DAMMA, BABA, AXD TIMUR-LAUT. 127 



Springs of this kind are found in tlie district of 

 Pekalongan, west of Mount Prau, and are frequented 

 by many foreigners, but I never heard that any re- 

 markable cui'e has ever been effected by the use 

 of their waters. The nutmeg-tree grows wild on 

 Damma, and the canari also thrives here. Thirty 

 years after the Dutch deserted this island, the 

 whole population were found to have completely re- 

 lapsed into barbarism, but some of the natives of 

 Moa, Letti, Roma, and Kissa, continue to be Chris- 

 tians, and five or six native schoolmasters are now 

 located among; those islands. Southeast of Damma 

 lies Baba. Its people have the odd custom of rub- 

 bing lime into their hair, even from infancy. An 

 English vessel that was trading here was boarded by 

 these wild natives, and all her crew were butchered. 

 Another vessel suffered a like fate at Timur-laut, that 

 is, " Timur lying to seaward," an island about one 

 hundred miles long, and one-thii\l as wide in its 

 broadest part. It is customary here for each family 

 to preserve the head of one of their ancestors in their 

 dwelling, and, as if to remind them all of his valorous 

 deeds and theu* own mortality, this ghastly skull is 

 placed on a scaffold opposite the entrance. When a 

 young woman marries, each ankle is adorned with 

 heavy copper rings, "to give forth music as she 

 walks." Their war customs are like those of the 

 Ceramese. It is said that among the mountains of 

 this island a black, frizzled-haired people exist. If 

 this should prove true, they will probably be found 

 to be like the inhabitants of Timur and Ombay, and 

 not referable to the Papuan type. The inhabitants 



