﻿34© A SHORT DISCRETION 



thatch. The entry is through a trap - door below, 

 where the family mount by a ladder, which is drawn 

 up at night. This manner of building is intended 

 to secure the houses from being infested with snakes 

 and rats ; and for that purpose the pillars are bound 

 round with a smooth kind of leaf, which prevents 

 animals from being able to mount; besides which, 

 each pillar has a broad round flat piece of wood near 

 the top of it, the projecting of which effectually 

 prevents the further progress of such vermin as may 

 have passed the leaf. The flooring is made with thin 

 strips of bamboos, laid at such distances from one 

 another as to leave free admission for light and air ; 

 and the inside is neatly finished and decorated with 

 fishing lances, nets, &c. 



The art of making cloth of any kind is quite un- 

 known to the inhabitants of this island ; what they 

 have is got from the ships that come to trade in cocoa- 

 nuts. In exchange for their nuts (which are reckoned 

 the finest in this part of India) they will accept of but 

 few articles ; what they chiefly wish for is cloth of dif- 

 ferent colours, hatchets and hanger-blades, which they 

 use in cutting down the nuts. Tobacco and arrack they 

 are very fond of; but expect these in presents. They 

 have no money of their own, nor will tbey allow any 

 value to the coin of other countries, further than as 

 they happen to fancy them for ornaments ; the young 

 women sometimes hanging strings of dollars about 

 their necks. However, they are good judges of gold 

 and silver ; and it is no easy matter to impose baser 

 metals upon them as such. 



They purchase a much larger quantity of cloth 

 than is consumed upon their own island. This is 

 intended for the Choury market. Choury is a small 

 island to the southward of theirs, to which a large 

 fleet of their boats sails every year about the month 

 of November, to exchange cloth for canoes ; for they 



