The Next Day We
Continued Our Way Back, And On The Following Day Entered A Stream
On The South Side Of The Watelai River, And Ascending To Where
Navigation Ceased Found The Little Village Of Wanumbai,
Consisting Of Two Large Houses Surrounded By Plantations, Amid
The Virgin Forests Of Aru.
As I liked the look of the place, and was desirous of staying
some time, I sent my pilot to try and make a bargain for house
accommodation.
The owner and chief man of the place made many
excuses. First, be was afraid I would not like his house, and
then was doubtful whether his son, who was away, would like his
admitting me. I had a long talk with him myself, and tried to
explain what I was doing, and how many things I would buy of
them, and showed him my stock of heads, and knives, and cloth,
and tobacco, all of which I would spend with his family and
friends if he would give me house-room. He seemed a little
staggered at this, and said he, would talk to his wife, and in
the meantime I went for a little walk to see the neighbourhood.
When I carne back, I again sent my pilot, saying that I would go
away if he would not dive me part of his house. In about half an
hour he returned with a demand for about half the cost of
building a house, for the rent of a small portion of it for a few
weeks. As the only difficulty now was a pecuniary one, I got out
about ten yards of cloth, an axe, with a few beads and some
tobacco, and sent them as my final offer for the part of the
house which I had before pointed out. This was accepted after a
little more talk, and I immediately proceeded to take possession.
The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet
on posts, the walls about three or four feet more, with a high-
pitched roof. The floor was of bamboo laths, and in the sloping
roof way an immense shutter, which could be lifted and propped up
to admit light and air. At the end where this was situated the
floor was raised about a foot, and this piece, about ten feet
wide by twenty long, quite open to the rest of the house, was the
portion I was to occupy. At one end of this piece, separated by a
thatch partition, was a cooking place, with a clay floor and
shelves for crockery. At the opposite end I had my mosquito
curtain hung, and round the walls we arranged my boxes and other
stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning and
dusting made the place look quite comfortable. My boat was then
hauled up on shore, and covered with palm-leaves, the sails and
oars brought indoors, a hanging-stage for drying my specimens
erected outside the house and another inside, and my boys were
set to clean their gnus and get ail ready for beginning work.
The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the
immediate neighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended
ceases to be navigable at this point, above which it is a little
rocky brook, which quite dries up in the hot season. There was
now, however, a fair stream of water in it; and a path which was
partly in and partly by the side of the water, promised well for
insects, as I here saw the magnificent blue butterfly, Papilio
ulysses, as well as several other fine species, flopping lazily
along, sometimes resting high up on the foliage which drooped
over the water, at others settling down on the damp rock or on
the edges of muddy pools. A little way on several paths branched
off through patches of second-growth forest to cane-fields,
gardens, and scattered houses, beyond which again the dark wall
of verdure striped with tree-trunks, marked out the limits of the
primeval forests. The voices of many birds promised good
shooting, and on my return I found that my boy s had already
obtained two or three kinds I had not seen before; and in the
evening a native brought me a rare and beautiful species of
ground-thrush (Pitta novaeguinaeae) hitherto only known from New
Guinea.
As I improved my acquaintance with them I became much interested
in these people, who are a fair sample of the true savage
inhabitants of the Aru Islands, tolerably free from foreign
admixture. The house I lived in contained four or five families,
and there were generally from six to a dozen visitors besides.
They kept up a continual row from morning till night - talking,
laughing, shouting, without intermission - not very pleasant, but
interesting as a study of national character. My boy Ali said to
me, "Banyak quot bitchara Orang Aru "(The Aru people are very
strong talkers), never having been accustomed to such eloquence
either in his own or any other country he had hitherto visited.
Of an evening the men, having got over their first shyness, began
to talk to me a little, asking about my country, &c., and in
return I questioned them about any traditions they had of their
own origin. I had, however, very little success, for I could not
possibly make them understand the simple question of where the
Aru people first came from. I put it in every possible way to
them, but it was a subject quite beyond their speculations; they
had evidently never thought of anything of the kind, and were
unable to conceive a thing so remote and so unnecessary to be
thought about, as their own origin. Finding this hopeless, I
asked if they knew when the trade with Aru first began, when the
Bugis and Chinese and Macassar men first came in their praus to
buy tripang and tortoise-shell, and birds' nests, arid Paradise
birds?
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