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

XXX.] THE ARU ISLANDS.—RESIDENCE IN DOBBO. 329ing out amid the silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. Thevillage of Dobbo held that evening at least one contented man.Jan. 26tJi.—Having now been here a fortnight, I began tounderstand a little of the place and its peculiarities. Prauscontinually arrived, and the merchant population increa.sedalmost daily. Every two or three days a fresh house wasopened, and the necessary repairs made. In every directionmen were bringing in poles, bamboos, rattans, and the leaves ofthe ni])a palm to construct or repair the walls, thatch, doors,and shutters of their liouses, wliich they do with great celerity.Some of the arrivals were Macassar men or Bugis, but morefrom the small island of Goram, at the east end of Ceram, whoseinhabitants are the petty traders of the far East. Then thenatives of Aru come in from the other side of the islands (calledhere '' blakang tana," or " back of the country '") witli the producethey liave collected during the preceding six months, andwhich they now sell to tlie traders, to some of whom they aremost likely in debt. Almost all, or I may safelj^ say all, the newarrivals pay me a visit, to see with their own eyes the unheardofi^henomenon of a person come to stay at Dobbo who does nottrade ! They have their own ideas of the uses tlmt may possiblybe made of stuffed birds, beetles, and shells which are not theright sliells—that is, " motlier-ofiDearl." They every day bringme dead and broken .shells, such as I can pick up by hundredson the beach, and seem quite puzzled and distressed when I declinethem. If, however, there are any snail shells among thelot, I take them, and ask for more—a j^rinciple of selection soutterly unintelligible to them, that they give it up in despair,or solve the problem by imputing hidden medical virtue to thosewhich they see me preserve so carefully.These traders are all of the Malay race, or a mixture of whichMalay is the chief ingredient, with the exception of a fewChinese. The natives of Aru, on the other hand, are Papuans,with black or sooty brown skins, woolly or frizzly hair, thickridgedprominent noses, and I'ather slender limbs. ]\Iost ofthem wear nothing but a waist-clotli, and a few of them maybe seen all day long wandering about the half-deserted streets ofDobbo offering their little bit of merchandise for sale.Living in a trader's house everything is brought to me aswell as to tlie rest—bundles of smoked tripang, or hiche demer, looking like sausages whicli have been rolled in mud andthen thrown up the chimney ; dried shai'ks' tins, mother-of-pearlshells, as well as Birds of Paradise, wliich, Iiowever, are so dirtyand so badly preserved that I have as yet found no specimensworth purchasing. When I hardly look at the articles, and makeno offer for them, they seem incredulous, and, as if fearing theyhave misunderstood me, again offer them, and declare what theywant in return—knives, or tobacco, or sago, or handkerchiefs.I then lia\e to endeavour to explain, througli any interpreterwlio may be at hand, that neither tripang nor pearl oyster shells