Cuscus (C. maculatus), one of the curious marsupial animals of the Papuan
region, and I was very desirous to obtain the skin. The owners, however, said
they wanted to eat it; and though I offered them a good price, and promised to
give them all the meat, there was grout hesitation. Suspecting the reason, I
offered, though it was night, to set to work immediately and get out the body for
them, to which they agreed. The creature was much hacked about, and the two
hind feet almost cut off; but it was the largest and finest specimen of the kind I
had seen; and after an hour's hard work I handed over the body to the owners,
who immediately cut it up and roasted it for supper.
As this was a very good place for birds, I determined to remain a month
longer, and took the opportunity of a native boat going to Dobbo, to send Ali for
a fresh supply of ammunition and provisions. They started on the 10th of April,
and the house was crowded with about a hundred men, boys, women, and girls,
bringing their loads of sugar-cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams, &c.; one lad going
from each house to sell the produce and make purchases. The noise was
indescribable. At least fifty of the hundred were always talking at once, and that
not in the low measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with loud
voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the women and children were
even more conspicuous than the men. It was only while gazing at me that their
tongues were moderately quiet, because their eyes were fully occupied. The
black vegetable soil here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and the sugar-cane
was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat were often ten
and even twelve feet long, and thick in proportion, with short joints throughout,
swelling between the knots with the abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbo they
get a high price for it, 1d. to 3d. a stick, and there is an insatiable demand among
the crews of the praus and the Baba fishermen. Here they eat it continually. They
half live on it, and sometimes feed their pigs with it. Near every house are great
heaps of the refuse cane; and large wicker-baskets to contain this refuse as it is
produced form a regular part of the furniture of a house. Whatever time of the
day you enter, you are sure to find three or four people with a yard of cane in
one hand, a knife in the other, and a basket between their legs, hacking, paring,
chewing, and basket-filling, with a persevering assiduity which reminds one of a
hungry cow grazing, or of a caterpillar eating up a leaf.
After five days' absence the boats returned from Dobbo, bringing Ali and all
the things I had sent for quite safe. A large party had assembled to be ready to
carry home the goods brought, among which were a good many cocoa-nut,
which are a great luxury here. It seems strange that they should never plant
them; but the reason simply is, that they cannot bring their hearts to bury a good