A NATUBALTST'S WANDElilNOa 



digtant, so as to dislodge a quoit from the row. If tlie player 

 failed to hit he had to return to the crense to phiy a^ain in bis 

 turn, l»ut if he gucee<?ded he j)layetl a secotid time from where 

 his quoit rested. Passing his right hand hohlhig the disc round 

 to his left side as far as he could stretch j and st4?ailyiug it with 

 his left hand, he would take iu this position steii<ly aim, calcu- 

 lating with a glancing eye the spot be intended to hit, then with 

 a run forward a few steps to the crease, b<* would deliver with 

 all his might. Not only did the yoiing lads and hoys engage 

 in this game, but even the grown-up men juined with much bois- 

 terous laughter. At a very early age the children begin to 

 wade about the shallow margins of the sea, practising with sjjear 

 and arrow the capture of fish, training arm and eye till when 

 they have come of age, they have attuned an almost unerring 

 accuracy of aim, A fine exhilrition was to be witnessed of 

 the bcAuty of the human figure when the youtlis— fine fellows 

 in the perfection of their manhof>d— came out at sundown 

 to j>ractise the drawing of the bow or throiring of the lance. 

 How awkward were the attempts of myself and my Amboineae 

 boys! How Avell-mcrited their good-natured jeering! The 

 marvellous grace, however, of the human form was unsur- 

 passiugly exhibited when — the setting sun behind their lissom 

 untrammelled figures — the women were returning from the 

 fields, standing erect at the stern, and with long strokes poling 

 in their buoyant praus. One view might shame half of the 

 spine-deformed, waistnlistorted slaves of fashion out of cus- 

 toms, which are as barbarous as any which are recortled as 

 strange or hurtful among savage peoples. 



When a man dies, bis children and relatives assemble to 

 lament his deimrture, but I have never seen any outward 

 expression or sign of niouniing. . A pig is killed, but I am in 

 doubt whether it is given to the assembled people to eat or 

 laid with the dead body, which is then placed in a portion of 

 a pmu fitted to the length of the individual, or witliin strips 

 of gaha-gaha, or stems of the sago palm pinned together. If it 

 is a person of some consequence, such as an Orang Kai/a, an 

 ornate and decorated prau-shaped coftin is specially made. I'his 

 is then enveloped in calico, and placed eitlier on the top of a 

 rock by the margin of the sea ut a short distance from the 

 village, or on a high pile-platform erected on the shore nhout 



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