NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
539 
apparently for all higher numbers. It was curious to sec their procedure when 1 put 
a heap of five or six objects before them. They separated them into groups of two, or 
two and one, and pointing to the heaps successively said, ‘ labaima, labaima, piama,’ 
‘two,’ ‘two,’ ‘one.’ Though another of the guides had been long with the whites 
lie had little idea of counting ; after he had picked up two dozen birds which had been 
shot, and seen them packed away, he was asked how many there were in the tin ; he 
said six. No doubt amongst such people language changes with remarkable rapidity, 
especially as here, where tribes are mixed; some of the words at least seem to have 
changed since Macgillivray’s time. 
“The blacks are wonderfully forgetful, and never seem to carry an idea long in their 
heads. One day when Longway was out with me he kept constantly repeating to him- 
self ‘two shilling,’ a sum I had promised him if I shot a Rifle Bird, and he constantly 
reminded me of it, evidently with his thoughts full of the idea. After the day was over, 
and we were near home, he suddenly left me and disappeared, having been taken with 
a sudden desire to smoke his bamboo, and gone by a short cut to the camp. When I 
found him there he seemed astonished, and to have forgotten about his day’s pay 
altogether, although he had successfully earned it. 
“ The blacks spend what little money they get in biscuit at the store, and they 
know that for a florin they ought to get more biscuit than for a shilling, but that is all ; 
food is their greatest desire. Their use of English is most amusing, especially that of 
the word ‘ fellow.’ ‘ This feller gin, this feller gin, this feller boy,’ said Longway, 
when I asked whether some young blacks crouched by the fire were boys or girls. They 
apply the term also to all kinds of inanimate objects. There are several graves of blacks 
near Somerset. I asked Longway what became of the black fellows when they died ; he 
said ‘ fly away,’ and that they became white men. 
“ When I wanted some plants which were a little way up a tree, Longway was not at 
all inclined to climb, but let a sailor who was with me do it. Longway’ s boy said lie 
could not climb. 
“ As I have said, Longway was always completely naked. He not only had no 
clothing of any description, but no ornament of any kind whatsoever, and he was not 
even tattooed. Further, he never carried, when he walked with me, any kind of weapon, 
not even a stick. His boy, who was always with him, was in the same natural 
condition. It was some time before I got quite accustomed to Longways absolute 
nakedness, but after I had been about with him for a bit, the thing seemed quite familiar 
and natural, and I noticed it no more. 
“ On one of our excursions, Longway begged me to shoot him some parroquets to eat ; 
I killed half a dozen at a shot, but should not have done so if I had known the result, for 
Longway insisted on stopping and eating them there and then, so I was obliged to wait, 
whilst he and his boy lighted a fire of grass and sticks, tore a couple of clutches of 
