232 TEE ARU ISLANDS. [chap. xxxi. 



word of it, I go on with my book or work undisturbed. 

 Now and then they scream and shout, or laugh frantically 

 for variety ; and this goes on alternately with vociferous 

 talking of men, women, and children, till long after I am 

 in my mosquito curtain and sound asleep. 



At this place I obtained some light on the complicated 

 mixture of races- in Aru, which would utterly confound an 

 ethnologist. Many of the natives, though equally dark 

 with the others, have little of the Papuan physiognomy, 

 but have more delicate features of the European type, 

 with more glossy, curling hair: These at first quite puzzled 

 me, for they have no more resemblance to Malay than to 

 Papuan, and the darkness of skin and hair would forbid 

 the idea of Dutch intermixture. Listening to their con- 

 versation, however, I detected some words that were 

 familiar to me. " Accabd" was one; and to be sure that 

 it was not an accidental resemblance, I asked the speaker 

 in Malay what "accabo" meant, and was told it meant 

 "done or finished," a true Portuguese word, with it's 

 meaning retained. Again, I heard the word " jafui" often 

 repeated, and could see, without inquiry, that its meaning 

 was "he's gone," as in Portuguese. " Porco," too, seems 

 a common name, though the people have no idea of its 

 European meaning. This cleared up the difficulty. I at 

 once understood that some early Portuguese traders had 

 penetrated to these islands, and mixed with the natives, 



