The Women Wear Similar Ornaments,
But Have Their Hair Loose.
All are tall, with a dark brown skin,
and well marked Papuan physiognomy.
There is an Amboyna
schoolmaster in the village, and a good number of children attend
school every morning. Such of the inhabitants as have become
Christians may be known by their wearing their hair loose, and
adopting to some extent the native Christian dress-trousers and a
loose shirt. Very few speak Malay, all these coast villages
having been recently formed by inducing natives to leave the
inaccessible interior. In all the central part of Ceram there new
remains only one populous village in the mountains. Towards the
east and the extreme west are a few others, with which exceptions
all the inhabitants of Ceram are collected on the coast. In the
northern and eastern districts they are mostly Mahometans, while
on the southwest coast, nearest Amboyna, they are nominal
Christians. In all this part of the Archipelago the Dutch make
very praiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the
aborigines by establishing schoolmasters in every village (who
are mostly natives of Amboyna or Saparua, who have; been
instructed by the resident missionaries), and by employing native
vaccinators to prevent the ravages of smallpox. They also
encourage the settlement of Europeans, and the formation of new
plantations of cacao and coffee, one of the best means of raising
the condition of the natives, who thus obtain work at fair wages,
and have the opportunity of acquiring something of European
tastes and habits.
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