470 The Aru Islands. 



domestic fowls, which have baskets hung for thein to lay in 

 under the eaves, and who sleep on the ridge, and several half- 

 starved wolfish-looking dogs. Instead of rats and mice, there 

 are curious little marsupial animals about the same size, which 

 run about at night and nibble any thing eatable that may be 

 left uncovered. Four or five different kinds of ants attack^ 

 every thing not isolated by water, and one kind even swims 

 across that ; great spiders lurk in baskets and boxes, or hide 

 in the folds of my mosquito-curtain; centipedes and mille- 

 pedes are found everywhere. I have caught them under my 

 pillow and on my head ; while in every box, and under every 

 board which has lain for some days undisturbed, little scor- 

 pions are sure to be found snugly ensconced, with their for- 

 midable tails quickly turned up ready for attack or defense. 

 Such companions seem very alarming and dangerous, but all 

 combined are not so bad as the irritation of mosquitoes, or of 

 the insect pests often found at home. These latter are a con- 

 stant and unceasing source of torment and disgust, whereas 

 you may live a long time among scorpions, spiders and centi- 

 pedes, ugly and venomous though they are, and get no harm 

 from them. After living twelve years in the tropics, I have 

 never yet been bitten or stung by either. 



The lean and hungry dogs before mentioned were my great- 

 est enemies, and kept me constantly on the watch. If my 

 boys left the bird they were skinning for an instant, it was sure 

 to be carried off. Every thing eatable had to be hung up to 

 the roof, to be out of their reach. Ali had just finished skin- 

 ning a fine King Bird of Paradise one day, when he dropped 

 the skin. Before he could stoop to pick it up, one of this 

 famished race had seized upon it, and he only succeeded in 

 rescuing it from its fangs after it was torn to tatters. Two 

 skins of the large Paradisea, which were quite dry and ready 

 to pack away, were incautiously left on my table for the night, 

 wrapped up in paper. The next morning they were gone, and 

 only a few scattered feathers indicated their fate. My hang- 

 ing shelf was out of their reach ; but having stupidly left a 

 box which served as a step, a f ull-plumaged paradise bird was 

 next morning missing ; and a dog below the house was to be 

 seen mumbling over the fragments, with the fine golden plumes 

 all trampled in the mud. Every night, as soon as I was in bed. 



