On 22nd February a Chinese junk passed northward, and the same day another arrived, and anchored in the harbour; that night there was carousal in the village and the noise of much singing. Visitors to the _Terrapin_ were fairly continuous during our stay here, and the appearance of some of them was as ludicrous as it was striking. One man, who wore a battered "billycock" on his head, had encased his feet and legs in a pair of rubber jackboots; between these extremities he sported a sailor's jersey, and the usual #T# bandage. But, impressive as was this man's apparel, it was quite put out of the running by the _grande parure_ of a fellow-dandy who arrived later. A top-hat worn sideways, and draped with a spotted cotton handkerchief where a mourning band might be, a gunner's jacket, thickly laced with yellow braid, and a light-blue pair of Chinese breeches, combined harmoniously (!) with heavy bead necklaces, and a face profusely bedaubed with red oil-paint. This gentleman's idea of refreshment was brandy, and to obtain it he had furnished himself with a supply of fowls, with which he was prepared to purchase it at the rate of a chicken a drink. When not arrayed in these exotic costumes, everyone wore merely the _neng_, and perhaps a fillet of twisted cotton about the head. A man who came to be doctored was treated with a glass of Eno, and an aloes pill, which he slowly sucked! This latter is the sort of medicine natives like, and as the awful bitterness of the drug became evident to his palate, the fellow doubtless thought it very effective treatment indeed. Give a native 10 grains of quinine in sugar-coated tabloids, and he probably holds you a very poor sort of doctor; but dissolve that same quinine in a large glass of water, and make him drink the solution slowly--he will perchance recover on the spot! Faith and imagination, both in savagedom and civilisation, have a lot to do with these matters. The women of the village were very shy and timid, but we now and again saw one or two going about their daily business; the children, however, could not get used to us, and fled screaming whenever we appeared. A few days before we arrived at the village a woman had died there, and during our stay a performance for ridding the place of the ghost was gone through. A large catamaran was constructed and rigged like a schooner, with sails made of green coco-palm leaves. The local doctor or _bobo_[66] then went through certain ceremonies, at which we were not present, and finally seized the ghost or devil and threw it into the boat, which was pushed off, and drifting away, was carried out to sea, where it disappeared.