IN BURU. 403 



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and by the Avomen a short sarong, or petticoat, or a lung loose 

 smock-like robe. 



In fields cleared out of the forest — wliich seem to belon<^ 

 to the man who has cleared thena, and his heirs, as lonir as 

 they do not return to wild forest — they cultivate tobacco, 

 corn, and the usual sweet tubers, species of Convohnlus and 

 Colocaskiy wliich they eat to tlie juice of the boiled Sann 

 (Pandamts eeramiciis) one of the most magnificent scarlet 

 fruits of their forests. Not much rice is grown, but it is 

 received in excliange from the Alefurus of the lower country 

 for tobacco aud tubers, tifiis (or drums), and the strong woven 



Coi or wallet, so universally carried. I was not permitted 

 to go into their fields, as strangers and coast people are 

 tabooed, for fear of some evil befalling their poomalied seeds, 

 and cannot, therefore, speak of their mode of cultivation. 

 From the cotton {Gossijinum micranthum), which tbcy cultivate 

 themselves, they make their own thread. 



The only baggage an Alefuru carries with him besides his 

 hait'tiirhi or cudgel, and a spear, is the Coi, a strong satchel 

 slung on his buttocks by a cord round his ^^■aist, in which he 

 carries his tobacco and those prized comforts of his tribe — siri 

 leaves, betel-nut, and chalk often contained, in a slightly orna- 

 mented gourd. In former times the women in every village 

 in Burn could weave these cois ; noAV, however, the lower 

 country tribes, having acquired increased wealth by the 

 development of trade in the various products they so easily 

 gi'ow or rear, and with wealth laziness by their ability to supply 

 their wants without labouring, have quite forgotten or aban- 

 doned the art, and are dependent for their supply on the 

 mountaineers to Avhom the knowledge of their manufiicturc 

 is confined. The cloth, called by them lam fulca, of which 

 these satchels are made is a very strong almost indestructible 



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canvas, Avliich they render perfectly waterproof by rubbin 

 into it the jnice expressed from the bark of a tree, Iculit rofu, 

 probably one of the Artocarpex. To them is also confined the 

 art of hollowing ont of Pinang and Nangka (Arfocarjms) logs, 

 of the tifas or Uriims, which are so indispensable at all their 

 feasts and religions ceremonies, as well as of the manufacture 

 of tlieir spears°and knives, the art of iron working also being 

 forgotten by the duellers nearer the coast. 



