Native Houses and Habits. 453 



as in other respects, man is not able to make a beast of him- 

 self with impunity, feeding like the cattle on the herbs and 

 fruits of the earth, and taking no thought of the morrow. To 

 maintain his health and beauty, he must labor to prepare 

 some farinaceous product capable of being stored and accumu- 

 lated, so as to give him a regular su})ply of wholesome food. 

 When this is obtained, he may add vegetables, fiaiits, and 

 meat with advantage. 



The chief luxury of the Aru people, besides betel and to- 

 bacco, is arrack (Java rum), which the traders bring in great 

 quantities, and sell very cheap. A day's fishing or rattan cut- 

 ting will purchase at least a half-gallon bottle ; and when the 

 tripang or birds' nests collected during a season are sold, they 

 get whole boxes each containing fifteen such bottles, which 

 the inmates of a house will sit round day and night till they 

 have finished. They themselves tell me that at such bouts 

 they often tear to pieces the house they are in, break and de- 

 stroy every thing they can lay their hands on, and make such 

 an infernal riot as is alarming to behold. 



The houses and furniture are on a par with the food. A 

 rude shed, supported on rough and slender sticks rather than 

 posts, no walls, but the floor raised to within a foot of the 

 eaves, is the style of architecture they usually adoj^t. Inside 

 there are partition-walls of thatch, forming little boxes or sleep- 

 ing-places, to accommodate the two or three separate fami- 

 lies that usually live together. A few mats, baskets, and cook- 

 ing-vessels, with plates and basins purchased from the Macas- 

 sar traders, constitute their whole furniture ; spears and bows 

 are their weapons ; a sarong or mat forms the clothing of the 

 women, a waistcloth of the men. For hours or even for days 

 they sit idle in their hoiises, the women bringing in the vege- 

 tables or sago which form their food. Sometimes they hunt 

 or fish a little, or work at their houses or canoes, but they 

 seem to enjoy pure idleness, and work as little as they can. 

 They have little to vary the monotony of life, little that can 

 be called pleasure, except idleness and conversation. And they 

 certainly do talk ! Every evening there is a little Babel 

 around me : but as I understand not a word of it, I go on 

 with my book or work undisturbed. Now and then they 

 scream and shout, or laugh frantically for variety ; and this 



