CHAP, rai.] NATIVE HOUSES AND HABITS. 449 



Lave plenty of fisk; 'but when inland, as we are here, 

 tUey only go to tliii sea occasionally, and then bring 

 home cockles and other shell-fish by the boatload. Xow 

 and then they get wild pig or kangaroo, but too rarely to 

 form anytliing like a regular part of their diet, which is 

 essentially vegetable ; and what is of more importance, 

 as affecting their health, green, watery vegetables, imper- 

 fectly cooked, and even these in var)4ng and often in- 

 suiticient quantities. To this diet may be attributed the 

 previdence of skin diseases, and nlcers on the legs and 

 joints. The scurfy .skin disease so common among savages 

 has a close connexion Vf}t\i the poorness and irregularity of 

 their living. The ^lalays, who are never without their 

 daily rice, are generally free from it; the hill-Dyaks of 

 Borneo, who grow rice and live weU, ai*e clean skinned, 

 while the less industrious and less cleanly tribes, who 

 live for a portion of the year on fruits and vegetables only, 

 are very subject to this malady. It seems clear that in 

 this, as m other respectSj man is not able to make a beast 

 of himself with impunity, feeding iilve the cattle on the 

 herbs and fruits of the earth, and taking no thought of 

 the morrow. To maintain his health and beauty he mmit 

 labour to prepare some farinaceous product capable of 

 being stored and accumulated, so as to give him a regular 

 supply of wholesome food* When this is obtained, ho 

 may add vegetables, fruits, and meat with advantage. 



The chief luxnay of the Aru people, hesi*ies betel 

 and tobacco, is arrack (Java lum), wliich the traders 

 bring in great quantities and sell very cheap. A day's 

 hshiiig or rattan cuttijig will ptuchase at leiust a half- 

 gallon bottle; and when the tripang or birds' nests 

 collected during a season are sold, tliey get whole boxes, 

 each containuig fifteen such bottles, which the inmates 

 of a house wiU sit round day and nij^ht till they have 

 finished, They themselves tell me that at such bout^ they 

 often tear to pieces the house they are in, bi"eak and 

 destroy everything they can lay tlieii' hands on, and make 

 BUch an infernal riot as is alarming to behold. 



Tlie houses and furniture are on a par with the food, 

 A rude shed, supported on rough and slender sticks rather 

 than posts, no walls, but the lloor niised to within a foot 



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