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+Project Gutenberg's Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by E. Alexander Powell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where the Strange Trails Go Down
+       Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits
+       Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam,
+       Cochin-China
+
+Author: E. Alexander Powell
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2008 [EBook #27404]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  _BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL_
+
+    WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+    THE NEW FRONTIERS OF FREEDOM
+
+    THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY
+
+    THE LAST FRONTIER
+
+    GENTLEMEN ROVERS
+
+    THE END OF THE TRAIL
+
+    FIGHTING IN FLANDERS
+
+    THE ROAD TO GLORY
+
+    VIVE LA FRANCE!
+
+    ITALY AT WAR
+
+  _CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS_
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+
+[Illustration: A _real_ wild man of Borneo
+
+A Dyak head-hunter using the _sumpitan_, or blow-gun, in the jungle of
+Central Borneo]
+
+
+
+
+  WHERE
+  THE STRANGE TRAILS
+  GO DOWN
+
+  SULU, BORNEO, CELEBES, BALI, JAVA,
+  SUMATRA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,
+  MALAY STATES, SIAM, CAMBODIA,
+  ANNAM, COCHIN-CHINA
+
+
+  BY
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL
+
+
+  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
+
+
+  NEW YORK
+  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+  1921
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
+  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+  Published October, 1921
+
+
+  PRINTED AT
+  THE SCRIBNER PRESS
+  NEW YORK, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+  To
+
+  THE WINSOME WIDOW
+  MARGARET CAMPBELL McCUTCHEN
+  WHO, DESPITE COUNTLESS DISCOMFORTS,
+  ALWAYS KEPT SMILING
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+It is a curious thing, when you stop to think about it, that, though of
+late the public has been deluged with books on the South Seas, though
+the shelves of the public libraries sag beneath the volumes devoted to
+China, Japan, Korea, next to nothing has been written, save by a
+handful of scientifically-minded explorers, about those far-flung,
+gorgeous lands, stretching from the southern marches of China to the
+edges of Polynesia, which the ethnologists call Malaysia. Siam,
+Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China, the Malay States, the Straits
+Settlements, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Borneo, Sulu ... their very
+names are synonymous with romance; the sound of them makes restless the
+feet of all who love adventure. Sultans and rajahs ... pirates and
+head-hunters ... sun-bronzed pioneers and white-helmeted _legionnaires_
+... blow-guns with poisoned darts and curly-bladed krises ... elephants
+with gilded howdahs ... tigers, crocodiles, orang-utans ... pagodas and
+palaces ... shaven-headed priests in yellow robes ... flaming
+fire-trees ... the fragrance of frangipani ... green jungle and
+steaming tropic rivers ... white moonlight on the long white beaches
+... the throb of war-drums and the tinkle of wind-blown
+temple-bells....
+
+But it is not for all of us to go down the strange trails which lead
+to these magic places. The world's work must be done. So, for those who
+are condemned by circumstance to the prosaic existence of the office,
+the factory, and the home, I have written this book. I would have them
+feel the hot breath of the South. I would convey to them something of
+the spell of the tropics, the mystery of the jungle, the lure of the
+little, palm-fringed islands which rise from peacock-colored seas. I
+would introduce to them those picturesque and hardy figures planters,
+constabulary officers, consuls, missionaries, colonial administrators
+who are carrying civilization into these dark and distant corners of
+the earth. I would have them know the fascination of leaning through
+those "magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery
+lands forlorn."
+
+I had planned, therefore, that this should be a light-hearted,
+care-free, casual narrative. And so, in parts, it is. But more serious
+things have crept, almost imperceptibly, into its pages. The
+achievements of the Dutch empire-builders in the Insulinde, the
+conditions which prevail under the rule of the chartered company in
+Borneo, the opening-up of Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula, the
+regeneration of Siam, the epic struggle between civilization and
+savagery which is in progress in all these lands--these are phases of
+Malaysian life which, if this book is to have any serious value, I
+cannot ignore. That is why it is a m�lange of the frivolous and the
+serious, the picturesque and the prosaic, the superficial and the
+significant. If, when you lay it down, you have gained a better
+understanding of the dangers and difficulties which beset the
+colonizing white man in the lands of the Malay, if you realize that
+life in the eastern tropics consists of something more than sapphire
+seas and bamboo huts beneath the slanting palm trees and native maidens
+with hibiscus blossoms in their dusky hair, if, in short, you have been
+instructed as well as entertained, then I shall feel that I have been
+justified in writing this book.
+
+
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL.
+
+
+  York Harbor, Maine,
+  October first, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+
+For the courtesies they showed me, and the assistance they afforded me
+during the long journey which is chronicled in this book, I am deeply
+indebted to many persons in many lands. I welcome this opportunity of
+expressing my gratitude to the Hon. Francis Burton Harrison, former
+Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, and to the Hon. Manuel
+Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate, for placing at my disposal
+the coastguard cutter _Negros_, on which I cruised upward of six
+thousand miles, as well as for countless other courtesies.
+Brigadier-General Ralph W. Jones, Warren H. Latimer, Esq., and Major
+Edwin C. Bopp shamefully neglected their personal affairs in order to
+make my journey comfortable and interesting. Dr. Edward C. Ernst, of
+the United States Quarantine Service at Manila, who served as volunteer
+surgeon of the expedition; John L. Hawkinson, Esq., the man behind the
+camera; James Rockwell, Esq., and Captain A. B. Galvez, commander of
+the _Negros_, by their unfailing tactfulness and good nature, did much
+to add to the success of the enterprise. I am likewise under the
+deepest obligations to Colonel Ole Waloe, commanding the Philippine
+Constabulary in Zamboanga; to the Hon. P. W. Rogers, Governor of Jolo;
+to Captain R. C. d'Oyley-John, formerly Chief Police Officer of
+Sandakan, British North Borneo; to M. de Haan, Resident at Samarinda,
+Dutch Borneo; and to his colleagues at Makassar, Singaradja,
+Kloeng-Kloeng, Surabaya, Djokjakarta, and Surakarta; to the Hon. John
+F. Jewell, American Consul-General at Batavia; to the Hon. Edwin N.
+Gunsaulus, American Consul-General at Singapore; to J. D. C. Rodgers,
+Esq., American Charg� d'Affaires at Bangkok; to his late Royal Highness
+the Crown Prince of Siam; to his Serene Highness Prince Traidos
+Prabandh, Siamese Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; to his
+Serene Highness Colonel Prince Amoradhat, Chief of Intelligence of the
+Siamese Army, who constituted himself my guide and cicerone during our
+stay in his country; to the French Resident-Superior at Pnom-Penh; and
+to the other French officials who aided me during my travels in
+Indo-China. His Excellency J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador at
+Washington and his Excellency Phya Prabha Karavongse, Siamese Minister
+at Washington, provided me with letters which obtained for me many
+facilities in French Indo-China and in Siam. Nor am I unappreciative of
+the many kindnesses shown me by James R. Bray, Esq., of New York City;
+by Austin Day Brixey, Esq., of Greenwich, Conn.; and by Dr. Eldon R.
+James, General Adviser to the Siamese Government. I also wish to
+acknowledge my indebtedness to A. Cabaton, Esq., from whose extremely
+valuable study of Netherlands India I have drawn freely in describing
+the Dutch system of administration in the Insulinde. I have also
+obtained much valuable data from "_Java and Her Neighbors_" by A. C.
+Walcott, Esq., and from "_The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_" by Ernest
+Young, Esq.
+
+
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+     I.  MAGIC ISLES AND FAIRY SEAS                          1
+
+    II.  OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE                                 25
+
+   III.  "WHERE THERE AIN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS"            50
+
+    IV.  THE EMERALDS OF WILHELMINA                         74
+
+     V.  MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS                        99
+
+    VI.  IN BUGI LAND                                      126
+
+   VII.  DOWN TO AN ISLAND EDEN                            143
+
+  VIII.  THE GARDEN THAT IS JAVA                           163
+
+    IX.  PROSPECT RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS            189
+
+     X.  THROUGH THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE TO ELEPHANT LAND    208
+
+    XI.  To PNOM-PENH BY THE JUNGLE TRAIL                  246
+
+   XII.  EXILES OF THE OUTLANDS                            270
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  A _real_ wild man of Borneo                   _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                   FACING PAGE
+
+  Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+    rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon                  10
+
+  Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+    coast of Bali                                           10
+
+  The bull-fight at Parang                                  22
+
+  Dusun women                                               60
+
+  Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo                         60
+
+  The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan                                  70
+
+  A patron of a Sandakan opium farm                         70
+
+  Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river        112
+
+  Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+    steps at Tenggaroeng                                   124
+
+  State procession in the Kraton of the
+    Sultan of Djokjakarta                                  124
+
+  Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina                130
+
+  The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption          170
+
+  A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo                 200
+
+  A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo                         200
+
+  The captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+    Universe"                                              200
+
+  A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta   200
+
+  An elephant hunt in Siam                                 228
+
+  King Sisowath of Cambodia                                234
+
+  Rama VI, King of Siam                                    234
+
+  Colorful ceremonies of Old Siam                          238
+
+  Transportation in the Siamese jungle                     248
+
+  The head of the pageant approaching the camera in
+  the palace at Pnom-Penh                                  266
+
+  Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the
+  King of Cambodia                                         268
+
+
+  MAP
+
+  Malaysia                                                  28
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MAGIC ISLES AND FAIRY SEAS
+
+
+When I was a small boy I spent my summers at the quaint old
+fishing-village of Mattapoisett, on Buzzard's Bay. Next door to the
+house we occupied stood a low-roofed, unpretentious dwelling, white as
+an old-time clipper ship, with bright green blinds. I can still catch
+the fragrance of the lilacs by the gate. The fine old doorway,
+brass-knockered, arched by a spray of crimson rambler, was flanked on
+one hand by a great conch-shell, on the other by an enormous specimen
+of branch-coral, thus subtly intimating to passers-by that the owner of
+the house had been in "foreign parts." A distinctly nautical atmosphere
+was lent to the broad, deck-like verandah by a ship's barometer, a
+chart of Cape Cod, and a highly polished brass telescope mounted on a
+tripod so as to command the entire expanse of the bay. Here Cap'n
+Bryant, a retired New Bedford whaling captain, was wont to spend the
+sunny days in his big cane-seated rocking-chair, puffing meditatively
+at his pipe and for my boyish edification spinning yarns of adventure
+in far-distant seas and on islands with magic names--Tawi Tawi,
+Makassar Straits, the Dingdings, the Little Paternosters, the Gulf of
+Boni, Thursday Island, Java Head. Of cannibal feasts in New Guinea, of
+head-hunters in Borneo, of strange dances by dusky temple-girls in
+Bali, of up-country expeditions with the White Rajah of Sarawak, of
+desperate encounters with Dyak pirates in the Sulu Sea, he discoursed
+at length and in fascinating detail, while I, sprawled on the verandah
+steps, my knees clasped in my hands, listened raptly and, when the
+veteran's flow of reminiscence showed signs of slackening, clamored
+insistently for more.
+
+Then and there I determined that some day I would myself sail those
+adventurous seas in a vessel of my own, that I would poke the nose of
+my craft up steaming tropic rivers, that I would drop anchor off towns
+whose names could not be found on ordinary maps, and that I would go
+ashore in white linen and pipe-clayed shoes and a sun-hat to take
+tiffin with sultans and rajahs, and to barter beads and brass wire for
+curios--a curly-bladed Malay kris, carved cocoanuts, a shark's-tooth
+necklace, a blow-gun with its poisoned darts, a stuffed bird of
+paradise, and, of course, a huge conch-shell and an enormous piece of
+branch-coral--which I would bring home and display to admiring
+relatives and friends as convincing proofs of where I had been.
+
+But school and college had to be gotten through with, and after them
+came wars in various parts of the world and adventurings in many
+lands, so that thirty years slipped by before an opportunity presented
+itself to realize the dream of my boyhood. But when at last I set sail
+for those far-distant seas it was on an enterprise which would have
+gladdened the old sailor's soul--an expedition whose object it was to
+seek out the unusual, the curious, and the picturesque, and to capture
+them on the ten miles of celluloid film which we took with us, so that
+those who are condemned by circumstance to the humdrum life of the
+farm, the office, or the mill might themselves go adventuring o'nights,
+from the safety and comfort of red-plush seats, through the magic of
+the motion-picture screen. When I set out on my long journey the old
+whaling captain whose tales had kindled my youthful imagination had
+been sleeping for a quarter of a century in the Mattapoisett graveyard,
+but when our anchor rumbled down off Tawi Tawi, when, steaming across
+Makassar Straits, we picked up the Little Paternosters, when our tiny
+vessel poked her bowsprit up the steaming Koetei into the heart of the
+Borneo jungle, I knew that, though invisible to human eyes, he was
+standing beside me on the bridge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Until I met the young-old man to whom those magazines which devote
+themselves to the gossip of the film world admiringly refer as "the
+Napoleon of the movies," it had never occurred to me that adventure has
+a definite market value. At least I had never realized that there are
+people who stand ready to buy it by the foot, as one buys real estate
+or rope. I had always supposed that the only way adventure could be
+capitalized was as material for magazine articles and books and for
+dinner-table stories.
+
+"What we are after" the film magnate began abruptly, motioning me to a
+capacious leather chair and pushing a box of cigars within my reach,
+"is something new in travel pictures. Like most of the big producers,
+we furnish our exhibitors with complete programmes--a feature, a
+comedy, a topical review, and a travel or educational picture. We make
+the features and the comedies in our own studios; the weeklies we buy
+from companies which specialize in that sort of thing. But heretofore
+we have had to pick up our travel stuff--where we could get it from
+free lances mostly--and there is never enough really good travel
+material to meet the demand. For quite ordinary travel or educational
+films we have to pay a minimum of two dollars a foot, while really
+unusual pictures will bring almost any price that is asked for them.
+The supply is so uncertain, however, and the price is so high that we
+have decided to try the experiment of taking our own. That is what I
+wanted to talk to you about."
+
+"Before the war," he continued, "there was almost no demand in the
+United States for travel pictures. In fact, when a manager wanted to
+clear his house for the next show, he would put a travel picture on the
+screen. But since the boys have been coming back from France and
+Germany and Siberia and Russia the public has begun to call for travel
+films again. They've heard their sons and brothers and sweethearts tell
+about the strange places they've been, and the strange things they've
+seen, and I suppose it makes them want to learn more about those parts
+of the world that lie east of Battery Place and west of the Golden
+Gate. But we don't want the old bromide stuff, mind
+you--mountain-climbing in Switzerland, cutting sugar-cane in Cuba,
+picking cocoanuts in Ceylon. That sort of thing goes well enough on the
+Chautauqua circuits, but it's as dead as the corner saloon so far as
+the big cities are concerned. What we are looking for are unusual
+pictures--tigers, elephants, pirates, brigands, cannibals, Oriental
+temples and palaces, war-dances, weird ceremonies, curious customs,
+natives with rings in their noses and feathers in their hair, scenes
+that are spectacular and exciting--in short, what the magazine editors
+call 'adventure stuff.' We want pictures that will make 'em sit up in
+their seats and exclaim, 'Well, what d'ye know about that?' and that
+will send them away to tell their friends about them."
+
+"Like the publisher," I suggested, "who remarked that his idea of a
+good newspaper was one that would cause its readers to exclaim when
+they opened it, 'My God!'?"
+
+"That's the idea," he agreed. "And if the pictures are from places that
+most people have never heard of before, so much the better. I'm told
+that you've spent your life looking for queer places to write about. So
+why can't you suggest some to take pictures of?"
+
+"But I've had no practical experience in taking motion-pictures," I
+protested. "The only time I ever touched a motion-picture camera was
+when I turned the crank of Donald Thompson's for a few minutes during
+the entry of the Germans into Antwerp in 1914."
+
+"Were the pictures a success?" the Napoleon of the Movies queried
+interestedly. "I don't recall having seen them."
+
+"No, you wouldn't," I hastened to explain. "You see, it wasn't until
+the show was all over that Thompson discovered that he had forgotten to
+take the cap off the lens."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," he assured me. "We'll take care of the
+technical end. We'll provide you with the best camera man to be had and
+the best equipment. All you will have to do is to show him what to
+photograph, arrange the action, decide on the settings, obtain the
+permission of the authorities, the good-will of the officials, the
+co-operation of the military, engage interpreters and guides, reserve
+hotel accommodations, arrange for motor-cars and boats and horses and
+special trains, and keep everyone jollied up and feeling good
+generally. Aside from that, there won't be anything for you to do
+except to enjoy yourself."
+
+"It certainly sounds alluring," I admitted. "The trouble is that you
+are looking for something that can't always be found. You don't find
+adventure the way you find four-leaf clovers; it just happens to you,
+like the measles or a blow-out. Still, if one has the time and money
+to go after them, there are a lot of curious things that might pass for
+adventure when they are shown on the screen."
+
+"Where are they?" the film magnate asked eagerly, spreading upon his
+mahogany desk a map of the world.
+
+It was a little disconcerting, this request to point out those regions
+where adventure could be found, very much as a visitor from the
+provinces might ask a New York hotel clerk to tell him where he could
+see the Bohemian life of which he had read in the Sunday supplements.
+
+"There's Russian Central Asia, of course," I suggested tentatively.
+"Samarkand and Bokhara and Tashkent, you know. But I'm afraid they're
+out of the question on account of the Bolsheviki. Besides, I'm not
+looking for the sort of adventure that ends between a stone wall and a
+firing-party. Then there are some queer emirates along the southern
+edge of the Sahara: Sokoto and Kanem and Bornu and Wadai. But it would
+take at least six months to obtain the necessary permission from the
+French and British colonial offices and to arrange the other details of
+the expedition."
+
+"But that doesn't exhaust the possibilities by any means," I continued
+hastily, for nothing was farther from my wish than to discourage so
+fascinating a plan. "There ought to be some splendid picture material
+among the Dyaks of Borneo--they're head-hunters, you know. From there
+we could jump across to the Celebes and possibly to New Guinea. And I
+understand that they have some queer customs on the island of Bali,
+over beyond Java; in fact, I've been told that, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Dutch to stop it, the Balinese still practise _suttee_.
+A picture of a widow being burned on her husband's funeral pyre would
+be a bit out of the ordinary, wouldn't it? That reminds me that I read
+somewhere the other day that next spring there is to be a big royal
+wedding in Djokjakarta, in middle Java, with all sorts of gorgeous
+festivities. At Batavia we would have no difficulty in getting a
+steamer for Singapore, and from there we could go overland by the new
+Federated Malay States Railway, through Johore and Malacca and Kuala
+Lumpur, to Siam, where the cats and the twins and the white elephants
+come from. From Bangkok we might take a short-cut through the Cambodian
+jungle, by elephant, to Pnom-Penh and----"
+
+"Hold on!" the Movie King protested. "That's plenty. Let me come up for
+air. Those names you've been reeling off mean as much to me as the
+dishes on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. But that's what we're
+after. We want the people who see the pictures to say: 'Where the
+dickens _is_ that place? I never heard of it before.' They get to
+arguing about it, and when they get home they look it up in the family
+atlas, and when they find how far away it is, they feel that they've
+had their money's worth. How soon can you be ready to start?"
+
+"How soon," I countered, "can you have a letter of credit ready?"
+
+Owing to the urgent requirements of the European governments, vessels
+of every description were, as I discovered upon our arrival at Manila,
+few and far between in Eastern seas; so, in spite of the assurance that
+I was not to permit the question of expense to curtail my itinerary, it
+is perfectly certain that we could not have visited the remote and
+inaccessible places which we did had it not been for the lively
+interest taken in our enterprise by the Honorable Francis Burton
+Harrison, Governor-General of the Philippines, and by the Honorable
+Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate. When
+Governor-General Harrison learned that I wished to take pictures in the
+Sulu Archipelago, he kindly offered, in order to facilitate our
+movements from island to island, to place at my disposal a coast-guard
+cutter, just as a friend might offer one the use of his motor-car.
+There was at first some question as to whether the Governor-General had
+the authority to send a government vessel outside of territorial
+waters, but Mr. Quezon, who, so far as influence goes, is a Henry Cabot
+Lodge and a Boies Penrose combined, unearthed a law which permitted him
+to utilize the vessels of the coast-guard service for the purpose of
+entertaining visitors to the islands in such ways as the Government of
+the Philippines saw fit. And, in a manner of speaking, Mr. Quezon is
+the Government of the Philippines. Thus it came about that on the last
+day of February, 1920, the coast-guard cutter _Negros_, 150 tons and
+150 feet over all--with a crew of sixty men, Captain A. B. Galvez
+commanding, and having on board the Lovely Lady, who accompanies me on
+all my travels; the Winsome Widow, who joined us in Seattle; the
+Doctor, who is an officer of the United States Health Service stationed
+at Manila; John L. Hawkinson, the efficient and imperturbable man
+behind the camera; three friends of the Governor-General, who went
+along for the ride; and myself--steamed out of Manila Bay into the
+crimson glory of a tropic sunset, and, when past Cavite and Corregidor,
+laid her course due south toward those magic isles and fairy seas which
+are so full of mystery and romance, so packed with possibilities of
+high adventure.
+
+[Illustration: Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon
+
+His camera is set up astride of two native dugouts lashed together]
+
+[Illustration: Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+coast of Bali
+
+Mrs. Powell being carried ashore by sailors. The _Negros_ in the
+distance]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor-General Harrison believed, by methods that are legitimate, in
+adding to the American public's knowledge of the Philippines, and it
+was owing to his broad-minded point of view and to the many cablegrams
+which he sent ahead of us, that at each port in the islands at which we
+touched we found the local officials waiting on the pier-head to bid us
+welcome and to assist us. At Jolo, which is the capital of the Moro
+country, two lean, sun-tanned, youthful-looking men came aboard to
+greet us: one was the Honorable P. W. Rogers, Governor of the
+Department of Sulu; the other was Captain Link, a former officer of
+constabulary who is now the Provincial Treasurer. In the first five
+minutes of our conversation I discovered that they knew exactly the
+sort of picture material that I wanted and that they would help me to
+the limit of their ability to get it. For that matter, they themselves
+personify adventure in its most exciting form.
+
+Rogers, who was originally a soldier, went to the Philippines as
+orderly for General Pershing long before the days when "Black Jack" was
+to win undying fame on battlefields half the world away. The young
+soldier showed such marked ability that, thanks to Pershing's
+assistance, he obtained a post as stenographer under the civil
+government, thence rising by rapid steps to the difficult post of
+Governor of Sulu. A better selection could hardly have been made, for
+there is no white man in the islands whom the Moros more heartily
+respect and fear than their boyish-looking governor. Mrs. Rogers is the
+daughter of a German trader who lived in Jolo and died there with his
+boots on. A year or so prior to her marriage she was sitting with her
+parents at tiffin when a Moro, with whom her father had had a trifling
+business disagreement, knocked at the door and asked for a moment's
+conversation. Telling the native that he would talk with him after he
+had finished his meal, the trader returned to the table. Scarcely had
+he seated himself when the Moro, who had slipped unobserved into the
+dining room, sprang like a panther, his broad-bladed _barong_
+describing a glistening arc, and the trader's head rolled among the
+dishes. Another sweep of the terrible weapon and the mother's hand was
+severed at the wrist, while the future Mrs. Rogers owes her life to the
+fact that she fainted and slipped under the table. I relate this
+incident in order to give you some idea of the local atmosphere.
+
+A few weeks before our arrival at Jolo, Governor Rogers, in compliance
+with instructions from Manila, had ordered a census of the inhabitants.
+But the Moros are a highly suspicious folk, so, when some one started
+the rumor that the government was planning to brand them, as it brands
+its mules and horses, it promptly gained wide credence. By tactful
+explanations the suspicions of most of the natives were allayed, but
+one Moro, notorious as a bad man, barricaded himself, together with
+five of his friends, three women and a boy, in his house--a nipa hut
+raised above the ground on stilts--and defied the Governor to enumerate
+_them_. Now, if the Governor had permitted such open defiance to pass
+unnoticed, the entire population of Jolo, always ready for trouble,
+promptly would have gotten out of hand. So, accompanied by five
+troopers of the constabulary, he rode out to the outlaw's house and
+attempted to reason with him. The man obstinately refused to show
+himself, however, even turning a deaf ear to the appeals of the village
+_imam_. Thereupon Rogers ordered the constabulary to open fire, their
+shots being answered by a fusillade from the Moros barricaded in the
+house. In twenty minutes the flimsy structure looked more like a sieve
+than a dwelling. When the firing ceased a six-year-old boy descended
+the ladder and, approaching the Governor, remarked unconcernedly: "You
+can go in now. They're all dead." Then Rogers called up the
+census-taker and told him to go ahead with his enumeration.
+
+The provincial treasurer, Captain Link, is a lean, lithe South
+Carolinian who has spent fifteen years in Moroland. He is what is known
+in the cattle country as a "go-gitter." It is told of him that he once
+nearly lost his commission, while in the constabulary, by sending to
+the Governor, as a Christmas present, a package which, upon being
+opened, was found to contain the head of a much-wanted outlaw.
+
+"I knew he wanted that fellow's head more than anything else in the
+world," Captain Link said na�vely, in telling me the story, "so it
+struck me it would be just the thing to send him for a Christmas
+present. I spent a lot of time and trouble getting it too, for the
+fellow sure was a bad hombre. It would have gotten by all right, but
+the Governor's wife, thinking it was a present for herself, had to go
+and open the package. She went into hysterics when she saw what was
+inside and the Governor was so mad he nearly fired me. Some people have
+no sense of humor."
+
+Atop of the bookcase in Captain Link's study--the bookcase, by the way,
+contains Burton's _Thousand and One Nights_, the _Discourses_ of
+Epictetus, and President Eliot's tabloid classics--is the skull in
+question, surmounted by a Moro fez. Across the front of the fez is
+printed this significant legend:
+
+        THIS IS JOHN HENRY
+  JOHN HENRY DISOBEYED CAPTAIN LINK
+    _Sic Transit Gloria Mundi_
+
+While we are on the subject, let me tell you about another of these
+advance-guards of civilization who, single-handed, transformed a
+worthless island in the Sulu Sea into a veritable Garden of the Lord
+and its inhabitants from warlike savages into peaceful and prosperous
+farmers. In 1914 a short, bespectacled Michigander named Warner was
+sent by the Philippine Bureau of Education to Siassi, one of the
+islands of the Sulu group, to teach its Moro inhabitants the rudiments
+of American civilization. Warner's sole equipment for the job
+consisted, as he candidly admitted, of a medical education. He took
+with him a number of Filipino assistants, but as they did not get along
+with the Moros, he shipped them back to Manila and sent for an Airedale
+dog. He also sent for all the works on agriculture and gardening that
+were to be had in the bookshops of the capital. For five years he
+remained on Siassi, the only white man. As even the little inter-island
+steamers rarely find their way there, months sometimes passed without
+his hearing from the outside world. But he was too busy to be lonely.
+His jurisdiction extended over two islands, separated by a narrow
+channel, but this he never crossed at night and in the daytime only
+when he was compelled to, as the narrow channel was the home of giant
+crocodiles which not infrequently attacked and capsized the frail
+native _vintas_, killing their occupants as they struggled in the
+water.
