Each Man Also Possesses A °Cadjan," Or Sleeping-Mat, Made
Of The Broad Leaves Of A Pandanus Neatly Sewn Together In- Three
Layers.
This mat is abort four feet square, and when folded has
one end sewn up, so that it forms a kind of sack open at one
side.
In the closed corner the head or feet can be placed, or by
carrying it on the head in a shower it forms both coat and
umbrella. It doubles up ix a small compass for convenient
carriage, and then forms a light and elastic cushion, so that on
a journey it becomes clothing, house, bedding, and furniture, all
in one.
The only ornaments in an Aru horse are trophies of the chase -
jaws of wild pigs, the heads and backbones of cassowaries, and
plumes made from the feathers of the Bird of Paradise, cassowary,
and domestic fowl. The spears, shields, knife-handles, and other
utensils are more or less carved in fanciful designs, and the
mats and leaf boxes are painted or plaited in neat patterns of
red, black, and yellow colours. I must not forget these boxes,
which are most ingeniously made of the pith of a balm leaf pegged
together, lined inside with pandanus leaves, and outside with the
same, or with plaited grass. All the joints and angles are
coffered with strips of split rattan sewn neatly on. The lid is
covered with the brown leathery spathe of the Areca palm, which
is impervious to water, and the whole box is neat, strong, and
well finished. They are made from a few inches to two or three
feet long, and being much esteemed by the Malay as clothes-boxes,
are a regular article of export from Aru. The natives use the
smaller ones for tobacco or betel-nut, but seldom have clothes
enough to require the larger ones, which are only made for sale.
Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen in native
houses, are gaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few domestic
fowls, which have baskets hung for them to lay in under the
eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half-starved
wolfish-baking dogs. Instead of rats and mice there are curious
little marsupial animals about the same size, which run about at
night and nibble anything eatable that may be left uncovered.
Four or five different kinds of ants attack everything not
isolated by water, and one kind even swims across that; great
spiders lurk in baskets and boxes, or hide in the folds of my
mosquito curtain; centipedes and millepedes are found everywhere.
I have caught them under my pillow and on my bead; while in every
box, and under every hoard which has lain for some days
undisturbed, little scorpions are sure to be found snugly
ensconced, with their formidable tails quickly turned up ready
for attack or defence. Such companions seem very alarming and
dangerous, but all combined are not so bad as the irritation of
mosquitoes, or of the insect pests often found at home. These
latter are a constant and unceasing source of torment and
disgust, whereas you may live a long time among scorpions,
spiders, and centipedes, ugly and venomous though they are, and
get no harm from them. After living twelve years in the tropics,
I have never yet been bitten or stung by either.
The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my greatest
enemies, and kept me constantly on the watch. If my boys left the
bird they were skinning for an instant, it was sure to be carried
off. Everything eatable had to be hung up to the roof, to be out
of their reach. Ali had just finished skinning a fine King Bird
of Paradise one day, when he dropped the skin. Before he could
stoop to pick it up, one of this famished race had seized upon
it, and he only succeeded in rescuing it from its fangs after it
was torn to tatters. Two skins of the large Paradisea, which were
quite dry and ready to pack away, were incautiously left on my
table for the night, wrapped up in paper. The next morning they
were gone, and only a few scattered feathers indicated their
fate. My hanging shelf was out of their reach; but having
stupidly left a box which served as a step, a full-plumaged
Paradise bird was next morning missing; and a dog below the house
was to be seen still mumbling over the fragments, with the fine
golden plumes all trampled in the mud. Every night, as soon as I
was in bed, I could hear them searching about for what they could
devour, under my table, and all about my boxes and baskets,
keeping me in a state of suspense till morning, lest something of
value might incautiously have been left within their read. They
would drink the oil of my floating lamp and eat the wick, and
upset or break my crockery if my lazy boys had neglected to wash
away even the smell of anything eatable. Bad, however, as they
are here, they were worse in a Dyak's house in Borneo where I was
once staying, for there they gnawed off the tops of my waterproof
boots, ate a large piece out of an old leather game-bag, besides
devouring a portion of my mosquito curtain!
April 28th. - Last evening we had a grand consultation, which had
evidently been arranged and discussed beforehand. A number of the
natives gathered round me, and said they wanted to talk. Two of
the best Malay scholars helped each other, the rest putting in
hints and ideas in their own language. They told me a long
rambling story; but, partly owing to their imperfect knowledge of
Malay, partly through my ignorance of local terms, and partly
through the incoherence of their narrative, I could not make it
out very clearly. It was, however, a tradition, and I was glad to
find they had anything of the kind.
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