4G6 ™^ '^^^ ISLANDS. [cnAi-. xxxu 



had reached their country. Th^e was probably hardly a 

 iimu in Am who had not by this time heard of me. 



Besides tbe domestic utensils already ineiitioned, the 

 moveable property of a native is very scanty, He 

 has a good supply of spears and bows and arrows for 

 bunting, a parang, or chop ping-knife, and an axe — lor 

 the stone age has parsed away here, owing to the com- 

 mercial enterprise of the Bugis and other Malay races. 

 Attached to a belt, or hung acmss bis shoulder, he carries 

 a little skin pouch and an ornamented bamboo, containing 

 betel-nut, tobacco, and lime, and a small German wooden- 

 handled knife is generally stuck between his waist-cloth 

 of bark mid his bare skin. Each man also possesses a 

 "cadjan," or sleeping-mat, made of tbo broad leaves of 

 a pandanus neatly sewn together in three layers. This 

 mat is about four feet squati), and wlien folded has one 

 end sewn up, so that it forms a kind of sack open at one 

 side. In the closed corner the head or feet can be placed, 

 or by carrying it on the bead in a shower it forms both 

 coat and umbrella. It doubles up in a small compass for 

 convenient carriage, ajul then forms a light and ehistio 

 cushion, so that on a jouruey it becomes clothing, house, 

 beddings and furniture, all in one. 



The only ornaments in an Aru hous(3 are trophies of the 

 chase— jaws of wild pigs, the heads and backbones of 

 cassowaries, and plmnes made from tbe feathers of the 

 Bu'd of Paradise, cassowary, and domestic fowl. The 

 spears, shields, knife-handles, and other utensils are more 

 or less carved in hmciful designs, and the mats and leaf 

 boxes are painted or plaited in neat patterns of red, black, 

 and yellow colours. 1 must not forget these boxes, which 

 are most ingeniously made of the pith of a palm leaf 

 pegged together, lined inside with pandanus leaver, and 

 outside with the same, or with plaited gi-ass. All the 

 joints and angles are covered with strips of split rattan 

 aewn neatly on. The lid is covered with the brown 

 leathery spathe of the Areca palm, whicli is impervious 

 to water, and the wliole box is neat, strong, and well 

 linishecl They are made I'rom a few inches to two or 

 three feet long, and being much esteemed by the ^»Ialays 

 as clothes-boxes, are a regidar article of export from Ai'u, 



