io8 
FROM TORRES STRAIT TO HONG-KONG. 
inhabitants are noted ship-builders ; the fine timber growing on the island offering unusual 
facilities for the exercise of their craft. Several boats, gaily decorated with large triangular 
flags and crowded with natives, came alongside in the course of the morning. They presented 
the mixture, usual in these seas, of the two races, Malay and Papuan ; the former evidently 
the superior race who invaded and conquered these islands, the latter the original possessors. 
In the evening we anchored off Little Ki, and the deck of the “Challenger” was soon 
crowded with visitors from the shore, who arrived with drums beating and flags flying. 
They performed various dances, and in return we gratified them by burning blue lights. On 
the following morning we shifted our anchorage to Ki Doulan Harbour. 
The village of Ki Doulan presents, like Dobbo, an assemblage of grey and brown coloured 
steep-roofed houses, all supported on piles, but rather more solidly built than those we had 
KI DOULAN. 
seen at the Arrou Islands. A conspicuous object is the tall pyramidal roof of the mosque; 
but the chief ornament of the place is one of those gigantic banian trees, specimens of which 
we had admired at Tonga and Kandavu. The inhabitants being Mahommedans, no members 
of the fair sex were visible. Occasionally a female head would appear, but only for a 
moment, at a narrow opening not more than a foot square, which seems to be the only 
window tnrough which the women are allowed to look upon the outer world. The tall woods 
at the back of Ki Doulan are alive with pigeons, green parrots, scarlet lories, and other 
tropical birds. W ith the exception of one or two low conical hills, the island seems to be 
qui te flat, and appears to have be en originally a coral reef. The Dutch flag was hoisted 
at the landing-stage, and shortly after we had anchored, a 
deputation from the village, dressed in official costume, 
paid us the customary' formal visit. 
In the cemetery some of the graves bore a carved 
wooden post supporting what looked like a small dovecot 
or model of a house, in some cases adorned with elaborate 
carvings and terminating in a vane. Perhaps this little 
mouammedan tombs at ki doulan. house or shrine is used as a receptacle for pious offerings 
to the departed, 01 it may be that the spirit of the latter is supposed occasionally to inhabit 
it. The whole village as seen from the deck of the “ Challenger,” with its houses, trees, and 
boats reflected in the smooth water of the harbour, was a fair example of life in the tropics 
