modest than their wives and daughtei's. In physique they 

 are generally feeble, of slight build, and light weight ; one of 

 the biggest of their men, 5 feet 10 in height, only measured 

 29 inches round the chest. They eat fish, poultry, pigs, and 

 opossums. They are very timid in the water when a few miles 

 from shore ; I have seen men cry aloud for help, trembling with 

 fear, if their canoe capsized — no doubt owing to the abundance 

 and voracity of sharks. Their canoes are frail things, but the 

 amnion, or figure-head (also Egyptian) is a striking w^ork of 

 art. They use no sails. Their paddles are well shaped and 



rrnamented with fishes and human faces, well carved. 

 Of the migrations, immigrations, and co-migTations of these 

 races in old times ; of the peopling of America from Egypt and 

 Ilidia through Polynesia, and the last migrations from America 

 ^ three hundred and twenty years ago to Torres Straits, Papua, 

 New Ireland, and Guadalcanal, I hope to address the Royab 

 l^ociety of Queensland on another occasion. 



Explanations of Plate XYII. 



No. 1. The cross on female breasts. 



2. Female tattooing. 



3. Female navel ornament, cicati'isation. 



4. Female tattooing. 



5. Female cicatrisation. 



6. Female tattooing. 



7. Male and female cicatrisation. Only the but- 



tocks of women are cicatrised. 



8. Female cicatrisations. 



9. Ibid, ibid. 



Note. — The lips in the drawings on the stone are too much negroised. 

 Neither the Xew Irelanders nor the inhabitants of the Archipelago are 

 negroes, although an occasional negro strain is met with, but it is 

 seldom seen in the lips. 



