326 



A yAlVHAJJST^S WANDEHTNOS 



SOJOURN IN TIMOR-LAUT — cmUnUBd, 



Religion And saperstUions — Visit to Waitidul — BaTter fur a skull— Send my 

 hmittre fo the iiortlie?m inlands of the grouii — Climate of Timor-laut-— 

 A w*tHyn<'« gfuiri iVwtfre — Dtisi;4iiatioii of the group— Geographical aad 

 geological features. 



The Tenimber islaiidens recognise some supreme existence 

 whom they call Buadilahf of whom there is an image in their 

 I houses, over the principal seat, or dod&kan, fiicing the entrance, 

 with at its side a platter, or hilaati^ on which a little food and 

 drink is placed whenever they themselves eat. From their lu vus, 

 among the other heterogeneons odds and ends which it con- 

 tainSf they can generally produce one small image, sometimes 

 more. Their little gods vary in form according to the occupa- 

 tion they are engaged in ; but in what light they regard them 

 I could not discover. Singularly enough, one of these images 

 (on the left hand, p. 327) has a most wonderful resemblance to 

 one brought by Sir. Wallace from New Guinea, and figured 

 in his * Malay Archipelago.* That they have a firm belief in 

 a powerful, chiefly an avenging, spirit I feel certain. One 

 day B stranger to the village had his loin-cloth stolen. After 

 several days had passed without his recovering it, we were 

 surprised to see a boat urgently propelled across the bay, 

 from wliieh the oirner of the stolen cloth impulsively sprang, 

 bringing with him a small red flag on the end of a slender 

 pole. This he erected on the spot whence his cloth had dis- 

 I appeared, and aftor looking up with a steady and penetrating 

 1 eye and repeating in a most tragic and excited manner a long 

 imprecation against the thief and the village, he removed the 

 pole, jiuuped into his boat, and, without accosting any one, 

 withilrew in the same urgent manner from the now doomed 

 village. 



