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

382 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.tobacco of their own growing, in pipes cut from a single pieceof wood with a long upright handle.We had arrived at Dorey about the end of tlie wet season,when the whole country was soaked with moisture. The nativepaths were so neglected as to be often mere tunnels closed overwith A-egetation, and in such places there was always a fearfulaccumulation of mud. To the naked Papuan this is no obstruction.He wades tlirough it, and the next watei'coursemakes him clean again ;but to myself, wearing boots andtrousers, it was a most disagreeable tiling to have to go up tomy knees in a mud-hole every morning. The man I broughtwith me to cut wood fell ill soon after we arrived, or I wouldhave set him to clear fresh paths in the worst places. For thefirst ten days it generally rained every afternoon and all night ;but by going out every hour of fine weather, I managed to geton tolerably with my collections of birds and insects, findingmost of those collected by Lesson during his visit in the CoquiUe,as well as many new ones. It appears, however, that Dorey isnot the place for Birds of Paradise, none of the natives beingaccustomed to preserve them. Those sold here are all broughtfrom Amberbaki, about a hundred miles west, where theDoreyans go to trade.The islands in the bay, with the low lands near the coast,seem to have been formed by recently I'aised coral reefs and aremuch strewn with masses of coral but little altered. The ridgebehind my liouse, which runs out to the point, is also entirelycoral rock, although there are signs of a stratified foundation inthe ravines, and the rock itself is more compact and crystalline.It is, therefore, probably older, a more recent elevation havingexposed the low grounds and islands. On the other side of thebay rise the great mass of the Arfak mountains, said by theFrench navigators to be about ten thousand feet high, andinhabited by savage tribes. These are held in great dread bythe Dorey people, who have often been attacked and plunderedby them, and have some of their skulls hanging outside theirhouses. If I was seen going into the forest anywhere in thedirection of the mountains, the little boys of the village wouldshout after me, " Arfaki ! Arfaki " ! just as they did after Lessonnearly forty years before.On the 15tii of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna arrived ; but,as the coals had gone, it was obliged to stay till they came back.The captain knew when the coalship was to arrive and how longit was chartei'ed to stay at Dorey, and could have been back intime, but supposed it would wait for liim, and so did not hurryhimself. The steamer lay at anchor just opjDosite ray house,and I had the advantage of hearing the half-hourly bells struck,which was very pleasant after the monotonous silence of theforest. The captain, doctor, engineer, and some other of theofficers paid me visits ; the ser\ants came to the brook to washclothes, and the son of the Prince of Tidore, with one or two