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 nut for the prospective advantage of
a crop twelve years hence. There is also the chance of the fruits being
dug up and eaten unless watched night and day. Among the things I had
sent for was a box of arrack, and I was now of course besieged with
requests for a little drop. I gave them a flask (about two bottles),
which was very soon finished, and I was assured that there were many
present who had not had a taste. As I feared my box would very soon be
emptied if I supplied all their demands, I told them I had given them
one, but the second they must pay for, and that afterwards I must have
a Paradise bird for each flask. They immediately sent round to all the
neighbouring houses, and mustered up a rupee in Dutch copper money, got
their second flask, and drunk it as quickly as the first, and were then
very talkative, but less noisy and importunate than I had expected. Two
or three of them got round me and begged me for the twentieth time to
tell them the name of my country. Then, as they could not pronounce it
satisfactorily, they insisted that I was deceiving them, and that it
was a name of my own invention. One funny old man, who bore a ludicrous
resemblance, to a friend of mine at home, was almost indignant.
"Ung-lung! "said he, "who ever heard of such a name?--ang
lang--anger-lung--that can't be