insect and bird labels, all of which were unsolved mysteries
to the native mind.
Most of the people here had never seen a pin, and
the better informed took a pride in teaching their more
ignorant companions the peculiarities and uses of that
strange European production—a needle with a head, but
no eye i Even paper, which we throw away hourly as
rubbish, was to them a curiosity; and I often saw them
picking up little scraps which had been swept out of
the house, and carefully putting them away in their betel-
pouch. Then when I took my morning coffee and evening
tea, how many were the strange things displayed to them!
Teapot, teacups, teaspoons, were all more or less curious in
their eyes; tea, sugar, biscuit, and butter, were articles of
human consumption seen by many of them for the first
time. One asks if that whitish powder is “ gula passir ”
(sand-sugar), so called to distinguish it from the coarse
lump palm-sugar or molasses of native manufacture; and
the biscuit is considered a sort of European sago-cake,
which the inhabitants of those remote regions are obliged
to use in the absence of the genuine article. My pursuits
were of course utterly beyond their comprehension. They
continually asked me what white people did with the birds
and insects I took so much care to preserve. If I only
kept what was beautiful, they might perhaps comprehend
it ; "but to see ants and flies and small ugly insects put
(way so carefully was a great puzzle to them, and they
Lere convinced that there must be some medical or
inaoical use for them which I kept a profound secret.
¡These people were in fact as completely unacquainted with
[civilized life as the Indians of the Eocky Mountains, or
{the savages of Central Africa—yet a steamship, that
■highest triumph of human ingenuity, with its little floatin
g epitome of European civilization, touches monthly at
■Cajeli, twenty miles off; while at Amboyna, only sixty
»miles distant, a European population and government have
I been established for more than three hundred years.
Having seen a good many of the natives of Bouru. from
■ different villages,'and from distant parts of the island, I
I feel convinced that they consist of two distinct races now
I partially amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of
I the Celebes type, often exactly similar to the Tomore
I people of East Celebes, whom I found settled in Batchian ;
I while others altogether resemble the Alfuros of Ceram.
I The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The
I Sul a Islands, which are closely connected with East
I Celebes, approach to within forty miles of the north coast
I of Bouru, while the island of Manipa offers an easy point
I of departure for the people of Ceram. I was confirmed in
I this view by finding that the languages of Bouru possessed
[ distinct resemblances to that of Sula, as well as to those
I of Ceram.