/A' TIMOR. 



467 



T-bandage ; wliile the women go absolutely naked, and whea 

 they appear to trade with other than their own people they 

 ensconce themselves in baskets up to the arm-pits. These 

 people may possibly be Negritoes. 



From the market-place" otir way lay up a most pleasant 

 naturally macadamised road in the river bed by a very gentle 

 ascent. The cliffs, of loose shingly horizontally-lying water- 

 worn detritus, which banked it in on both hands, rose perpen- 

 dicularly often to 200 feet, through which in many phices 

 elbows of strata at right angles to the direction of the river 

 protruded forming as it wero a series of deep pockets, in the 

 debris of which especially where there "are largish boulders 

 among it, is found the gold of which this river is said to 

 contain more than any other in East Timor. The gold is most 

 abimdantly found in pockets beneath which strata dip as to 

 ffirm as it were a floor, the fattt-viii^ the " mat {t,e. bottom) 

 rock ** of the native. The sources of this river, to which no one 

 may approach without first sacrificing a pig or ftiwl, are most 

 rigidly LuiL Only in one month of the year, when the river 

 is at its lowest ebb, will they dare to undertake any gold- 

 washing, and then only after one of their most solemn cere- 

 mtmials. 



Before deciding on a day to commence the gold-washing, 

 some of the children — in order, as I imagine, that no suspicion 

 may be awakened among the river spirits that the search is 

 intended— are sent to report whether the river is sufficiently 

 low, and in a favourable condition. On their return the 

 people are assembled, and public proclamation made — -"Ohl 

 ho ! ho ! four days hence we go to gather gold." On that 

 day the Dato-htli, dressed in all the vestments of his oiKee, 

 proceeds (in the district of Saluki) to the top of the curious 

 Peak of Fatunaruk, where a fiat stone exists which is supposed 

 to be the most sacred altar in the kingdom. Behind him 

 follow all the people — men, women and children. The older 

 men seat themselves on the ground nearer to the Dato, the 

 women, children, and younger men keeping at a respectful 

 distance. The Datt>-luU, then in front of the great stone, 

 invokes the Spirits of their dead, Maromak of the heavens, and 

 Him of the earth. All then return to their homes, where each 

 acting as his own ^* hctuse-priest,'* kills a fowl or a small pig. 



