. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. terin which they had absolutely no interest or concern. Theywore little clothing beyond a loin-cloth, and a fringed plaid—that simplest and most primitive garb of man—about theirshoulders; a little bag, heavily ornamented with gold andbeads, suspended in front by a string round the hips, con-tained their betel nut and siri leaves, and tastefully carvedbamboo tubes full of tobacco. A Borassus palm leaf for anumbrella completed their costume and accoutrements, excepttheir hats, which,
. A naturalist's wanderings in the Eastern archipelago; a narrative of travel and exploration from 1878 to 1883. terin which they had absolutely no interest or concern. Theywore little clothing beyond a loin-cloth, and a fringed plaid—that simplest and most primitive garb of man—about theirshoulders; a little bag, heavily ornamented with gold andbeads, suspended in front by a string round the hips, con-tained their betel nut and siri leaves, and tastefully carvedbamboo tubes full of tobacco. A Borassus palm leaf for anumbrella completed their costume and accoutrements, excepttheir hats, which, made out of thepure white spathe of the Borassuspalm, really exhibit artistic tasteof a very high order. Somewhatof the shape of the DevonshireHat, so much worn a few years ago,but narrower in proportion, theywere elaborately ornamented with amass of flowers and plumes reallywonderfully modelled out of littlechips of the spathe. Held in thehand they were singularly gracefulornaments ; but atop of the nativescurly mops they had rather a gro-tesque appearance. The indigenesrarely came down from their own. SOLOR ORNAMENTATION. mountain homes to thetown, so that very few of the natives I saw crowding the streetsof Cupang were true Timorese, Mr. Drysdale told me: mostof them were men from the little island of Solor, and are theservants and coolies of the place. Trade is carried on by barter, the most prized article ofexchange being a species of bead, by no means plentiful, calledby them laJckai, of an ochreous red colour, evidently some sort ofsoft stone. Whence these beads come is quite unknown, andno imitation yet made in Birmingham or elsewhere has beensufficiently exact to deceive the native to give the price of thetrue article for its counterfeit—a small string of eight or nineinches long costing over £12. Another nights sail brought us to Dilly, the capital of thePortuguese territory in the east half of the island. Here welost our genial companions, the Governor and hi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
