_52 Voyage of the Novara. 



height of a man, which usually follows here upon spots that 

 have been once cultivated and are afterwards abandoned, and 

 which, if once taken root, can only with the utmost difficulty 

 be eradicated. From this peak, barely 200 feet in height, it 

 is practicable to descend by a small footpath to the cove of 

 Ulh,la, whose shores are entirely overrun with dense im- 

 passable mangrove-swamp, and accordingly present a most 

 dreary, gloomy aspect. 



Our next excursion was to the village of Enuang or Enong, 

 where lay at anchor, under the British flag, two Malay 

 prahus from Pulo-Penang, manned by Malay crews, and 

 taking in cargoes of ripe cocoa-nuts, edible birds' nests, and 

 sea-slugs, or Trepang. Tlie captain of one of these prahus and 

 the greater number of the crew were laid up with fever. 

 The supercargo, a Chinese named Owi-Bing-Hong, spoke 

 English fluently, and was of the utmost service to us in our 

 communications with the natives. Enuang is larger than 

 Itoe, and has about a dozen huts, but these are one and all 

 half-ruinous, very filthy, and utterly neglected. In all the 

 huts we found numbers of figures, cut in white wood in the 

 very rudest style in various postures, mostly with a threaten- 

 ing, combative expression, intended to drive away the evil 

 spirit, of whom the natives seem to stand in great dread; 

 for it is the universal practice of these islanders to ascribe 

 whatever happens to them to the influence of an evil spirit, 

 and probably also the appearance of the Novara in the har- 

 bour of Nangkauri was laid to the account of the ill in- 



