s New
Guinea is called. Piles of firewood were being heaped up behind the
houses; sail-makers and carpenters were busy at work; mother-of-pearl
shell was being tied up in bundles, and the black and ugly smoked
tripang was having a last exposure to the sun before loading. The spare
portion of the crews were employed cutting and squaring timber, and
boats from Ceram and Goram were constantly unloading their cargoes of
sago-cake for the traders' homeward voyage. The fowls, ducks, and goats
all looked fat and thriving on the refuse food of a dense population,
and the Chinamen's pigs were in a state of obesity that foreboded early
death. Parrots and Tories and cockatoos, of a dozen different binds,
were suspended on bamboo perches at the doors of the houses, with
metallic green or white fruit-pigeons which cooed musically at noon and
eventide. Young cassowaries, strangely striped with black and brown,
wandered about the houses or gambolled with the playfulness of kittens
in the hot sunshine, with sometimes a pretty little kangaroo, caught in
the Aru forests, but already tame and graceful as a petted fawn.

Of an evening there were more signs of life than at the time of my
former residence. Tom-toms, jews'-harps, and even fiddles were to be
heard, and the melancholy Malay songs sounded not unpleasantly far into
the night. Almost every day there was a cock-fight in the street. The
spectators make a ring, and after the long steel spurs are tied on,
and the poor animals are set down to gash and kill each other, the
excitement is immense. Those who lave made bets scream and yell and jump
frantically, if they think they are going to win or lose, but in a very
few minutes it is all over; there is a hurrah from the winners, the
owners seize their cocks, the winning bird is caressed and admired, the
loser is generally dead or very badly wounded, and his master may often
be seen plucking out his feathers as he walks away, preparing him for
the cooking pot while the poor bird is still alive.

A game at foot-ball, which generally took place at sunset, was, however,
much more interesting to me. The ball used is a rather small one, and is
made of rattan, hollow, light, and elastic. The player keeps it dancing
a little while on his foot, then occasionally on his arm or thigh, till
suddenly he gives it a good blow with the hollow of the foot, and sends
it flying high in the air. Another player runs to meet it, and at its
first bound catche