+
+Warner, who had spent four years among the Visayans before going to
+Siassi, and who was, therefore, eminently qualified to compare the
+northern islanders with the Moros, told me that the latter possess a
+much higher type of intelligence than the Filipinos and assimilate new
+ideas far more quickly. He added that they have a highly developed
+sense of humor; that they are quick to appreciate subtle stories, which
+the Tagalogs and Visayans are not; and that they are much more ready to
+accept advice on agricultural and economic matters than the Christian
+Filipinos, who have a life-sized opinion of their own ability. When the
+day's work was over, he said, he would seat himself in the doorway of
+his hut, surrounded by a group of Moros, and discuss crops and weather
+prospects, swap jokes and tell stories, just as he might have done with
+lighter skinned sons of toil around the cracker-barrel of a cross-roads
+store in New England. He added that he was sadly in need of some new
+stories to tell his Moro proteg�s, as, after six years on the island,
+his own fund was about exhausted. But he was growing weary of life on
+Siassi, he told me; he wanted action and excitement; so he was
+preparing to move, with his Airedale, to Bohol, in the Visayas, where,
+he had heard it rumored, there was another white man.
+
+Still another of the picturesque characters with whom I foregathered
+nightly on the after-deck of the _Negros_ during our stay at Jolo was a
+former soldier, John Jennings by name. He was an operative of the
+Philippine Secret Service, being engaged at the time in breaking up the
+running of opium from Borneo across the Sulu Sea to the Moro islands.
+Jennings is a short, thickset, powerfully-built man, all nerve and no
+nerves. Adventure is his middle name. He has lived more stories than I
+could invent. Shortly before our arrival at Jolo Jennings had learned
+from a native in his pay that a son of the Flowery Kingdom, the
+proprietor of a notorious gambling resort situated on the
+quarter-mile-long ramshackle wharf known as the Chinese pier, was
+driving a roaring trade in the forbidden drug. So one afternoon
+Jennings, his hands in his pockets and in each pocket a service
+automatic, sauntered carelessly along the pier and upon reaching the
+reputed opium den, knocked briskly on the door. The Chinese proprietor
+evidently suspected the purpose of his visit, however, for he was
+unable to gain admittance. So that night, wearing the huge straw
+sun-hat and flapping garments of blue cotton of a coolie, he tried
+again. This time in response to his knock the heavy door swung open.
+Within all was black and silent as the tomb. The lintel was low and
+Jennings was compelled to stoop in order to enter. As he cautiously set
+foot across the threshold there was a sudden swish of steel in the
+darkness and the blade of a _barong_ whistled past his face, slicing
+off the front of his hat and missing his head by the width of an
+eyelash. As he sprang back the door slammed in his face and he heard
+the bolts shot home, followed by the sound of a weapon clattering on
+the floor and the patter of naked feet. Realizing that the men he was
+after were making their escape by another exit, Jennings hurled
+himself against the door, an automatic in either hand. It gave way
+before his assault and he was precipitated headlong into the inky
+blackness of the room. Taking no chances this time, he raked it with a
+stream of lead from end to end. Then, there being no further sound, he
+swept the place with a beam from his electric torch. Stretched on the
+floor were three dead Chinamen and beside them was enough opium to have
+drugged everyone on the island. That little episode, as Jennings
+remarked dryly, put quite a crimp in the opium traffic in Jolo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cockfighting, which is as popular throughout the Philippines as
+baseball is in the United States, finds its most enthusiastic devotees
+among the Moros, every community in the Sulu islands having its cockpit
+and its fighting birds, on whose prowess the natives gamble with
+reckless abandon. Gambling is, indeed, the _raison d'�tre_ of
+cockfighting in Moroland, for, as the birds are armed with four-inch
+spurs of razor sharpness, and as one or both birds are usually killed
+within a few minutes after they are tossed into the pit, very little
+sport attaches to the contest. The villagers are inordinately proud of
+their local fighting-cocks, boasting of their prowess as a Bostonian
+boasts of the Braves or a New Yorker of the Giants, and are always
+ready to back them to the limit of their means.
+
+Some years ago, according to a story that was told me in the
+islands--for the truth of which I do not vouch--an American destroyer
+dropped anchor off Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines.
+That night a shore party of bluejackets, wandering about the town in
+quest of amusement, dropped in at a cockpit where a main was in
+progress. Noting the large wagers laid by the excited natives on their
+favorite birds, the sailors offered to back a "chicken" which they had
+aboard the destroyer against all the cocks in Cebu. The natives,
+smiling in their sleeves at the prospect of taking money so easily from
+the Americanos, promptly accepted the challenge and some hundreds of
+pesos were laid against the unknown bird. At the hour set for the fight
+the grinning sailors appeared at the cockpit with their "chicken," the
+mascot of the destroyer--a large American eagle! Ensued, of course, a
+torrent of protest and remonstrance, but the money was already up and
+the bluejackets demanded action. So the eagle was anchored by a chain
+in the center of the pit, where it sat motionless and apathetic, head
+on one side, eyelids drooping, apparently half asleep--until a cock was
+tossed into the pit. Then there was a lightning-like flash of the
+mighty talons and all that was left of the Cebuan champion was a heap
+of bloodied feathers. The "match" was quickly over and the triumphant
+sailors, collecting their bets, departed for their ship. Ever since
+then there has been a proverb in Cebu--"Never match your cock against
+an American chicken."
+
+Governor Rogers informed me that, in compliance with a cablegram from
+the Governor-General, he had arranged a "show" for us at a village
+called Parang, on the other side of the island. The "show," I gathered,
+was to consist of a stag-hunt, shark-fishing, war-dances, and pony
+races, and was to conclude with a native bull-fight. One of the
+favorite sports of the Moros is hunting the small native stag on
+horseback, tiring it out, and killing it with spears. As it developed,
+however, that there was no certainty of being able so to stage-manage
+the affair that either the hunters or the hunted would come within the
+range of the camera, we regretfully decided to dispense with that
+number of the programme.
+
+When we arrived at Parang it looked as though the entire population of
+the island had assembled for the occasion. The native police were
+keeping clear a circle in which the dances were to take place, while
+the slanting trunks of the cocoanut-palms provided reserved seats for
+scores of tan and chocolate and coffee-colored youngsters. We were
+greeted by the Panglima of Parang, the overlord of the district, who
+explained, through Governor Rogers, that he had had prepared a little
+repast of which he hoped that we would deign to partake. Now, after you
+know some of the secrets of Moro cooking and have had a glimpse into a
+Moro kitchen, even the most robust appetite is usually dampened. But
+the Governor whispered "The old man has gone to a lot of trouble to
+arrange this show and if you refuse to eat his food he'll be mortally
+offended," so, purely in the interests of amity, we seated ourselves at
+the table, which had been set under the palms in the open. I don't know
+what we ate and I don't care to know--though I admit that I had some
+uneasy suspicions--but, with the uncompromising eye of the old Panglima
+fixed sternly upon us, we did our best to convince him that we
+appreciated his cuisine.
+
+But the dancing which followed made us forget what we had eaten. During
+the ensuing months we were to see dances in many lands--in Borneo and
+Bali and Java and Siam and Cambodia--but they were all characterized by
+a certain monotony and sameness. These Moro dancers, however, were in a
+class by themselves. If they could be brought across the ocean and
+would dance before an audience on Broadway with the same savage abandon
+with which they danced before the camera under the palm-trees of
+Parang, there would be a line a block long in front of the box-office.
+One of the dances was symbolical of a cock-fight, the cocks being
+personified by a young woman and a boy. It was sheer barbarism, of
+course, but it was fascinating. And the curious thing about it was that
+the hundreds of Moros who stood and squatted in a great circle, and who
+had doubtless seen the same thing scores of times before, were so
+engrossed in the movements of the dance, each of which had its subtle
+shade of meaning, that they became utterly oblivious to our presence or
+to Hawkinson's steady grinding of the camera. In the war-dance the
+participants, who were Moro fighting men, and were armed with spears,
+shields, and the vicious, broad-bladed knives known as _barongs_, gave
+a highly realistic representation of pinning an enemy to the earth with
+a spear, and with the _barong_ decapitating him. The first part of the
+dance, before the passions of the savages became aroused, was, however,
+monotonous and uninteresting.
+
+"Can't you stir 'em up a little?" called Hawkinson, who, like all
+camera men, demands constant action. "Tell 'em that this film costs
+money and that we didn't come here to take pictures of Loie Fuller
+stuff."
+
+"I think it might be as well to let them take their time about it,"
+remarked Captain Link. "These Moros always get very much worked up in
+their war-dances, and occasionally they forget that it is all
+make-believe and send a spear into a spectator. It's safer to leave
+them alone. They're very temperamental."
+
+"That would make a corking picture," said Hawkinson enthusiastically,
+"if I only knew which fellow was going to be speared so that I could
+get the camera focussed on him."
+
+"The only trouble is," I remarked dryly, "that they might possibly pick
+out _you_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Spanish bull-fights, after the banderillos and picadores have
+tormented the bull until it is exhausted, the matador flaunts a scarlet
+cloak in front of the beast until it is bewildered and then despatches
+it with a sword. In Moroland, however, the bulls, which are bred and
+trained for the purpose, do their best to kill each other, thus making
+the fight a much more sporting proposition. The bull-fight which was
+arranged for our benefit at Parang was staged in a field of about two
+acres just outside the town, the spectators being kept at a safe
+distance by a troop of Moro horsemen under the direction of the old
+Panglima. After Hawkinson had set up his camera on the edge of this
+extemporized arena the bulls were brought in: medium-sized but
+exceptionally powerful beasts, the muscles rippling under their sleek
+brown coats, their short horns filed to the sharpness of lance-tips.
+Each animal was led by its owner, who was able to control it to a
+limited degree during the fight by means of a cord attached to the ring
+in its nose. When the signal was given for the fight to begin, the
+bulls approached each other cautiously, snorting and pawing the ground.
+They reminded me of two strange dogs who cannot decide whether they
+wish to fight or be friends. For ten minutes, regardless of the jeers
+of the spectators and the proddings of their handlers, the great brown
+beasts rubbed heads as amicably as a yoke of oxen. Then, just as we had
+made up our minds that it was a fiasco and that there would be no
+bull-fight pictures, there was a sudden angry bellow, the two great
+heads came together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was
+on. The next twenty minutes Hawkinson and I spent in alternately
+setting up his camera within range of the panting, straining animals
+and in picking it up and running for our lives, in order to avoid being
+trampled by the maddened beasts in their furious and unexpected
+onslaughts. The men at the ends of the nose-ropes were as helpless to
+control their infuriated charges as a trout fisherman who has hooked a
+shark. With horns interlocked and with blood and sweat dripping from
+their massive necks and shoulders, they fought each other, step by
+step, across the width of the arena, across a cultivated field which
+lay beyond, burst through a thorn hedge surrounding a native's patch of
+garden, trampled the garden into mire, and narrowly escaped bringing
+down on top of them the owner's dwelling, which, like most Moro houses,
+was raised above the ground on stilts. It looked for a time as though
+the fight would continue over a considerable portion of the island, but
+it was brought to an abrupt conclusion when one of the bulls,
+withdrawing a few yards, to gain momentum, charged like a tank
+attacking the Hindenburg Line, driving one of its horns deep into its
+adversary's eye-socket, whereupon the wounded animal, half-blinded and
+mad with pain, turned precipitately, jerked the nose-rope from its
+owner's grasp, and stampeding the spectators in its mad flight,
+disappeared in the depths of the jungle.
+
+[Illustration: The bull-fight at Parang
+
+There was a sudden bellow, the two great heads came
+together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was on
+
+The spectators were kept at a distance by M�r� horsemen
+under the Panglima]
+
+"That," announced the Governor, "concludes the morning performance.
+This afternoon we will present for your approval a programme consisting
+of pony races, a carabao fight, a shark-fishing expedition, and, if
+time permits, a visit to the pearl-fisheries to see the divers at work.
+This evening we will call on the Princess Fatimah, the daughter of the
+Sultan, and tomorrow I have arranged to take you to Tapul Island to
+shoot wild carabao. After that----"
+
+"After that," I interrupted, "we go away from here. If we stayed on in
+this quiet little island of yours much longer, we shouldn't have any
+film left for the other places."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE
+
+
+We sailed at sunset out of Jolo and all through the breathless tropic
+night the _Negros_ forged ahead at half-speed, her sharp prow cleaving
+the still bosom of the Sulu Sea as silently as a gondola stealing down
+the Canale Grande. So oppressive was the night that sleep was out of
+the question, and I leaned upon the rail of the bridge, the hot land
+breeze, laden with the mysterious odors of the tropics, beating softly
+in my face, and listlessly watched the phosphorescent ostrich feathers
+curling from our bows. Behind me, in the darkened chart-room, the
+Filipino quartermaster gently swung the wheel from time to time in
+response to the direction of the needle on the illuminated
+compass-dial. So lifeless was the sea that our foremast barely swayed
+against the stars. The smoke from our funnel trailed across the purple
+canopy of the sky as though smeared with an inky brush.
+
+How long I stood there, lost in reverie, I have no idea: hours no
+doubt. I must have fallen into a doze, for I was awakened by the brisk,
+incisive strokes of the ship's bell, echoed, a moment later, by eight
+fainter strokes coming from the deck below. Then the soft patter of
+bare feet which meant the changing of the watch. Though the velvety
+darkness into which we were steadily ploughing had not perceptibly
+decreased, it was now cut sharply across, from right to left, by what
+looked like a tightly stretched wire of glowing silver. Even as I
+looked this slender fissure of illumination widened, almost
+imperceptibly at first, then faster, faster, until at one burst came
+the dawn. The sombre hangings of the night were swept aside by an
+invisible hand as are drawn back the curtains at a window. As you have
+seen from a hill the winking lights of a city disappear at daybreak,
+so, one by one, the stars went out. Masses of angry clouds reared
+themselves in ominous, fantastic forms against a sullen sky. The hot
+land breeze changed to a cold wind which made me shiver. Suddenly the
+mounting rampart of clouds, which seemed about to burst in a tempest,
+was pierced by a hundred flaming lances coming from beyond the
+horizon's rim. Before their onslaught the threatening cloud-wall
+crumbled, faded, and abruptly dropped away to reveal the sun advancing
+in all that brazen effrontery which it assumes in those lawless
+latitudes along the Line. Now the sky was become a huge inverted bowl
+of flawless azure porcelain, the surface of the Sulu Sea sparkled as
+though strewn with a million diamonds, and, not a league off our bows,
+rose the jungle-clothed shores of Borneo.
+
+Scattered along the fringes of the world are certain places whose names
+ring in the ears of youth like trumpet-calls. They are passwords to
+romance and high adventure. Their very mention makes the feet of the
+young men restless. They mark the places where the strange trails go
+down. Of them all, the one that most completely captivated my boyish
+imagination was Borneo. To me, as to millions of other youngsters, its
+name had been made familiar by that purveyor of entertainment to
+American boyhood, Phineas T. Barnum, as the reputed home of the wild
+man. In its jungles, through the magic of Marryat's breathless pages, I
+fought the head-hunter and pursued the boa-constrictor and the
+orang-utan. It was then, a boyhood dream come true when I stood at
+daybreak on the bridge of the _Negros_ and through my glasses watched
+the mysterious island, which I had so often pictured in my imagination,
+rise with tantalizing slowness from the sapphire sea.
+
+We forged ahead cautiously, for our charts were none too recent or
+reliable and we lacked the "Malay Archipelago" volume of _The Sailing
+Directions_--the "Sailor's Bible," as the big, orange-covered book,
+full of comforting detail, is known. As the morning mists dissolved
+before the sun I could make out a pale ivory beach, and back of the
+beach a band of green which I knew for jungle, and back of that, in
+turn, a range of purple mountains which culminated in a majestic,
+cloud-wreathed peak. An off-shore breeze brought to my nostrils the
+strange, sweet odors of the hot lands. A Malay _vinta_ with widespread
+bamboo outriggers and twin sails of orange flitted by an enormous
+butterfly skimming the surface of the water. I was actually within
+sight of that grim island whose name has ever been a synonym for
+savagery. For never think that piracy, head-hunting, poisoned darts
+shot from blow-guns are horrors extinct in Borneo today, for they are
+not. Ask the mariners who sail these waters; ask the keepers of the
+lonely lighthouses, the officers who command the constabulary outposts
+in the bush. They know Borneo, and not favorably.
+
+You will picture Borneo, if you please, as a vast, squat island the
+third largest in the world, in fact--half again as large as France,
+bordered by a sandy littoral, moated by swamps reeking with putrid
+miasmata and pernicious vapors, covered with dense forests and
+impenetrable jungles, ridged by mile-high mountain ranges, seamed by
+mighty rivers, inhabited by the most savage beasts and the most bestial
+savages known to man. Lying squarely athwart the Line, the sun beats
+down upon it like the blast from an open furnace-door. The story is
+told in Borneo of a dissolute planter who died from sunstroke. The day
+after the funeral a spirit message reached the widow of the dear
+departed. "Please send down my blankets" it said. But it is the
+terrible humidity which makes the climate dangerous; a humidity due to
+the innumerable swamps, the source of pestilence and fever, and to the
+incredible rainfall, which _averages over six and a half feet a year_.
+No wonder that in the Indies Borneo is known as "The White Man's
+Graveyard."
+
+[Map: Malaysia]
+
+Imbedded in the northern coast of the island, like a row of
+semi-precious stones set in a barbaric brooch, are the states of
+British North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak. Their back-doors open on the
+wilderness of mountain, forest and jungle which marks the northern
+boundary of Dutch Borneo; their front windows look out upon the Sulu
+and the China Seas. Of these three territories, the first is under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, a private
+corporation, which administers it under the terms of a royal charter.
+The second is ruled by the Sultan of Brunei, whose once vast dominions
+have steadily dwindled through cession and conquest until they are now
+no larger than Connecticut. On the throne of the last sits one of the
+most romantic and picturesque figures in the world, His Highness James
+Vyner Brooke, a descendant of that Sir James Brooke who, in the middle
+years of the last century, made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak,
+and who might well have been the original of _The Man Who Would Be
+King_. Though all three governments are permitted virtually a free hand
+so far as their domestic affairs are concerned, they are under the
+protection of Great Britain and their foreign affairs are controlled
+from Westminster. The remaining three-quarters of Borneo, which
+contains the richest mines, the finest forests, the largest rivers,
+and, most important of all, the great oil-fields of Balik-Papan, forms
+one of the Outer Possessions, or Outposts, of Holland's East Indian
+Empire.
+
+Long before the yellow ribbon of the coast, with its fringe of palms,
+became visible we could make out the towering outline of Kina Balu, the
+sacred mountain, fourteen thousand feet high, which, seen from the
+north, bears a rather striking resemblance in its general contour to
+Gibraltar. The natives regard Kina Balu with awe and veneration as the
+home of departed spirits, believing that it exercises a powerful
+influence on their lives. When a man is dying they speak of him as
+ascending Kina Balu and in times of drought they formerly practised a
+curious and horrible custom, known as _sumunguping_, which the
+authorities have now suppressed. When the crops showed signs of failing
+the natives decided to despatch a messenger direct to the spirits of
+their relatives and friends in the other world entreating them to
+implore relief from the gods who control the rains. The person chosen
+to convey the message was usually a slave or an enemy captured in
+battle. Binding their victim to a post, the warriors of the tribe
+advanced, one by one, and drove their spears into his body, shouting
+with each thrust the messages which they wished conveyed to the spirits
+on the mountain.
+
+With the coming of day we pushed ahead at full speed. Soon we could
+make out the precipitous sandstone cliffs of Balhalla, the island which
+screens the entrance to Sandakan harbor. But long before we came
+abreast of the town signs of human habitation became increasingly
+apparent: little clusters of nipa-thatched huts built on stilts over
+the water; others hidden away in the jungle and betraying themselves
+only by spirals of smoke rising lazily above the feathery tops of the
+palms. Sandakan itself straggles up a steep wooded hill, the Chinese
+and native quarters at its base wallowing amid a network of
+foul-smelling and incredibly filthy sewers and canals or built on
+rickety wooden platforms which extend for half a mile or more along the
+harbor's edge. A little higher up, fronting on a parade ground which
+looks from the distance like a huge green rug spread in the sun to air,
+are the government offices, low structures of frame and plaster,
+designed so as to admit a maximum of air and a minimum of heat; the
+long, low building of the Planters Club, encircled by deep, cool
+verandahs; a Chinese joss-house, its facade enlivened by grotesque and
+brilliantly colored carvings; and a down-at-heels hotel. Close by are
+the churches erected and maintained by the Protestant and Roman
+Catholic missions--the former the only stone building in the
+protectorate. At the summit of the hill, reached by a steeply winding
+carriage road, are the bungalows of the Europeans, their white walls,
+smothered in crimson masses of bougainvill�a and shaded by stately
+palms and blazing fire-trees, peeping out from a wilderness of tropic
+vegetation. Viewed from the harbor, Sandakan is one of the most
+enchanting places that I have ever seen. It looks like a setting on a
+stage and you have the feeling that at any moment the curtain may
+descend and destroy the illusion. It is not until you go ashore and
+wander in the native quarter, where vice in every form stalks naked
+and unashamed, that you realize that the town is like a beautiful
+harlot, whose loveliness of face and figure belie the evil in her
+heart. Even after I came to understand that the place is a sink of
+iniquity, I never ceased to marvel at its beauty. It reminded me of the
+exclamation of a young English girl, the wife of a German merchant, as
+their steamer approached Hong Kong and the superb panorama which
+culminates in The Peak slowly unrolled.
+
+"Look, Otto! Look!" she cried. "You must say that it is beautiful even
+if it _is_ English."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of those lands which have not yet submitted to the bit and bridle of
+civilization--and they can be numbered on the fingers of one's two
+hands--Borneo is the most intractable. Of all the regions which the
+predatory European has claimed for his own, it is the least submissive,
+the least civilized, the least exploited and the least known. Its
+interior remains as untamed as before the first white man set foot on
+its shores four hundred years ago. The exploits of those bold and hardy
+spirits--explorers, soldiers, missionaries, administrators--who have
+attempted to carry to the natives of Borneo the Gospel of the Clean
+Shirt and the Square Deal form one of the epics of colonization. They
+have died with their boots on from fever, plague and snake-bite, from
+poisoned dart and Dyak spear. Though their lives would yield material
+for a hundred books of adventure, their story, which is the story of
+the white man's war for civilization throughout Malaysia, is epitomized
+in the few lines graven on the modest marble monument which stands at
+the edge of Sandakan's sun-scorched parade ground:
+
+                        In
+                      Memory
+                        of
+               Francis Xavier Witti
+           Killed near the Sibuco River
+                    May, 1882
+                        of
+                   Frank Hatton
+           Accidentally shot at Segamah
+                   March, 1883
+                        of
+               Dr. D. Manson Fraser
+                       and
+                Jemadhar Asa Singh
+    the two latter mortally wounded at Kopang
+                    May, 1883
+                      and of
+              Alfred Jones, Adjutant
+      Shere Singh, Regimental Sergeant-Major
+     of the British North Borneo Constabulary
+             Killed at Ranau 1897-98
+                      and of
+               George Graham Warder
+          District Officer, Tindang Batu
+             Murdered at Marak Parak
+                  28th July 1903
+  This Monument Is Erected as a Mark of Respect
+            by their Brother Officers
+
+Though Sandakan is the chief port of British North Borneo, with a
+population of perhaps fifteen thousand, it has barely a hundred
+European inhabitants, of whom only a dozen are women. Girls marry
+almost as fast as they arrive, and the incoming boats are eagerly
+scanned by the bachelor population, much in the same spirit as that in
+which a ticket-holder scans the lists of winning numbers in a lottery,
+wondering when his turn will come to draw something. If the bulk of the
+men are confirmed misogynists and confine themselves to the club bar
+and card-room it is only because there are not enough women to go
+round. The sacrifice of the women who, in order to be near their
+husbands, consent to sicken and fade and grow old before their time in
+such a spot, is very great. With their children at school in England,
+they pass their lonely lives in palm-thatched bungalows, raised high
+above the ground on piles as a protection against insects, snakes and
+floods, without amusements save such as they can provide themselves,
+and in a climate so humid that mushrooms will grow on one's boots in a
+single night during the rains. They are as truly empire-builders as the
+men and, though the parts they play are less conspicuous, perhaps, they
+are as truly deserving of honors and rewards.
+
+There is no servant problem in Borneo. Cooks jostle one another to cook
+for you. They will even go to the length of poisoning each other in
+order to step into a lucrative position, with a really big master and a
+memsahib who does not give too much trouble. But there are other
+features of domestic life for which the plenitude of servants does not
+compensate. Because existence is made almost unendurable by mosquitoes
+and other insects, within each sleeping room is constructed a
+rectangular framework, covered with mosquito-netting and just large
+enough to contain a bed, a dressing-table and an arm-chair. In these
+insect-proof cells the Europeans spend all of their sleeping and many
+of their waking hours. So aggressive are the mosquitoes, particularly
+during the rains, that, when one invites people in for dinner or
+bridge, the servants hand the guests long sacks of netting which are
+drawn over the feet and legs, the top being tied about the waist with a
+draw-string. Were it not for these mosquito-bags there would be neither
+bridge nor table conversation. Everyone would be too busy scratching.
+
+The houses, as I have already mentioned, are raised above the ground on
+brick piles or wooden stilts. Though this arrangement serves the
+purpose of keeping things which creep and crawl out of the house
+itself, the custom of utilizing the open space beneath the house as a
+hen-roost offers a standing invitation to the reptiles with which
+Borneo abounds. While we were in Sandakan a python invaded the
+chicken-house beneath the dwelling of the local magistrate one night
+and devoured half a dozen of the judge's imported Leghorns. Gorged to
+repletion, the great reptile fell asleep, being discovered by the
+servants the next morning. The magistrate put an end to its predatory
+career with a shot-gun. It measured slightly over twenty feet from nose
+to tail and in circumference was considerably larger than an inflated
+fire-hose. Imagine finding such a thing coiled up at the foot of your
+cellar-stairs after you had been indulging in home-brew!
+
+One evening a party of us were seated on the verandah of the Planters
+Club in Sandakan. The conversation, which had pretty much covered the
+world, eventually turned to snakes.
+
+"That reminds me," remarked a constabulary officer who had spent many
+years in Malaysia, "of a queer thing that happened in a place where I
+was stationed once in the Straits Settlements. It was one of those
+deadly dull places--only a handful of white women, no cinema, no race
+course, nothing. But the Devil, you know, always finds mischief for
+idle hands to do. One day a youngster--a subaltern in the battalion
+that was stationed there--returned from a leave spent in England. He
+brought back with him a young English girl whom he had married while he
+was at home. A slender, willowy thing she was, with great masses of
+coppery-red hair and the loveliest pink-and-white complexion. She
+quickly adapted herself to the disagreeable features of life in the
+tropics--with one exception. The exception was that she could never
+overcome her inherent and unreasoning fear of snakes. The mere sight of
+one would send her into hysterics.
