When we took possession of the island, Nelly would glide into the jungle like a frightened snake and hide for days. She was wild, suspicious, uncleanly, uncouth--a combination of all the shortcomings of the savage. Now she lights the fire every morning, kneads the bread, makes the porridge and the coffee, feeds the fowls, washes plates and clothes, scrubs floors, and generally does the work of a domestic. She is cheerfully industrious, emphatic in her admiration of pictures, and smokes continuously, preferring a pipe ornamented with "lead," for she has all the woman's love of show. From the most quarrelsome and vixenish gin of the camp she has been transformed into a decent-minded peacemaker--always ready to atone for the misbehaviour of others, and to display without a trace of self-glorification the virtue of self-sacrifice. Nelly is never happier than when working about the house, except when she saunters off on a Sunday morning, in the glare of a new dress, and with the smoke curling from her ornamented pipe, beneath a hat which, in variety of tints, shames the sunset sky. Students of ethnology who may scan these lines may find food for reflection in the fact that Tom and Nelly offer exceptions to the rules that the totems of Australian blacks generally refer to food, and that those whose totems are alike do not marry. Tom's totemic title, "Kitalbarra," is derived from a splinter of a rock off an islet to the southeast of Dunk Island. "Oongle-bi," Nelly's affinity, is a rock on the summit of a hill on the mainland, not far from her birthplace. The plea of the rocks was not raised as any just cause or impediment to the match when Tom by force of arms espoused Nelly. "Jimmy," Tom and Nelly's son, born in civilisation, bears a second name, that of a deceased uncle, "Toola-un-guy," the totemic rendering of which is now unknown. Another "Jimmy," a native of Hinchinbrook, is differentiated by "Yaeki-muggie," the title of the sandspit of one of the Brook Islands. The confusion of tongues between Tom and Nelly may be briefly illustrated-- TOM ("Kitalbarra"). NELLY ("Oongle-bi"). Sun. Wee-yee. Car-rie. Moon. Yil-can. Car-cal-oon. Sky. Aln-pun. Moogah-car-boon. Mainland. Yungl-man. Mung-un. Island. Cul-qua-yah. Moan-mitte. Sea. Mutta. Yoo-moo. Fire. Wam-pui. Poon-nee. Water. Cam-moo. Pan-nahr. Rain. Yukan. Yukan. Man. Mah-al. Yer-rah. Woman. Rit-tee. Ee-bee. Baby. Eee-bee. Koo-jal. Head. Poo-you. Oom-poo. Foot. Pin-kin. Chin-nah. Leg. Waka. Too-joo. Hand. Man-dee. Mul-lah. Fish. Tar-boo. Kooyah. Bird. Poong-an. Toon-doo.