470 



rilE ARU ISLAXDS. 



strangers wlio Jmd taken away their people. Tliey said 

 they were wonderfully strong, and each one could kill a 

 great many Aru men j and when they were wounded, how- 

 ever badly, they 8i)it upon the place, and it immediately 

 became well. And they made a great net of rattans, and 

 entangled their prisoners in it, and sunk them in the 

 water; and the next day, when they pulled the net up on 

 shore, they made the drowned men come to life again, and 

 curriod them away, 



iluch more of the same kind was told me, hut in so 

 contused and randjUng a manner that I could make no- 

 thing out of it, till I inq^nired how long ago it was that 

 all this happened, when they told me tliat after their 

 people were taken away the Bugis came in their prans to 

 trade in Am^ and to buy tripang and birds* nest^. It is 

 not impossible that something similar to what tliey related 

 to me imlly happened when the early Portuguese dis- 

 coverers first came to Am, and has formed the foimda- 

 tion for a continually increasing accuxnulatioD of legend 

 and fable. I have no doubt that to the next generation, 

 or even before, I myself shall be transformed into a magi- 

 cian or a demigod, a worker of miracles, and a being of 

 supemattiral knowledge. They already believe that aU 

 the animals I preserve will come to life again ; and to 

 their children it will be related that they actually did so. 

 An unusual spell of fine weather setting in just at my 

 anival has made them believe I can control the seasons ; 

 and the simple circumstance of my always walking alone 

 in the forest is a wonder and a mystery to them, as weU as 

 my asking them about birds and animals I have not yet 

 seen, and showing an acquointance with their forms, 

 colours, and habits. Tliese facta are brought against me 

 when 1 disclaim knowledge of what tliey wish me to tell 

 them. You must know," say they ; " you know every- 

 thing : you make the fine wt-ather for your men to shoot ; 

 and you know all about our birds and our aninuila as well 

 as we do; and you go alone into the forest and are not 

 afraid," Theivfore every confession of ignorance on my 

 part is thought to be a blind, a mere excuse to avoid tell- 

 ing them too much. My very writing materials and books 

 are to them weird things ; and were I to choose to mystify 



