-52- 
Bill, and showed sublime indifference to being bitten by anything - 
ants, wasps or scorpions. We had a long walk in the forest, strolling 
along through a gentle rain. When we approached the coast again we 
came through native back yards, where they were boiling paliu syrup, 
and even making ?, gin T * out of palm wine with a perfectly good little 
moonshine still. 
Along the beach we stopped to investigate the water in 
various little streams that empty into the sea . The water was 
brackish, of course, but many of the small fish we were unable to 
ident ify • In one stream there were coral fish and \ y^$jpX^®Sl 
in another small fish that looked like fresh-water darters but were 
probably the young of a salt-water fish; in another some of the 
spiny snails of this part of the world - small, but dangerous to 
step on with bare feet. 
Small fishing villages line the shore. The sago palm is 
the most useful single product, being put to even more uses than 
the coconut palm. An Arabonese can live for a year on the bread 
made from one plant. The leaves are used for thatch, the center 
nerve of the leaf - as thick as a strip of bamboo - is used for 
the walls of the houses. Thus they get both board and room from 
one source. The canoes are dug-outs, and very narrow. I doubt 
if I could fit myself into one. Most of the villagers were either 
curious or friendly toward us. but one small child began to scream 
at the sight of us, and his mother picked him up ha stily and 
ran for the house as we approached. 
Shortly after our return to the house, the runner we had sent 
out the night before canie walking briskly up the beach, carrying 
a large cage on his back. Sure enough, here were our two cuscus, 
young animals, but apparently healthy and with good appetites . 
They are a sort of Australian opossum, with brown fur like a 
kinkajou* s, pointed noses, big hazel eyes, and a long, bare, 
prehensile tail. Wmi ' ffil 
We learn a\ great deal about Arabonese manners and customs 
from B. Life here is too easy, he says, and the Ambonese are the 
laziest people on earth. Each one has a small plantation, and 
sago/c coconut support them with a minimum of effort. Fruits are 
always available in the jungle, and f sh are plentiful in the sea . 
Anyone who wants to run a large plantation, or a vegetable garden, 
must import hi s workmen - here at !? Nipa f? , the Ernst ens ? place, the 
laborers come from Timor, Butan, Papua, and other regions, never 
from Ambon itself. Many of them are Christians, but , says B. , 
they go to church nearly every Sunday and yet they steal. f, Not a 
good system. ?f It rains almost constantly. Ambon is the Malay 
word for dew, but Amboina , the name we know for the island, is 
a combination of two words meaning father and mother, and which 
is the real source of the island f s name nobody knows. The place 
is rich in history, with the successive regimes of Portuguese 
and Dutch, the long wars over the spices of the islands. We are 
reminded that these are the islands Columbus was looking for when 
he stumbled upon America. 
In the late afternoon I saw one of the most amazing f i sh 
displays that I have ever seen. A big school of bonita or some 
similar fish, jumped at the approach of an invisible enemy. 
