es above the ground, beyond the reach of an enemy's
spear-thrust. The Moro Samal Laut of the southern Sulu Archipelago avoid
the large volcanic islands of the group, and place their big villages
over the sea on low coral reefs. The sandy beaches of the shore hold
their coco-palms, whose nuts by their milk eke out the scanty supply of
drinking water, and whose fronds shade the tombs of the dead.[588] The
sea-faring Malays of the Sunda Islands, in thickly populated points of
the coast, often dwell in permanently inhabited rafts moored near the
pile dwellings. Palembang on the lower swampy course of the River Musi
has a floating suburb of this sort. It is called the "Venice of
Sumatra," just as Banjarmasin, a vast complex of pile and raft
dwellings, is called the "Venice of Borneo," and Brunei to the north is
the "Venice of the East."[589] Both these towns are the chief commercial
centers of their respective islands. The little town of Kilwaru,
situated on a sandbank off the eastern end of Ceram, seems to float on
the sea, so completely has it surrounded and enveloped with pile-built
houses the few acres of dry land which form its nucleus. It is a place
of busy traffic, the emporium for commerce between the Malay Archipelago
and New Guinea.[590]

[Sidenote: In Melanesia.]

Farther east in Melanesia, whose coast regions are more or less
permeated by Malayan stock and influences, pile dwellings, both over
water and on land form a characteristic feature of the scenery. The
village of Sowek in Geelvink Bay, on the northern coast of Dutch New
Guinea, consists of thirty houses raised on piles above the water,
connected with each other by tree trunks but having only boat connection
with the shore. Similar villages are found hovering over the lapping
waves of Humboldt Bay, all of them recalling with surprising fidelity
the prehistoric lake-dwellings of Switzerland.[591] The Papuan part of
Port Moresby, on the southern coast of British New Guinea, covers the
whole water-front of the town with pile dwellings. In the vicinity are
similar native pile villages, such as Tanobada, Hanuabada, Elevara and
Hula, the latter consisting of pile dwellings scattered about over the
water in a circuit of several miles and containing about a thousand
inhabitants. Here, too, the motive is protection against the attacks of
inland mountain tribes, with whom the coast people are in constant
war.[592]

The Malay fisherman, trader and pirate, with the