+
+"One afternoon, while she was out at tea with some friends, the Malay
+gardener brought to the house the carcass of a hamadryad which he had
+killed in the garden. The hamadryad, as you probably know, is perhaps
+the deadliest of all Eastern reptiles. Its bite usually causes death in
+a few minutes. Moreover, it is one of the few snakes that will attack
+human beings without provocation. The husband, with two other chaps,
+both officers in his battalion, was sitting on the verandah when the
+snake was brought in.
+
+"'I say,' suggested one of the officers, 'here's a chance to break
+Madge of her fear of snakes. Why not curl this fellow up on her bed?
+She'll get a jolly good fright, of course, but when she discovers that
+he's dead and that she's been panicky about nothing, she'll get over
+her silly fear of the beggars. What say, old chap?'
+
+"To this insane suggestion, in spite of the protests of the other
+officer, the husband assented. Probably he had been having too many
+brandies and sodas. I don't know. But in any event, they put the
+witless idea into execution. Toward nightfall the young wife returned.
+She had on a frock of some thin, slinky stuff and a droopy garden hat
+with flowers on it and carried a sunshade. She was awfully pretty. She
+hadn't been out there long enough to lose her English coloring, you
+see.
+
+"'Oh, I say, Madge,' called her husband, 'There's a surprise for you in
+your bedroom.'
+
+"With a little cry of delighted anticipation she hurried into the
+house. She thought her husband had bought her a gift, I suppose. A
+moment later the trio waiting on the verandah heard a piercing shriek.
+The first shriek was followed by another and then another. Pretty soon,
+though, the screams died down to a whimper--a sort of sobbing moan.
+Then silence. After a few minutes, as there was no further sound from
+the bedroom and his wife did not reappear, the husband became uneasy.
+He rose to enter the house, but the chap who had suggested the scheme
+pulled him back.
+
+"'She's all right,' he assured him. 'She sees it's a joke and she's
+keeping quiet so as to frighten you. If you go in there now the laugh
+will be on you. She'll be out directly.'
+
+"But as the minutes passed and she did not reappear all three of the
+men became increasingly uneasy.
+
+"'We'd better have a look,' the one who had demurred suggested after a
+quarter of an hour had passed, during which no further sound had come
+from the bedroom. 'Madge is very high-strung. She may have fainted from
+the shock. I told you fellows that it was an idiotic thing to do.'
+
+"When they opened the door they thought that she had fainted, for she
+lay in an inert heap on the floor at the foot of the bed. But a hasty
+examination showed them, to their horror, that the girl was dead--heart
+failure, presumably. But when they raised her from the floor they
+discovered the real cause of her death, for a _second hamadryad_, which
+had been concealed by her skirts, darted noiselessly under the bed. It
+was the mate of the one that had been killed--for hamadryads always
+travel in pairs, you know--and had evidently entered the room in quest
+of its companion."
+
+"What happened to the husband and to the man who suggested the plan?"
+I asked. "Were they punished?"
+
+"They were punished right enough," the constabulary officer said dryly.
+"The chap who suggested the scheme tried to forget it in drink, was
+cashiered from the army and died of delirium tremens. As for the
+husband, he is still living--in a madhouse."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even in so far-distant a corner of the Empire as Borneo, ten thousand
+miles from the lights of the restaurants in Piccadilly, the men
+religiously observe the English ritual of dressing for dinner, for when
+the mercury climbs to 110, though the temptation is to go about in
+pajamas, one's drenched body and drooping spirits need to be bolstered
+up with a stiff shirt and a white mess jacket. That the stiffest
+shirt-front is wilted in an hour makes no difference: it reminds them
+that they are still Englishmen. Nor, in view of the appalling
+loneliness of the life, is it to be wondered at that the Chinese
+bartenders at the club are kept busy until far into the night, and that
+every month or so the entire male white population goes on a terrific
+spree. The government doctor in Sandakan assured me very earnestly
+that, in order to stand the climate, it is necessary to keep one's
+liver afloat--in alcohol. He had contributed to thus preserving the
+livers and lives of his fellow exiles by the invention of two drinks,
+of which he was inordinately proud. One he had dubbed "Tarantula
+Juice;" the other he called "Whisper of Death." He told me that the
+amateur who took three drinks of the latter would have no further need
+for his services; the only person whose services he would require would
+be the undertaker.
+
+There is something of the pathetic in the eagerness with which the
+white men who dwell in exile along these forgotten seaboards long for
+news from Home. After dinner they would cluster about me on the club
+verandah and clamor for those odds-and-ends of English gossip which are
+not important enough for inclusion in the laconic cable despatches
+posted daily on the club bulletin-board and which the two-months-old
+newspapers seldom mention. They insisted that I repeat the jokes which
+were being cracked by the comedians at the Criterion and the
+Shaftesbury. They wanted to know if toppers and tailcoats were again
+being worn in The Row. They pleaded for the gossip of the clubs in Pall
+Mall and Piccadilly. They begged me to tell them about the latest books
+and plays and songs. But after a time I persuaded them to do the
+talking, while I lounged in a deep cane chair, a tall, thin glass, with
+ice tinkling in it, at my elbow, and listened spellbound to strange
+dramas of "the Islands" recited by men who had themselves played the
+leading roles. At first they were shy, as well-bred English often are,
+but after much urging an officer of constabulary, the glow from his
+cigar lighting up his sun-bronzed face and the rows of campaign ribbons
+on his white jacket, was persuaded into telling how he had trailed a
+marauding band of head-hunters right across Borneo, from coast to
+coast, his only companions a handful of Dyak police, themselves but a
+degree removed in savagery from those they were pursuing. A
+bespectacled, studious-looking man, whom I had taken for a scientist or
+a college professor, but who, I learned, had made a fortune buying
+bird-of-paradise plumes for the European market, described the strange
+and revolting customs practised by the cannibals of New Guinea. Then a
+broad-shouldered, bearded Dutchman, a very Hercules of a man, with a
+voice like a bass drum, told, between meditative puffs at his pipe, of
+hair-raising adventures in capturing wild animals, so that those smug
+and sheltered folk at home who visit the zoological gardens of a Sunday
+afternoon might see for themselves the crocodile and the
+boa-constrictor, the orang-utan and the clouded tiger. When, after the
+last tale had been told and the last glass had been drained, we
+strolled out into the fragrant tropic night, with the Cross swinging
+low to the morn, I felt as though, in the space of a single evening, I
+had lived through a whole library of adventure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I once wrote--in _The Last Frontier_, if I remember rightly--that when
+the English occupy a country the first thing they build is a
+custom-house; the first thing the Germans build is a barracks; the
+first thing the French build is a railway. As a result of my
+observations in Malaysia, however, I am inclined to amend this by
+saying that the first thing the English build is a race course. Lord
+Cromer was fond of telling how, when he visited Perim, a miserable
+little island at the foot of the Red Sea, inhabited by a few Arabs and
+many snakes, his guide took him to the top of a hill and pointed out
+the race course.
+
+"But what do you want with a race course?" demanded the great
+proconsul. "I didn't suppose that there was a four-footed animal on the
+island."
+
+The guide reluctantly admitted that, though they had no horses on the
+island at the moment, if some were to come, why, there was the race
+course ready for them. Though I don't recall having seen more than a
+dozen horses in Borneo, the British have been true to their traditions
+by building two race courses: one at Sandakan and one at Jesselton. On
+the latter is run annually the North Borneo Derby. It is the most
+brilliant sporting and social event of the year, the Europeans flocking
+into Jesselton from the little trading stations along the coast and
+from the lonely plantations in the interior just as their friends back
+in England flock to Goodwood and Newmarket and Epsom. The Derby is
+always followed by the Hunt Ball. In spite of the fact that there are
+at least twenty men to every woman this is always a tremendous success.
+It usually ends in everyone getting gloriously drunk.
+
+Almost the only other form of entertainment is provided by a company of
+Malay players which makes periodical visits to Sandakan and Jesselton.
+Though the actors speak only Malay, this does not deter them from
+including a number of Shakesperian plays in their repertoire (imagine
+Macbeth being played by a company of piratical-looking Malays in a nipa
+hut on the shores of the Sulu Sea!) but they attain their greatest
+heights in _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_. There are no programmes,
+but, in order that the audience may not be left in doubt as to the
+identity of the players, the manager introduces the members of his
+company one by one. "This is Ali Baba," he announces, leading a fat and
+greasy Oriental to the footlights. "This is Fatimah." "These are the
+Forty Thieves." When the latter announcement is made four actors stalk
+ten times across the stage in na�ve simulation of the specified number.
+After the thieves have concealed themselves behind pasteboard
+silhouettes of jars, Ali Baba's wife waddles on the stage bearing a
+Standard Oil tin on her shoulder and with a dipper proceeds to ladle a
+few drops of cocoanut oil on the head of each of the robbers. While she
+is being introduced one of the thieves seizes the opportunity to take a
+few whiffs from a cigarette, the smoke being plainly visible to the
+audience. Another, wearying of his cramped position, incautiously shows
+his head, whereupon Mrs. Ali Baba raps it sharply with her dipper,
+eliciting from the actor an exclamation not in his lines. During the
+intermissions the clown who accompanies the troupe convulses the
+audience with side-splitting imitations of the pompous and frigid
+Governor, who, as someone unkindly remarked, "must have been born in an
+ice-chest," and of the bemoustached and bemonocled officer who commands
+the constabulary, locally referred to as the Galloping Major. Compared
+with the antics of these Malay comedians, the efforts of our own
+professional laugh-makers seem dull and forced. Until you have seen
+them you have never really laughed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His Highness Haji Mohamed Jamalulhiram, Sultan of Sulu, was temporarily
+sojourning in Sandakan when we were there, having come across from his
+capital of Jolo for the purpose of collecting the monthly subsidy of
+five hundred pesos paid him by the British North Borneo Company for
+certain territorial concessions. The company would have sent the money
+to Jolo, of course, but the Sultan preferred to come to Sandakan to
+collect it; there are better facilities for gambling there.
+
+Because I was curious to see the picturesque personage around whom
+George Ade wrote his famous opera, _The Sultan of Sulu_, and because
+the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow had read in a Sunday supplement
+that he made it a practise to present those American women whom he met
+with pearls of great price, upon our arrival at Sandakan I invited the
+Sultan to dinner aboard the _Negros_. When I called on him at his hotel
+to extend the invitation, I found him clad in a very soiled pink
+kimono, a pair of red velvet slippers, and a smile made somewhat gory
+by the betel-nut he had been chewing, but when he came aboard the
+_Negros_ that evening he wore a red fez and irreproachable dinner
+clothes of white linen. As the crew of the cutter was entirely composed
+of Tagalogs and Visayans, from the northern Philippines, who, being
+Christians, regard the Mohammedan Moro with contempt, not unmixed with
+fear, when I called for side-boys to line the starboard rail when his
+Highness came aboard, there were distinctly mutinous mutterings.
+Captain Galvez tactfully settled the matter, however, by explaining to
+the crew that the Sultan was, after all, an American subject, which
+seemed to mollify, even if it did not entirely satisfy them. The
+armament of the _Negros_ had been removed after the armistice, so that
+we were without anything in the nature of a saluting cannon, but, as we
+wished to observe all the formalities of naval etiquette, the Doctor
+and Hawkinson volunteered to fire a royal salute with their automatic
+pistols as the Sultan came over the side. That, in their enthusiasm,
+they lost count and gave him about double the number of "guns"
+prescribed for the President of the United States caused Haji Mohamed
+no embarrassment; on the contrary, it seemed to please him immensely.
+(Donald Thompson, who was my photographer in Belgium during the early
+days of the war, always made it a point to address every officer he met
+as "General." He explained that it never did any harm and that it
+always put the officer in good humor.)
+
+When the cocktails were served the Sultan gravely explained through the
+interpreter that, being a devout Mohammedan and a Haji, he never
+permitted alcohol to pass his lips, an assertion which he promptly
+proceeded to prove by taking four Martinis in rapid succession. Now
+the chef of the _Negros_ possessed the faculty of camouflaging his
+dishes so successfully that neither by taste, looks nor smell could one
+tell with certainty what one was eating. So, when the meat, smothered
+in thick brown gravy, was passed to the Sultan, his Highness, who, like
+all True Believers, abhors pork, regarded it dubiously. "Pig?" he
+demanded of the steward. "No, sare," was the frightened answer. "Cow."
+
+Over the coffee and cigarettes the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+tactfully led the conversation around to the subject of pearls,
+whereupon the Sultan thrust his hand into his pocket and produced a
+round pink box, evidently originally intended for pills. Removing the
+lid, he displayed, imbedded in cotton, half a dozen pearls of a size
+and quality such as one seldom sees outside the window of a Fifth
+Avenue jeweler. I could see that the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+were mentally debating as to whether they would have them set in
+brooches or rings. But when they had been passed from hand to hand,
+accompanied by the customary exclamations of envy and admiration, back
+they went into the royal pocket again. "And to think," one of the party
+remarked afterward, "that we wasted two bottles of perfectly good gin
+and a bottle of vermouth on him!"
+
+It was after midnight when our guest took his departure, the ship's
+orchestra playing him over the side with a selection from _The Sultan
+of Sulu_, which, in view of my ignorance as to whether Sulu possessed
+a national anthem, seemed highly appropriate to the occasion. As the
+launch bearing the Sultan shot shoreward Hawkinson set off a couple of
+magnesium flares, which he had brought along for the purpose of taking
+pictures at night, making the whole harbor of Sandakan as bright as
+day. I heard afterward that the Sultan remarked that we were the only
+visitors since the Taft party who really appreciated his importance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two hours steam off the towering promontory which guards the entrance
+to Sandakan harbor lies Baguian, a sandy islet covered with
+cocoanut-palms, which is so small that it is not shown on ordinary
+maps. Though the island is, for some unexplained reason, under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, it is a part of the
+Sulu Archipelago and belongs to the United States. Baguian is famed
+throughout those seas as a rookery for the giant tortoise--_testudo
+elephantopus_. Toward nightfall the mammoth chelonians--some of them
+weigh upward of half a ton--come ashore in great numbers to lay their
+eggs in nests made in the edge of the jungle which fringes the beach,
+the old Chinaman and his two assistants, who are the only inhabitants
+of the island, frequently collecting as many as four thousand eggs in a
+single morning. The eggs, which in size and color exactly resemble
+ping-pong balls and are almost as unbreakable, are collected once a
+fortnight by a junk which takes them to China, where they are
+considered great delicacies and command high prices. As we had brought
+with us a supply of magnesium flares for night photography, we decided
+to take the camera ashore and attempt to obtain pictures of the turtles
+on their nests.
+
+As we were going ashore in the gig we caught sight of a huge bull, as
+large as a hogshead, which was floating on the surface. Ordering the
+sailors to row quietly, we succeeded in getting within a hundred yards
+before I let go with my .405, the soft-nosed bullet tearing a great
+hole in the turtle's neck and dyeing the water scarlet. Almost before
+the sound of the shot had died away one of the Filipino boat's crew
+went overboard with a rope, which he attempted to attach to the monster
+before it could sink to the bottom, but the turtle, though desperately
+wounded, was still very much alive, giving the sailor a blow on his
+head with its flapper which all but knocked him senseless. By the time
+we had hauled the man into the boat the turtle had disappeared into the
+depths.
+
+Waiting until darkness had fallen, we sent parties of sailors, armed
+with electric torches, along the beach in both directions with orders
+to follow the tracks made by the turtles in crossing the sand, and to
+notify us by firing a revolver when they located one. We did not have
+long to wait before we heard the signal agreed upon, and, picking up
+the heavy camera, we plunged across the sands to where the sailors were
+awaiting us in the edge of the bush. While the bluejackets cut off the
+retreat of the hissing, snapping monster, Hawkinson set up his camera
+and, when all was ready, some one touched off a flare, illuminating
+the beach and jungle as though the search-light of a warship had been
+turned upon them. In this manner we obtained a series of
+motion-pictures which are, I believe, from the zoological standpoint,
+unique. Before leaving the island we killed two tortoises for food for
+the crew--enough to keep them in turtle soup for a month. The larger,
+which I shot with a revolver, weighed slightly over five hundred pounds
+and lived for several days with three .45 caliber bullets in its
+brain-pan. Everything considered, it was a very interesting expedition.
+The only person who did not enjoy it was the old Chinese who held the
+concession for collecting the turtle-eggs. Instead of recognizing the
+great value of the service we were rendering to science, he acted as
+though we were robbing his hen-roost. He had a sordid mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"WHERE THERE AIN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS"
+
+
+Until I went to British North Borneo I had considered the British the
+best colonial administrators in the world. And, generally speaking, I
+hold to that opinion. But what I saw and heard in that remote and
+neglected corner of the Empire disclosed a state of affairs which I had
+not dreamed could exist in any land over which flies the British flag.
+It was not the iniquitous character of the administration which
+surprised me, for I had seen the effects of bad colonial administration
+in other distant lands--in Mozambique, for example, and in Germany's
+former African possessions--but rather that such an administration
+should be carried on by Englishmen, by Anglo-Saxons. Were you to read
+in your morning paper that an ignorant alien had been arrested for
+brutally mistreating one of his children you would not be particularly
+surprised, because that is the sort of thing that might be expected
+from such a man. But were you to read that a neighbor, a man who went
+to the same church and belonged to the same clubs, whom you had known
+and respected all your life, had been arrested for mistreating one of
+_his_ children, you would be shocked and horrified.
+
+Save on the charge of indifference and neglect, neither the British
+people nor the British government can be held responsible for the
+conditions existing in North Borneo, for strictly speaking, the country
+is not a British colony, but merely a British protectorate, being owned
+and administered by a private trading corporation, the British North
+Borneo Company, which operates under a royal charter. But the idea of
+turning over a great block of territory, with its inhabitants, to a
+corporation whose sole aim is to earn dividends for its absentee
+stockholders, is in itself abhorrent to most Americans. What would we
+say, I ask you, if Porto Rico, which is only one-tenth the size of
+North Borneo, were to be handed over, lock, stock and barrel, to the
+Standard Oil Company, with full authorization for that company to make
+its own laws, establish its own courts, appoint its own officials,
+maintain its own army, and to wield the power of life and death over
+the natives? And, conceiving such a condition, what would we say if the
+Standard Oil Company, in order to swell its revenues, not only
+permitted but officially encouraged opium smoking and gambling; if, in
+order to obtain labor for its plantations, it imported large numbers of
+ignorant blacks from Haiti and permitted the planters to hold those
+laborers, through indenture and indebtedness, in a form of servitude
+not far removed from slavery; if it authorized the punishment of
+recalcitrant laborers by flogging with the cat-o'nine-tails; if it
+denied to the natives as well as to the imported laborers a system of
+public education or a public health service or trial by jury; and
+finally, if, in the event of insurrection, it permitted its soldiery,
+largely recruited from savage tribes, to decapitate their prisoners and
+to bring their ghastly trophies into the capital and pile them in a
+pyramid in the principal plaza? Yet that would be a fairly close
+parallel to what the chartered company is doing in British North
+Borneo. As I have already remarked, North Borneo is a British
+protectorate. And it is in more urgent need of protection from those
+who are exploiting it than any country I know. But the voices of the
+natives are very weak and Westminster is far away.
+
+With the exception of Rhodesia, and of certain territories in
+Portuguese Africa, North Borneo is the sole remaining region in the
+world which is owned and administered by that political anachronism, a
+chartered company. It was in the age of Elizabeth that the chartered
+company, in the modern sense of the term, had its rise. The discovery
+of the New World and the opening out of fresh trading routes to the
+Indies gave a tremendous impetus to shipping, commercial and industrial
+enterprises throughout western Europe and it was in order to encourage
+these enterprises that the British, Dutch and French governments
+granted charters to various trading associations. It was the Russia
+Company, for example, which received its first charter in 1554, which
+first brought England into intercourse with an empire then unknown. The
+Turkey Company--later known as the Levant Company--long maintained
+British prestige in the Ottoman Empire and even paid the expenses of
+the embassies sent out by the British Government to the Sublime Porte.
+The Hudson's Bay Company, which still exists as a purely commercial
+concern, was for nearly two centuries the undisputed ruler of western
+Canada. The extraordinary and picturesque career of the East India
+Company is too well known to require comment here. In fact, most of the
+thirteen British colonies in North America were in their inception
+chartered companies very much in the modern acceptation of the term.
+But, though these companies contributed in no small degree to the
+commercial progress of the states from which they held their charters,
+though they gave colonies to the mother countries and an impetus to the
+development of their fleets, they were all too often characterized by
+misgovernment, incompetence, injustice and cruelty in their dealings
+with the natives. Moreover, they were monopolies, and therefore,
+obnoxious, and almost without exception the colonies they founded
+became prosperous and well-governed only when they had escaped from
+their yoke. The existence of such companies today is justified--if at
+all--only by certain political and economic reasons. It may be
+desirable for a government to occupy a certain territory, but political
+exigencies at home may not permit it to incur the expense, or
+international relations may make such an adventure inexpedient at the
+time. In such circumstances, the formation of a chartered company to
+take over the desired territory may be the easiest way out of the
+difficulty. But it has been demonstrated again and again that a
+chartered company can never be anything but a transition stage of
+colonization and that sooner or later the home government must take
+over its powers and privileges.
+
+The story of the rise of the British North Borneo Company provides an
+illuminating insight into the methods by which that Empire On Which the
+Sun Never Sets has acquired many of its far-flung possessions. Though
+the British had established trading posts in northern Borneo as early
+as 1759, and had obtained the cession of the whole northeastern
+promontory from the Sultan of Sulu, who was its suzerain, the hostility
+of the natives, who resented their transfer to alien rule, was so
+pronounced that the treaty soon became virtually a dead letter and by
+the end of the century British influence in Borneo was to all intents
+and purposes at an end. Nor was it resumed until 1838, when an
+adventurous Englishman, James Brooke, landed at Kuching and eventually
+made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak. In 1848 the island of
+Labuan, off the northwestern coast of Borneo, was occupied by the
+British as a crown colony and some years later the Labuan Trading
+Company established a trading post at Sandakan. In an attempt to open
+up the country and to start plantations the company imported a
+considerable number of Chinese laborers, but it did not prosper and its
+financial affairs steadily went from bad to worse. As long as the
+company kept its representative in Sandakan supplied with funds he
+managed to maintain a certain authority among the natives. But one day
+he received a letter bearing the London postmark from the company's
+chairman. It read:
+
+    "Sir: We are sorry to inform you that we cannot send you further
+    funds, but you should not let this prevent you from keeping up
+    your dignity."
+
+To which the agent replied:
+
+    "Sir: I have on a pair of trousers and a flannel shirt--all I
+    possess in the world. I think my dignity is about played out."
+
+Another syndicate for the exploitation of North Borneo was formed in
+England in 1878, however, to which the Sultan of Sulu was induced to
+transfer all his rights in that region, of which he had been from time
+immemorial the overlord. Four years later this syndicate, now known as
+the British North Borneo Company, took over all the sovereign and
+diplomatic rights ceded by the original grants and proceeded to
+organize and administer the territory. In 1886 North Borneo was made a
+British protectorate, but its administration remained entirely in the
+hands of the company, the Crown reserving only control of its foreign
+relations, though it was also agreed that governors appointed by the
+company should receive the formal sanction of the British Colonial
+Secretary. To quote the chairman of the board of directors: "We are not
+a trading company. We are a government, an administration. The
+Colonial Office leaves us alone as long as we behave ourselves."
+
+The government is vested primarily in a board of directors who sit in
+London and few of whom have ever set foot in the country which they
+rule. The supreme authority in Borneo is the governor, under whom are
+the residents of the three chief districts, who occupy positions
+analogous to that of collector or magistrate. The six less important
+districts are administered by district magistrates, who also collect
+the taxes. Though there is a council, upon which the principal heads of
+departments and one unofficial member have seats, it meets irregularly
+and its functions are largely ornamental, the governor exercising
+virtually autocratic power. Unfortunately, there is no imperial
+official, as in Rhodesia, to supervise the company's activities. As was
+the case with the East India Company, the minor posts in the North
+Borneo service are filled by cadets nominated by the board of
+directors, a system which provides a considerable number of positions
+for younger sons, poor relations and titled ne'er-do-wells. Most of the
+officials go out to Borneo as cadets, serve a long and arduous
+apprenticeship in one of the most trying climates in the world, are
+miserably paid (I knew one official who held five posts at the same
+time, including those of assistant magistrate and assistant protector
+of labor and who received for his services the equivalent of $100. a
+month), and eventually retire, broken in health, on a pension which
+permits them to live in a Bloomsbury lodging-house, to ride on a
+tuppenny bus, and to occasionally visit the cinema.
+
+There is no trial by jury in North Borneo, all cases being decided by
+the magistrates, who are appointed by the company and who must be
+qualified barristers. Nor are there mixed courts, as in Egypt and other
+Oriental countries, though in the more important cases five or six
+assessors, either native or Chinese, according to the nationality of
+those involved, are permitted to listen to the evidence and to submit
+recommendations, which the magistrate may follow or not, as he sees
+fit. Neither is there a court of appeal, the only recourse from the
+decision of a magistrate being an appeal to the governor, whose
+decision is final.
+
+The country is policed by a force of constabulary numbering some six
+hundred men, comprising Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mohammedans, Malays,
+and Dyaks, officered by a handful of Europeans. Curiously enough, the
+tall, dignified, deeply religious Sikhs and the little, nervous,
+high-strung Dyak pagans get on very well together, eating, sleeping and
+drilling in perfect harmony. Though the Dyak members of the
+constabulary are recruited from the wild tribes of the interior, most
+of them having indulged in the national pastime of head-hunting until
+they donned the company's uniform, they make excellent soldiers,
+courageous, untiring, and remarkably loyal. Upon King Edward's
+accession to the throne a small contingent of Dyak police was sent to
+England to march in the coronation procession. When, owing to the
+serious illness of the king, the coronation was indefinitely postponed
+and it was proposed to send the Dyaks home, the little brown fighters
+stubbornly refused to go, asserting that they would not dare to show
+their faces in Borneo without having seen the king. They did not wish
+to put the company to any expense, they explained, so they would give
+up their uniforms and live in the woods on what they could pick up if
+they were permitted to remain until they could see their ruler.
+
+Though the Dyaks make excellent soldiers, as I have said, they are
+always savages at heart. In fact, when they are used in operations
+against rebellious natives, their officers permit and sometimes
+actively encourage their relapse into the barbarous custom of taking
+heads. An official who was stationed in Sandakan during the
+insurrection of 1908 told me that for days the police came swaggering
+into town with dripping heads hanging from their belts and that they
+piled these grisly trophies in a pyramid eight feet high on the parade
+ground in front of the government buildings. Imagine, if you please,
+the storm of indignation and disgust which would have swept the United
+States had American officers permitted the Maccabebe Scouts, who served
+with our troops against the insurgents in the Aguinaldo insurrection,
+to decapitate their Filipino prisoners and to bring the heads into
+Manila and pile them in a pyramid on the Luneta!
