242 WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



vegetables inside easily find his way in at the wide end of the 

 lead, and when once inside would not find the small opening 

 to return. For these plantations a piece of land is selected 

 Which had more than ordinary depth of soil, it is of course in 

 the midst of a dense tropical scrub. The land is partially 

 cleared by cutting down most of the trees and leaving them 

 lying on the ground to decay away. The crop is then put in 

 the virgin soil among this labyrinth of tree trunks and grows 

 luxuriently, it consists of sweet potatoes, yams, sugar cane, 

 etc., and sometimes, not always, bananas. The cocoanut 

 grows anywhere without clearing for it, but this tree requires 

 from five to ten years to come into full bearing. At the time 

 Wallace visited the Aru Islands cocoanuts were not known, 

 but there are a great many full grown trees now. The 

 natives do not care to> part with the nuts; they ask an enor- 

 mous price for them, or indeed for any of their products. 

 Bananas are as dear if not more so than in Australia. I have 

 seen several kinds of bananas growing in the plantations when 

 out in search of birds. The milk of the young cocoanut 

 forms a delicious and wholesome drink, but it is not often one 

 can indulge oneself in the Aru Islands. Besides their 

 vegetable foods the natives obtain large quantities of fish. 

 They catch them in small nets, but more frequently by spear- 

 ing them at night by torch light. Then the men and boys are 

 good archers, and shoot numbers of birds, now and again a 

 wallaby, and upon rare occasions a pig; they also snare the 

 terrestial birds as well as mammals. The men and boys 

 always have bows and arrows with them. When rambling 

 through the bush I have on several occasions not known my 

 exact whereabouts. This is very easily managed when the 

 sun is so often obscured by heavy clouds, and every yard of 

 that country is dense bush. Coming suddenly upon a village 

 or hut I would ask one of the men to put me in the right direc- 

 tion; that he would do without a moment's hesitation, and if 

 he only had to go twenty yards he woud bring his bow and 

 arrows and mat. This mat is an extremely useful article ; it 

 is made of the leaves of the pandanus palm, neatly sewn to- 

 gether three or four thick, it is about four feet by three, is 

 doubled once, and the end sewn up so that it is like a sack 

 with the top and one side open. This mat then forms the 

 men's seat or bed, it is very soft, should it rain he can open 

 it out and put it over his head, when it will cover the head, 

 shoulders, and back, and no rain will go through it, if it is cold 

 he does the same, or if the sun shines too hotly he can make 

 an umbrella of it. The boys shoot well with their arrows, 



