426 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
Korongo-eis, a people who dwell in the interior, and have 
never been seen by Europeans. They are described as 
having white skins and light hair. On the west coast 
some of the villages are nominally Christian, and the 
Malays have also introduced Mohammedanism. For at 
least three centuries and a half, and probably much longer, 
trade has been carried on with the Moluccas in bird-of- 
paradise skins, and as a consequence the natives have long 
been acquainted with the useful metals, ivory, cloth, and 
so forth, and ardent spirits. These products, however, 
pass through many hands, and civilisation has not accom¬ 
panied them, so that the people are almost everywhere 
perfect savages, and in many places go entirely unclothed. 
Agriculture is in a very primitive condition, and sago is 
the staple food. The land appears to consist entirely of 
raised coral rocks, covered with dense forest and 
impassable swamps, and though there are a few hills 
of about 1000 feet, it is on the whole but little elevated 
above sea-level. 
Mention has been made upon a former page of the 
little island of Kilwaru, east of Ceram, as one of the 
great trading centres between the rude savagery of New 
Guinea and the semi-civilisation of Western Malaysia. 
We have in the Aru Islands a similar example, except 
that the trade is more important. The little island of 
Dobbo, on the west of the larger mass, is the seat of a 
temporary town or fair during the season, which lasts 
from January to July or August. The permanent resi¬ 
dents are very few, but there are whole streets of houses 
belonging to the traders who annually flock here. These 
are Chinese, B.ugis, and men from Makassar, Goram, and 
Java, who come here in native praus as soon as the west 
monsoon has set in, and open stores for the purchase of 
the produce of the surrounding islands, of which pearl- 