+
+Though the term Dyak is often carelessly applied to all the natives of
+North Borneo, as a matter of fact the Dyaks form only a small minority
+of the population, the bulk of the inhabitants being Bajows, Dusuns and
+Muruts. The Bajows, who are Mohammedans and first cousins of the Moros
+of the southern Philippines, are found mainly along the east coast of
+Borneo. They are a dark-skinned, wild, sea-gipsy race, rovers,
+smugglers and river thieves. Though, thanks to the stern measures
+adopted by the British and the Americans, they no longer indulge in
+piracy, which was long their favorite occupation, they still find
+profit and excitement in running arms and opium across the Sulu Sea to
+the Moro Islands, in attacking lonely light-houses, or in looting
+stranded merchantmen. It is the last coast in the world that I would
+choose to be shipwrecked on.
+
+The Dusuns and the Muruts, who are generally found in widely scattered
+villages in the jungles of the interior, represent a very low stage of
+civilization, being unspeakably filthy in their habits and frequently
+becoming disgustingly intoxicated on a liquor of their own
+manufacture--the Bornean equivalent of home brew. A Murut or Dusun
+village usually consists of a single long hut divided into a great
+number of small rooms, one for each family--a jungle apartment house,
+as it were. These rooms open out into a common gallery or verandah
+along which the heads taken by the warriors of the tribe are festooned.
+It is as though the tenants of a New York apartment house had the heads
+of the landlord and the rent-collector and the janitor swinging over
+the front entrance. I should add, perhaps, that the practise of
+head-hunting of which I shall speak at greater length when we reach
+Dutch Borneo is fostered and encouraged by the unmarried women, for
+every self-respecting Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall
+establish his social position in the tribe by acquiring a respectable
+number of heads, just as an American girl insists that the man she
+marries must provide her with a solitaire, a flat and a flivver.
+
+Though the chartered company has ruled in North Borneo for more than
+forty years, it has only nibbled at the edges of the country. The
+interior is still uncivilized and largely unexplored, the home of
+savage animals and still more savage men. Though a railway has been
+pushed up-country from Jesselton for something over a hundred miles,
+both road and rolling-stock leave much to be desired, the little
+tin-pot locomotives not infrequently leaving the rails altogether and
+landing in the river. Some years ago an attempt was made to build a
+highway across the protectorate, from coast to coast, but after sixty
+miles had been completed the project was abandoned. It was known as the
+Sketchley Road and ran through a rank and miasmatic jungle, it being
+said that every hundred yards of construction cost the life of a
+Chinese laborer and that those who were left died at the end. Today it
+is only a memory, having long since been swallowed up by the
+fast-growing vegetation.
+
+[Illustration: Dusun women
+
+The Dusuns, who are found in the jungles of the interior. represent a
+very low state of civilization]
+
+[Illustration: Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo
+
+Every Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall establish his social
+position by acquiring a few heads]
+
+The company has taken no steps toward establishing a system of public
+schools, as we have done in the Philippines, for it holds to the
+outworn theory that, so far as the natives are concerned, a little
+learning is a dangerous thing. Perhaps the company is right. Were the
+natives to acquire a little learning it might prove dangerous--for the
+company. There are a few schools in North Borneo, but they are
+maintained by the Protestant and Roman Catholic missions and are
+attended mainly by Chinese. Whether they have proved as potent an
+influence in the propagation of the Christian faith as their founders
+anticipated is open to doubt. When I was in Sandakan I made some
+purchases in the bazaars from a Chinese lad who addressed me quite
+fluently in my own tongue.
+
+"How does it happen that you speak such good English?" I asked him.
+
+"Go to school," he grunted, none too amiably.
+
+"Where? To a public school?"
+
+"No public school. Church school."
+
+"So you're a good Christian now, I suppose?" I remarked.
+
+"To hell with Clistianity," he retorted. "Me go to school to learn
+English."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The chartered company maintains no public health service, nor, so far
+as I was able to discover, has it adopted the most rudimentary sanitary
+or quarantine precautions. It is, indeed, so notoriously lax in this
+respect that when we touched at ports in Dutch Borneo, the Celebes, and
+Java, the mere fact that we had come from British North Borneo caused
+the health officers to view us with grave suspicion. When we were in
+Sandakan the town was undergoing a periodic visitation of that
+deadliest and most terrifying of all Oriental diseases, bubonic plague.
+As it is transmitted by the fleas on plague-infested rats, we took the
+precaution, when we went ashore, of wearing boots and breeches or of
+tying the bottoms of our trousers about our ankles with string, so as
+to prevent the fleas from biting us. It being necessary to go alongside
+the coal-wharves in order to replenish the bunkers of the _Negros_,
+orders were given that rat-guards--circular pieces of tin about the
+size of a barrel-top--should be fixed to our hawsers, thus making it
+difficult, if not impossible, for rats to invade the ship by that
+route, while sailors armed with clubs were posted along the landward
+rail to despatch any rodents that might succeed in gaining the deck. As
+the native and Chinese laborers had fled in terror from the wharves,
+where the dreaded disease had first manifested itself through the
+deaths of several stevedores, the authorities offered their freedom to
+those prisoners in the local jail who would volunteer for the hazardous
+work of cleaning up the wharves and warehouses and sprinkling them with
+petroleum. Six prisoners volunteered, but they might better have served
+out their terms, for the next day four of them were dead. Though the
+stout Cockney, harbormaster, known as "Pinkie" because of his rosy
+complexion, was pallid with fear, the other European residents of
+Sandakan seemed utterly indifferent to the danger to which they were
+exposed. But life in a land like Borneo breeds fatalism. As an
+official remarked, with a shrug of his shoulders, "After you have spent
+a few years out here you don't much care how you die, or how soon.
+Plague is as convenient a way of going out as any other."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The greatest obstacle to the successful development of Borneo's
+enormous natural resources is the labor problem. The truth of the
+matter is that life in these tropical islands is too easy for the
+natives' own good. In a land where a man has no need for clothing,
+being, indeed, more comfortable without it; where he can pick his food
+from the trees or catch it with small effort in the sea; and where
+bamboos and nipa are all the materials required for a perfectly
+satisfactory dwelling, there is no incentive for work. It being
+impossible, therefore, to depend on native labor, the company has been
+forced to import large numbers of coolies from China. These coolies,
+whom the labor agents attract with promises of high wages, a delightful
+climate, unlimited opium, and other things dear to the Chinese heart,
+are employed under an indenture system, the duration of their contracts
+being limited by law to three hundred days. That sounds, on the face of
+it, like a safeguard against peonage. The trouble is, however, that it
+is easily circumvented. Here is the way it works in practise. Shortly
+after the laborer reaches the plantation where he is to be employed he
+is given an advance on his pay, frequently amounting to thirty
+Singapore dollars, which he is encouraged to dissipate in the opium
+dens and gambling houses maintained on the plantation. Any one who has
+any knowledge of the Chinese coolie will realize how temperamentally
+incapable he is of resistance where opium and gambling are concerned.
+This pernicious system of advances has the effect, as it is intended to
+have, of chaining the laborer to the plantation by debt. For the first
+advance is usually followed by a second, and sometimes by a third, and
+to this debit column are added the charges made for food, for medical
+attendance, for opium, and for purchases made at the plantation store,
+so that, upon the expiration of his three-hundred-day contract, the
+laborer almost invariably owes his employer a debt which he is quite
+unable to pay. As he cannot obtain employment elsewhere in the colony
+under these conditions, he is faced with the alternative of being
+shipped back to China a pauper or of signing another contract. There is
+no breaking of the law by the planter, you see: the laborer is
+perfectly free to leave when his contract has expired--as free as any
+man can be who is absolutely penniless.
+
+Let me quote from a letter from the former Assistant Protector of Labor
+of British North Borneo. From the very nature of his duties he knows
+whereof he speaks:
+
+"One sees a large number of healthy, able-bodied Chinese coming into
+the country as laborers and, at the end of a year or two, instead of
+going back to their homes with money in their pockets and healthy with
+outdoor work, they go back as broken beggars, pitifully saturated with
+disease or confirmed drug fiends. It is really sad to see some of them
+return home after a struggle of four or five years to save money--a
+struggle not only against themselves and their acquired opium habit,
+but against the numerous parasites which always fatten on laborers."
+
+During the term of his indenture the laborer is to all intents and
+purposes a prisoner, his only appeal against any injustices practised
+on the plantation being to the Protector of Labor, who is supposed to
+visit each estate once a month. In theory this system is admirable, but
+in practise it does not afford the laborer the protection which the law
+intends, for it frequently happens that laborers who have been brutally
+mistreated have been coerced into silence by the plantation managers by
+threats of what will happen to them if they dare to lay a complaint
+before the inspecting official. Moreover, many of the plantations are
+so remotely situated, so far removed from civilization, that a manager
+can treat his laborers as he pleases with little fear of detection or
+punishment. If negroes are held in peonage, flogged, and even murdered
+on plantations in our own South, within rifle-shot of courthouses and
+sheriffs' offices and churches, is it to be wondered at that similar
+conditions can and do exist in the world-distant jungles of Borneo.
+Mind you, I do not say that such conditions exist on all or most of the
+estates in British North Borneo, but I have the best of reasons for
+believing that they exist on some of them.
+
+One of the most serious defects in the labor laws of North Borneo is
+that trivial actions or omissions on the part of ignorant coolies, such
+as misconduct, neglect of work, or absence from the estate without
+leave, are punishable by imprisonment. As a result, the illiterate and
+incoherent coolie does not know where he stands. He can never be sure
+that some trivial action on his part, no matter how innocent his
+intent, will not bring him within reach of the criminal law. He is,
+moreover, denied the right of trial by jury, his case usually being
+decided off-hand by a bored and unsympathetic magistrate who has no
+knowledge of the defendant's tongue. Moreover, the company's laws
+permit the punishment of unruly laborers by flogging, with a maximum of
+twelve lashes. In view of the remoteness of most of the estates, it is
+scarcely necessary for me to point out that this is a form of
+punishment open to the gravest abuse.
+
+Although, as I have shown, the British North Borneo Company permits the
+existence of a system not far removed from slavery, a far more serious
+indictment of the company's administration lies in its systematic
+debauchery of its laborers by encouraging them to indulge in opium
+smoking and gambling for the purpose of swelling its revenues. Nor does
+its heartless exploitation of the laborer end there, for when a coolie
+has dissipated all his earnings in the opium dens and gaming houses,
+which are run under government concessions, he can usually realize a
+little more money for the same purpose by pawning his few poor
+belongings at one of the pawnshops controlled by the company. In other
+words, from the day a laborer sets foot in Borneo until the day he
+departs, he is systematically separated from his earnings, which are
+diverted, through the channels provided by the opium dens, the gambling
+houses and the pawn shops, into a stream which eventually empties into
+the company's coffers. For, mark you, the chartered company did not go
+to North Borneo from any altruistic motives. It is animated by no
+desire to ameliorate the condition of the natives or to increase the
+well-being and happiness of its imported laborers. It is there with one
+object in view, and one alone--to pay dividends to its stockholders. As
+the chairman of the company said at a recent North Borneo dinner in
+London: "They have acted the parts of Empire makers and yet they are
+filling their own pockets, for the golden rain is beginning to fall."
+
+Let me show you where this "golden rain" comes from. The two principal
+sources of revenue of the British North Borneo Company are opium and
+gambling. Suppose that you come with me for a stroll down the Jalan
+Tiga in Sandakan and see the gaming houses and the opium dens for
+yourself. Jalan Tiga (literally "Number Two Street") is a moderately
+broad thoroughfare, perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, which is
+solidly lined on both sides with gambling houses, or, as they are
+called in Borneo, gambling farms, the term being due to the fact that
+the gambling privileges are farmed out by the government. There may be
+wickeder streets somewhere in the East than the Jalan Tiga, but I do
+not recall having seen them. It, and the thoroughfares immediately
+adjoining, in which are situated the opium dens and the houses of
+prostitution, form a district which represents the very quintessence of
+Oriental vice. Over virtually every door are signs in Chinese, Malay
+and English announcing that games of chance are played within. Such
+resorts are not camouflaged in Borneo. They are as open as a railway
+station or a public library in the United States. From afternoon until
+sunrise these resorts are crowded to the doors with half-naked,
+perspiring humanity, brown skins and yellow being in about equal
+proportions, for the Malay is as inveterate a gambler as the Chinese.
+The downstairs rooms, which are frequented by the lower classes, are
+thickly sprinkled with low tables covered with mats divided into four
+sections, each of which bears a number. A dice under a square brass cup
+is shaken on the table and the cup slowly raised. Those players who
+have been lucky enough to place their bets on the square whose number
+corresponds to the number uppermost on the dice have their money
+doubled, the others see their earnings swept into the lap of the
+croupier, a fat and greasy Chinaman, usually stripped to the waist. In
+this system the chances against the player are enormous. The play is
+very rapid, the dice being shaken, the cup raised, the winners paid
+and the wagers of the losers raked in too quickly for the untrained eye
+to follow. The players seldom quit as long as they have any money left
+to wager, but as soon as one drops out there is another ready to take
+his place. The upstairs rooms, which are usually handsomely decorated
+and luxuriously furnished, are reserved for the wealthier patrons, it
+being by no means uncommon for a player to lose several thousand
+dollars in a single night. Here cards are generally used instead of
+dice to separate the players from their money, fan-tan being the
+favorite game. I was told that the monthly subsidy paid by the British
+North Borneo Company to the Sultan of Sulu, who comes over from Jolo
+with great regularity to collect it, never leaves the country, as he
+invariably loses it over a Sandakan gaming-table. Gambling is a
+government monopoly in Borneo, the company farming out the privilege
+each year to the highest bidder. In 1919 the gambling rights for the
+entire protectorate were sold for approximately $144,000.
+
+Crossing the Jalan Tiga at right angles and running from the heart of
+the town down to the edge of the harbor is the street of the
+prostitutes. It is easy to recognize the houses of ill-fame by their
+scarlet blinds and by the scarlet numbers over their doors. Should you
+stroll down the street during the day you will find the sullen-eyed
+inmates seated in the doorways, brushing their long and lustrous
+blue-black hair or painting their faces in white and vermillion
+preparatory to the evening's entertainment. Probably four-fifths of
+the _filles de joie_ in Sandakan are Chinese, the others are products
+of Nippon--quaint, dainty, doll-like little women with faces so heavily
+enameled that they would be cracked by a smile. When a Chinese merchant
+wants a wife he usually visits a house of prostitution, selects one of
+the inmates, drives a hard bargain with the hard-eyed mistress of the
+establishment, and, the transaction concluded, brusquely tells the girl
+to pack her belongings and accompany him to his home. I might add that
+the girls thus chosen invariably make good wives and remain faithful to
+their husbands.
+
+[Illustration: The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan
+
+A moderately broad thoroughfare, lined on both sides with
+gambling-houses]
+
+[Illustration: A patron of a Sandakan opium farm
+
+Each smoker is provided with a lamp for heating his "pill" and a wooden
+head-rest]
+
+Running parallel to the Jalan Tiga is another street--I do not recall
+its name--in which are the opium farms. Far from being veiled in
+secrecy, they are operated as openly as American soda fountains. A
+typical opium farm consists of a two-story wooden house, one of a long
+row of similar buildings, containing a number of small, ill-lighted
+rooms which reek with the sickly sweet fumes of the drug. The furniture
+consists of a number of so-called beds, which in reality are wooden
+platforms or tables, their tops, which are raised about three feet
+above the floor, providing space on which two smokers can recline. Each
+smoker is provided with a block of wood which serves as a pillow and a
+small lamp for heating his "pill." The number of patrons who may be
+accommodated at one time is prescribed by law and rigidly enforced,
+signs denoting the authorized capacity of the house being posted at the
+door, like the signs in elevators and on ferry-boats in America. For
+example, the door of one farm that I visited bore the notice "Only
+fifteen beds. Room for thirty persons." Over-crowding is forbidden by
+the authorities, not, as in the case of elevators and ferry-boats, for
+reasons of safety, but for financial reasons. The more opium farms
+there are, you see, the greater the company's profits.
+
+The opium is purchased by the chartered company from the Government of
+the Straits Settlements for $1.20 a tael (about one-tenth of a pound
+troy) and, after being adulterated with various substances, is sold to
+the opium farmers, nearly all of whom are Chinese, for $8.50 a tael,
+the company thus making a very comfortable margin of profit on the
+transaction. The opium farmers either keep opium dens themselves or
+sell the drug to anyone wishing to buy it, just as a tobacconist sells
+cigars and cigarettes. The sale of the opium privilege in Sandakan
+alone nets the government, so I was informed, something over $500,000
+annually.
+
+Now, iniquitous and deplorable as such a traffic is, the British North
+Borneo administration is not the only government engaged in the sale of
+opium. But it is the only government, so far as I am aware, which
+virtually forces the drug on its people by insisting that it shall be
+purchasable in localities which might otherwise escape its malign
+influence. A planter who, actuated either by moral scruples or by a
+desire to maintain the efficiency of his laborers, opposes the opening
+of an opium farm on his estate, might as well sell out and leave
+Borneo, for the company will promptly retaliate for such interference
+with its revenues by cutting off his supply of labor. It will defend
+its action by na�vely asserting that, as the coolies would contrive to
+obtain the drug any way, the planter, in refusing to permit the opening
+of an opium farm on his property, is guilty of conniving at the illegal
+use of the drug!
+
+The British North Borneo Company professes to find justification for
+engaging in the opium traffic by insisting that, as the Chinese will
+certainly obtain opium clandestinely if they cannot obtain it openly,
+it is better for everyone concerned that its sale and use should be
+kept under government control. The fact remains, however, that China,
+decadent though she may be and desperately in need of increased
+revenues, has succeeded, in spite of the powerful opposition of the
+British-owned Opium Ring, in putting an end to the traffic within her
+borders, while Siam, likewise under Oriental rule, is about to do the
+same. It is a curious commentary on European civilization that this
+vice, which the so-called "backward" races are vigorously attempting to
+stamp out, should be not only permitted but encouraged in a country
+over which flies the flag of England. Its effects on the population are
+summed up in this sentence from a letter written me by a former high
+official of the chartered company: "Fifty per cent of the thefts and
+robberies committed during the period that I was magistrate in that
+territory can be directly traced to opium and gambling."
+
+There is held each year, at one of the great London hotels, the North
+Borneo Dinner. It is one of the most brilliant affairs of the season.
+At the head of the long table, banked with flowers and gleaming with
+glass and silver, sits the chairman of the chartered company, flanked
+by cabinet ministers, archbishops, ambassadors, admirals, field
+marshals. The speakers work the audience into a fervor of patriotic
+pride by their sonorous word-pictures of England's services to humanity
+in bearing the white man's burden, and of the spread of enlightenment
+and progress under the Union Jack. But the heartiest applause
+invariably greets the announcement that the North Borneo Company has
+declared a dividend. Whence the money to pay the dividend was derived
+is tactfully left unsaid. The dinner always concludes with the singing
+of the anthem _Land of Hope and Glory_. Yet they say that the English
+have no sense of humor!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE EMERALDS OF WILHELMINA
+
+
+In Singapore stands one of the most significant statues in the world.
+From the centre of its sun-scorched Esplanade rises the bronze figure
+of a youthful, slender, clean-cut, keen-eyed man, clad in the
+high-collared coat and knee-breeches of a century ago, who, from his
+lofty pedestal, peers southward, beyond the shipping in the busy
+harbor, beyond the palm-fringed straits, toward those mysterious,
+alluring islands which ring the Java Sea. Though his name, Thomas
+Stamford Raffles, doubtless holds for you but scanty meaning, and
+though he died when only forty-five, his last years shadowed by the
+ingratitude of the country whose commercial supremacy in the East he
+had secured and to which he had offered a vast, new field for colonial
+expansion, he was one of the greatest architects of empire that ever
+lived. He combined the vision and administrative genius of Clive and
+Hastings with the audacity and energy of Hawkins and Drake. It was his
+dream, to use his own words, "to make Java the center of an Eastern
+insular empire" ruled "not only without fear but without reproach"; an
+empire to consist of that great archipelago--Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the
+Celebes, New Guinea, and the lesser islands--which sweeps southward
+and eastward from the Asian mainland to the edges of Australasia.
+Though this splendid colonial structure was erected according to the
+plans that Raffles drew, by curious circumstance the flag that flies
+over it today is not his flag, not the flag of England, for, instead of
+being governed from Westminster, as he had dreamed, it is governed from
+The Hague, the ruler of its fifty million brown inhabitants being the
+stout, rosy-cheeked young woman who dwells in the Palace of Het Loo.
+
+Though in area Queen Wilhelmina's colonial possessions are exceeded by
+those of Britain and France, she is the sovereign of the second largest
+colonial empire, in point of population, in the world. But, because it
+lies beyond the beaten paths of tourist travel, because it has been so
+little advertised by plagues and famines and rebellions, and because it
+has been so admirably and unobtrusively governed, it has largely
+escaped public attention--a fact, I imagine, with which the Dutch are
+not ill-pleased. Did _you_ realize, I wonder, that the Insulinde, as
+Netherlands India is sometimes called, is as large, or very nearly as
+large, as all that portion of the United States lying east of the
+Mississippi? Did you know that in the third largest island of the
+archipelago, Sumatra, the State of California could be set down and
+still leave a comfortable margin all around? Or that the fugitive from
+justice who turns the prow of his canoe westward from New Guinea must
+sail as far as from Vancouver to Yokohama before he finds himself
+beyond the shadow of the Dutch flag and the arm of Dutch law?
+
+Until the closing years of the sixteenth century, European trade with
+the Far East was an absolute monopoly in the hands of Spain and
+Portugal. Incredible as it may seem, the two Iberian nations alone
+possessed the secret of the routes to the East, which they guarded with
+jealous care. In 1492, Columbus, bearing a letter from the King of
+Spain to the Khan of Tartary, whose power and wealth had become
+legendary in Europe through the tales of Marco Polo and other overland
+travelers, sailed westward from Cadiz in search of Asia, discovering
+the islands which came to be known as the West Indies. Five years later
+a Portuguese sea-adventurer, Vasco da Gama, turned the prow of his
+caravel south from the mouth of the Tagus, skirted the coast of Africa,
+rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and dropped
+his anchor in the harbor of Calicut--the first European to reach the
+beckoning East by sea. For a quarter of a century the Portuguese were
+the only people in Europe who knew the way to the East, and their
+secret gave them a monopoly of the Eastern trade. Lisbon became the
+richest port of Europe. Portugal was mistress of the seas. But in 1519
+another Portuguese seafarer, Hernando de Maghallanes--we call him
+Ferdinand Magellan--who, resenting his treatment by the King of
+Portugal, had shifted his allegiance to Spain, sailed southwestward
+across the Atlantic, rounded the southern extremity of America by the
+straits which bear his name, crossed the unknown Pacific, and raised
+the flag of Spain over the islands which came in time to be called the
+Philippines. Spain had reached the Indies by sailing west, as Portugal
+had reached them by sailing east.
+
+Though the fabulous wealth of the lands thus discovered was discussed
+around every council table and camp-fire in Europe, the routes by which
+that wealth might be attained were guarded by Portugal and Spain as
+secrets of state. The charts showing the routes were not intrusted to
+the captains of vessels in the Eastern trade until the moment of
+departure, and they were taken up immediately upon their return; the
+silence of officers and crews was insured by every oath that the church
+could frame and every penalty that the state could devise. For more
+than three-quarters of a century, indeed, the two Iberian nations
+succeeded in keeping the secret of the sea roads to the East, its
+betrayal being punishable by death. In 1580, however, the English
+freebooter, Francis Drake, nicknamed "The Master Thief of the Unknown
+World," duplicated the voyage of Magellan's expedition of threescore
+years before, thus discovering the route to the Indies used by Spain.
+
+At this period the Dutch, "the waggoners of the sea," possessed, as
+middlemen, a large interest in the spice trade, for the Portuguese,
+having no direct access to the markets of northern Europe, had made a
+practise of sending their Eastern merchandise to the Netherlands in
+Dutch bottoms for distribution by way of the Rhine and the Scheldt. As
+a result, the enormous carrying trade of Holland was wholly dependent
+upon Lisbon. But when Spain unceremoniously annexed Portugal in 1580,
+the first act of Philip, upon becoming master of Lisbon, was to close
+the Tagus to the Dutch, his one-time subjects, who had revolted eight
+years before. As a result of the revenge thus taken by the Spanish
+tyrant, the Dutch were faced by the necessity of themselves going in
+quest of the Indies if their flag was not to disappear from the seas.
+Their opportunity came a dozen years later when a venturesome
+Hollander, Cornelius Houtman, who was risking imprisonment and even
+death by trading surreptitiously in the forbidden city on the Tagus,
+succeeded in obtaining through bribery a copy of one of the secret
+charts. The Spanish authorities scarcely could have been aware that he
+had learned a secret of such immense importance, or his silence would
+have been insured by the headsman. As it was, he was thrown into prison
+for illegal trading, where he was held for heavy ransom. But he managed
+to get word to Amsterdam of the priceless information which had come
+into his possession, whereupon the merchants of that city promptly
+formed a syndicate, subscribed the money for his ransom, and obtained
+his release. Thus it came about that shortly after his return to
+Holland there was organized the Company of Distant Lands, a title as
+vague, grandiose and alluring as the plans of those who founded it. In
+1595, then, nearly a century after da Gama had shown the way, four
+caravels under the command of Houtman, the banner of the Netherlands
+flaunting from their towering sterns, sailed grandly out of the Texel,
+slipped past the white chalk cliffs of Dover, sped southward before the
+trades, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and laid their course across the
+Indian Ocean for the Spice Islands. When the adventurers returned, two
+years later, they brought back tales of islands richer than anything of
+which the Dutch burghers had ever dreamed, and produced cargoes of
+Eastern merchandise to back their stories up.
+
+The return of Houtman's expedition was the signal for a great outburst
+of commercial enterprise in the Low Countries, seekers after fortune or
+adventure flocking to the Indies as, centuries later, other
+fortune-seekers, other adventurers, flocked to the gold-diggings of the
+Sierras, the Yukon, and the Rand. On those distant seas, however, the
+adventurers were beyond the reach of any law, the same lawless
+conditions prevailing in the Indies at the beginning of the seventeenth
+century which characterized Californian life in the days of '49. The
+Dutch warred on the natives and on the Portuguese, and, when there was
+no one else to offer them resistance, they fought among themselves. By
+1602 conditions had become so intolerable that the government of
+Holland, in order to tranquillize the Indies, and to stabilize the
+spice market at home, decided to amalgamate the various trading
+enterprises into one great corporation, the Dutch East India Company,
+which was authorized to exercise the functions of government in those
+remote seas and to prosecute the war against Spain. When Philip shut
+the Dutch out of Lisbon, he made a formidable enemy for himself, for,
+though the burghers went to the East primarily in order to save their
+commerce from extinction, they were animated in a scarcely less degree
+by a determination to even their score with Spain.
