260 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap, xxxi, 



soon as I was in bed, I could hear them searching about 

 for what they could devour, under my table, and all about 

 my boxes and baskets, keeping me in a state of suspense 

 till morning, lest something of value might incautiously 

 have been left within their reach. They would drink the 

 oil of my floating lamp and eat the wick, and upset or 

 break my crockery if my lazy boys had neglected to wash 

 away even the smell of anything eatable. Bad, however, 

 as they are here, they were worse in a Dyak's house in 

 Borneo where I was once staying, for there they gnawed 

 off the tops of my waterproof boots, ate a large piece out of 

 an old leather game-bag, besides devouring a portion of my 

 mosquito curtain ! 



April 28th. — Last evening we had a grand consultation, 

 which had evidently been arranged and discussed before- 

 hand. A number of the natives gathered round me, and 

 said they wanted to talk. Two of the best Malay scholars 

 helped each other, the rest putting in hints and ideas in 

 their own language. They told me a long rambling story ; 

 but, partly owing to their imperfect knowledge of Malay, 

 partly through my ignorance of local terms, and jDartly 

 through the incoherence of their narrative, I could not 

 make it out very clearly. It was, however, a tradition, 

 and I was glad to find they had anything of the kind. A 

 long time ago, they said, some strangers came to Aru, and 

 came here to Wanumbai, and the chief, of the Wanumbai 



