m TIMOR. 



463 



^vonderful power ami accuracy— at each other. Blost of the 

 men hail round the waist ammunition pouches of thick bniTaKi- 

 hiile, in form much like Eiiropoaii cartridge-belts, with com- 

 partments for the small hamlnMJ eyUn*lers in which they keep 

 gnupjwiler, shot, flints, halls of lead or of ruby crystals 

 gathered out of the river beds ; here and there a man from 

 the western kingdoms of the Ptirtuguese territory could be 

 told by the excellence of the construction of the^e accoutre- 

 ments, and the cdegant way in which they were studded with 

 large tin-headed uails, or with 'rows of Dutch silver coins, 

 and oeeasiomilly with an English sovereign among them 

 transfixed by a nail through its centre. 



The womeu wetir very few ornaments — a few arm-bands of 

 silver or horu, and occasionally earrings, and, transfixing the 

 knot ill which their hair was gathored behind, a high semi- 

 cirenhir comb, elabonitely carved in beautiful and complex 

 patterna These are said to be given by the youths to their 

 sweethearts, and possibly represent a sort of engagement 

 token. Their dress was a simple tnnic, the taUfetay hmig 

 from the waist or from the armjdts to the knees. 



The women did all the selliug and buying, while the men 

 strutted about Gxehanging with each other drinks of pilm- 

 wine — to which they are inordinately given. Besides the 

 different food stufTs, there were exposed for sale on the ground, 

 piles of those beautiful cloths, entirely span and woven by 

 themselves, in which both between 

 themselves and among the surround- 

 ing islands a large trade is done, and 

 cigarette and tobacco holders ex- 

 quiisitely woven out of thin shreds of 

 palm-leaf, on which are worked in 

 ad<litional fibres most artistic coloured 

 designs in yellow, red, and black, of 

 dyes made also by themselves ; the 

 red out of the nut of the Morinda 

 eitrifoUa^ the yellow from the epi- 3 

 dermis of an epidendric orchid called oBSAaiaprATios on sami 

 smihf and the black (or dark blue) BAMBoa 

 firom the indigo. The favourite and typical carved ornamenta- 

 tion that I observed on their weapons and accoutrements, and 