+
+The history of the Dutch East India Company is not a savory one. It was
+a powerful instrument for extracting the wealth of the Indies, and, so
+long as the wealth was forthcoming, the stockholders at home in Holland
+did not inquire too closely as to how the instrument was used. The
+story of the company from its formation in 1602 until its dissolution
+nearly two centuries later is a record of intrigue, cruelty and
+oppression. It exercised virtually sovereign powers. It made and
+enforced its own laws, it maintained its own fleet and army, it
+negotiated treaties with Japan and China, it dethroned sultans and
+rajahs, it established trading-posts and factories at the Cape of Good
+Hope, in the Persian Gulf, on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, and
+in Bengal; it waged war against the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the
+English in turn. When at the summit of its power, in 1669, the company
+possessed forty warships and one hundred and fifty merchantmen,
+maintained an army of ten thousand men, and paid a forty per cent
+dividend.
+
+Meanwhile a formidable rival to the Dutch company, the English East
+India Company, had arisen, but the accession of a Dutchman, William,
+Prince of Orange, to the throne of England in 1688 turned the rivals
+into allies, the trade of the eastern seas being divided between them.
+But toward the close of the eighteenth century there came another
+change in the _status quo_, for the Dutch, by allying themselves with
+the French, became the enemies of England. By this time Great Britain
+had become the greatest sea power in the world, so that within a few
+months after the outbreak of hostilities in 1795 the British flag had
+replaced that of the Netherlands over Ceylon, Malacca, and other
+stations on the highway to the Insulinde. When the Netherlands were
+annexed to the French Empire by Napoleon in 1810 the British seized the
+excuse thus provided to occupy Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles, the
+brilliant young Englishman who was then the agent of the British East
+India Company at Malacca, in the Malay States, being sent to Java as
+lieutenant-governor. Urgent as were his appeals that Java should be
+retained by Britain as a jewel in her crown of empire, the readjustment
+of the territories of the great European powers which was effected at
+the Congress of Vienna, in 1816, after the fall of Napoleon, resulted
+in the restoration to the Dutch of those islands of the Insulinde,
+including Java, which the British had seized. But, though Raffles ruled
+in Java for barely four and a half years, his spirit goes marching on,
+the system of colonial government which he instituted having been
+continued by the Dutch, in its main outlines, to this day. He won the
+confidence and friendship of the powerful native princes,
+revolutionized the entire legal system, revived the system of village
+or communal government, reformed the land-tenure, abolished the
+abominable system of forcing the natives to deliver all their crops,
+and gave to the Javanese a rule of honesty, justice and wisdom with
+which, up to that time, they had not had even a bowing acquaintance. As
+a result of the lessons learned from Stamford Raffles, the Dutch
+possessions in the East are today more wisely and justly administered
+than those of any other European nation.
+
+The Dutch had not seen the last of Raffles, however, for in 1817 he
+returned from England, where he had been knighted by the Prince Regent,
+to take the post of lieutenant-governor of Sumatra, to which the
+British did not finally relinquish their claims until half a century
+later. His administration of that great island was characterized by the
+same breadth of vision, tact, and energy which had marked his rule in
+Java. It was during this period that Raffles rendered his greatest
+service to the empire. The Dutch, upon regaining Java, attempted to
+obtain complete control of all the islands of the archipelago, which
+would have resulted in seriously hampering, if not actually ending,
+British trade east of Malacca. But Raffles, recognizing the menace to
+British interests, defeated the Dutch scheme in January, 1819, by a
+sudden _coup d'etat_, when he seized the little island at the tip of
+the Malay Peninsula which commands the Malacca Straits and the entrance
+to the China seas, and founded Singapore, thereby giving Britain
+control of the gateway to the Farther East and ending forever the
+Dutch dream of making of those waters a _mare clausum_--a Dutch lake.
+
+The thousands of islands, islets, and atolls which comprise Netherlands
+India--the proper etymological name of the archipelago is
+Austronesia--are scattered over forty-six degrees of longitude, on both
+sides of the equator. Although in point of area Java holds only fifth
+place, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea and the Celebes being much larger,
+it nevertheless contains three-fourths of the population and yields
+four-fifths of the produce of the entire archipelago. Though scarcely
+larger than Cuba, it has more inhabitants than all the Atlantic Coast
+States, from Maine to Florida, combined. This, added to the strategic
+importance of its situation, the richness of its soil, the variety of
+its products, the intelligence, activity and civilization of its
+inhabitants, and the fact that it is the seat of the colonial
+government, makes Java by far the most important unit of the Insulinde.
+Because of its overwhelming importance in the matters of position,
+products and population, it is administered as a distinct political
+entity, the other portions of the Dutch Indies being officially
+designated as the Outposts or the Outer Possessions.
+
+Westernmost and by far the most important of the Outposts is Sumatra,
+an island four-fifths the size of France, as potentially rich in
+mineral and agricultural wealth as Java, but with a sparse and
+intractable population, certain of the tribes, notably the Achinese,
+who inhabit the northern districts, still defying Dutch rule in spite
+of the long and costly series of wars which have resulted from
+Holland's attempt to subjugate them. The unmapped interior of Sumatra
+affords an almost virgin field for the explorer, the sportsman and the
+scientist. It has ninety volcanoes, twelve of which are active (the
+world has not forgotten the eruption, in 1883, of Krakatu, an island
+volcano off the Sumatran coast, which resulted in the loss of forty
+thousand human lives); the jungles of the interior are roamed by
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, panthers and occasional orang-utans,
+while in the scattered villages, with their straw-thatched, highly
+decorated houses, dwell barbarous brown men practising customs so
+incredibly eerie and fantastic that a sober narration of them is more
+likely than not to be greeted with a shrug of amused disbelief. One who
+has no first-hand knowledge of the Sumatran tribes finds it difficult
+to accept at their face value the accounts of the customs practised by
+the Bataks of Tapanuli, for example, who, when their relatives become
+too old and infirm to be of further use, give them a pious interment by
+eating them. When the local Doctor Oslers have decided that a man has
+reached the age when his place at the family table is preferable to his
+company, the aged victim climbs a lemon-tree, beneath which his
+relatives stand in a circle, wailing the deathsong, the weird,
+monotonous chant being continued until the condemned one summons the
+courage to throw himself to the ground, whereupon the members of his
+family promptly despatch him with clubs, cut up his body, roast the
+meat, and eat it. Thus every stomach in the tribe becomes, in effect, a
+sort of family burial-plot. I was unable to ascertain why the victim is
+compelled to throw himself from a lemon-tree. It struck me that some
+taller tree, like a palm, would better accomplish the desired result. A
+matter of custom, doubtless. Perhaps that explains why we dub persons
+who are pass� "lemons." Then there are the Achinese, whose women
+frequently marry when eight years old, and are considered as well along
+in life when they reach their teens; and the Niassais, who are in
+deadly fear of albino children and who kill all twins as soon as they
+are born. Or the Menangkabaus, whose tribal government is a matriarchy:
+lands, houses, crops and children belonging solely to the wife, who
+may, and sometimes does, sell her husband as a slave in order to pay
+her debts.
+
+Trailing from the eastern end of Java in a twelve-hundred-mile-long
+chain, like the wisps of paper which form the tail of a kite, and
+separated by straits so narrow that artillery can fire across them, are
+the Lesser Sundas--Bali, noted for its superb scenery and its alluring
+women; Lombok, the northernmost island whose flora and fauna are
+Australian; Sumbawa, where the sandalwood comes from; Flores, whose
+inhabitants consider the earth so holy that they will not desecrate it
+by digging wells or cultivation; Timor, the northeastern half of which,
+together with Goa in India and Macao in China, forms the last remnant
+of Portugal's once enormous Eastern empire; Rotti, Kei, and Aroo, the
+great chain thus formed linking New Guinea, the largest island in the
+world, barring Australia, with the mainland of Asia. Of the last-named
+island, the entire western half belongs to Holland, the remaining half
+being about equally divided between British Papua, in the southeast,
+and in the northeast the former German colony of Kaiser Wilhelm Land,
+now administered by Australia under a mandate from the League of
+Nations.
+
+The population of Dutch New Guinea is estimated at a quarter of a
+million, but the predilection of its puff-ball-headed inhabitants for
+human flesh has discouraged the Dutch census-takers from making an
+accurate enumeration, as the Papuan cannibal does not hesitate to
+sacrifice the needs of science to those of the cooking-pot. Though New
+Guinea is believed to be enormously rich in natural resources, and has
+many excellent harbors, the secrets of its mysterious interior can only
+be conjectured. The natives are as degraded as any in the world; their
+principal vocation is hunting birds of paradise, whose plumes command
+high prices in the European markets; their chief avocation in recent
+years has been staging imitation cannibal feasts for the benefit of
+motion-picture expeditions. But, unknown and unproductive as it is at
+present, I would stake my life that New Guinea will be a great colony
+some day.
+
+To the west of New Guinea and to the south of the Philippines lie the
+Moluccas--Ceram, Amboin, Ternate, Halmahera, and the rest--the Spice
+Islands of the old-time voyagers, the scented tropic isles of which
+Camoens sang. Amboin, owing to the fact that Europeans have been
+established there for centuries on account of its trade in spices, is
+characterized by a much higher degree of civilization than the rest of
+the Moluccas, a considerable proportion of its inhabitants professing
+to be Christians. The flower of the colonial army is recruited from the
+Amboinese, who regard themselves not as vassals of the Dutch but as
+their allies and equals, a distinction which they emphasize by wearing
+shoes, all other native troops going barefoot. Beyond the Moluccas,
+across the Banda Sea, sprawls the Celebes,[1] familiar from our
+school-days because of its fantastic outline, the plural form of its
+name being due to the supposition of the early explorers that it was a
+group of islands instead of one. And finally, crossing Makassar
+Straits, we come to Borneo, the habitat of the head-hunter and the
+orang-utan. Though Borneo is a treasure-house for the naturalist, the
+botanist, and the ethnologist, the Dutch, as in New Guinea, have merely
+scratched its surface, almost no attempt having thus far been made to
+exploit its enormous natural resources. Thus I have arrayed for your
+cursory inspection the congeries of curious and colorful islands which
+constitute Netherlands India in order that you may comprehend the
+problems of civilization and administration which Holland has had to
+solve in those distant seas, and that you may be better qualified to
+judge the results she has achieved.
+
+    [Footnote 1: Pronounced as though it were spelled Cel-lay-bees,
+    with the accent on the second syllable.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Insulinde has eight times the population and sixty times the area
+of the mother country, from which it is separated by ten thousand miles
+of sea, yet the sovereignty of Queen Wilhelmina is upheld among the
+cannibals of New Guinea, the head-hunters of Borneo, and the savages of
+Achin, no less than among the docile millions of Java, by less than ten
+thousand European soldiers. That a territory so vast and with so
+enormous a population, should be so admirably administered, everything
+considered, by so small a number of white men, is in itself proof of
+the Dutch genius for ruling subject races.
+
+From the day when Holland determined to organize her colonial empire
+for the benefit of the natives themselves, instead of exploiting it for
+the benefit of a handful of Dutch traders and settlers, as she had
+previously done, she has employed in her colonial service only
+thoroughly trained officials of proved ability and irreproachable
+character. The Dutch officials whom I met in Java and the Outposts
+impressed me, indeed, as being men of altogether exceptional capacity
+and attainments, better educated and qualified, as a whole, than those
+whom I have encountered in the British and French colonial possessions.
+Since the war, owing to the difficulty of obtaining men of sufficient
+caliber and experience to fill the minor posts, which are not
+particularly well paid, Holland has given employment in her colonial
+service to a considerable number of Germans, most of whom had been
+trained in colonial administration in Germany's African and Pacific
+possessions, but they are appointed, of course, only to posts of
+relative unimportance.
+
+Every year the Minister of the Colonies ascertains the number of
+vacancies in the East Indian service, and every year the Grand
+Examination of Officials is held simultaneously in The Hague and
+Batavia, the results of this examination determining the eligibility of
+candidates for admission to the colonial service and the fitness of
+officials already in the service for promotion. With the exception of
+the Governor-General and two or three other high officials, who are
+appointed by the crown, no official can evade this examination, to pass
+which requires not only an intimate knowledge of East Indian languages,
+politics and customs, but real scholarship as well. The names of those
+candidates who pass this examination are certified to the Minister of
+the Colonies, who thereupon directs them to report to the
+Governor-General at Batavia and provides them with funds for the
+voyage. Upon their arrival in the Indies the Governor-General appoints
+them to the grade of _controleur_ and tests their capacity by sending
+them to difficult and trying posts in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, or
+New Guinea, where they must conclusively prove their ability before
+they can hope for promotion to the grades of assistant resident and
+resident, and the relative comfort of official life in Java. In the
+Outposts they at once come face to face with innumerable difficulties
+and responsibilities, for the _controleur_ is responsible, though
+within narrower limits than the resident, for everything: justice,
+police, agriculture, education, public works, the protection of the
+natives, and the requirements of the settlers in such matters as labor
+and irrigation. He is, in short, an administrator, a police official, a
+judge, a diplomatist, and an adviser on almost every subject connected
+with the government of tropical dependencies. The officials in the
+Outposts are given more authority and greater latitude of action than
+their colleagues in Java, for they have greater difficulties to cope
+with, while the intractability, if not the open hostility of the
+natives whom they are called upon to rule demands greater tact and
+diplomacy than are required in Java, where the officials are inclined
+to become spoiled by their easy-going life and the semi-royal state
+which they maintain.
+
+Though Holland demands much of those who uphold her authority in the
+Indies, she is generous in her rewards. The Governor-General draws a
+salary of seventy thousand dollars together with liberal allowances for
+entertaining, and is provided with palaces at Batavia and Buitenzorg,
+while at Tjipanas, on one of the spurs of the Gedei, nearly six
+thousand feet above the sea, he has a country house set in a great
+English park. Wherever he is in residence he maintains a degree of
+state scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign herself. The residents
+are paid from five thousand dollars to nine thousand dollars according
+to their grades, the assistant residents from three thousand five
+hundred dollars to five thousand dollars, and the _controleurs_ from
+one thousand eight hundred dollars to two thousand four hundred
+dollars. Though officials are permitted leaves of absence only once in
+ten years, those who complete twenty-five years' service in the
+Insulinde may retire on half-pay. Even at such salaries, however, and
+in a land where living is cheap as compared with Europe, it is almost
+impossible for the officials to save money, for they are expected to
+entertain lavishly and to live in a fashion which will impress the
+natives, who would be quick to seize on any evidence of economy as a
+sign of weakness.
+
+Netherlands India is ruled by a dual system of administration--European
+and native. By miracles of patience, tact, and diplomacy, the Dutch
+have succeeded in building up in the Indies a gigantic colonial empire,
+which, however, they could not hope to hold by force were there to be a
+concerted rising of the natives. Realizing this, Holland--instead of
+attempting to overawe the natives by a display of military strength, as
+England has done in Egypt and India, and France in Algeria and
+Morocco--has succeeded, by keeping the native princes on their thrones
+and according them a shadowy suzerainty, in hoodwinking the ignorant
+brown mass of the people into the belief that they are still governed
+by their own rulers. Though at first the princes, as was to be
+expected, bitterly resented the curtailment of their prerogatives and
+powers, they decided that they might better remain on their thrones,
+even though the powers remaining to them were merely nominal, and
+accept the titles, honors and generous pensions which the Dutch offered
+them, than to resist and be ruthlessly crushed. In pursuance of this
+shrewd policy, every province in the Indies has as its nominal head a
+native puppet ruler, known as a regent, usually a member of the house
+which reigned in that particular territory before the white man came.
+Though the regents are appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the
+government, and though they are obliged to accept the advice and obey
+the orders of the Dutch residents, they remain the highest personages
+in the native world and the intermediaries through whom Holland
+transmits her wishes and orders to the native population.
+
+In order to lend color to the fiction that the natives are still ruled
+by their own princes, the regents are provided with the means to keep
+up a considerable degree of ceremony and pomp; they have their
+opera-bouffe courts, their gorgeously uniformed body-guards, their
+gilded carriages and golden parasols, and some of the more important
+ones maintain enormous households. But, though they preside at
+assemblies, sign decrees, and possess all the other external attributes
+of power, in reality they only go through the motions of governing, for
+always behind their gorgeous thrones sits a shrewd and silent Dutchman
+who pulls the strings. Though this system of dual government has the
+obvious disadvantage of being both cumbersome and expensive, it is,
+everything considered, perhaps the best that could have been devised to
+meet the existing conditions, for nothing is more certain than that,
+should the Dutch attempt to do away with the native princes, there
+would be a revolt which would shake the Insulinde to its foundations
+and would gravely imperil Dutch domination in the islands.
+
+The most interesting examples of this system of dual administration are
+found in the _Vorstenlanden_, or "Lands of the Princes," of Surakarta
+and Djokjakarta, in Middle Java. These two principalities, which once
+comprised the great empire of Mataram, are nominally independent, being
+ostensibly ruled by their own princes: the Susuhunan of Surakarta and
+the Sultan of Djokjakarta, who are, however, despite their
+high-sounding titles and their dazzling courts, but mouthpieces for the
+Dutch residents. The series of episodes which culminated in the Dutch
+acquiring complete political ascendency in the _Vorstenlanden_ form one
+of the most picturesque and significant chapters in the history of
+Dutch rule in the East. Until the last century these territories were
+undivided, forming the kingdom of the Susuhunan of Surakarta, who,
+being threatened by a revolt of the Chinese who had settled in his
+dominions, called in the Dutch to aid him in suppressing it. They came
+promptly, helped to crush the rebellion, and so completely won the
+confidence of the Susuhunan that he begged their arbitration in a
+dispute with one of his brothers, who had launched an insurrection in
+an attempt to place himself on the throne. Certain historians assert,
+and probably with truth, that this insurrection was instigated and
+encouraged by the Dutch themselves, who foresaw that it would be easier
+to subjugate two weak states than a single strong one. In pursuance of
+this policy, they suggested that, in order to avoid a fratricidal and
+bloody war, the kingdom be divided, two-thirds of it, with Surakarta as
+the capital, to remain under the rule of the Susuhunan; the remaining
+third to be handed over to the pretender, who would assume the title of
+Sultan and establish his court at Djokjakarta. This settlement was
+reluctantly accepted by the Susuhunan because he realized that he could
+hope for nothing better and by his brother because he recognized that
+he might do much worse.
+
+In principle, at least, the Sultan remained the vassal of the
+Susuhunan, in token of which he paid him public homage once each year
+at Ngawen, near Djokjakarta, where, in the presence of an immense
+concourse of natives, he was obliged to prostrate himself before the
+Susuhunan's throne as a public acknowledgment of his vassalage. But as
+the years passed the breach thus created between the Susuhunan and the
+Sultan showed signs of healing, which was the last thing desired by the
+Dutch, who believed in the maxim _Divide ut imperes_. So, before the
+next ceremony of homage came around, they sent for the Sultan, pointed
+out to him the humiliation which he incurred in kneeling before the
+Susuhunan, and offered to provide him with a means of escaping this
+abasement. Their offer was as simple as it was ingenious--permission
+to wear the uniform of a Dutch official. This was by no means as empty
+an honor as it seemed, as the Sultan was quick to recognize, for one of
+the tenets of Holland's rule in the Indies is that no one who wears the
+Dutch uniform, whether European or native, shall impair the prestige of
+that uniform by kneeling in homage. The Sultan, needless to say,
+eagerly seized the opportunity thus offered, and, when the date for the
+next ceremony fell due he arrived at Ngawen arrayed in the blue and
+gold panoply of a Dutch official, but, instead of prostrating himself
+before the Susuhunan in the grovelling _dodok_, he coolly remained
+seated, as befitted a Dutch official and an independent prince.
+
+The animosity thus ingeniously revived between the princely houses
+lasted for many years, which was exactly what the Dutch had foreseen.
+But, though the Susuhunan and the Sultan had been goaded into hating
+each other with true Oriental fervor, they hated the Dutch even more.
+In order to divert this hostility toward themselves into safer
+channels, the Dutch evolved still another scheme, which consisted in
+installing at the court of the Susuhunan, as at that of the Sultan, a
+counter-irritant in the person of a rival prince, who, though
+theoretically a vassal, was in reality as independent as the titular
+ruler. And, as a final touch, the Dutch decreed that the cost of
+maintaining the elaborate establishments of these hated rivals must be
+defrayed from the privy purses of the Susuhunan and the Sultan. The
+"independent" prince at Surakarta is known as the Pangeran Adipati
+Mangku Negoro; the one at Djokjakarta as the Pangeran Adipati Paku
+Alam. Both of these princes have received military educations in
+Holland, hold honorary commissions in the Dutch army, and wear the
+Dutch uniform; their handsome palaces stand in close proximity to those
+of the Susuhunan and the Sultan, and both are permitted to maintain
+small but well-drilled private armies, armed with modern weapons and
+organized on European lines. The "army" of Mangku Negoro consists of
+about a thousand men, and is a far more efficient fighting force than
+the fantastically uniformed rabble maintained by his suzerain, the
+Susuhunan. In certain respects this arrangement resembles the plan
+which is followed at West Point and Annapolis, where, if the appointee
+fails to meet the entrance requirements, the appointment goes to an
+alternate, who has been designated with just such a contingency in
+view. Both the Susuhunan and the Sultan are perfectly aware that the
+first sign of disloyalty to the Dutch on their part would result in
+their being promptly dethroned and the "independent" princes being
+appointed in their stead. So, as they like their jobs, which are well
+paid and by no means onerous--the Susuhunan receives an annual pension
+from the Dutch Government of some three hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars and has in addition one million dollars worth of revenues to
+squander each year--their conduct is marked by exemplary obedience and
+circumspection.
+
+Ever since the Dipo Negoro rebellion of 1825, which was caused by the
+insulting behavior of an incompetent and tactless resident toward a
+native prince, to suppress which cost Holland five years of warfare and
+the lives of fifteen thousand soldiers, the Dutch Government has come
+more and more to realize that most of the disaffection and revolts in
+their Eastern possessions have been directly traceable to tactlessness
+on the part of Dutch officials, who either ignored or were indifferent
+to the customs, traditions, and susceptibilities of the natives. It is
+the recognition and application of this principle that has been
+primarily responsible for the peace, progress, and prosperity which, in
+recent years, have characterized the rule of Holland in the Indies.
+When a nation with a quarter the area of New York State, and less than
+two-thirds its population, with a small army and no navy worthy of the
+name, can successfully rule fifty million people of alien race and
+religion, half the world away, and keep them loyal and contented, that
+nation has, it seems to me, a positive genius for colonial
+administration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some one has described the Dutch East Indies as a necklace of emeralds
+strung on the equator. To those who are familiar only with colder, less
+gorgeous lands, that simile may sound unduly fanciful, but to those who
+have seen these great, rich islands, festooned across four thousand
+miles of sea, green and scintillating under the tropic sun, the
+description will not appear as far-fetched as it seems. A necklace of
+emeralds! The more I ponder over that description the better I like it.
+Indeed, I think that that is what I will call this chapter--The
+Emeralds of Wilhelmina.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS
+
+
+There is no name between the covers of the atlas which so smacks of
+romance and adventure as Borneo. Show me the red-blooded boy who, when
+he sees that magic name over the wild man's cage in the circus sideshow
+or over the orang-utan's cage in the zoo, does not secretly long to go
+adventuring in the jungles of its mysterious interior. So, because
+there is still in me a good deal of the boy, thank Heaven, I ordered
+the course of the _Negros_ laid for Samarinda, which, if the charts
+were to be believed, was the principal gateway to the hinterland of
+Eastern Borneo. There are no roads in Borneo, you understand, only
+narrow foot-trails through the steaming jungle, so that the only
+practicable means of penetrating the interior is by ascending one of
+the great rivers. The Koetei, which has its nativity somewhere in the
+mysterious Kapuas Mountains, winds its way across four hundred miles of
+unmapped wilderness, and, a score of miles below Samarinda, empties
+into Makassar Straits, answered my requirements admirably, providing a
+highroad to the country of my boyish dreams. Though I told the others
+that I was going up the Koetei in order to see the strange tribes who
+dwell along its upper reaches, I admitted to myself that I had one
+object in view and one alone--to see the Wild Man.
+
+Viewed from the deck of the _Negros_, Samarinda, which is the capital
+of the Residency of Koetei, was entirely satisfying. It corresponded in
+every respect to the mental picture which I had drawn of a Bornean
+town. It straggles for two miles or more along a dusty road shaded by a
+double row of flaming fire-trees. Facing on the road are a few-score
+miserable shops kept by Chinese and Arabs and the somewhat more
+pretentious buildings which house the offices of the European trading
+companies. Further out, at the edge of the town, are the dwellings of
+the Dutch officials and traders--comfortable-looking, one-story,
+whitewashed houses with deep verandahs, peering coyly out from the
+midst of fragrant, blazing gardens. The Residency, the Custom House,
+the Police Barracks and the Koetei Club can readily be distinguished by
+the Dutch flags that droop above them. The river-bank itself is one
+interminable street. Here dwells the brown-skinned population--Malays,
+Bugis, Makassars, and a sprinkling of Sea Dyaks. Sometimes the flimsy,
+cane-walled, leaf-thatched huts, perched aloft on bamboo stilts, stand,
+like flocks of storks, in clusters. Again they stray a little apart,
+seeking protection from the pitiless sun beneath clumps of palms.
+Malays in short, tight jackets and long, tight breeches of
+kaleidoscopic colors were sauntering along the yellow road, oblivious
+of the sun. On the shelving beach naked brown men were mending their
+nets or pottering about their dwellings. Now and then I caught a
+glimpse of a European, cool and comfortable in topee and white linen.
+It was all exactly as I had expected. It was, indeed, almost too
+story-booky to be true. Here, at last, was a green and lovely land,
+unspoiled by noisy, prying tourists, where one could lounge the lazy
+days away beneath the palm-trees or stroll with dusky beauties on a
+beach silvered by the tropic moon. I was impatient to go ashore.
+
+Changing from pajamas to whites, I ordered the launch to the gangway
+and went ashore to pay my respects to the Resident. To leave your card
+on the local representative of Queen Wilhelmina is the first rule of
+etiquette to be observed by the foreigner traveling in the Outer
+Possessions. In Java, which is more highly civilized, it is not so
+necessary. Unlike the Latin races, the Dutch are not by nature a
+suspicious people, but political unrest is prevalent throughout the
+East, and with Bolshevists, Chinese agitators and other fomenters of
+disaffection surreptitiously at work among the natives, it is the part
+of prudence to establish your respectability at the start. To gain a
+friendly footing with the authorities is to save yourself from possible
+annoyance later on.
+
+As I approached the shore the glamor lent by distance disappeared. The
+river-bank, which had looked so alluring from the cutter's deck, proved
+on closer inspection to be as squalid as the back-yard of a Neapolitan
+tenement. It was littered with dead cats and fowls and fish and
+castaway vegetables and rotten fruit and tin cans and greasy ashes and
+refuse from fishing nets and decaying cocoanuts by the million and
+sodden rags. This stewing garbage was strewn ankle-deep upon the sand
+or was floating on the surface of the river, not drifting seaward, as
+one would expect, but languidly following the tide up and down, forever
+lolling along the bank. Above this putrefying feast swarmed myriads of
+flies, their buzzing combining in a drone like that of an electric fan.
