G 
W. Doherty — A List of the Butterflies of Engano. [No. 1, 
and a subterranean stream roaring at the bottom, hidden by dense vege- 
tation. The people believe these places to be haunted by evil spirits, 
and when I wanted to be lowered into one to look for shells in the caves, 
they all objected most vehemently. 
Beneath the coral, the rock seems everywhere a coarse, friablo sand- 
stone. If the Nias islands consist generally of this soft rock, it will go 
far to explain their present fragmentary state. 
Until the present generation, the population consisted of a number 
of hostile tribes, and the older men are still proficient in the use of the 
spear, and delight in mimic battles and dramatic representations of the 
surprise of a sleeping enemy. In recent times native vessels have taken 
to coming to Pulo Dua, two small islands a mile or two off the western 
coast, for cargoes of cocoa-nuts, and it is probably the growth of this trade 
that broke down the tribal system. At present Javanese and Malays 
have now settled in several villages, though Pulo Dua still remains their 
headquarters, the plague of sandflies making life unendurable to them 
on the main island. It is to the trading vessels that the Enganese also 
owe the introduction of diseasos that are rapidly killing them off. An 
outbreak of small-pox carried off all the inhabitants of the two villages 
near the southern end of the island, and to this day this district is called 
the Laud of Ghosts, and no Enganese will set foot on it. No alcoholic 
liquors have been brought to Engano ; whether this is owing to the pre- 
cautions of the Dutch, or the religious scruples of the Sumatran traders, I 
do not know. But syphilis was introduced many years ago, and through 
it the race has lost all reproductive power. In some of the villages 
there are hardly any children, and the area of cultivated land decreases 
every year. The Dutch government, I believe, now contemplates leasing 
the island to capitalists, and in another century it seems likely that the 
natives will be entirely replaced by Javanese coolies working under 
European supervision. 
The islanders are of about the same degree of civilization as the 
Nicobarese. Till lately they are said to have gone about almost naked, 
and their island is always called Pulo Telanjang or the Naked Island by 
the Malays. They grow no rice, nor do they make use of the pandanus 
and cycas as food like the Nicobarese. They make little temporary 
clearings, surrounded by a stout fence to keep out wild pigs. Their 
staple food is the taro or lealadi,* which they call ayudapa. They also 
have plantains, papayas and pumpkins, and eat quantities of cocoa-nuts, 
and drink the water in the nuts, the springs near the coast being usually 
brackish. They also draw toddy from the tree, though its use is not 
# Oar word Oalladium, though it looks Greek enough, is derived from this, the 
Malay name of the plant. 
