The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XXV.] CERAM, GORAM, AN'D THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 271going almost naked. The men wear their frizzly hair gatheredinto a flat circular knot over the left temple, which has a veryknowing look, and in their ears cylinders of wood as thick asone's finger, and coloured x-ed at the ends. Armlets and ankletsof woven grass or of _ silver, with necklaces of beads or of smallfruits, complete their attire. The women wear similar ornaments,but have their hair loose. All are tall, with a darkbrown skin, and well marked Papuan physiognomy. There isan Amboyna sclioolmaster in the village, and a good number ofchildren attend school every morning.Such of the inliabitantsas have become Christians may be known by their weainng theirliair loose, and adopting to some extent the native Christiandress—trousers and a loose shirt. Yery few speak Malay, allthese coast villages having been recently formed by inducingnatives to leave the inaccessible interior. In all the central partof Cei-apa there now remains only one populous village in themountains. Towards the east and the extreme west are a fewothers, with which exceptions all the inhabitants of Ceram arecollected on the coast. In the northern and eastern districtstliey are mostly Mahometans, while on the south-west coast,nearest Amboyna, they are nominal Christians.In all this part of the Archipelago, the Dutch make verypraiseworthy efforts to improve the condition of the aboriginesby establishing schoolmasters in every village (wlio are mostlynatives of Amboyna or SajDarua, who have been instructed bythe resident missionaries), and by employing native vaccinatorsto prevent the ravages of smallpox. They also encourage thesettlement of Europeans, and the formation of new plantationsof cacao and coffee, one of the best means of raising the conditionof the natives, who thus obtain work at fair wages, andhave the opportunity of acquiring something of Europeantastes and habits.My collections here did not progress much better than at myformer station, except that butterflies were a little more plentiful,and some very fine species were to be found in tlie morningon the sea-beach, sitting so quietly on the wet sand that tlieycould be caught with the fingers. In this way I had many finespecimens of Papilios brought me by tiie children. Beetles,however, were scarce, and birds still more so, and I began tothink that the handsome species which I liad so often heardwere found in Ceram must be entirely confined to the easternextremity of the island.A few miles further north, at the head of tlie Bay of Amahay,is situated the village of Makariki, from whence there is anative path quite across the island to the north coast. Myfriend, Mr. Rosenberg, whose acquaintance I liad made at NewGuinea, and who was now the Government superintendent of allthis part of Ceram, returned from Wahai, on the nortli coast,after I had been three weeks at Awaiya, and showed me somefine butterflies he had obtained on the' mountain streams in the