NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
549 
One day was devoted to an excursion to the mainland of the Arrou Islands, to 
Wanumbai, Mr. Wallace’s old hunting ground, in the channel between Maykor and Wokan 
Islands called by the Malays “ Sungei Wateiai.” For this purpose the steam pinnace 
was used ; and as the right position of the channel was unknown to the navigating 
officers a guide was taken from the shore. 
The guide having been procured, the pinnace proceeded for the Wateiai Channel, passing 
a large sea-snake on the surface of the water on the way, and at 1.30 p.m. arrived at the 
entrance and steamed up it about lb miles to the small village of Wanumbai, where a 
stream of fresh water fell into the channel from a height of about 15 feet. The channel 
runs east and west through the island, dividing the island of Wokan from that of 
Maykor ; it is about a quarter of a mile wide, and the depth in the centre was found to 
vary from 4 to 5 fathoms. 
The scene on the beach as the pinnace steamed into the village was most picturesque ; 
none of the inhabitants having ever seen so small a craft propelled by steam, the whole 
population turned out to inspect the boat, Malays, Chinamen, and Arrou Islanders, al 
mixed together in a high state of curiosity and excitement. The people of Wanumbai 
were very much scared at the appearance of the pinnace, full of men with guns, but 
the Malay guide from Dobbo introduced the party ; he jumped on shore and addressed 
the people of Wanumbai (Orang Wanumbai) and soon made matters right, telling them 
that the strangers had only come to shoot “dead birds” (Burong mate), the trade term 
by which the Birds of Paradise are known. 
On the margin of the narrow sea channel was a compound house, a number of 
families living, as in Papua and elsewhere, under a single roof. It was an oblong building 
raised on numerous posts above the ground ; inside was a central passage, leading from 
the door to the back wall, and on either side of this it was divided into small pens by low 
irregularly made partitions. Each of these pens held a family, and the women huddled 
together to hide themselves in the corners of them, just as did those in Wokan Island. 
Bows and arrows were purchased from the natives. The arrows are very like New 
Guinea arrows in the various forms of their points, but, unlike them, are all provided 
with a notch and feathers, the latter often bright parrots’ feathers. Some have' a blade- 
like point of bamboo, and a man who was watching a native plantation, to keep wild 
animals off, said he used these for shooting pigs. Some are tipped with Cassowary 
bone, some are many-pronged ; these latter are used for shooting birds, and are not 
exclusively fish arrows, as is often supposed. Besides these, there are the arrows 
with a large blunt knob at the end, used for stunning the large Birds of Paradise, with- 
out spoiling their skins, as described by Mr. Wallace. 1 Pointed arrows are, however, used 
more frequently for this purpose, as Wallace relates, because the birds are so strong as to 
escape being stunned, and the points are more certain weapons. It is curious that closely 
1 Wallace, Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 220, London, 1869. 