+The sun struck viciously down upon the yellow foreshore, its glare
+reflected by the hard-packed sands as by a sheet of brass; the
+heat-waves danced and flickered. Sending the launch back to the cutter,
+I picked my way across this noisome place to the shelter of the trees
+along the road. But the shade that had appeared so inviting from the
+river proved as illusory as everything else. Grass? There was none. The
+earth was baked to the hardness of asphalt.
+
+To make matters worse, I found that I had landed too far down the
+beach. The building that I had assumed was the Residency proved to be
+the Custom House. The Harbor Master, whom I encountered there, seized
+the opportunity to present me with a bill for a hundred
+guilders--something over forty dollars--for port dues. It seemed a high
+price to pay for the privilege of lying in the stream, a quarter-mile
+off-shore. In all the Dutch ports at which we touched I noted this same
+disposition on the part of the authorities to charge all that the
+traffic would bear--and then some. Foreign vessels are rarely seen at
+Samarinda, and one would suppose that they would be welcomed
+accordingly, but the Dutch are a business people and do not permit
+sentiment to interfere with a chance to make a few honest guilders.
+
+The Residency, I found upon inquiry, was two miles away, in the
+outskirts of the town. And, as there are neither rickshaws nor
+carriages for hire in Samarinda, I was compelled to walk. It was really
+too hot to move. In five minutes my clothes were as wet as though I had
+fallen in the river. The green silk lining of my sun-hat crocked and
+ran down my face in emerald rivulets. When I had covered half the
+distance I paused beneath a waringin tree to rest. A breath of breeze
+from the river, sighing through the palms, brought to my streaming
+cheeks a hint of coolness and to my nostrils more than a hint of the
+garbage broiling on the beach. Anyone who could be romantic in Borneo
+_must_ be in love.
+
+The Assistant Resident, Monsieur de Haan, was as glad to see me as a
+banker away from home is to see a copy of _The Wall Street Journal_. I
+brought him a whiff of that great outside world from which he was an
+exile, with whose doings he kept in touch only through the meager
+despatches in the papers brought by the fortnightly mail-boat from
+Java, or through occasional travelers like myself. Dutch officials in
+the Indies can obtain leave only once in ten years and Monsieur de Haan
+had not visited the mother country for nearly a decade, so that when he
+learned I had recently been in Holland he was pathetically eager to
+hear the gossip of the homeland. For an hour I lounged in a Cantonese
+chair beneath the leisurely swinging punkah--the motive power for the
+punkah being provided by a native on the verandah outside, who
+mechanically pulled the cord even while he slept--and chatted of homely
+things: of a restaurant which we both knew on the Dam in Amsterdam, of
+bathing on the sands of Scheviningen, of band concerts on summer
+evenings in the Haagsche Bosch. Only when his long-pent curiosity as to
+happenings in Europe had been appeased did I find an opportunity to
+mention the reasons which had brought me to Samarinda. I wished to go
+up country, I explained. I wanted to see the real jungle and the
+strange tribes which dwell in it; particularly I wished to see the
+head-hunters. Now in this I was fully prepared for discouragement and
+dissuasion, for head-hunters are not assets to a country; to a visitor
+they are not displayed with pride. When, in the Philippines, I wished
+to see the head-hunting Igorots; when I asked the Japanese for
+permission to visit the head-hunters of Formosa, I met only with
+excuses and evasions. At my taste the officials pretended to be
+surprised and grieved. But Monsieur de Haan, doubtless because he had
+lived so long in the wilds that head-hunters were to him a commonplace,
+not only made no objection, he even offered to accompany me.
+
+"We can go up the Koetei on your cutter," he suggested. "It is
+navigable as far as Long Iram, two hundred miles up-country, which is
+the farthest point inland that one of our garrisons is stationed. Thus
+you will be able to see the Dyak country as comfortably as you could
+see Holland from the deck of a canal boat. On our way we might pay a
+visit to the Sultan of Koetei, who has a palace at Tenggaroeng. Though
+he has no real power to speak of, he exercises considerable influence
+among the wild tribes, of which he is the hereditary ruler. He's the
+very man to put you in touch with the head-hunters."
+
+The suggestion sounded fine. Moreover, in visiting savages as
+temperamental as the Dyaks, there would be a certain comfort in having
+the head of the government along. So, as Monsieur de Haan did not
+appear to be pressed with business, we arranged to start up-river the
+following morning.
+
+It was late afternoon when I returned to the _Negros_. I was completely
+wilted by the terrible humidity, and, as the river looked cool and
+inviting in the twilight, I decided to refresh my body and my spirits
+by a swim. But when I suggested to the Doctor that he join me he shook
+his head gloomily.
+
+"Nothing doing," he said. "I've been wanting to go in all day but the
+port surgeon tells me that I'd be committing suicide."
+
+"But why?" I demanded irritably, for I was ill-tempered from the heat.
+"It's perfectly clean out here in mid-stream and there is no danger
+from sharks here, as there was at Zamboanga and Jolo."
+
+By way of replying he pointed to a black object, which I took to be a
+log, that was floating on the surface of the river, perhaps fifty yards
+off the cutter's gangway.
+
+"That's why," he said dryly.
+
+As he spoke a dugout, driven by half-a-dozen paddles in the hands of
+lusty natives, came racing down stream. As the canoe drew abreast of
+us, the paddlers chanting a barbaric chorus, there was a sudden swirl
+in the water and the object which I had taken for a log abruptly
+dropped out of sight.
+
+"A crocodile!" I ejaculated, a little shiver chasing itself up and down
+my spine.
+
+The Doctor nodded.
+
+"The river is alive with them," he said. "Man-eaters, too. The port
+surgeon told me that they get a native or so every day."
+
+"I've changed my mind about wanting a swim," I remarked, heading for
+the ship's shower-bath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+(Dusk is settling on the great river and the palm fronds are gently
+stirring before the breeze that comes with nightfall on the Line. If
+you have nothing better to do, suppose you sit down beside me in a
+deck-chair and let me tell you something about these cruel and cunning
+monsters and the curious methods by which they are captured. _Boy! Pass
+the cheroots and bring us something cold to drink._)
+
+Though crocodiles are found everywhere in Malaysia, they attain their
+greatest size and ferocity in the rivers of Borneo, it being no
+uncommon thing for them to attack and capsize the frail native canoes,
+killing their occupants as they flounder in the water. I suppose that
+the crocodile of Borneo more nearly approaches the giant saurians of
+prehistoric times than anything alive to-day. Imagine, if you please, a
+creature as large as a ship's launch, with the swiftness and ferocity
+of a man-eating shark, the cunning of a snake, a body so heavily
+armored with scales that it is impervious to everything save the most
+high-powered bullets, a tail that is capable of knocking down an ox,
+and a pair of jaws that can cut a man in two at a single snap. How
+would you like to encounter that sort of thing when you were having a
+pleasant swim, I ask you? Compared to the crocodile of Malaysia, the
+Florida alligator is about as formidable as a lizard. One was captured
+while we were at Sandakan which measured slightly over twenty-eight
+feet from the end of his ugly snout to the tip of his vicious tail.
+Before you raise your eyebrows incredulously you might take a look at
+the accompanying photograph of this monster. Nor was this a record
+crocodile, for, shortly before our arrival at Samarinda, one was caught
+in the Koetei which measured ten metres, or within a few inches of
+thirty-three feet.
+
+The crocodile obtains its meals by the simple expedient of lying
+motionless just beneath the surface of a pool where the natives are
+accustomed to bathe or where they go for water. The unsuspecting brown
+girl trips jauntily down to the river-bank to fill her
+amphora--usually a battered Standard Oil tin. As she bends over the
+stream there comes without the slightest warning the lightning swish of
+a scaly tail, a scream, the crunch of monster jaws, a widening eddy, a
+scarlet stain overspreading the surface of the water--and there is one
+less inhabitant of Borneo. But instead of proceeding to devour its
+victim then and there, the crocodile carries the body up a convenient
+creek, where it has the self-control to leave it until it is
+sufficiently gamey to satisfy its palate. For the crocodile, like the
+hunter, does not like freshly killed meat. Hence, a crocodile swimming
+up-stream with a native in its mouth is by no means an uncommon sight
+on Borne an rivers.
+
+"But it is a quick death," as an Englishman whom I met in Borneo
+philosophically observed. "They don't play with you as a cat plays with
+a mouse--they just hold you under the water until you are drowned."
+
+Yet, in spite of the hundreds who fall victim to the terrible jaws each
+year, the natives seem incapable of observing the slightest
+precautions. For superstitious reasons they will not disturb the
+crocodile until it has shown itself to be a man-eater. If the crocodile
+will live at peace with him the native has no wish to start a quarrel.
+But the day usually comes when a native who has gone down to the river
+fails to return. In America, under such circumstances, the relatives of
+the missing man would send for grappling irons and an undertaker. But
+in Borneo they summon a professional crocodile hunter. The idea of this
+is not so much to obtain revenge as to recover the brass ornaments
+which the dear departed was wearing at the moment of his taking off,
+for, though human life is the cheapest thing there is in Borneo, brass
+is extremely dear.
+
+The professional crocodile hunters are usually Malays. One of the best
+known and most successful in Borneo is an old man who runs a ferry
+across the Barito at Bandjermasin. He has capitalized his skill and
+cunning by organizing himself into a sort of crocodile liability
+company, as it were. Anyone may secure a policy in this company by
+paying him a weekly premium of 2-1/2 Dutch cents. When one of his
+policy holders is overtaken by death in the form of a pair of four-foot
+jaws the old man turns the ferry over to one of his children and sets
+out to fulfill the terms of his contract by capturing the offending
+saurian, recovering from its stomach the weighty bracelets, anklets and
+earrings worn by the deceased, and restoring them to the next of kin.
+In order to make good he sometimes has to kill a number of crocodiles,
+but he keeps on until he gets the right one. This is not as difficult
+as it sounds, for the big man-eaters usually have their recognized
+haunts in certain deep pools in the rivers, many of them, indeed, being
+known to the natives by name. The old ferryman at Bandjermasin has been
+so successful in the conduct of his curious avocation that, so the
+Dutch Resident assured me, he has several hundred policy holders who
+pay him their premiums with punctilious regularity, thereby giving him
+a very comfortable income.
+
+The method pursued by the crocodile hunters of Borneo is as effective
+as it is ingenious. Their fishing tackle consists of a hook, which is a
+straight piece of hard wood, about the size of a twelve-inch ruler,
+sharpened at both ends; a ten-foot leader, woven from the tough,
+stringy bark of the baru tree; and a single length of rattan or cane,
+fifty feet or so in length, which serves as a line. One end of the
+leader is attached to a shallow notch cut in the piece of wood, the
+other end is fastened to the rattan. With a few turns of cotton one end
+of the stick is then lightly bound to the leader, thus bringing the two
+into a straight line. Then comes the bait, which must be chosen with
+discrimination. Though the body of a dog or pig will usually answer,
+the morsel that most infallibly tempts a crocodile is the carcass of a
+monkey. But it must not be a freshly killed monkey, mind you. A
+crocodile will only swallow meat that is in an advanced stage of
+decomposition, the more overpowering its stench the greater the
+likelihood of the bait being taken. The bait is securely lashed to the
+pointed stick, though anyone but a Malay would require a gas-mask to
+perform this part of the operation.
+
+Everything now being ready, the bait is suspended from the bough of a
+tree overhanging the pool which the crocodile is known to frequent,
+being so arranged that the carcass swings a foot or so above the
+surface of the stream at high water level, the end of the rattan being
+planted in the bank. Lured by the smell of the bait, which in that
+torrid climate quickly acquires a bouquet which can be detected a mile
+to leeward, the crocodile is certain sooner or later to thrust its long
+snout out of the water and snap at the odoriferous bundle dangling so
+temptingly overhead, the slack line offering no resistance until the
+bait has been swallowed and the brute starts to make off. Then the
+man-eater gets the surprise of its long and checkered life, for the
+planted end of the rattan holds sufficiently to snap the threads which
+bind the pointed stick to the leader. The stick, thus caused to resume
+its original position at right angles to the line, becomes jammed
+across the crocodile's belly, the pointed ends burying themselves in
+the tender abdominal lining.
+
+The next morning the hunter finds bait and tackle missing, but a brief
+search usually reveals the coils of rattan floating on the surface of
+some deep pool at no great distance from the spot where the bait was
+taken. At the bottom of the pool Mr. Crocodile is writhing in the
+throes of acute indigestion. Taking the end of the line ashore, the
+hunter summons assistance. A score of jubilant natives lay hold on the
+rattan. Then ensues a struggle that makes tarpon fishing as tame in
+comparison as catching shiners. At first the monster tries to resist
+the straining line, its tail flailing the water into foam. The great
+jaws close on the leader like a bear-trap, but the loosely braided
+strands of baru fiber slip between the pointed teeth. The leader holds.
+The natives haul at the line as sailors haul at a halliard. Soon there
+emerges from the churning waters a long and incredibly ugly snout,
+followed by a low, reptilian head, with venomous, heavy-lidded, scarlet
+eyes, a body as broad as a row-boat and armored with horny scales, and
+finally a tremendous tail, twice as long as an elephant's trunk and
+twice as powerful, that spells death for any human being that comes
+within its reach. Sometimes it happens that the hunters momentarily
+become the hunted, for the infuriated beast, catching sight of its
+enemies, may come at them with a rush and a bellow, but more often it
+has to be dragged to land, fighting every inch of the way.
+
+Now comes the most hazardous part of the whole proceeding--the securing
+of the monster. By means of a noose, deftly thrown, the great jaws are
+rendered harmless. Another noose encircles the lashing tail and binds
+it securely to a tree. The front legs are next lashed behind the back
+and the hind legs treated in the same fashion. Thus deprived of the
+support of its legs, the crocodile is helpless and it is safe to
+release its tail. A stout bamboo is then passed between the bound legs
+and a score of sweating natives bear the captive in triumph to the
+nearest government station, where the bounty is claimed. The crocodile
+is then killed, the stomach cut open and its contents examined, any
+brassware or other ornaments worn by its victim at the time of his
+demise being handed over to the heirs.
+
+[Illustration: Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river]
+
+The method of fishing pursued by the Dyaks of Borneo is quite as
+curious, in its way, as their manner of catching crocodiles. Instead of
+netting the fish, or catching them with hook and line, they asphyxiate
+them, using for the purpose a poison obtained from the tuba root, known
+to scientists as _Cocculus indicus_. When a Dyak village is in need of
+food the entire community, men, women and children, repairs to a stream
+in which fish are known to be plentiful. Across the stream a sort of
+picket fence is erected by planting bamboos close together. In the
+center of this fence is a narrow opening leading into an enclosure like
+a corral, the walls of which are made in the same fashion. When this
+part of the preparations has been completed a party of natives proceeds
+up-stream by canoe for a dozen, or more miles, taking with them a
+plentiful supply of tuba root. Early the next morning the canoes are
+filled with water, in which the tuba root is beaten until the water is
+as white and frothy as soapsuds. When a sufficient quantity of this
+highly toxic liquid has thus been obtained, it is emptied into the
+stream and, after a brief wait, the canoes are again launched and the
+fishermen drift slowly down the current in the wake of the poison. Many
+of the fish are stupefied by the tuba and, as they rise struggling to
+the surface, are speared by the Dyaks. Other, seeking to escape the
+poisonous wave, dart down-stream and, when halted by the barrier, pour
+through the opening into the corral, where they are captured by the
+thousands. I might add that the tuba does not affect the flesh of the
+fish, which can be eaten with safety. As a means of obtaining food in
+wholesale quantities fishing with tuba is perhaps justified. As a sport
+it is in the same class with shooting duck from airplanes with
+machine-guns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Monsieur de Haan, wearing the brass-buttoned white uniform and
+gold-laced conductor's cap which is the garb prescribed for Dutch
+colonial officials, came abroad the _Negros_ shortly after breakfast.
+The gangway was hoisted, Captain Galvez gave brisk orders from the
+bridge, there was a jangle of bells in the engine-room, and we were off
+up the Koetei, into the mysterious heart of Borneo. Above Samarinda the
+great river flows between solid walls of vegetation. The density of the
+Bornean jungle is indeed almost unbelievable. It is a savage tangle of
+bamboos, palms, banyans, mangroves, and countless varieties of shrubs
+and giant ferns, the whole laced together by trailers and creepers.
+Contrary to popular belief, there is little color to relieve the somber
+monotony of dark brown trunks and dark green foliage. It is as gloomy
+as the nave of a cathedral at twilight. Here and there may be seen some
+vine with scarlet berries and many orchids swing from the higher
+branches like incandescent globes of colored glass. But it is usually
+impossible for one on the ground to see the finest blooms, which turn
+their faces to the sunlight above the canopy of green. Gray apes
+chatter in the tree-tops; strange tropic birds of gorgeous plumage flit
+from bough to bough, monstrous reptiles slip silently through the
+undergrowth; insects buzz in swarms above the putrid swamps;
+occasionally the jungle crashes beneath the tread of some heavy
+animal--a rhinoceros, perhaps, or a wild bull, or an orang-utan. (I
+might mention, parenthetically, that _orang-utan_ means, in the Malay
+language, "man of the forest," while _orang-outang_, the name which we
+incorrectly apply to the great red-haired anthropoid, means "man in
+debt.") The Bornean jungle is a place of indescribable dismalness and
+dread, its gloom seldom dissipated by the sun, its awesome silence
+broken only by the stirrings of the unseen creatures which lurk
+underfoot and overhead and all around.
+
+The palace of the Sultan of Koetei stands in the edge of the jungle at
+a horseshoe bend in the river. You come on it with startling
+abruptness--miles and miles of primeval wilderness and then, quite
+unexpectedly, a bit of civilization. In no respect does its exterior
+come up to what you would expect the palace of an Oriental ruler to be.
+It is a great barn of a place, two stories in height, painted a bright
+pink, with the arms of Koetei emblazoned above the entrance. It
+reminded me of a Coney Island dance hall or one of the tabernacles
+built for Billy Sunday.
+
+A broad flight of white marble steps leads to a wide, covered terrace
+of the same incongruous material. This terrace opens directly into the
+great throne-hall, a lofty apartment of impressive proportions, though
+its furnishings are a bizarre mixture of Oriental taste and Occidental
+tawdriness. Its marble floor is strewn with splendid rugs and
+tiger-skins; hanging from the ceiling are enormous cut-glass
+chandeliers; set in the walls, on either side of the scarlet-and-gold
+throne, are life-size portraits of the present Sultan's father and
+grandfather done in glazed Delft tiles, which seem more appropriate for
+a bathroom than a throne-hall. From each end of the apartment
+scarlet-carpeted staircases, with gilt balustrades, lead to the second
+floor. Under one of these staircases is a sort of closet, with glass
+doors, which looks for all the world like a large edition of a
+telephone booth in an American hotel. The doors were sealed with strips
+of paper affixed by means of wax wafers, but, peering through the
+glass, I could made out a large table piled high with trays of precious
+stones, ingots of virgin gold and silver, vessels, utensils and images
+of the same precious metals. It was the state treasure of Koetei and
+was worth, so the Resident told me, upward of a million dollars.
+
+When I was at Tenggaroeng the young Sultan, an anaemic-looking youth in
+the early twenties, had not yet been permitted by the Dutch authorities
+to ascend the throne, the country being ruled by his uncle, the Regent,
+an elderly, affable gentleman who, in his white drill suit and round
+white cap, was the image of a Chinese cook employed by a Californian
+friend of mine. Upon the formal accession of the young Sultan the seals
+of the treasury would be broken, I was told, and the treasure would be
+his to spend as he saw fit. I rather imagine, however, that the Dutch
+_controleur_ attached to his court in the capacity of adviser will
+have something to say should the youthful monarch show a disposition to
+squander his inheritance.
+
+Up-stairs we were shown through a series of apartments filled to
+overflowing with the loot of European shops--ornate brass beds, inlaid
+bureaus and chiffoniers, toilet-sets of tortoise-shell and ivory,
+washbowls and pitchers of S�vres, Dresden and Limoges, garnish vases,
+statuettes, music-boxes, mechanical toys, models of all ships and
+engines, and a thousand other useless and inappropriate articles, for,
+when the late Sultan paid his periodic visits to Europe, the
+shopkeepers of Paris, Amsterdam and The Hague seized the opportunity to
+unload on him, at exorbitant prices, their costliest and most unsalable
+wares. Opening a marquetry wardrobe, the Regent displayed with great
+pride his collection of uniforms and ceremonial costumes, most of
+which, the Resident told me, had been copied from pictures which had
+caught his fancy in books and magazines. That wardrobe would have
+delighted the heart of a motion-picture company's property-man, for it
+contained everything from a Dutch court dress, complete with sword and
+feathered hat, to a state costume of sky-blue broadcloth edged with
+white fur and trimmed with diamond buttons. I expressed a desire to see
+the royal crown, for I had noticed that the pictures of former sultans,
+which I had seen in the throne-room, showed them wearing crowns of a
+peculiar design, strikingly similar to those worn by the Emperors of
+Abyssinia. My request resulted in a whispered colloquy between the
+Resident, the Controleur, the Regent and the young Sultan. After a
+brief discussion the Resident explained that the Controleur kept the
+crown locked up in his safe, but that he would get it if I wished to
+see it. To the obvious relief of everyone except the young Sultan I
+assured them that it did not matter. He seemed distinctly disappointed.
+I imagine that he would have liked to have gotten his hands on it.
+
+Outside the palace--just below its windows, in fact--is a long, low,
+dirt-floored, wooden-roofed shed, such as American farmers build to
+keep their wagons and farm machinery under. This was the royal
+cemetery. Beneath it the former rulers of Koetei lie buried, their
+resting-places being marked by a most curious assortment of
+fantastically carved tombs and headstones. Some of the tombs hold the
+ashes of men who sat on the throne of Koetei when it was one of the
+great kingdoms of the East, long before the coming of the white man.
+
+Lady luck was kind to me, for shortly after our arrival at Tenggaroeng
+a delegation of Dyaks from one of the tribes of the far interior
+appeared at the palace to lay some tribal dispute before the Regent for
+his adjudication. There were about a score of them, including a rather
+comely young woman, whose comeliness was somewhat marred, however,
+according to European standards at least, by the lobes of her ears
+being stretched until they touched her shoulders by the great weight of
+the brass earrings which depended from them. The warriors were the
+finest physical specimens of manhood that I saw in all Malaysia--tall,
+slim, muscular, magnificently developed fellows, with bright, rather
+intelligent faces. They had the broad shoulders and small hips of Roman
+athletes and when the sun struck on their oiled brown skins they looked
+like the bronzes in a museum. Unlike the natives we had seen along the
+coast, whose garments made a slight concession to the prejudices of
+civilization, these children of the wild "wore nothing much before and
+rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind." Several of them were armed with
+the sumpitan, or blow-gun, which is the national weapon of the Dyaks,
+and each of them carried at his waist a _parang-ilang_, the terrible
+long-bladed knife which the head-hunter uses to kill and decapitate his
+victims.
+
+Monsieur de Haan, as well as the other Dutch officials whom I
+questioned on the subject, attributed the prevalence of head-hunting in
+Borneo to the vanity of the Dyak women. He explained that, just as
+American girls expect candy and flowers from the young men who are
+attentive to them, so Dyak maidens expect freshly severed human heads.
+The warrior who refused to present his lady-love with such grisly
+evidences of his devotion would be rejected by her and ostracized by
+his tribe. Nor does head-hunting end with marriage, for the standing of
+both the man and his wife in the community depends upon the number of
+grinning skulls which swing from the ridgepole of their hut. Heads are
+to a Dyak what money is to a man in civilized countries--the more he
+has, the greater his importance. The Controleur at Tenggaroeng assured
+me very earnestly that his Dyak charges were by no means ferocious or
+bloodthirsty by nature and that they practised head-hunting less from
+pleasure than from force of custom. But I am compelled to accept such
+an estimate of the Dyak character with reservations. From all that I
+could learn, head-hunting is a sport, like fox-hunting in England. Nor
+does it, as a rule, involve any great risk to the hunters, for the
+head-hunting raids are usually mere butcheries of defenceless people,
+the Dyaks either stalking their victim in the bush and killing him from
+behind, or attacking a village when the warriors are absent and
+slaughtering everyone whom they find in it--old, men, women, and
+children. The head of an orang-utan, by the way, is as highly prized in
+many of the Dyak tribes as that of a human being. Nor is this
+surprising, for the warrior who single-handed can kill one of the
+mighty anthropoids is deserving of the trophy.
+
+During my stay in Borneo I heard many theories advanced in explanation
+of head-hunting. Some authorities claimed that it is the Dyak's way of
+establishing a reputation for prowess. Others asserted that he takes
+heads merely to gratify the vanity of his women. There are still others
+who hold the opinion that the Dyak believes that he inherits the
+courage and cunning of those he kills. In certain of the Dyak tribes
+the heads are treated with profound reverence, being wreathed with
+flowers, offered the choicest morsels of food, and sometimes being
+given a place at the table, while in other tribes they are hung from
+the ridgepole and displayed as trophies of the chase. My own opinion is
+that, though prestige and vanity and superstition all contribute to the
+prevalence of head-hunting, in the inherent savagery of the Dyak is
+found the true explanation of the custom.
+
+I have already made passing mention of that characteristic weapon of
+the Dyaks, the sumpitan, or, as it is called by foreigners, the
+blow-gun. The sumpitan is a piece of hard wood, from six to eight feet
+in length and in circumference slightly larger than the handle of a
+broom. Running through it lengthwise is a hole about the size of a
+lead-pencil. A broad spear-blade is usually lashed to one end of the
+sumpitan, like a bayonet, thus providing a weapon for use at close
+quarters. The dart is made from a sliver of bamboo, or from a
+palm-frond, scraped to the size of a steel knitting-needle. One end of
+the dart is imbedded in a cork-shaped piece of pith which fits the hole
+in the sumpitan as a cartridge fits the bore of a rifle; the other end,
+which is of needle-sharpness, is smeared with a paste made from the
+milky sap of the upas tree dissolved in a juice extracted from the root
+of the tuba. With the possible exception of curare, this is the
+deadliest poison known, the slightest scratch from a dart thus poisoned
+paralyzing the respiratory center and causing almost instant death. The
+dart is expelled from the sumpitan by a quick, sharp exhalation of the
+breath. In fact, M. de Haan told me that among certain of the Dyak
+tribes virtually all of the men suffer from rupture as a result of the
+constant use of the blow-gun. Though I have heard those who have never
+seen the sumpitan in use sneer at it as a toy, it is, at short
+distances, one of the most accurate weapons in existence and, when its
+darts are poisoned, one of the deadliest. In order to show me what
+could be done with the sumpitan, the Regent stuck in the earth a bamboo
+no larger than a woman's little finger, and a Dyak, taking up his
+position at a distance of thirty paces which I stepped off myself, hit
+the almost indistinguishable mark with his darts twelve times running.
