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Mats and Boxes. 4'69 



able property of a native is very scanty. He lias a good sup- 

 ply of spears and bows and arrows for hunting, a parang, or 

 chopping-knife, and an axe — for the stone age has passed 

 away here, owing to the commei'cial entei'prise of the Bugis 

 and other Malay races. Attached to a belt, or hung across 

 his shoulder, he carries a little skin pouch and an ornamented 

 bamboo, containing betel-nut, tobacco, and lime, and a small 

 German wooden-handled knife is generally stuck between his 

 waist-cloth of bark and his bare skin. Each man also possess- 

 es a " cadj an," or sleeping mat, made of the broad leaves of 

 a pandanus neatly sewn together in three layers. This mat 

 is about four feet square, and when folded has one end sewn 

 up, so that it forms a kind of sack open at one side. In the 

 closed corner the head or feet can be placed, or by carrying 

 it on the head in a shower it forms both coat and umbrella. 

 It doubles up in a small compass for convenient carriage, and 

 then forms a light and elastic cushion, so that on a journey it 

 becomes clothing, house, bedding, and furniture, all in one. 



The only ornaments in an Aru house are trophies of the 

 chase — jaws of wild j^igs, the heads and backbones of casso- 

 waries, and plumes made from the feathers of the bird of par- 

 adise, cassowary, and domestic fowl. The spears, shields, 

 knife-handles, and other utensils are more or less carved in 

 fanciful designs, and the mats and leaf boxes are painted or 

 plaited in neat patterns of red, black, and yellow colors. I 

 must not forget these boxes, which are most ingeniously made 

 of the pith of the palm-leaf pegged together, lined inside with 

 j^andanus leaves, and outside with the same, or with plaited 

 grass. All the joints and angles are covered with strips of 

 split rattan sewn neatly on. The lid is covered with the 

 brown leathery spathe of the Areca palm, \yhich is impervious 

 to water, and the whole box is neat, strong, and well finished. 

 They are made from a few inches to two or three feet long, 

 and being much esteemed by the Malays as clothes-boxes, are 

 a regular article of export from Aru. The natives use the 

 smaller ones for tobacco or betel-nut, but seldom have clothes 

 enough to require the larger ones, which are only made for 

 sale. 



Among the domestic animals which may generally be seen 

 in native houses are gaudy parrots, green, red, and blue, a few 



