278 THE ARU ISLANDS. [chap, xxxii. 



Could it have been seen from an elevation, it would have 

 had a fine effect ; from below I could only catch sight of 

 masses of gorgeous colour in clusters and festoons over- 

 head, about which flocks of blue and orange lories were 

 fluttering and screaming. 



A good many people died at Dobbo this season ; I 

 believe about twenty. They were buried in a little grove 

 of Casuarinas behind my house. Among the traders was 

 a Mahometan priest, who superintended the funerals, 

 which were very simple. The body was wrapped up in 

 new white cotton cloth, and was carried on a bier to the 

 grave. All the spectators sat down on the ground, and 

 the priest chanted some verses from the Koran. The graves 

 were fenced round with a slight bamboo railing, and a 

 little carved wooden head-post was put to mark the spot. 

 There was also in the village a small mosque, where every 

 Friday the faithful went to pray. This is probably more 

 remote from Mecca than any other mosque in the world, 

 and marks the farthest eastern extension of the Maho- 

 metan religion. The Chinese here, as elsewhere, showed 

 their superior wealth and civilization by tombstones of 

 solid granite brought from Singapore, with deeply-cut 

 inscriptions, the characters of which are painted in red, 

 blue, and gold. No people have more respect for the 

 graves of their relations and friends than this strange, 

 ubiquitous, money-getting people. 