+That, as the late Colonel Cody would have put it, "is some shooting."
+
+In Borneo the use of the blow-gun is not confined to the Dyaks. They
+are also used by fish! That is to say, by a certain species of fish.
+This fish, which is remarkable neither in size nor color, seldom being
+larger than our domestic goldfish, is known to the natives as _ikan
+sumpit_ (literally "fish with a sumpitan") and to science as _Toxodes
+jaculator_. But it is unique among the finny tribe in possessing the
+curious power, on corning to the surface, of being able to squirt from
+its mouth a tiny jet of water. This it uses with unerring aim against
+insects, such as flies, grasshoppers and spiders, resting on plants
+along the edge of the streams, causing them to fall into the water,
+where they become an easy prey to these Dyaks of the deep. It was lucky
+for us that the crocodiles were not armed with blow-guns!
+
+When Latins engage in a serious quarrel they are prone to decide it
+with the stiletto, or, if they belong to the class which subscribes to
+the code, they meet on the field of honor with rapiers or pistols;
+Anglo-Saxons are accustomed to settle their disputes in a court of law
+or with their fists; but when Dyaks become involved in a controversy
+which cannot be adjusted by the tribal council, they have recourse to
+the _s'lam ayer_, or trial by water. This curious method of deciding
+disputes is conducted with great formality, according to the rules of
+an established code. For example, should two husky young head-hunters
+become involved in a lovers' quarrel over a village belle--the lobes of
+whose ears are probably pulled down to her shoulders by the weight of
+her brass earrings--they adjourn, with their seconds and their friends,
+to what might appropriately be called the pool of honor. Almost any
+place where there are four or five feet of water will do. Into the
+bottom of the pool the seconds drive two stout bamboo poles, a few
+yards apart. The rivals then wade out into the water and take up their
+positions, each grasping a pole. At a signal from the chief who is
+acting as umpire they plunge beneath the water, each duelist keeping
+his nostrils closed with one hand while with the other he clings to the
+pole so as to keep his head below the surface. As both of them would
+drown themselves rather than acknowledge defeat by coming to the
+surface voluntarily, at the first sign either of the two gives of being
+asphyxiated, the seconds, who are watching their principals closely,
+drag the rivals from the water. They are then held up by the heels,
+head downward, in order to drain off the water they have swallowed, the
+one who first recovers consciousness being declared the victor and
+awarded the hand of the lady fair. It is a quaint custom.
+
+As I have no desire to strain your credulity to the breaking-point, I
+will touch on only one more Dyak custom--the disposal of the dead. It
+seems a fitting subject with which to bring this account of the wild
+men to a close. Certain of the Dyak tribes expose their dead in trees,
+some burn them, while still others bury them until the flesh has
+disappeared, when they exhume the skeletons, disarticulate them, and
+seal the bones in the huge jars of Chinese porcelain which are a Dyak's
+most prized possession. Sometimes these burial-jars are kept in the
+family dwelling--a rather gruesome article of furniture to the European
+mind--but more often they are deposited in a grave-house, a small,
+fantastically decorated hut or shed which serves as a family vault. But
+I doubt if any people on the face of the globe have so weird a custom
+of disposing of their dead as the Kapuas of Central Borneo, who hollow
+out the trunk of a growing tree and in the space thus prepared insert
+the corpse of the departed. The bark is carefully replaced over the
+opening and the tree continues to grow and flourish--literally a living
+tomb.
+
+[Illustration: Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+steps of the palace at Tenggaroeng
+
+From left to right: the regent, Major Powell, the prime minister, the
+Sultan of Koetei (who has since ascended the throne), and the Dutch
+resident, M. de Haan]
+
+[Illustration: State procession in the Kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta]
+
+Noticing that I was interested in the equipment of the Dyaks, the
+Regent of Koetei called up their chief and, without so much as a
+by-your-leave, presented me with his sumpitan and the quiver of
+poisoned darts, his wooden shield--a long, narrow buckler of some
+light wood, tastily trimmed with seventy-two tufts of human hair,
+mementoes of that number of enemies slain on head-hunting
+expeditions--a peculiar coat of mail, composed of overlapping pieces of
+bark, capable of turning an arrow, and his imposing head-dress, which
+consisted of a cap formed from a leopard's head, with a sort of visor
+made from the beak of a hornbill, the whole surmounted by a bunch of
+yard-long tail-feathers from some bright-plumaged bird. When the
+presentation was concluded all the chieftain had left was his
+breech-clout. He did not share in my enthusiasm. From the murderous
+glance which he shot at me when the Regent was not looking, I judged
+that if he ever met me alone in the jungle he would get his shield
+back, with another scalp to add to his collection. And I could guess
+whose head that scalp would come from.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN BUGI LAND
+
+
+The _Negros_ was not fast--thirteen knots was about the best she could
+do--so that it took us two days to cross from Samarinda, in Borneo, to
+Makassar, the capital of the Celebes. Our course took us within sight
+of "the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank," where, as
+you may remember, Sir Anthony Gloster, of Kipling's ballad of _The Mary
+Gloster_, was buried beside his wife. Before our hawsers had fairly
+been made fast to the wharf at Makassar it became evident that among
+the natives our arrival had created a distinct sensation. The wharf was
+crowded with Bugis, as the natives of the southern Celebes are known,
+who tried in vain to make themselves understood by our Filipino crew.
+Instead of the boisterous curiosity which had marked the attitude of
+the natives at the other ports, the Bugis appeared to be laboring under
+a suppressed but none the less evident excitement. When I went ashore
+to call on the American Consul they made way for me with a respect
+which verged on reverence. This curious attitude was explained by the
+Consul.
+
+"Your coming has revived among the natives a very curious and ancient
+legend," he told me. "When the Dutch established their rule in the
+Celebes, something over three centuries ago, the King of the Bugis
+mysteriously disappeared. Whether he fled or was killed in battle, no
+one knows. In any event, from his disappearance arose a tradition that
+he had founded another kingdom in some islands far to the north, but
+that, when the time was propitious, he would return to free his people
+from foreign domination. Thus he came in time to be regarded as a
+divinity, a sort of Messiah. Curiously enough, the natives refer to him
+by a name which, translated into English, means 'the King of Manila.'
+Some months ago it was reported in the Makassar papers that the
+Governor-General of the Philippines expected to visit the Celebes upon
+his way to Australia, whereupon the rumor spread among the Bugis like
+wild-fire that 'the King of Manila' was about to return to his ancient
+kingdom, but the excitement gradually subsided when the
+Governor-General failed to appear. But when the _Negros_ entered the
+harbor this morning, and it was reported that she was from Manila and
+had on board a white man who had some mysterious mission in the
+interior of the island, the excitement flamed up again. The natives,
+you see, who are as simple and credulous as children, believe that you
+are the Messiah of their legend and that you have come to liberate them
+from Dutch rule."[2]
+
+    [Footnote 2: Owing to my ignorance of Dutch and Buginese, I was
+    unable to obtain a dependable account of this curious legend,
+    but the several versions which I heard agreed in the main with
+    that given above.]
+
+"But look here," said I, annoyance in my tone, "this isn't as funny as
+it seems. Tying me up to this fool tradition may result in spoiling my
+plans for taking pictures in the Celebes. Of course the Dutch
+authorities know perfectly well that I haven't come here to start a
+revolution, but, on the other hand, they may not want a person whom the
+natives regard as a Messiah to go wandering about in the interior,
+where Dutch rule is none too firmly established anyway, for fear that
+my presence might be used as an excuse for an insurrection."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," the Consul reassured me. "I'll take you
+over now to call on the Governor. He's a good sort and he'll do
+everything he can to help you. Then I'll send the editors of the
+vernacular papers around to the _Negros_ this afternoon to call on you.
+You can explain that you're here to get motion-pictures to illustrate
+the progress and prosperity of the Celebes, and it might be a good idea
+to tell them that some of your ancestors were Dutch. That will help to
+make you solid with the authorities. The interview will appear in the
+papers tomorrow and in twenty-four hours the news will have spread
+among the Bugis that you're not their Messiah after all."
+
+"But I'm not Dutch," I protested. "All my people were Welsh and
+English. The only connection I have with Holland is that the house in
+which I was born is on a street that has a Dutch name."
+
+"Fine!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Born on Van Rensselaer street,
+you say? Be sure and tell 'em that. That's the next best thing to
+having been born in Holland."
+
+"I know now," I said, "how it feels to refuse a throne."
+
+At tiffin that noon on the _Negros_ I told the story to the others. "So
+you see," I concluded, "if I had been willing to take a chance, I might
+have been King of the Bugis."
+
+"They wouldn't have called you that at home," the Lovely Lady said
+unkindly. "There they would have called you the King of the Bugs."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nature must have created Celebes in a capricious moment, such a medley
+of bold promontories, jutting peninsulas, deep gulfs and curving bays
+does its outline present. Indeed, its coast line is so irregular and so
+deeply indented by the three great gulfs or bays of Tomini, Tolo, and
+Boni that it is small wonder that the first European explorers assumed
+it was a group of islands and gave it the name of plural form which
+still perpetuates the very natural mistake. Its length is roughly about
+five hundred miles but its width is so varying that while it is over a
+hundred miles across the northern part of the island at the middle it
+is a scant twenty miles from coast to coast.
+
+Though the census of 1905 gave the population of the island as less
+than nine hundred thousand, the latest official estimate places it at
+about three millions. The actual number of inhabitants is probably
+midway between these figures. But, to tell the truth, the temperament
+of the savages who inhabit the interior is not conducive to an accurate
+enumeration, the Dutch census-takers being greeted with about the same
+degree of cordiality that the moonshiners of the Kentucky mountains
+extend to United States revenue agents.
+
+The three most important peoples of Celebes are the Bugis, the
+Makassars, and the Mandars. The medley of more or less savage tribes
+dwelling in the island are known as Alfuros--literally "wild"--which is
+the term applied by the Malays to all the uncivilized non-Mohammedan
+peoples in the eastern part of the archipelago. For the Bugis to refer
+to the tribes of the interior as wild is like the pot calling the
+kettle black. The Bugis, a passionate, half-savage, extremely
+revengeful people, originally occupied only the kingdom of Boni, in the
+southwestern peninsula, but from this district they have spread over
+the whole of Celebes and have founded settlements on many of the
+adjacent islands. They are the seamen of the archipelago, the greatest
+navigators and the most enterprising tradesmen, and were, in times gone
+by, the greatest pirates as well. In fact, the harbor master at
+Makassar told us that the crews of many of the rakish looking sailing
+craft which were anchored in close proximity to the _Negros_ were
+reformed buccaneers. Certainly they looked it. They may have reformed,
+but that did not prevent Captain Galvez from doubling the deck-watch at
+night while we were in Celebes waters. He believed in safety first.
+
+[Illustration: Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina
+
+Native women of the interior of Dutch Borneo]
+
+The Winsome Widow had been very enthusiastic about going to the Celebes
+because Makassar is the greatest market in the world for those
+ornaments so dear to the feminine heart--bird-of-paradise plumes. I
+explained to her that it was against the law to bring them into the
+United States, but no matter, she wanted to buy some. To visit Makassar
+without buying bird-of-paradise plumes, she said, would be like
+visiting Japan without buying a kimono. The bird is usually sold
+entire, the prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty dollars,
+according to size and condition, though, owing to the ruthless
+slaughter of the birds to meet the demands of the European market,
+prices are steadily advancing. The Winsome Widow bought four of the
+finest birds I have ever seen--gorgeous, flame-colored things with
+plumes nearly two feet long. How she proposed getting them into the
+United States she did not tell me, and I thought it as well not to ask
+her. She had them carefully packed in a wooden box made for the purpose
+which she did not open until nearly two months later, when we were
+steaming down the coast of Siam on a cargo boat, long after I had sent
+the _Negros_ back to Manila. Imagine her feelings when, upon opening
+the box to feast her eyes on her contraband treasures, she found it to
+contain nothing but waste paper! I suspect that the sweetheart of one
+of our Filipino cabin-boys is now wearing a hat fairly smothered in
+bird-of-paradise plumes.
+
+The Bugis' love of the sea has given them almost a monopoly of the
+trade around Celebes. Despite their fierce and warlike dispositions
+they are industrious and ingenious--qualities which usually do not go
+together; they practise agriculture more than the neighboring tribes
+and manufacture cotton cloth not only for their own use but for export.
+They also drive a thriving trade in such romantic commodities as gold
+dust, tortoise shell, pearls, nutmegs, camphor, and bird-of-paradise
+plumes. They dwell for the most part in walled enclosures known as
+_kampongs_, in flimsy houses built of bamboo and thatched with grass or
+leaves. But as diagonal struts are not used the walls soon lean over
+from the force of the wind, giving to the villages a curiously
+inebriated appearance. In several of the eight petty states which
+comprise the confederation of Boni the ruler is not infrequently a
+woman, the female line having precedence over the male line in
+succession to the throne. The women rulers of the Bugis have invariably
+shown themselves as astute, capable and warlike as the men, the
+princess who ruled in Boni during the middle of the last century having
+defeated three powerful military expeditions which the Dutch sent
+against her. Everything considered, the Bugis are perhaps the most
+interesting race in the entire archipelago.
+
+The Bugis are said to be more predisposed toward "running amok" than
+any other Malayan people. Having been warned of this unpleasant
+idiosyncrasy, I took the precaution, when among them, of carrying in
+the right-hand pocket of my jacket a service automatic, loaded and
+ready for instant action. For when a Bugi runs amok he will almost
+certainly get you unless you get him first. Running amok, I should
+explain, is the native term for the homicidal mania which attacks
+Malays. Without the slightest warning, and apparently without reason, a
+Malay, armed with a kris or other weapon, will rush into the street and
+slash at everybody, friends and strangers alike, until he is killed.
+These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity, but it
+is now believed that the typical _amok_ is the result of excitement due
+to circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which
+render the man desperate and weary of life. It is, in fact, the Malay
+equivalent of suicide. Though so intimately associated with the Malay,
+there are good grounds for believing the word to have an Indian origin.
+Certainly the act is far from unknown in Indian history. In Malabar,
+for example, it was long the custom for the zamorin or king of Calicut
+to cut his throat in public after he had reigned twelve years. But in
+the seventeenth century there was inaugurated a variation in this
+custom. After a great feast lasting for nearly a fortnight the ruler,
+surrounded by his bodyguard, had to take his seat at a national
+assembly, on which occasion it was lawful for anyone to attack him,
+and, if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself assumed the
+crown. In the year 1600, it is recorded, thirty men who would be king
+were killed while thus attempting to gain the throne. These men were
+called _Amar-khan_, and it has been suggested that their action was
+"running amok" in the true sense of the term. From this it would appear
+that a king of Calicut was about as good an insurance risk as a
+president of Haiti.
+
+The act of running amok is probably due to causes over which the
+culprit has some measure of control, as the custom has now virtually
+died out in the Philippines and in the British possessions in Malaysia,
+owing to the drastic measures adopted by the authorities. Among the
+Mohammedans of the southern Philippines, where the custom is known as
+_juramentado_, it was discouraged by burying the carcass of a pig--an
+animal abhorred by all Moslems--in the grave with the body of the
+assassin. When I was in Jolo the governor told me of a novel and highly
+effective method which had been adopted by the officer commanding the
+American forces in that island for discouraging the custom. A number of
+American soldiers had been killed by Moros running amok. The American
+commander took up the matter with the local priests but they only
+shrugged their shoulders with true Oriental stoicism, saying that when
+a man went _juramentado_ it was the will of Allah and that nothing
+could be done. The next day an American soldier, a revolver in either
+hand, burst into a Moro village, notorious for its _juramentados_,
+firing at everyone whom he saw and yelling like a mad man. The
+terrified villagers took to the bush, where they remained in fear and
+trembling until the crazy Americano had taken his departure. That
+evening the village priests appeared at headquarters to complain to the
+American commander.
+
+"But Americans have just as much right to go _juramentado_ as the
+Moros," said the general. "I can do nothing. The man is not
+responsible. It is the will of Allah." That was the end of
+_juramentado_ in Jolo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wharves and godowns which line Makassar's water-front form an
+unattractive screen to a picturesque and charming town. Though, owing
+to its commercial importance as a half-way station on the road from
+Asia to Australia, Makassar promises to become a second Singapore, it
+has as yet neither an electric lighting, gas, nor water system. It is,
+however, very beautifully laid out, the streets, which are broad and
+well-kept, being lined by double rows of magnificent canarium trees or
+tamarinds, whose branches interlace high overhead in a canopy of green.
+The European life of Makassar centers in the great grass-covered
+_plein_, or common, where band concerts, reviews, horse races,
+festivals, and similar events are held. Facing on the _plein_ is the
+palace of the Governor of the Celebes, a one-story, porticoed building
+with white walls and green blinds, in the Dutch colonial style, a type
+of architecture which is admirably adapted to the tropics. Next to the
+palace is the Oranje Hotel, a well-kept and comfortable hostelry as
+hotels go in Malaysia. On its terrace the homesick Europeans gather
+toward twilight to sip _advocat_--a drink which is a first cousin to
+the egg-nogg of pre-Volstead days, very popular in the Indies--and to
+listen to the military band playing on the _plein_.
+
+Diagonally across the _plein_ rise the massive walls of Fort Rotterdam,
+erected by one of the native rulers, the King of Goa, with the
+assistance of the Portuguese, when the seventeenth century was still in
+its infancy and when the settlement on the lower end of Manhattan
+Island was still called Nieuw Amsterdam. The capture of the fort by the
+Dutch in 1667 signalized the passing of Portuguese power in Asia. Pass
+the slovenly native sentry at the outer gate, cross the creaking
+drawbridge, and, were it not for the tropical vegetation and the
+oppressive heat, you might think yourself in the Low Countries instead
+of a few degrees below the Line, for the crenelated ramparts, the
+shaded, gravelled paths, the ancient garrison church, the officers'
+quarters with their steep-pitched, red-tiled roofs, make the interior a
+veritable bit of Holland, transplanted to a tropic island half the
+world away.
+
+Makassar has a population of about fifty thousand, including something
+over a thousand Europeans and some five thousand Chinese, but as most
+of the natives live in their walled kampongs in the environs, the city
+appears much smaller than it really is. The retail trade is almost
+wholly in the hands of the Chinese, many of whom are men of great
+wealth and influence. There was also a small colony of Japanese, but,
+as a result of the boycott which the Chinese had instituted against
+them in reprisal for Japan's refusal to evacuate Shantung, they were
+unable to find markets for their wares or to obtain employment and,
+in consequence, were being forced to leave the island. The only
+American in the Celebes when we were there was the representative of
+the Standard Oil Company--a desperately homesick youngster from
+Missouri who had been a lieutenant of aviation. He introduced himself
+to us on the terrace of the Oranje Hotel, begged the privilege of
+buying the drinks, and pleaded with an eagerness that was almost
+pathetic for the latest news from God's Country. At almost every place
+of importance which we visited in Malaysia we found these agents of
+Standard Oil--alert and clean-cut young fellows, who, far from home and
+friends, are helping to build up a commercial empire for America
+oversea.
+
+The native soldiery, who form the bulk of the Makassar garrison, are
+quartered, with their families, in long, stone barracks--ten couples to
+a room. For every soldier of the colonial forces, whether European or
+native, is permitted to keep a woman in the barracks with him. If she
+is the soldier's wife, well and good, but the authorities do not frown
+if the couple have omitted the formality of standing up before a
+clergyman. The rooms in which the soldiers and their families live have
+no partitions, to each couple being assigned a space about eight feet
+square, which is chalk-marked on the floor. The only article of
+furniture in each of these "apartments" is a bed, which is really a
+broad, low platform covered with a grass-mat, for in a land where the
+mercury not infrequently climbs to 120 in the shade, there is no need
+for bedding. Here they eat and sleep and make their toilets, the women
+preparing the meals for their men and for themselves in ovens
+out-of-doors. At night the beds may be separated by drawing the
+flimsiest of cotton curtains--the only concession to privacy that I
+could discover. As Malays invariably have large families, the barrack
+room usually has the appearance of a day nursery, with naked brown
+youngsters crawling everywhere, but at night they are disposed of in
+fiber hammocks which are slung over the parents' heads. The colonel in
+command at Fort Rotterdam told me that in the new type of barracks
+which were being built in Java each family would be assigned a separate
+room, but he seemed to regard such provisions for privacy as wholly
+unnecessary and a shameful waste of money.
+
+The military authorities not only permit, but encourage the Dutch
+soldiers to contract alliances of a temporary character with native
+women during their term of service in the Insulinde, with the idea, no
+doubt, of making them more contented. During operations in the field
+the women and children, instead of remaining behind in barracks,
+accompany the troops almost to the firing-line, a custom which,
+apparently, does not interfere with efficiency or discipline. Indeed,
+there are few forces of equal size in the world which have seen as much
+active service as the army of Netherlands India, for in the extension
+of Dutch dominion throughout the archipelago the native rulers rarely
+have surrendered their authority without fighting. Though the
+newspapers seldom mention it, Holland is almost constantly engaged in
+some little war in some remote corner of her Indian empire, in certain
+districts of Sumatra, for example, fighting having been almost
+continuous these many years.
+
+Though the flag of Holland was first hoisted over the Celebes more than
+three centuries ago, Dutch commercial interests are still virtually
+confined to the four chief towns--Makassar, Menado, Gorontalo, and
+Tondano--and this in spite of the fact that the interior of the island
+is known to be immensely rich in natural resources. In the native
+states Dutch authority is little more than nominal, the repeated
+attempts which have been made to subjugate them invariably having met
+with discouragement and not infrequently with disaster. Hence the
+island is still without railways, though it is being slowly opened up
+by means of roads, some of which are practicable for motor-cars. Most
+of the roads in the Celebes were originally built by means of the
+Corv�e, or forced labor, the natives being compelled to spend one month
+out of the twelve in road construction. But, though they were taken for
+this work at a season when they could best be spared from their fields,
+it was an enormous tax to impose upon an agricultural population,
+resulting in grave discontent and in seriously retarding the
+development of the island. For, ever since Marshal Daendels, "the Iron
+Marshal," who ruled the Indies under Napoleon, utilized forced labor to
+build the splendid eight-hundred-mile-long highway which runs from one
+end of Java to the other, the corv�e has been a synonym for
+unspeakable cruelty and oppression throughout the Insulinde. Each
+_dessa_, or district, through which the great trans-Java highway runs
+was forced to construct, within an allotted period, a certain section
+of the road, the natives working without pay while their crops rotted
+in the fields and their families starved. As a final touch of tyranny,
+the grim old Marshal gave orders that if a _dessa_ did not complete its
+section of the road within the allotted time the chiefs of that
+district were to be taken out and hung.
+
+When the Dutch determined to open up Celebes by the construction of a
+highway system they realized the wisdom of obtaining the cooperation of
+the native rulers. But when they outlined their scheme to the King of
+Goa, the most powerful chieftain in the southern part of the island,
+they encountered, if not open opposition, at least profound
+indifference. This was scarcely a matter for surprise, however, for the
+King quite obviously had no use for roads, first, because when he had
+occasion to journey through his dominions he either rode on horseback
+or was carried in a palanquin along the narrow jungle trails; secondly,
+because he was perfectly well aware that by aiding in the construction
+of roads he would be undermining his own power, for roads would mean
+white men. To attempt to build a road across Goa in the face of the
+King's opposition, would, as the Dutch realized, probably precipitate a
+native uprising, for, without his cooperation, it would be necessary
+to make use of the corv�e to obtain laborers.
+
+But the Governor of the Celebes had been trained in a different school
+from the Iron Marshal. He believed that with an ignorant and suspicious
+native, such as the King of Goa, tact could accomplish more than
+threats. So, instead of attempting to build the road by forced labor,
+he sent to Batavia for a fine European horse and a luxurious carriage,
+gaudily painted, which he presented to the King as a token of the
+government's esteem and friendship. Now the King of Goa, as the
+governor was perfectly aware, had about as much use for a wheeled
+vehicle in his roadless dominions as a Bedouin of the Sahara has for a
+sailboat. But the King did precisely what the governor anticipated that
+he would do: in order that he might display his new possession he
+promptly ordered his subjects to build him a carriage road from his
+capital to Makassar. Thus the government of the Celebes obtained a
+perfectly good highway for the price of a horse and carriage, and won
+the friendship of the most powerful of the native rulers into the
+bargain. After some years, however, the road began to fall into
+disrepair, but as by this time the novelty of the horse and carriage
+had worn off, the King took little interest in its improvement. So the
+governor again had recourse to diplomacy to gain his ends, this time
+presenting his Goanese Majesty with a motor-car, gorgeous with scarlet
+paint and polished brass. And, in order that the King might be brought
+to realize that the roads were not in a condition conducive to
+comfortable motoring, a young Dutch officer took him for his first
+motor ride. That ride evidently jolted the memory as well as the body
+of the dusky monarch, for the next day a royal edict was issued
+summoning hundreds of natives to put the road in good repair. And, as
+the King quickly acquired a taste for speeding, in good repair it has
+remained ever since.
+
+I have related this episode not because it is in itself of any great
+importance, but because it serves to illustrate the methods used by the
+Dutch officials in handling recalcitrant or stubborn natives. Though
+Holland rules her fifty million brown subjects with an iron hand, she
+has long since learned the wisdom of wearing over the iron a velvet
+glove.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DOWN TO AN ISLAND EDEN
+
+
+I went to Bali, which is an island two-thirds the size of Porto Rico,
+off the eastern extremity of Java, because I wished to see for myself
+if the accounts I had heard of the surpassing beauty of its women were
+really true. The Dutch officials whom I had met in Samarinda and
+Makassar had depicted the obscure little isle as a flaming, fragrant
+garden, overrun with flowers, a sort of unspoiled island Eden, where
+bronze-brown Eves with faces and figures of surpassing loveliness
+disported themselves on the long white beaches, or loitered the lazy
+days away beneath the palms. But I went there skeptical at heart, for,
+ever since I journeyed six thousand miles to see the women for whom
+Circassia has long been undeservedly famous, I have listened with doubt
+and distrust to the tales told by returned travelers of the nymphs whom
+they had found, leading an Arcadian existence, on distant tropic isles.
+
+Yet I must admit that, when the anchor of the _Negros_ splashed into
+the blue waters off Boeleleng, on the northern coast of the island, and
+a boat's crew of white-clad Filipinos rowed me ashore, I half expected
+to find a Balinese edition of the Ziegfeld Follies chorus waiting to
+greet me with demonstrations of welcome and garlands of flowers. What I
+did find on the wharf was a surly Dutch harbor-master, who, judging
+from his breath and disposition, had been on a prolonged carouse. Of
+the women whose beauty I had heard chanted in so many ports, or,
+indeed, of a native Balinese of any kind, there was no sign. Barring
+the harbor-master and a handful of Chinese, Boeleleng, which is a place
+of some size, appeared to be deserted. Yet, as I strolled along its
+waterfront, I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched by
+many pairs of unseen eyes.
