terious voice, “ What becomes of them when you go on to
the sea ? ” “ Why, they are all packed up in boxes,” said
I. “ What did you think became of them ? ” “ They all
come to life again, don’t they ? ” said h e ; and though I
tried to joke it off, and said if they did we should have
plenty to eat at sea, he stuck to his opinion, and kept
repeating, with an air of deep conviction, “ Yes, they all
come to life again, that’s what they do—they all come to
life again.”
After a little while, and a good deal of talking among
themselves, he began again—“ I know all about it—oh,
yes ! Before you came we had rain every day—very wet
indeed; now, ever since you have been here, it is fine hot
weather. Oh, yes ! I know all about i t ; you can’t deceive
me.” And so I was set down as a conjurer, and was
unable to repel the charge. But the conjurer was completely
puzzled by the next question: “What,” said
the old man, “ is the great ship, where the Bugis and
Chinamen go to sell their things ? It is always in the great
sea—its name is Jong; tell us all about it.” In vain I
inquired what they knew about it; they knewT nothing
but that it was called “ Jong,” and was always in the sea,
and was a very great ship, and concluded with, “ Perhaps
that is your country ? ” Binding that I could not or
would not tell them anything about “ Jong,” there came
more regrets that I would not tell them the real name of
my country ; and then along string of compliments, to the
effect that I was a much better sort of a person than the
Bugis and Chinese, who sometimes came to trade with
them, for I gave them things for nothing, and did not try
to cheat them. How long would I stop ? was the next
earnest inquiry. Would I stay two or three months?
They would get me plenty of birds and animals, and I
might soon finish all the goods I had brought, and then,
said the old spokesman, “ Don’t go away, but send for
more things from Dobbo, and stay here a year or two.”
And then again the old story, “Do tell us the name of
your country. We know the Bugis men, and the Macassar
men, and the Java men, and the China men ; only you, we
don’t know from what country you come. Ung-lung ! it
cant be; I know that is not the name of your country.”
Seeing no end to this long talk, I said I was tired, and
wanted to go to sleep ; so after begging—one a little bit of
dry fish for his supper, and another a little salt to eat with
his sago—they went off very quietly, and I went outside
and took a stroll round the house by moonlight, thinking of
the simple people and the strange productions of Aru, and
then turned in under my mosquito curtain, to sleep with
a sense of perfect security in the midst of these goodnatured
savages.
We now had seven or eight days of hot and dry
weather, which reduced the little river to a succession of