THE BANTIKS. 



343 



retain tlie lieathen belief of their forefatliers. Many 

 of tliem are taller tliaii tlie other people I saw in the 

 llinahassa. Their houses are not placed on higher 

 posts than those of other natives, but they are fre- 

 quently long, and occupied l>y several families^a 

 custom which appears to have been general through- 

 out the archipelago in ancient timeSj and is still 

 practised at Doi-ey, on the north coast of New 

 Guinea, and again by the people of the Tenger Monn- 

 tains in Java, who ]>ride themselves on retaining the 

 customs of their ancestors. The view has been ad- 

 vanced that the Bantiks are descendants of ChinOr 

 men, who established themselves here when they 

 first came to the Moluccas to purchase spices* This 

 may have been the case, but their features, though 

 somewhat tlifterent from the other nativeSj did not 

 appeal- to me to be so unlike them as to necessitate 

 such a theory. As they have kept themselves more 

 away from the influence of all foreignei-s than most 

 Malays, they give us a good idea of what the abori- 

 gines of this region were before the ai'rival of the 

 Poilinguese. 



About three miles round the noi-thern side bay, 

 we came to Temumpa, where all the lepers of this 

 residency are obliged to live, banished forever from 

 all communication with other natives, except such of 

 their friends as come to see them. The little village 

 consists of twelve small houses, regularly aiTanged 

 on either side of a street. Tliey were all neatly 

 whitewashed, and each has a small plot of ground, 

 where its untbrtunate occupants cmi busy themselves, 

 and forget their incuralile suflei-ings and their ban- 



