180 i'HE KE ISLANDS. [chap, xxix- 



and boats of various sizes were drawn up "on the beacli, 

 and one or two idlers, wath a few children and a dog, gazed 

 at our prau as we came to an anchor. 

 I When we went on shore the first thing that attracted us 

 was a large and well-constructed shed, under which a long 

 boat was being built, while others in various stages of com- 

 pletion were placed at intervals along the beach. Our 

 captain, who wanted two of moderate size for the trade 

 among the islands at Aru, immediately began bargaining 

 for them, and in a short time had arranged the number 

 of brass guns, gongs, sarongs, handkerchiefs, axes, white 

 plates, tobacco, and arrack, which he was to give for a pair 

 which could be got ready in four days. We tlien went to 

 the village, which consisted only of three or four huts, 

 situated immediately above the beach on an irregular 

 rocky piece of ground overshadowed with cocoa-nuts, 

 palms, bananas, and other fruit trees. The houses were 

 very rude, black, and half rotten, raised a few feet on posts 

 with low sides of bamboo or planks, and high thatched 

 roofs. They had small doors and no windows, an opening 

 under the projecting gables letting the smoke out and 

 a little light in. The floors were of strips of bamboo, 

 thin, slippery, and elastic, and so weak that my feet 

 were in danger of plunging through at every step. Native 

 boxes of pandanus-leaves and slabs of palm pith, very 

 neatly constructed, mats of the same, jars and cooking 



