OHAF. xxxii ] AMOUNT OF TRADE. 481 



ill with fever and ague might have obtained twice the 

 number. He had lived with the people whose house I 

 had occupied, and it h a proof of their goodness, if fahly 

 treated, that although he took -mth him a quantity of 

 silver dollars to pay for the birds they caught^ no attempt 

 was made to rob him, wluch might have been done witli 

 the moat perfect impunity. He was kindly treated when 

 ill, and was brought back to me ^vith the balance of the 

 dollars he had not spent. 



The Wanunabai people, like almost all the inhabitants of 

 the Am Islands, are perfect savages, and I saw no signs of 

 any religion. There are, however, tbree or four villages on 

 the coast where schoolmasters from Arahoyna reside, and 

 the people are nominally Christians^ and are to some extent 

 educated and civilized. I coukl uot get nmch real know- 

 ledge of the customs of the Arii people during the short 

 time I was among them, but they have evidently been con- 

 siderably influenced by their long association with Malio- 

 metan tradei*s. They often bury their dead, altliough the 

 national custom is to expose the body on a raised stage till 

 it decomxwses. Tliough there is no limit to the number 

 of wives a man may have, they seldom exceed one or two, 

 A wife is regidarly purchased from the parents, the price 

 being a large assortment of articles, always including 

 gongs, crockery, and cloth. They told me that some of 

 the tribes kill the old men and women when they can no 

 longer work, but I saw many very old and dccrepid people, 

 who seemed pretty well attended to. No doubt all who 

 have much intercourse with the Bugis and Ceramese 

 traders gradually lose many of their native customs, 

 especially as these people often settle in their villages and 

 marry native women. 



Tlie trade can-ied on at Dobbo is very considerable. 

 This year there were fifteen large praus from Macassar, 

 and perhaps a hundred small boats from Ceram, Goram, 

 and K(5. The Macassar cargoes are worth about l.OOU^. 

 each, and the other boats take away perhaps about 3,000^. 

 worth, so that the whole ejqjorts may he estimated at 

 18,000^, per annum. The largest and most bulky items 

 are pearl-shell and tripang, or " heche-de-mer," with smaller 

 quantities of tortoise-shell, edible birds' nests, pearls, orna- 



1 I 



