214 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap. xxx. 



an evening stroll in all the dignity of flowing green silk 

 robe and gay turban, followed by two small boys carrying 

 his sirili and betel boxes. 



In every vacant space new houses are being built, and 

 all sorts of odd little cooking-sheds are erected against the 

 old ones, while in some out-of-the-way corners, massive log 

 pigsties are tenanted by growing porkers ; for how could 

 the Chinamen exist six months without one feast of pig ? 

 Here and there are stalls where bananas are sold, and 

 every morning two little boys go about with trays of sweet 

 rice and grated cocoa-nut, fried fish, or fried plantains ; and 

 whichever it may be, they have but one cry, and that is — 

 " Chocolat — t — t !" This must be a Spanish or Portuguese 

 cry, handed down for centuries, while its meaning has 

 been lost. The Bugis sailors, whUe hoisting the main- 

 sail, cry out, "Vela a vela, — vela, v^la, vela!" repeated 

 in an everlasting chorus. As " vela" is Portuguese 

 for a sail, I supposed I had discovered the origin of 

 this, but I found afterwards they used the same cry 

 when heaving anchor, and often changed it to "hela," 

 which is so much an universal expression of exertion j 

 and hard breathing that it is most probably a mere in- 

 terjectional cry. 



I daresay there are now near five hundred people in] 

 Dobbo of various races, all met in this remote corner of 

 the East, as they express it, " to look for their fortune ; " to j 



