456 



THMAltU ISUmS, 



[CflAP. XXII. 



■ * Banyftk quot bitchara Orang Am " (Tlie Aru people are 

 very strong talkei-s), never having been accustomed to suc)i 

 eloquence either in his own or any other country he had 

 hitherto vigiteih Of an evening the men, having got over 

 their first shyness, began to talk to me a little, asking 

 about my country, &c., and in return I questioned tliem 

 about any traditiuns they had of their own origin, 1 had, 

 however, very little success, for I could not possibly make 

 them understand the simple question of where the Aru 

 people tirst came froia I put it in every possible way to 

 them, but it was a subject quite beyond their specidations ; 

 they had evidently never thought of anything of tlie kind, 

 and were unable to conceive a thing so remote and so 

 unnecessary to be thought about, as their own origin. 

 Knding this hopeless, I asked if they knew when tlie 

 trade with Am first began, when the Bugis and Chinese 

 and ^lacassar men first came in their praus to buy tripang 

 and tortoise-shell, and birds' nests, and Paradise birds t 

 This they comprehended, but replied that there had always 

 been the same trade as long as thej or tlieir tatliers recol- 

 lected, but that this was the first time a real white man 

 had come among them, and, said they, " You see how the 

 people come every day from all the villages round to look 

 at you." This was very Hattering, and accounted for the 

 great concourse of visitors which I had at first imagined 

 was accidental. A few years before I had been one of the 

 gazers at the Zoolus and the Aztecs in Juondon. Now the 

 tables were turned upon me, for 1 was to these people a 

 new and strange variety of man, and had the honour of 

 aJfording to them, in my o%vn person, an attractive exhi- 

 bition, gratis. 



All the men and boys of Aru are expert archers, never 

 stirring without their bows and arrows. They slioot all 

 sorts of birds, as well rs pigs and kangaroos occasionally, 

 and thus have a tolerably good supply of meat to eat with 

 their vegetables. The result of this better living is superior 

 liealthiness, well-made bodies, and generally clear skins. 

 They brought me numbers of small binls in exchange for 

 beads or tobacco, but mauled them terribly, notwithstand- 

 ing my repeated instructions. When they got a bird alive 

 they would often tie a string to its leg, and keep it a day 



