A DEMONSTRATION. 
105 
had gone among his friends, and forgotten all 
about us. At last the key was obtained by 
rousing our kind old Chinaman, and we at 
length got under cover. The little furniture 
that was in the house had been removed during 
our absence of a month ; but we found a boat- 
sail in a corner of one of the rooms, which, 
spread on the stone floor, had to serve that night 
for a resting-place. 
We found Amboina in the bustle of preparing 
for a demonstration in honour of the visit of a 
member of the Council of Netherlands India. 
Floral arches, gracefully draped with palm-leaves 
and tastefully festooned with flowers, decorate 
the streets, which are illuminated at night. Even 
the poorest house in the native quarter has a 
dammar light flaring on a pedestal of the stem 
of the sago-palm stripped of its sheath. 
All the surrounding rajahs are required to be 
present in the town, with a certain number of 
followers. At Waai there was daily practice of 
a dance to be performed on the great occasion, 
at which I was a frequent onlooker. It was an 
old war-dance, with some slight semblance of 
savage wildness and vehemence. The elder per- 
formers seemed to feel rather ashamed of their 
grotesque dress, blit the lads were by no means 
