TRE MOLUCCAS, 



287 



under a delightfully shady canopy of tall Kanary trees, 

 and among the groves of Nutmeg of which Eanda is the 

 famous garden. Quite a picturesque object in the wood was 

 a boy busy gathering the fruit into a neat creel, with a 

 jointed pole like a fishing-rod, nipping off the stalk of the 

 ripe nuts by two claw-like prongs with which the tip of his 

 rod was armed, when they dropped into a little basket-Uke 

 cage worked to the stem a few inches below. He came 

 and showed us his basketful of beautiful fruit 

 — in its pale yellow shell, half of which is left 

 on, in which was nestling the dark brown nut 

 embroidered with its deep lake mace. This fruit 

 is the favourite food of the large pigeons {Cariyo- 

 phaga eominna) whose low booming note was one 

 of the few bird sounds that broke the stillness of 

 the woods, I shot, however, a lovely green dove 

 {Piilopus diademaim) and a little White-eye (Zos- 

 terops chloris), and noticed traces of the Cassowaries 

 that have been introduced from New Guinea, which 

 are said to be now breeding there. 



Farther on we came on one of the plantation- 

 houses, where a large number of men and women 

 were peeling the mace, drying it in the sun, and 

 packing both in boxes. These cases are aU made 

 of one size, carefully finished and caulked, and 

 form as delightful an artjple of cargo as could 

 be wished. None but a trade de luxe would befit ^^^^^^^ 

 an island so ornate and so wonderfully situated as ^-b o t ino 

 Banda. Its produce, grown in beautiful bowers, is 

 gathered up round its umbrageous bayleted shores in long 

 gaudily-painted praus, which are constantly darting about 

 propeUed by lithe rowers, who, as is their custom, synchron- 

 ously plunge and flash out their paddles in the sun to a 

 buoyant merry tune, and in whose preparation or shipment 

 not one hand-soiling operation is required ; its atmosphere is 

 charged with aromatic exhalations ; its wharfs and streets are 

 the picture of tidiness, and the very water that laps its ewal 

 shores is brighter and purer than almost anywhere else in the 

 world. 



A night's slow steaming brought us to Amboina. 



