150 MARBIAG chap. 
once being touched by hands. I told Mrs. Jardine to 
impress on them that any contact of a hand with my 
food was against my religion. The fried slice of 
dugong was almost exactly like veal, as was also the 
turtle, but the green tail (I think it is the fat) I 
could not make up my mind to try. The ovens of the 
natives here are similar to those used by the Maoris in 
New Zealand ; heated stones with water poured on 
them and fish and yams wrapped in banana leaves or 
grass put all together on top. 
They are all very curious about the painting ; the 
children with wondering looks in their big brown eyes 
come constantly crowding round me, watching every 
move with the greatest curiosity. I am a new sort of 
animal to them, I suppose, for they peep round the 
doorways at me and then rush off with shouts of 
laughter, to be again joined by a second lot ; then, 
bolder still, they creep noiselessly in, looking over my 
shoulder, and at last, hemmed in on all sides, I have to 
call again for Mrs. Jardine. The chief sent them this 
morning to get me flowers, and they came back laden, 
about twenty of them, with bundles all of the same 
kind, one flower stuck inside another, and with the 
leaves all carefully stripped off. 
Do you remember, long ago in New Zealand, 
promising a Maori sixpence each for specimens of a 
certain kind of walking-stick, and how twenty or 
thirty curious-looking red objects appeared some days 
after coming along the beach ? As they came nearer 
we saw they were Maoris, each labouring along under 
the weight of a bundle of carefully-steamed and well- 
skinned sticks, and how ang^ they were at you 
because you wouldn't buy the lot, and how they 
chopped them all into bits so that the soldiers should 
not have them for nothing; though they afterwards 
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