This They Comprehended, But Replied That There Had Always Been
The Same Trade As Long As They Or Their Fathers
Recollected, but
that this was the first time a real white man had come among
them, and, said they, "You
See how the people come every day from
all the villages round to look at you." This was very flattering,
and accounted for the great concourse of visitors which I had at
first imagined was accidental. A few years before I had been one
of the gazers at the Zoolus, and the Aztecs in London. Now the
tables were turned upon me, for I was to these people a new and
strange variety of man, and had the honour of affording to them,
in my own person, an attractive exhibition, gratis.
All the men and boys of Aru are expert archers, never stirring
without their bows and arrows. They shoot all sorts of birds, as
well as pigs and kangaroos occasionally, and thus have a
tolerably good supply of meat to eat with their vegetables. The
result of this better living is superior healthiness, well-made
bodies, and generally clear skins. They brought me numbers of
small birds in exchange for beads or tobacco, but mauled them
terribly, notwithstanding my repeated instructions. When they got
a bird alive they would often tie a string to its leg, and keep
it a day or two, till its plumage was so draggled and dirtied as
to be almost worthless. One of the first things I got from there
was a living specimen of the curious and beautiful racquet-tailed
kingfisher. Seeing how much I admired it, they afterwards brought
me several more, which wore all caught before daybreak, sleeping
in cavities of the rocky banks of the stream. My hunters also
shot a few specimens, and almost all of them had the red bill
more or less clogged with mud and earth. This indicates the
habits of the bird, which, though popularly a king-fisher, never
catches fish, but lives on insects and minute shells, which it
picks up in the forest, darting down upon them from its perch on
some low branch. The genus Tanysiptera, to which this bird
belongs, is remarkable for the enormously lengthened tail, which
in all other kingfishers is small and short. Linnaeus named the
species known to him "the goddess kingfisher" (Alcedo dea), from
its extreme grace and beauty, the plumage being brilliant blue
and white, with the bill red, like coral. Several species of
these interesting birds are now known, all confined within the
very limited area which comprises the Moluccas, New Guinea, and
the extreme North of Australia. They resemble each other so
closely that several of them can only be distinguished by careful
comparison. One of the rarest, however, which inhabits New
Guinea, is very distinct from the rest, being bright red beneath
instead of white. That which I now obtained was a new one, and
has been named Tanysiptera hydrocharis, but in general form and
coloration it is exactly similar to the larger species found in
Amboyna, and figured at page 468 of my first volume.
New and interesting birds were continually brought in, either by
my own boys or by the natives, and at the end of a week Ali
arrived triumphant one afternoon with a fine specimen of the
Great Bird of Paradise. The ornamental plumes had not yet
attained their full growth, but the richness of their glossy
orange colouring, and the exquisite delicacy of the loosely
waving feathers, were unsurpassable. At the same time a great
black cockatoo was brought in, as well as a fine fruit-pigeon and
several small birds, so that we were all kept hard at work
skinning till sunset. Just as we had cleared away and packed up
for the night, a strange beast was brought, which had been shot
by the natives. It resembled in size, and in its white woolly
covering, a small fat lamb, but had short legs, hand-like feet
with large claws, and a long prehensile tail. It was a Cuscus (C.
maculatus), one of the curious marsupial animals of the Papuan
region, and I was very desirous to obtain the skin. The owners,
however, said they wanted to eat it; and though I offered them a
good price, and promised to give them all the meat, there was
grout hesitation. Suspecting the reason, I offered, though it was
night, to set to work immediately and get out the body for them,
to which they agreed. The creature was much hacked about, and the
two hind feet almost cut off; but it was the largest and finest
specimen of the kind I had seen; and after an hour's hard work I
handed over the body to the owners, who immediately cut it up and
roasted it for supper.
As this was a very good place for birds, I determined to remain a
month longer, and took the opportunity of a native boat going to
Dobbo, to send Ali for a fresh supply of ammunition and
provisions. They started on the 10th of April, and the house was
crowded with about a hundred men, boys, women, and girls,
bringing their loads of sugar-cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams,
&c.; one lad going from each house to sell the produce and make
purchases. The noise was indescribable. At least fifty of the
hundred were always talking at once, and that not in the low
measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with loud
voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the women and
children were even more conspicuous than the men. It was only
while gazing at me that their tongues were moderately quiet,
because their eyes were fully occupied. The black vegetable soil
here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and the sugar-cane
was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat
were often ten and even twelve feet long, and thick in
proportion, with short joints throughout, swelling between the
knots with the, abundance of the rich juice.
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