for they had proof of it. And then they told me that a good
many years ago, when the speakers were hoys, some Wokan
men who were out fishing met these lost people in the sea,
and spoke to them; and the chief gave the Wokan men a
hundred fathoms of cloth to bring to the men of Wanum-
bai, to show that they were alive and would soon come
hack to them; but the Wokan men were thieves, and kept
the cloth, and they only heard of it afterwards; and when
they spoke about it, the Wokan men denied it, and pretended
they had not received the cloth;—so they were
quite sure their friends were at that time alive and somewhere
in the sea. And again, not many years ago, a report
came to them that some Bugis traders had brought some
children of their lost people; so they went to Dobbo to see
about it, and the owner of the house, who was now speaking
to me, was one who went; but the Bugis man would
not let them see the children, and threatened to kill them
if they came into his house. He kept the children shut
up in a large box, and when he went away he took them
with him. And at the end of each of these stories, they
begged me in an imploring tone to tell them if I knew
where their chief and their people now were.
By dint of questioning, I got some account of the
strangers who had taken away their people. They said
they were wonderfully strong, and each one could kill a
great many Aru men; and when they were wounded, however
badly, they spit upon the place, and it immediately
became well. And they made a great net of rattans, and
entangled their prisoners in it, and sunk them in the
water; and the next day, when they pulled the net up on
shore, they made the drowned men come to life again, and
carried them away.
Much more of the same kind was told me, but in so
confused and rambling a manner that I could make nothing
out of it, till I inquired how long ago it was that
all this happened, when they told me that after their
people were taken away the Bugis came in their praus to
trade in Aru, and to buy tripang and birds’ nests. I t is
not impossible that something similar to what they related
to me really happened when the early Portuguese discoverers
first came -to Aru, and has formed the foundation
for a continually increasing accumulation of legend
pud fable. I have no doubt that to the next generation,
or even before, I myself shall be transformed into a magician
or a demigod, a worker of miracles, and a being of
supernatural knowledge. They already believe that all
the animals I 'preserve will come to life again, and to
their children it will be related that they actually did so.
.An unusual spell of fine weather setting in just at my
arrival has made them believe I can control the seasons ;
pud the simple circumstance of my always walking alone
in the forest is a wonder and a mystery to them, as well as