TRITON BAT. 
57 
this in common, that both are great admirers of tobacco 
and strong liquorSi and their weapons are ahsolutcly 
identical/' 
The chiefs were all clad in the ^lalayan fashion, the 
materials being obtained from the Ceram traders. Their 
canoes are also pro^Hded with outriggers like those of the 
Moluccas, and the larger prahiis are covered with roofs o£ 
atapi or marsh flags, under which entire families are 
occasionally housed. Their habitations on shore, also, 
like those of the Malays, are erected on wooden piles, and 
constructed of bamboos and atap. The general effect of 
this intercourse on the character of the Tapuans in this 
neighbourhood must be told in Mr, Modera^s own im- 
pi-essive words : 
''It has been already mentioned that the people of 
Cerara carry on a trade with the Papuans, more espe- 
cially with those who reside hereabouts. This iutcrcoursc 
is carried on with the greatest precaution on the part of 
the Papuans, as they are constaatly liable to the trea- 
cherous attacks of the people of Oniu,* who rob them of 
their wives and children, for the purpose of selling them to 
the Ceramese, Chinese, and Macassar traders : — a system 
of plunder in which the Ceramese themselves arc also 
said to indulge^ and which naturally gives rise to a 
general feeling of disti-ust among the Papuans. We 
attributed the circumstance of our seeing so few women 
at Triton's Bay to this want of confidence in strangers. 
The inhabitants of an island called Kai-as, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Onin, also attack them occasionally. They 
• A Papuan tribe inhabiting the shores of MacCluer^B Inlet. — 
D 3 
