Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/348

290 with our invitation, was prevented by the rest, who eagerly pulled him back to them, as if they imagined him to be about to expose himself to some great danger.

We thought that we recognized amongst these islanders some of those whom we had seen on the two preceding days. They were very curious to know the names of the things we gave them; but what surprised us very much was, that they enquired with the terms poe nama, which very much resemble the Malayan words apa nama, signifying "what is the name of this?" They, however, understood none of the men in our ships, who addressed them in the Malay language.

These savages brought with them a sort of pudding, which we found to consist partly of roots and the flesh of lobsters. They offered us some of it, and those of us who ate of it, found it very well tasted.

Most of these islanders made use of a human cubitus, scooped out at the extremity, for drawing the pieces of chalk which they mixed with their betel, from the bottom of a calabash.

They sold us an axe shaped like that represented in Plate XII. Fig. 9; it was made of serpentine stone, very well polished, and hafted with a single piece of wood. The edge of the axe was in the direction of the length of the handle, as in ours.