The chief very
coolly asked for beer and brandy, and helped himself and his
followers, apparently more out of curiosity than anything else as
regards the beer, for it seemed very distasteful to them, while
they drank the brandy in tumblers with much relish.
Returning to Ampanam, I devoted myself for some days to shooting
the birds of the neighbourhood. The fine fig-trees of the
avenues, where a market was held, were tenanted by superb orioles
(Oriolus broderpii) of a rich orange colour, and peculiar to this
island and the adjacent ones of Sumbawa and Flores. All round the
town were abundance of the curious Tropidorhynchus timoriensis,
allied to the Friar bird of Australia. They are here called
"Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, which seems to
repeat these words in various and not unmelodious intonations.
Every day boys were to be seen walking along the roads and by the
hedges and ditches, catching dragonflies with birdlime. They
carry a slender stick, with a few twigs at the end well annointed,
so that the least touch captures the insect, whose wings are
pulled off before it is consigned to a small basket. The dragon-
flies are so abundant at the time of the rice flowering that
thousands are soon caught in this way. The bodies are fried in
oil with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone, and
are considered a great delicacy.
