Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with black and brown, wandered about the houses or gambolled with the playfulness of kit-
tens in the hot sunshine, with sometimes a pretty little kangaroo, caught in the Aru forests,
but already tame and graceful as a petted fawn.
Dobbo, in the trading season
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 an-
imals are set down to gash and kill each other, the excitement is immense. Those who have
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.
