IN TIMOR. 



463 



wonderful power and accuracy— at each other. Most of the 

 men had round the waist ammunition pouches of thick buffalo- 

 hide, in form much like European cartridge-belts, with com- 

 partments for the small bamboo cylinders in which tliey keep 

 gunpowder, shot, flints, balls of lead or of ruby crystals 

 gathered out of the river beds ; here and there a man from 



the 



western kingdoms of the Portuguese territory could be 



told by the excellence of the construction of these accoutre- 

 ments, and the elegant way in which they were studded with 

 large tin-headed nails, or with rows of Dutch silver coins, 



English 



sovereign 



among 



them 



and occasionally with an 

 transfixed by a nail through its centra 



The women wear very few ornaments — a few arm-bands of 

 silver or horn, and occasionally earrings, and, transfixing the 

 knot in which their hair was gathered behind, a high semi- 

 circular comb, elaborately carved in beautiful and complex 

 patterns. These are said to be given by the youths to their 

 sweethearts, and possibly represent a sort of 



token. Their dress 

 fron 



eniifaji'ement 



simple tunic, the faisfeta, 



Besides the 



was a 

 a the waist or from the armpits to the knees. 

 The women did all the selling and buying, while the men 

 strutted about exchanging with each other drinks of palm 

 wine~to which they are inordinately given, 

 different food stuffs, there were exposed for sale on the ground, 

 piles of those beautiful cloths, entirely spun and woven by 

 themselves, in which both between 

 themselves and anions: the surround- 

 ing islands a larjxe trade is done, and 

 cigarette and 



tobacco 



holders ex- 

 quisitelv woven out of thin shreds of 

 palm-leaf, on which are worked in 

 additional fibres most artistic coloured 

 designs in yellow, red, and black, of 

 dyes made also by themselves ; the 

 red out of the nut of the Morinda 

 citrifolia, the yellow from the epi- 



J.e6 



OKXAMESTATlOy I 



BA3IB0O. 



SMALL 



dermis of an epidendric orchid called 

 smile, and the black (or dark blue) 

 from the indigo. The favourite and typical carved ornamenta- 

 tion that I observed on their weapons and accoutrements, and 



