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! 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 pursuit, were of course utterly beyond their comprehension.
They continually asked me what white people did with the birds and insects I
tools so much care to preserve. If I only kept what was beautiful, they might
perhaps comprehend it; but to see ants and files and small ugly insects put away
so carefully was a great puzzle to them, and they were convinced that there must
be some medical or magical 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 Rocky Mountains, or the savages of Central Africa—yet a steamship, that
highest triumph of human ingenuity, with its little floating epitome of European
civilization, touches monthly at Cajeli, twenty miles off; while at Amboyna, only
sixty miles distant, a European population and government have 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 feel convinced that they consist of two distinct
races now partially amalgamated. The larger portion are Malays of the Celebes
type, often exactly similar to the Tomóre people of East Celebes, whom I found
settled in Batchian; while others altogether resemble the Alfuros of Ceram.
The influx of two races can easily be accounted for. The Sula Islands, which
are closely connected with East Celebes, approach to within forty miles of the
north coast of Bouru, while the island of Manipa offers an easy point of
departure for the people of Ceram. I was confirmed in this view by finding that
the languages of Bouru possessed distinct resemblances to that of Sula, as well
as to those of Ceram.
Soon after we had arrived at Waypoti, Ali had seen a beautiful little bird of the
genus Pitta, which I was very anxious to obtain, as in almost every island the