256 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap. xxxi. 



plaited garters below the knee, complete their ordinary 

 decorations. 



Some natives of Kobror from further south, and who 

 are reckoned the worst and least civilized of the Aru 

 tribes, came one day to visit us. They have a rather 

 more than usually savage appearance, owing to the greater 

 amount of ornaments they use — the most conspicuous 

 being a large horseshoe-shaped comb which they wear 

 over the forehead, the ends resting on the temples. The 

 back of the comb is fastened into a piece of wood, which 

 is plated with tin in front, and above is attached a plume 

 of feathers from a cock's tail. In other respects they 

 scarcely differed from the people I was living with. They 

 brought me a couple of birds, some shells and insects, 

 showing that the report of the white man and his doings 

 had reached their country. There was probably hardly a 

 man' in Aru who had not by this time heard of me. 



Besides the domestic utensils already mentioned, the 

 moveable property of a native is very scanty. He 

 has a good supply of spears and bows and arrows for 

 hunting, a parang, or chopping-knife, and an axe — for 

 the stone age has passed away here, owing to the com- 

 mercial enterprise of the Bugis and other Malay races. 

 Attached to a belt, or hung across his shoulder, he carries 

 a little skin pouch and an ornamented bamboo, containing 

 betel-nut, tobacco, and lime, and a small German wooden- 



