. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. Natural history. IN TEE MOLUCCAS. 285 flowing by the arrival of our steamer, as if it was a matter in which they had absolutely no interest or concern. They wore little clothing beyond a loin-cloth, and a fringed plaid —that simplest and most primitive garb of man—about their shoulders; a little bag, heavily ornamented with gold and beads, suspended in front by a string round the hips, con- tained their betel nut and siri leaves, and tastefully carved bamboo tubes full of tobacco. A
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. Natural history. IN TEE MOLUCCAS. 285 flowing by the arrival of our steamer, as if it was a matter in which they had absolutely no interest or concern. They wore little clothing beyond a loin-cloth, and a fringed plaid —that simplest and most primitive garb of man—about their shoulders; a little bag, heavily ornamented with gold and beads, suspended in front by a string round the hips, con- tained their betel nut and siri leaves, and tastefully carved bamboo tubes full of tobacco. A Borassus palm leaf for an umbrella completed their costume and accoutrements, except their hats, which, made out of the pure white spathe of the Borassus palm, really exhibit artistic taste of a very high order. Somewhat of the shape of the "Devonshire Hat," so much worn a few years ago, but narrower in proportion, they were elaborately ornamented with a mass of flowers and plumes really wonderfully modelled out of little chips of the spathe. Held in the hand they were singularly graceful ornaments; but atop of the natives' curly mops they had rather a gro- tesque appearance. The indigenes rarely came down from their own mountain homes to the town, so that very few of the natives I saw crowding the streets of Cupang were true Timorese, Mr. Drysdale told me: most of them were men from the little island of Solor, and are the servants and coolies of the place. Trade is carried on by barter, the most prized article of exchange being a species of bead, by no means plentiful, called by them lahkai, of an ochreous red colour, evidently some sort of soft stone. Whence these beads come is quite unknown, and no imitation yet made in Birmingham or elsewhere has been sufficiently exact to deceive the native to give the price of the true article for its counterfeit—a small string of eight or nine inches long costing over £12. Another night's sail brought us to Dilly, the c
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
