342 



THE ABU ISLANDS. 



[chap. 



for the native -prepared skins, they cannot now be obtained at 

 Dobbo under seventeen times that suni.^ 



There were but fifty people in the whole ^Tllage, we learnt, but 

 the Posthouder told us that, at the height of the trading season, 

 there would be between four and five thousand. How they can all 



BUGIS PRAU, DOBBO. 



find accommodation it is difficult to understand, for there is cer- 

 tainly not house-room for half that number. Many must sleep in 



1 The prices of the six kinds of Birds of Paradise used in trade vary considerably 

 at the different islands. They appeared highest at Ternate. The folloAving are the 

 prices per " koddy " of twenty skins at that place and Macassar, together with those 

 asked by the Rajah of Salwatti :- 



"Males" (P. apoda) 

 "¥eraa.\es" (P. minor) 

 "Red birds" (P. rubra) . 

 " Many- wires " (5'. «Z6a) . 

 "Green birds" (D. speciosa) 

 "King-birds" (C. rcgius) . 

 These prices are in gulden of one shilling and eightpence. 



