338 THE ABU ISLANDS. [chap. 



had not heard that a post had been established here, and were 

 much astonished at being greeted by a white man. He, I imagme, 

 was not sorry to see us, for the life to any one but a naturalist 

 must be terrible. A mail reaches Dobbo four times a year. Other- 

 wise there is no communication with the outer world except such 

 as is afforded by the trading praus at the change of the monsoon. 



The \dllage of Dobbo is quite sui generis. From the northern 

 end of Wamma a fiat, wedge-shaped spit of yellow sand juts out 

 into the sea for a distance of a couple of hundred yards. The apex 

 forms a sort of Piazza del Popolo, from which radiate the three 

 rows of houses and two streets that form the settlement, flanked 

 by the two prau-covered beaches. The houses have high-pitched 

 roofs, and the usual untidy appearance that attap walls alone 

 produce m perfection. They are really all shops, as I shall shortly 

 explain, but there is not much sign of this from the street. At 

 the end of what might be termed the Corso, and facing us, stands 

 the Posthouder's house, over which wave the graceful fronds of 

 half a dozen coco palms. A few pigs and chickens are routing in 

 the sandy streets, two or three enormous-hatted Chinamen squat 

 at the doors of their huts, and a little group of small black imps 

 with large stomachs and stick-like legs play at a corner. This is 

 all that we see on first landmg, and nearly all that the place has 

 got to show. It is not the trading season, and Dobbo is deserted. 



The place is the Nischni Novogorod of Malaysia. The ex- 

 istence of some general mart at the extreme confines of civilisation, 

 where the products of human brain and hand could be bartered for 

 those of Nature, became a necessity years ago, and Ai'u, whose 

 pearls and Paradise birds have been articles of trade for the last 

 two centuries, gradually established itself as the commercial centre.^ 

 Prom Java, from Southern Celebes — home of the Bugis trader, — 

 from Bouru, Ceram, and Timor, from a dozen other places in these 

 island -covered seas, so soon as the west monsoon has faiiiy set 



^ The little island of Kihvaru, between Gissa and Ceram Laut, at the east end 

 of Ceram, is another trading place of this kind, but of much less importance. 



