DISAPPOINTMENTS 
say, they were good enough to offer to provide wives 
for the sailors from among their own women. Certain 
traders in British New Guinea are not above accepting 
this civility, for the possession of a native woman is 
often a valuable business asset. Some sandalwood 
cutters, for example, frequently make these left-handed 
matriages, for the mistress is influential in obtaining 
workers for her husband from among her own people. 
One sandalwood cutter, a Malay, who has made a large 
fortune at his trade, could always obtain double the 
number of labourers procurable by any other trader on 
account of his /zaison with a native woman, by whom 
he has a large family. His numerous Papuan blood- 
relations stand him in good stead in his business. 
The houses of the Tugeri are built of grass and 
bamboo. ‘The walls rise to a height of about ten feet 
and are covered with a span roof. I observed their 
villages only from a distance, however, and never 
accompanied the Dutch soldiers on any of their expe- 
ditions. Some of the villages are very large, consisting 
of two or three hundred houses. Near the townships 
immense cocoanut plantations invariably occur, and 
these seem to form the chief wealth of the Tugeri. 
A strange part of the Tugeri’s paraphernalia was 
their extraordinary drums. ‘The body of these, shaped 
like a dice-box, was hewn out of a solid log, hollowed, 
and curiously carved. Midway at the narrowest point 
was a clumsy handle, also hewn from the log. The 
drum heads are of lizard skin. The performer carries 
the instrument by the handle in the left hand, and 
beats with his right. ‘The noise is prodigious. 
The tribe domesticates the gaura. This bird has 
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