Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/131

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ABORIGINAL METHEGLIN.
99

undiminished spirit, and intuitive skill, to perform feats worthy of, and receiving, unbounded applause. All the natives keep exceedingly correct time; and, if dancing consists in easy and gracefully varied positions of the body, the civilised professors of that useful art might have profited by the skill of the sable Mimaloo.

At length, from the fiddler's elbow becoming tired, the music ceased, one dancer threw himself on the ground, and the other rested his head on my knees; I placed him on a chair, when, balancing it on the after-legs, his head against the wall, he threw his legs on the table with all the nonchalance of an Indian pilot. This free and easy way created much mirth, particularly to the sailors, who were assembled round the cottage to witness the amusement.

Marambal then requested to have some water in a basin: which being brought to him, he squeezed into it honey out of a meshy fibrous bundle formed from the inner bark of young trees, (the only method the natives have of retaining honey,) and then dipping the bundle into the water, he sucked it with great avidity and seeming satisfaction. Having repeated this several times, he handed it to Mimaloo, who in the same manner partook of the refreshing beverage. They remained with us until after tea, which Marambal and Mimaloo partook of with becoming propriety. Waterloo's manner was more uncouth.

This scene must have appeared very strange to those who had formerly witnessed and borne a part in