246 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap. xxxi. 



goods brought, among whicli "were a good many cocoa-nuts, 

 wliicli are a great luxury here. It seems strange that they 

 should never plant them ; but the reason simply is, that 

 they cannot bring their hearts to biu-y a good nut for 

 the prospective advantage of a crop twelve years hence. 

 There is also the chance of the fruits being dug up and 

 eaten unless watched night and day. Among the things I 

 had sent for was a box of arrack, and I was now of course 

 besieged with requests for a little drop. I gave them a 

 flask (about two bottles), which was very soon finished, 

 and I was assured that there were many present who had 

 not had a taste. As I feared my box would very soon be 

 emptied if I supplied all their demands, I told them I had 

 given them one, but the second they must pay for, and 

 that afterwards I must have a Paradise bird for each flask. 

 They immediately sent round to all the neighbouring 

 houses, and mustered up a rupee in Dutch copper money, 

 got their second flask, and drunk it as quickly as the first, 

 and were then very talkative, but less noisy and impor- 

 tunate than I had expected. Two or three of them got 

 roimd me and begged me for the twentieth time to tell 

 them the name of my country. Tlien, as they could not 

 pronounce it satisfactorily, they insisted that I was de- 

 ceiving them, and that it was a name of my own invention. 

 One funny old man, who bore a ludicrous resemblance to 

 a friend of mine at home, was almost indignant. " Ung- 



