453 



THE ARU ISUNM. 



[chap. XXXI. 



Btmiige beast was brought, -which had been shot by th« 

 natives. It resembled in size, and in it? white woolly 

 coveiin^^, a araall fat Iamb, but had sliort legs, band-like 

 feet with large claws, and a long prehensile tail It was 

 a Cuscus (C. macitlatus), one of the curious marsupial 

 animals of the Papuan region, and 1 was Vftry desirous to 

 obtain the skin. Tlie owners, howpver, said tliej wanted 

 to eat it ; and though I offered them a good price, and 

 promised to give thein all the meat, there was great 

 hesitation. Suspectin^^ the reason, I offered, though it was 

 night, to set to work inmiediately and get out the body for 

 them, to which they agreed The creature was much 

 hacked about, and the two hind feet almost cut otf, but it 

 was the largest and linest specimen of the kind I had seen ; 

 and after an hour's hard work I handed over the body to 

 the owners, who immediately cut it up and roasted it for 

 eupper. 



As this was a very good place for birds, I determined to 

 remain a nuiuth longer, and took the opporfcunity of a 

 nati%*e boat going to iJolilio, to send Ali for a fresh supply 

 of arunmnition and pro\ision3. They started on the 10th 

 of April, and the house was crowded with about a hundred 

 men, boys, women, and girls, bringing their loads of sugar- 

 cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams, &c, ; one lad going from 

 each house to sell the produce and make purchases. The 

 noise was imlescribable. At least fifty of the hundred 

 were always talking at once, and that not in tbe low 

 measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with 

 loud voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the 

 women and children were even more conspicuous than the 

 men. It was only while gaxing at me that their tongues 

 were moderately quiet, because their eyes were fully occu- 

 pied. The black vegetable soil here overlying the coral rock 

 is very rich, and the sugar-caue was finer than any I had 

 ever seen. The canes brought to the boat were often ten 

 and even twelve feet long, and thick in pri^portion, with 

 fihort joints throughout, swelling between the knots with the 

 abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbo they get a high 

 price for it, \d, to Zd. a stick, and there is an insatiable 

 denuuid among the crews of tlie praus and the Baba fisher- 

 men. Here they eat it continually They half live on it. 



