426 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



Korongo-eis, a people who dwell in the interior, and have 

 never been seen by Europeans. They are described as 

 having white skins and light hair. On the west coast 

 some of the villages are nominally Christian, and the 

 Malays have also introduced Mohammedanism. For at 

 least three centuries and a half, and probably much longer, 

 trade has been carried on with the Moluccas in bird-of- 

 paradise skins, and as a consequence the natives have long 

 been acquainted with the useful metals, ivory, cloth, and 

 so forth, and ardent spirits. These products, however, 

 pass through many hands, and civilisation has not accom- 

 panied them, so that the people are almost everywhere 

 perfect savages, and in many places go entirely unclothed. 

 Agriculture is in a very primitive condition, and sago is 

 the staple food. The land appears to consist entirely of 

 raised coral rocks, covered with dense forest and 

 impassable swamps, and though there are a few hills 

 of about 1000 feet, it is on the whole but little elevated 

 above sea-level. 



Mention has been made upon a former page of the 

 little island of Kilwaru, east of Ceram, as one of the 

 great trading centres between the rude savagery of ISTew 

 Guinea and the semi-civilisation of Western Malaysia. 

 We have in the Aru Islands a similar example, except 

 that the trade is more important. The little island of 

 Dobbo, on the west of the larger mass, is the seat of a 

 temporary town or fair during the season, which lasts 

 from January to July or August. The permanent resi- 

 dents are very few, but there are whole streets of houses 

 belonging to the traders who annually flock here. These 

 are Chinese, Bugis, and men from Makassar, Coram, and 

 Java, who come here in native praus as soon as the west 

 monsoon has set in, and open stores for the purchase of 

 the produce of the surrounding islands, of which pearl- 



