NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
553 
was made for the north end of the island. Whilst the ship was off the coast of Great Ki 
Island several boats full of natives came off. The boats have been described by Wallace ; 1 
they are shaped like whale boats, and are constructed of planks fastened together with 
pegs and rattans. The crews used paddles with long blades pointed at the ends and with 
cross handles. They paddled in time to a chanted cadence identical with one used by the 
Fijians in their dances, “ e ai 6 turn turn.” At intervals the sound rose loud from the 
approaching boats as it was taken up in chorus. The chant was accompanied by a drum 
with a tense membrane on which two sounds were made by striking it slightly with the tips 
of the fingers or more violently with the palm of the hand, the sound reminding one that 
the course was tending towards India, for such a method of tomtom playing is not known 
in Melanesia or Polynesia, but is in vogue in Ceylon and India, especially by Tamil coolies. 
The men, a boat-load of whom came on board, were like the Arrou Islanders, but 
for the most part more strongly built. They wore their hair long and loose, and had 
no ornaments ; most of them wore only an apron of cloth. All of them were in the most- 
horrible state of cutaneous disease, the skin being in a rough scurfy condition in many 
cases all over the body. Worse cases of vegetable itch could not occur. The disease is 
due to a parasitic fungus, and closely allied to or identical with Pityriasis versicolor. 
Dr. Crosbie, Staff- Surgeon of the Challenger, made a careful microscopical examination 
of it. The disease is widely spread in Melanesia and Polynesia . 2 The men kept 
constantly scratching themselves violently, and life can be scarcely bearable in Great Ki 
Island ; yet the disease is one easily cured. 
The men begged for all kinds of things, and especially spirits and tobacco. One of 
the boats had well-made pottery, nicely ornamented with patterns in red, for barter, but 
unfortunately 119 specimens were procured. The men, as did also the Malays at Dobbo, 
used a slight click with the tongue, accompanied by a very slow shaking of the head to 
express astonishment. At 1 p.m. the ship rounded the north end of Great Ki Island, 
and steered towards Little Ki Island. 
The position of the north point of Great Ki Island (which is called Tanjong 
Burong) was made to be lat. 5° 16' 45" S., long. 133° 10 ' 45" E. It is a bluff point 
readily distinguished, and has on each side a small bay where probably anchorage may be 
found ; there were a few huts in these bays. The northeast point of Great Ki Island is 
low and sandy, with a group of Casuarina trees ; it lies S. 50° E., just over two miles 
from Tanjong Burong, and off the point are two small islets, the outermost of which is 
40 feet high. From here the land trends to the southward for three miles, and then 
recedes to the westward, forming a small bay, on the south point of which (lat. 5° 24' S., 
long. 133° 11 ' E.) is the village of Ali Bandang, from which the land runs S. by W. ^ W. 
to a conspicuous point in lat. 5° 34 / S., long. 133° W E. Between the northeast point 
Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. pp. 183-186, London, 1869. 
See Tilbury Fox, M.D., On the Tokelau Ringworm and its Fungus, The Lancet, p. 304, 1874, 
