Some Of The
Arrivals Were Macassar Men Or Bugis, But More From The Small
Island Of Goram, At The East End Of Ceram, Whose Inhabitants Are
The Petty Traders Of The Far East.
Then the natives of Aru come
in from the other side of the islands (called here "blakang
tana," or
"Back of the country") with the produce they have
collected during the preceding six months, and which they now
sell to the traders, to some of whom they are most likely in
debt.
Almost all, or I may safely say all, the new arrivals pay me a
visit, to see with their own eyes the unheard-of phenomenon of a
person come to stay at Dobbo who does not trade! They have their
own ideas of the uses that may possibly be made of stuffed birds,
beetles, and shells which are not the right shells - that is,
"mother-of-pearl." They every day bring me dead and broken
shells, such as l can pick up by hundreds on the beach, and seem
quite puzzled and distressed when I decline them. If, however,
there are any snail shells among a lot, I take them, and ask for
more - a principle of selection so utterly unintelligible to them,
that they give it up in despair, or solve the problem by imputing
hidden medical virtue to those which they see me preserve so
carefully.
These traders are all of the Malay race, or a mixture of which
Malay is the chef ingredient, with the exception of a few
Chinese.
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