206 



THE ARU ISLANDS. 



[chap. XXX. 



They formed small social parties of ten or twenty around 

 bits of stick or seaweed, but dispersed hurriedly at the 

 sound of approaching footsteps. After a windy night, that 

 nasty-looking Chinese delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes 

 thrown up on the beach, which was at such times thickly 

 strewn with some of the most beautiful shells that adorn 

 ctur cabinets, along with fragments and masses of coral 

 and strange sponges, of which I picked up more than 

 twenty different sorts. In many cases sponge and coral 

 are so much alike that it is only on touching them that 

 they can be distinguished. Quantities of seaweed, too, 

 are thrown up ; but strange as it may seem, these are far 

 less beautiful and less varied than may be found on any 

 favourable part of our own coasts. 



The natives here, even those who seem to be of pure 

 Papuan race, were much more reserved and taciturn than H 

 those of Ke. This is probably because I only saw them 

 as yet among strangers and in small parties. One must 

 see the savage at home to know what he really is. Even 

 here, however, the Papiian character sometimes breaks out. 

 Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or talk 

 aloud to themselves (quite a negro characteristic) ; and, try 

 all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the 

 true Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in 

 my house, and having a fancy to try what sort of eating 

 tripang would be, I bought a couple, paying for them with 



