148 
MARBIAG 
CHAP. 
sing. Their voices are powerful, but most unmusical, 
and, as the noise is deafening, I prefer to look on from 
a distance, and from here as I write to you to-night I 
can watch the lights flickering on the ruddy-coloured 
faces, the bare arms and legs of the women, and the 
little, naked, shining bodies of the children, who look so 
round and tempting that I long to give them a smack, 
especially when they come round me in dozens each 
time I take out my sketch-book. I had twice to-day 
to give it up in despair. 
Multitudinous life swarms in these sunlit islands, and 
I was introduced to my first tarantula here this after- 
noon, a great hairy -limbed fellow. To-night the 
mosquitoes are buzzing in myriads under these tawny 
roofs. It has rather a disturbing effect, but I suppose 
we shall get more accustomed to them by and by, and 
as we have nets with us, may hope to sleep soundly 
to-night after being tossed about last night in our 
little steamer. It has neither affected our spirits nor 
our appetites, and even now, late as it is, I am finishing 
my second cocoa-nut, which fact alone will go far to 
convince you of what Queensland has done for my 
powers of digestion. 
Many of the natives here have almost golden hair, 
having bleached it to that colour with lime and the 
ashes of the Wongi tree, which bears one of the 
principal native fruits of these islands, and this Northern 
Australian coast. It is a very handsome tree, about 
forty or fifty feet high, with shiny, oblong -shaped 
leaves, almost pure white at the back. The fruit is 
the size of a plum, and varies in colour from green to 
yellow, crimson, or black, according to its ripeness. It 
is something like a fresh date. I used to eat pounds 
of it. Some of the other indigenous fruits, which 
the natives seem to relish, are exceedingly nasty. All 
