426 



THE Ki ISLANDS, 



[chap. 3CXI3L 



never beartily, ancl stiU less at or in tlio prLvseiice of a 

 stranger, to whom, however, hig disdaiiiM glances or 

 whispered remarks are less agreeiible than the most 

 hoisteroiis open expression of merriment. The women 

 here were not so much frightened at strangers, or made 

 to keep themselves so much secluded as among the 

 Malay nices; the children were more merry and had 

 the "nigger grin" while the noisy confusion 'of tongijes 

 among the men, and theii' excitement on very onlinary 

 occasions, are altogether removed from the general taci- 

 turnity and reserve of the Malay. 



The language of the K<5 people consists of words of one, 

 two, or three syDables in about equal proportions, and has 

 many aspirated and a few guttuiul sounds. The different 

 villages have slight differences of dialect, but they are 

 mutually intelHgible, and, except in words that have 

 evidently been introduced during a long-continued com- 

 mercial intercourse, seem to have no aliiuity whatever with 

 the Malay langtiages. 



Jmi. 6th. — The small boats being finished, we saOed 

 for Aru afc 4 p.m., and as we left the shoi-es of had a 

 fine view of its rugged and mountainous character; ranges 

 of hills^ three or four thousand feet high, stretching south- 

 wards lis far as the eye could reach, everywhere covered 

 with a lofty, dense, and nnbroken forest We had very 

 light winds, and it therefore took ns thirty houi-a to make 

 the passage of sixty miles to the low, or flat, hut eciually 

 forest-covei-ed Aru Islands, where we anchored in the 

 harbour of Dobbo at nine in tlie evening of the next day. 



My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily 

 terminated, I musfc, before taking leave of it for some 

 months, bear testimony to the merits of the queer old- 

 world vessel. Setting aside all ideas of danger, which is 

 probably, after all, not more than in any other craft, I 

 must declare that I have never, either before or since, 

 made a twenty days' voyage so pleasantly, or perhaps, 

 more coiTectly speaking, with so little discomfort. This I 

 attribute cWefly to having my small cabin on deck, and 

 entirely to myself, to having my own servants to wait 

 upon me, and to the absence of all those marine-store 

 smells of paint, pitch, tallow, and new cordage, w^hieh aie 



