Viewing page 80 of 185

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-62-

The children danced a long, rather slow-moving dance called the Menarie, imported fro  the Kei Islands (off the New Guinea coast.)

Noesa Ina means "Mother Island", and is used for Ceram.  There are two explanations of the origin of the name.  One is that Ceram is the big island, and Ambon, Saparoea, Haroekoe, and Noesalaoet, small nearby islands are her children.  Another is that the sago grown in Ceram feeds the people of all these islands, and hence Ceram is mother to them all.

Kole-kole is a small native canoe, and the song was a long one, accompanied by a gentle rocking back and forth of the children's bodies.  Many of the verses were rather naughty, judging from the roars of laughter that went up from the audience.  Some of them were of farewell to the one setting out to sea, some of them were love songs, some of them were appeals to us not to forget them when we were far away.  Many of the verses were impromptu, made up by the school teacher as they went along, and hence not so effective in chorus [[strikethrough] and [[/strikethrough]] as the children in the front row could not hear just what was being suggested in the back row.

The school teacher, a spare, solemn native, stood most of the time in front, directing both song and dance with a Dutch flag for a baton, or keeping time on a native drum.  Drums and bamboo flutes furnished the accompaniment.

We did not get many pictures of the performance, which fell a little flat after the exuberance of yesterday's Chakalele, because the afternoon rain made an early start impossible, and the sun was setting before they were half through.  Rain fell occasionally even while the dance was actually going on.

After the dance we all went over to the Controller's for cold drinks and ice cream.  What a wonderful thing a kerosene-run Frigidaire is in this country!

The Makian was anchored off shore all evening.  We went down on the pier to meet the boat, found two of the officers whom we had known before, and had a pleasant visit with them.  The lights of the steamer, blazing away all night out in the harbor, gave a sophisticated touch to the otherwise primitive landscape.

May 2 - Piroe

This is our last day in Ceram, and we are preparing to pack up with not a little regret.  We have 24 cages of birds and animals, and how they are all going to be stowed away on the little government steamer Noese Ina, nobody knows, although the native captain says it can be done easily.

At breakfast Williams got/ [[insertion]] to [[/insertion]] discussing the clever manner in which the women change sarongs, and asked if it would be proper to request permission to photograph it.  Accordingly a very pretty picture was arranged for him - six or eight young women bathing in a small neaby pool.  They wear their sarongs into the water, spash water over themselves and each other, with a good deal of merriment.  Then they step out onto the bank, pick up the dry sarong, slip it over their head, and as it is rolled about their