+
+"Where has everyone gone?" I demanded of the impassive Chinese steward
+who served me liquid refreshment at the Concordia Club. (Every town in
+the Insulinde has its Concordia Club, just as every Swiss town has its
+Grand Hotel.)
+
+"Menjepee," he answered mystically, shrugging his shoulders. "Evlyone
+stay in house."
+
+"Menjepee, eh?" I repeated. "Never heard of it. Some sort of disease, I
+suppose, like cholera or plague. If that's why everyone has run away I
+think that I'd better be leaving."
+
+A ghost of a smile flitted across the Celestial's impassive
+countenance.
+
+"No clolra. No pleg," he assured me. "Menjepee make by pliest."
+
+Before I could elucidate this curious statement there entered the club
+a young Hollander immaculate in pipe-clayed top�e and freshly starched
+white linen.
+
+"It's not a disease; it's a religious observance," he explained in
+perfect English, overhearing my last words. "They call it Menjepee,
+which, literally translated, means 'silence.' The Balinese are Hindus,
+you know--about the only ones left in the Islands--and they observe the
+Hindu festivals very strictly. Their priests raise the very devil with
+them if they don't. During Menjepee, which lasts twenty-four hours, no
+native is permitted to set foot outside the wall of his kampong except
+for the most urgent reasons, and even then he has to get permission
+from his priest. If he is caught outside his kampong without permission
+he is heavily fined, to say nothing of being given the cold shoulder by
+his neighbors."
+
+"I was told in Samarinda," I remarked carelessly, by way of introducing
+the topic in which I was most interested, "that some of the native
+girls here in Bali are remarkably good looking."
+
+"I thought you'd be asking about them," the Hollander commented dryly.
+"That's usually the first question asked by everyone who comes to Bali.
+But you won't find them on this side of the island. If you want to see
+them you'll have to cross over to the south side. The prettiest girls
+are to be found in the vicinity of Den Pasar and Kloeng Kloeng."
+
+"So I had heard," I told him. "I am going to cross the island by motor
+and have my boat pick me up on the other side. How far is it to Den
+Pasar?"
+
+"Only about sixty miles and you'll have a tolerably good mountain road
+all the way. But you can't go today."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Menjepee," was the laconic answer. "You won't be able to get anyone to
+take you. There are only four or five motor cars in Boeleleng and their
+drivers are all Hindus."
+
+I smothered an expletive of annoyance, for my time was limited and the
+_Negros_ had already sailed.
+
+"Surely you don't mean to tell me that there is no way in which I can
+get across the island today?" I demanded. "This Menjepee business is as
+infernal a nuisance as a taxicab strike in New York."
+
+"Perhaps the Resident might be able to do something for you," my
+acquaintance suggested after a moment's consideration. "He's a good
+sort and he's always glad to meet visitors. We don't have many of them
+here, heaven knows. Look here. I've a sado outside. Suppose you hop in
+and I'll drive you up to the Residency and you can ask the Resident to
+help you out."
+
+As we rattled in a sort of governess-cart, called sado, up the broad,
+palm-lined avenue which leads from Boeleleng to Singaradja, the seat of
+government, three miles away, I caught fleeting glimpses of natives
+peering at me furtively over the mud walls which surround their
+kampongs, but the instant they saw that they were observed they
+disappeared from view. The Resident I found to be a man of charm and
+culture who had twice crossed the United States on his way to and from
+Holland. At first he was dubious whether anything could be done for me,
+explaining that Menjepee is as devoutly observed by the Hindus of Bali
+as the fasting month of Ramadan is by the Mohammedans of Turkey, and
+that the Dutch officials make it a rule never to interfere with the
+religious observances of the natives. He finally consented, however, to
+send for the chief priest and see if he could persuade him, in view of
+my limited time, to grant a special dispensation to a native who could
+drive a car. I don't know what arguments he used, but they must have
+been effective, for within the hour we heard the honk of a motor-horn
+at the Residency gate.
+
+"We have no hotels in Bali," the Resident remarked as I was taking my
+departure, "but I'll telephone over to the Assistant Resident at Den
+Pasar to have a room ready for you at the passangrahan--that's the
+government rest-house, you know. And I'll also send word to the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng that you are coming and ask him to arrange
+some native dances for you. He's very keen about that sort of thing and
+knows where to get the best dancers in the island."
+
+"Tell me," I queried, as I was about to enter the car, "are these girls
+I've heard so much about really pretty?"
+
+The Resident smiled cynically.
+
+"Well," he replied, and I thought that I could detect a note of
+homesickness in his voice, "it depends upon the point of view. When you
+first arrive in Bali you swear that they are the prettiest
+brown-skinned women in the world. But after you have been here a year
+or so you get so tired of everything connected with the tropics that
+you don't give the best of them a second glance. For my part, give me a
+plain, wholesome-looking Dutch girl with a lusty figure and
+corn-colored hair and cheeks like apples in preference to all the
+cafe-au-lait beauties in Bali."
+
+"Au revoir," I called, as I signaled to the driver and the car leaped
+forward. "If I listen to you any longer I shall have no illusions
+left."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Save only its western end, which is covered with dense jungle inhabited
+by tigers and boa-constrictors, Bali is a vast garden, ablaze with the
+most gorgeous flowers that you can imagine and criss-crossed by a
+net-work of hard, white roads which alternately wind through huge
+cocoanut plantations or skirt interminable paddy fields. From the coast
+the ground rises steadily to a ridge formed by a central range of
+mountains, which culminate in the imposing, cloud-wreathed Peak of
+Bali, two miles high. Streams rushing down from the mountains have cut
+the rich brown loam of the lowlands into deep ravines, down which the
+brawling torrents make their way to the sea between high banks
+smothered in tropical vegetation. The most remarkable feature of the
+landscape, however, are the rice terraces, built by hand at an
+incredible cost of time and labor, which climb the slopes of the
+mountains, tier on tier, like the seats in a Roman ampitheatre,
+sometimes to a height of three thousand feet or more, constituting one
+of the engineering marvels of the world.
+
+The southern slope of the divide appeared to be much more thickly
+peopled than the northern, for, as we sped down the steep grades with
+brakes a-squeal, villages of mud-walled, straw-thatched huts became
+increasingly frequent, nor did the natives appear to be observing
+Menjepee as strictly as in the vicinity of Boeleleng, for they stood in
+the gateways of their kampongs and waved at us as we whirled past, and
+more than once we saw groups of them squatting in a circle beside the
+road, engaged in the national pastime of cock-fighting. Now we began to
+encounter the women whose beauty is famous throughout Malaysia:
+glorious, up-standing creatures with great masses of blue-black hair, a
+faint _couleur de rose_ diffusing itself through their skins of brown
+satin. They were taller than any other women I saw in Malaysia, lithe
+and supple as Ruth St. Denis, and bearing themselves with a quiet
+dignity and lissome grace. From waist to ankle they were tightly
+wrapped in _kains_ of brilliant batik, which defined, without
+revealing, every line and contour of their hips and lower limbs, but
+from the waist up they were entirely nude, barring the flame-colored
+flowers in their dusky hair.
+
+Unlike most Malays, the eyes of the Balinese, instead of being oblique,
+are set straight in the head. The nose, which frequently mars what
+would otherwise be well-nigh perfect features, is generally small and
+flat, with too-wide nostrils, though I saw a number of Balinese women
+with noses which were distinctly aquiline--the result of a strain of
+European blood, perhaps. The lips are thick, yet well formed; the teeth
+are naturally regular and white but are all too often stained scarlet
+with betel-nut, which is to the Balinese girl what chewing-gum is to
+her sister of Broadway. The complexion ranges from a deep but rosy
+brown to a _nuance_ no darker than that of a European brunette, but in
+the eyes of the Balinese themselves a golden-yellow complexion, the
+color of weak tea, is the perfection of female beauty. But the chief
+charm of these island Eves is found, after all, not in their faces but
+in their figures--slender, rounded, willowy, deep-bosomed, such as
+Botticelli loved to paint.
+
+Despite the alluring tales brought back by South Sea travelers of the
+radiant creatures who go about unclad as when they were born, I have
+myself found no spot, save only Equatorial Africa, where women dispense
+with clothing habitually and without shame. Indeed, I have seen girls
+far more scantily clad on the stage of the Ziegfeld Roof or the Winter
+Garden than I ever have in those distant lands which have not yet
+received the blessings of civilization. In most of the Polynesian
+islands the painter or photographer can usually bribe a native girl to
+disrobe for him, just as in Paris or New York he can find models who
+for a consideration will pose in the nude, but when the picture is
+completed she promptly resumes the shapeless and hideous garments of
+Mother Hubbard cut which the missionaries were guilty of introducing
+and whose all-enveloping folds, they na�vely believe, form a shield and
+a buckler against temptations of the flesh. But there are no
+missionaries in Bali, not one--though the Board of Foreign Missions may
+interest itself in the islanders after this book appears--and the women
+continue to dress as they should with such figures and in such a
+climate.
+
+Because of a flat tire, the driver stopped the car beside a little
+stream in which two extremely pretty girls were bathing. With the
+evening sun glinting on their brown bodies and their piquant, oval
+faces framed by the dusky torrents of their loosened hair, they looked
+like those bronze maidens which disport themselves in the fountain of
+the Piazza delle Terme in Rome, come to life. I felt certain that they
+would take to flight when Hawkinson unlimbered his motion-picture
+camera and trained it upon them, but they continued their joyous
+splashing without the slightest trace of self-consciousness or
+confusion. In fact, when a Balinese girl becomes embarrassed, she does
+not betray it by covering her body but by drawing over her face a veil
+which looks like a piece of black fishnet. Their bath completed, the
+maidens emerged from the water on to the farther bank, paused for a
+moment to arrange their hair, like wood nymphs of the Golden Age, then
+wound their gorgeous _kains_ about them and vanished amid the trees.
+From somewhere on the distant hillside came the sweet, shrill quaver of
+a reed instrument. The driver said it was a native flute, but I knew
+better. It was the pipes of Pan....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rather than that you should be scandalized when you visit Bali, let me
+make it quite clear that in matters of morality the Balinese women are
+as easy as an old shoe. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that
+they are unmoral rather than immoral. This is one of the conditions of
+life in the Insulinde which must be accepted by the traveler, just as
+he accepts as a matter of course the heat and the insects and the dirt.
+Though polygamy is practised, it is confined, because of the expense
+involved in maintaining a matrimonial stable, to the wealthier chiefs
+and other men of means. A Turkish pasha who maintained a large harem
+once told me that polygamy is as trying to the disposition as it is to
+the pocketbook, because of the incessant jealousies and bickerings
+among the wives. And I suppose the same conditions obtain in the
+seraglios of Bali. The former rajah of Kloeng Kloeng, now known as the
+Regent, a stout and jovial old gentleman arrayed in a cerise _kain_, a
+sky-blue head-cloth, and a white jacket with American twenty-dollar
+gold pieces for buttons, told me with a touch of pride that he had
+twenty-five wives in his harem. But his pride subsided like a pricked
+toy balloon when the Controleur, who had overheard the boast, mentioned
+that another regent, the ruler of a district at the western end of the
+island, possessed upward of three hundred wives--of the exact number he
+was not certain as it was constantly fluctuating. To my great regret I
+could not spare the time to pay a visit to this Balinese Brigham Young.
+There were a number of questions relative to domestic economy and
+household administration which I should have liked to have asked him.
+
+Until very recent years, the young Balinese girl who married an old
+husband incurred the risk of meeting an untimely and extremely
+unpleasant end, for the island was the last stronghold of that strange
+and dreadful Hindu custom, _suttee_--the burning of widows. The last
+public _suttee_ in Bali was held as recently as 1907, but, in spite of
+the stern prohibition of the practise by the Dutch, it is said that
+some women faithful to the old customs and to their dead husbands
+continue to join the latter on the funeral pyre. In fact, the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng told me that, only a few weeks before my
+arrival, two women had begged him on their knees for permission to be
+burned with the body of the dear departed, whom they wished to share in
+death as in life.
+
+The Balinese, being devout Hindus, burn their dead, but the cremations
+are held only twice yearly, being observed as holidays, like
+Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. If a man dies shortly before the
+cremation season is due, his remains are kept in the house until they
+can be incinerated with befitting ceremony--though I imagine that, in
+view of the torrid climate, the members of his family perforce move
+elsewhere for the time being--but if he is so inconsiderate as to
+postpone his dying until after one of these semi-annual burnings, it
+becomes necessary to bury him. In a land where the thermometer
+frequently registers 100 and above, you couldn't keep a corpse around
+the house for several months, could you? When cremation day comes round
+again, however, he is dug up, taken to a temple and burned. There is no
+escaping the funeral-pyre in Bali. As we were leaving one of the
+cremation places I overheard the Doctor irreverently humming a
+paraphrase of a song which was very popular in the army during the war:
+
+    "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
+    If the grave don't get you the wood-pile must."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unlike the South Sea islanders, who are rapidly dying out as the result
+of diseases introduced by Europeans, the population of Bali--which is
+one of the most densely peopled regions in the world, with 325
+inhabitants to the square mile--is rapidly increasing, having more than
+doubled in the last fifteen years. This is due in some measure, no
+doubt, to the climate, which, though hot, is healthy save in certain
+low-lying coastal districts, but much more, I imagine, to the fact that
+there are scarcely a hundred Europeans on the island, and that, as
+there are no harbors worthy the name, European vessels rarely touch
+there. It is well for the Balinese that their enchanted island has no
+harbors, for harbors mean ships, and ships mean white men, and white
+men, particularly sailors, all too often leave undesirable mementoes
+of their visits behind them.
+
+The men of Bali are a fine, strong, dignified, rather haughty race, fit
+mates in physique for their women. They are considerably taller than
+any other Malays whom I saw and possess less Mongoloid and Negroid
+characteristics, these being subdued by some strong primeval alien
+strain which is undoubtedly Caucasian. Though now peaceable enough,
+every Balinese man carries in his sash a kris--the long, curly-bladed
+knife which is the national weapon of Malaysia. Most of the krises that
+I examined were more ornamental than serviceable, some of them having
+scabbards of solid gold and hilts set with precious stones. Moreover,
+they are worn against the middle of the back, where they must be
+difficult to reach in an emergency. I imagine that the kris, universal
+though it is, serves as a symbol of former militancy rather than as a
+fighting weapon, just as the buttons at the back of our tailcoats serve
+to remind us that their original purpose was to support a sword-belt.
+But, though the Balinese have made no serious trouble for their Dutch
+rulers for upward of a decade, they long resisted European domination,
+as evidenced by the four bloody uprisings in the last three-quarters of
+a century--the last was in 1908--which were suppressed only with
+difficulty and considerable loss of life. When the shells from the
+gunboats began to burst over their towns, the rajahs, recognizing that
+their cause was lost, nerved themselves with opium and committed the
+traditional _puputan_, or, with their wives, threw themselves on the
+Dutch bayonets. But, though the Balinese have bowed perforce to the
+authority of the stout young woman who dwells in The Hague, they have
+none of the cringing servility, that look of pathetic appeal such as
+you see in the eyes of dogs which have been mistreated, so
+characteristic of the Javanese.
+
+Though the three-quarters of a million natives in Bali have behind them
+the traditions of countless wars, the Dutch, who seem to possess an
+extraordinary talent for governing brown-skinned peoples, maintain
+their authority with a few companies of native soldiery officered by a
+handful of Europeans. The success of the Dutch in ruling Malays, who
+are notoriously turbulent and warlike, is largely due to the fact that,
+so long as the customs of the natives are not inimical to good
+government or to their own well-being, they studiously refrain from
+interfering with them. Nor is there the same social chasm separating
+Europeans and natives in the Insulinde which is found in Britain's
+Eastern possessions. Were a British official in India to marry a native
+woman he would be promptly recalled in disgrace; if a Dutch official
+marries a native woman she is accorded the same social recognition as
+her husband. Though in the old days probably ninety per cent of the
+Dutch officials and planters in the Insulinde lived with native women,
+these unions are constantly decreasing, today probably not more than
+ten per cent of the Europeans thus solving their domestic problems. It
+struck me, moreover, that the Dutch are more in sympathy with their
+native subjects, that they understand them better, than the British. It
+is a remarkable thing, when you stop to think of it, that a little
+nation like Holland, with a colonial army of less than thirty-five
+thousand men and no fleet worthy of the name, should be able to
+maintain its authority over fifty millions of natives, ten thousand
+miles away, with so little friction.
+
+We passed the night in the small rest-house at Den Pasar which the
+government maintains for the use of its officials. I have said that we
+_passed_ the night, mark you; I refuse to toy with the truth to the
+extent of saying that we slept. Why they call it a rest-house I cannot
+imagine. Never that I can recall, save only in a zoo, have I found
+myself on such intimate terms with so many forms of animal life as in
+that _passangrahan_. Cockroaches nearly as large as mice (before you
+raise your eyebrows at this statement talk with anyone who has traveled
+in Malaysia), spiders, centipedes, ants and beetles made my bedroom an
+entomologist's paradise. Some large winged animal, presumably a
+fruit-bat or a flying-fox, entered by the window and circled the room
+like an airplane; and, judging from the sounds which proceeded from
+beneath the bed, I gathered that the room also harbored a snake or a
+large rat, though which I was not certain as I saw no reason for
+investigating. A family of lizards disported themselves on the ceiling
+and when I menaced them with a stick they departed so hastily that one
+of them abandoned his tail, which dropped on the wash-stand. A
+squadron of mosquitoes--a sort of _escadrille de chasse_, as it
+were--kept me awake until daybreak, when they were relieved by a
+skirmishing party of _cimex lectulariae_, which are well known in
+America under a shorter and less polite name. Fishes only were absent,
+but I am convinced that their neglect of me was due to ignorance of my
+presence. Had they known of it I feel certain that the climbing fish,
+which is one of the curiosities of these waters, would have flopped on
+to my pillow.
+
+Upon our arrival at Kloeng Kloeng I found the Controleur, who had been
+notified by the Resident at Singaradja of our coming, had made
+arrangements for an elaborate series of native dances to be given that
+afternoon on the lawn of the residency. It is a simple matter to
+arrange a dance in Bali, for every village, no matter how small,
+supports a ballet, and usually a troupe of actors as well, just as an
+American community supports a baseball team. The money for the gorgeous
+costumes worn by the dancers is raised by local subscription and the
+ballet frequently visits the neighboring towns to give exhibitions or
+to engage in competitions, contingents of the dancers' townspeople
+usually going along to root for them.
+
+The Balinese dances require many years of arduous and constant
+training. A girl is scarcely out of the sling by which Balinese
+children are carried on the mother's back before, under the tutelage of
+her mother, who has herself perhaps been a dancing-girl in her time,
+she begins the severe course of gymnastics and muscle training which
+are the foundations of all Eastern dances. From infancy until, not yet
+in her teens, she becomes a member of the village ballet or enters the
+harem of a local rajah, she is as assiduously trained and groomed as a
+race-horse entered for the Derby. From morning until night, day after
+day, year after year, the muscles of her shoulders, her back, her hips,
+her legs, her abdomen are suppled and developed until they will respond
+to her wishes as readily as her slender, henna-stained fingers.
+
+The lawn on which the dances were held sloped down, like a great green
+rug, from the squat white residency to an ancient Hindu temple, whose
+walls, of red-brown sandstone, were transformed by the setting sun into
+rosy coral. The Bali temples are but open courtyards enclosed within
+high walls, their entrances flanked by towering gate-posts, grotesquely
+carved. Within the courtyards, which have arrangements for the
+cremation of the dead as well as for the refreshment of the living, are
+numerous roofed platforms and small, elevated shrines, reached by steep
+flights of narrow steps, every square inch being covered with intricate
+and fantastic carvings. These carvings are for the most part
+beautifully colored, so that, when illuminated by the sun, they look
+like those porcelain bas-reliefs which one buys in Florence, or, if the
+colors are undimmed by age, like Persian enamel. In some of the temples
+which I visited, the colorings had been ruthlessly obliterated by coats
+of whitewash, but in those communities where Hinduism is still a
+living force, the inhabitants frequently impoverish themselves in
+order to provide the gold-leaf with which the interiors of the shrines
+are covered, just as the congregations of American churches praise God
+with carven pulpits and windows of stained glass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stage setting for the dances consisted of a small, portable pagoda,
+heavily gilded and set with mirrors--nothing more, unless you include
+the backdrop provided by the Indian Ocean. On either side of the
+pagoda, which was set in the centre of the lawn, squatted a motionless
+native holding a long-handled parasol of gold, known as a _payong_. So
+far as I could discover, the purpose of these parasol holders was
+purely ornamental, like the palms that flank a concert stage, for they
+never stirred throughout the four hours that the dancing lasted. The
+dancers themselves were extremely young--barely in their teens, I
+should say--but I could only guess their ages as their faces were so
+heavily enameled that they might as well have been wearing masks. Their
+costumes, faithful reproductions of those depicted in the carvings on
+the walls of the temples, were of a gorgeousness which made the
+creations of Bakst seem colorless and tame: tightly-wound _kains_ of
+cloth-of-gold over which were draped silks in all the colors of the
+chromatic scale. Their necks and arms, which were stained a saffron
+yellow, were hung with jewels or near-jewels. On their heads were
+towering, indescribable affairs of feathers, flowers and tinsel,
+faintly reminiscent of those fantastic headdresses affected by the
+lamented Gaby. The music was furnished by a _gamelan_, or orchestra, of
+half-a-hundred musicians playing on drums, gongs and reeds, with a few
+xylophones thrown in for good measure. I am no judge of music, but it
+seemed to me that when the _gamelan_ was working at full speed it
+compared very favorably with an American jazz orchestra.
+
+All the dances illustrated episodes from the Ramayana or other Hindu
+mythologies localized, the story being recited in a monotonous,
+sing-song chant, in the old Kawi or sacred language, by a professional
+accompanist who sat, cross-legged, in the orchestra. As a result of
+constant drilling since babyhood, the Balinese dancers attain a
+perfection of technique unknown on the western stage, but the visitor
+who expects to see the verve and abandon of the Indian dances as
+portrayed by Ruth St. Denis is certain to be disappointed. To tell the
+truth, the dances of Bali, like those I saw in Java and Cambodia, are
+rather tedious performances, beautiful, it is true, but almost totally
+lacking in that fire and spirit which we associate with the East. It is
+probable, however, that I am not sufficiently educated in the art of
+Terpsichore to appreciate them. It was as though I had been given a
+selection from _Die Niebelungen Lied_ when I had looked for rag-time.
+But the natives are passionately fond of them, it being by no means
+uncommon, I was told, for a dance to begin in the late afternoon and
+continue without interruption until daybreak. The Controleur told me
+that he planned to utilize his next long leave in taking a native
+ballet to Europe, and, perhaps, to the United States. So, should you
+see the Bali dancers advertised to appear on Broadway, I strongly
+advise you not to miss them.
+
+Instead of going to Palm Beach next winter, or to Havana, or to the
+Riviera, why don't you go out to Bali and see its lovely women, its
+curious customs, and its superb scenery for yourself? You can get there
+in about eight weeks, provided you make good connections at Singapore
+and Surabaya. With no railways, no street-cars, no hotels, no
+newspapers, no theatres, no movies, it is a very restful place. You can
+lounge the lazy days away in the cool depths of flower-smothered
+verandahs, with a brown house-boy pulling at the punkah-rope and
+another bringing you cool drinks in tall, thin glasses--for the
+Volstead Act does not run west of the 160th meridian--or you can stroll
+in the moonlight on the long white beaches with lithe brown beauties
+who wear passion-flowers in their raven hair. Or, should you weary of
+so _dolce far niente_ an existence, you can sail across to Java with
+the opium-runners in their fragile _prahaus_, or climb a two-mile-high
+volcano, or in the jungles at the western extremity of the island stalk
+the clouded tiger. And you can wear pajamas all day long without
+apologizing. Everything considered, Bali offers more inducements than
+any place I know to the tired business man or the absconding bank
+cashier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GARDEN THAT IS JAVA
+
+
+I entered Java through the back door, as it were. That is to say,
+instead of landing at Batavia, which is the capital of Netherlands
+India, and presenting my letters of introduction to the
+Governor-General, Count van Limburg Stirum, I landed at Pasuruan, at
+the eastern extremity of the six-hundred-mile-long island. It was as
+though a foreigner visiting the United States were to land at Sag
+Harbor, on the far end of Long Island, instead of at New York. I
+learned afterward, from the American Consul-General at Batavia, that in
+doing this I committed a breach of etiquette. Though the Dutch make no
+official objections to foreigners landing where they please in their
+Eastern possessions, they much prefer to have them ring the front
+doorbell, hand in their cards, and give the authorities an opportunity
+to look them over. In these days, with Bolshevik emissaries stealthily
+at work throughout the archipelago, the Dutch feel that it behooves
+them to inspect strangers with some care before giving them the run of
+the islands.
+
+We landed at Pasuruan because it is the port nearest to Bromo, the most
+famous of the great volcanoes of Eastern Java, but as there is no
+harbor, only a shallow, unprotected roadstead, it was necessary for
+the _Negros_ to anchor nearly three miles offshore. So shallow is the
+water, indeed, that it is a common sight at low tide to see the native
+fishermen standing knee-deep in the sea a mile from land. Until quite
+recently debarkation at Pasuruan was an extremely uncomfortable and
+undignified proceeding, the passengers on the infrequent vessels which
+touch there being carried ashore astride of a rail borne on the
+shoulders of two natives. A coat of tar and feathers was all that was
+needed to make the passenger feel that he was a victim of the Ku Klux
+Klan. But a narrow channel has now been dredged through the sand-bar so
+that row-boats and launches of shallow draught can make their way up
+the squdgy creek to the custom house at high tide.
+
+Until half a century ago Pasuruan was counted as one of the four great
+cities of Java, but with the extension of the railway system throughout
+the island and the development of the harbor at Surabaya, forty miles
+away, its importance steadily diminished, though traces of its one-time
+prosperity are still visible in its fine streets and beautiful houses,
+most of which, however, are now occupied by Chinese. Perhaps the most
+interesting feature of the place today is found in the costumes of the
+native women, particularly the girls, who wear a kind of shirt and veil
+combining all the colors of the rainbow.
+
+From Pasuruan to Tosari, which is a celebrated hill-station and the
+gateway to the volcanoes of eastern Java, is about twenty-five miles,
+with an excellent motor road all the way. For the first ten miles the
+road, here a wide avenue shaded by tamarinds and djati trees, runs
+across a steaming plain, between fields of rice and cane, but after
+Pasrepan the ascent of the mountains begins. The highway now becomes
+extremely steep and narrow, with countless hairpin turns, though all
+danger of collision is eliminated by the regulations which permit no
+down-traffic in the morning and no up-traffic in the afternoon. During
+the final fifteen miles, in which is made an ascent of more than six
+thousand feet, one has the curious experience of passing, in a single
+hour, from the torrid to the temperate zone. In the earlier stages of
+the ascent the road zigzags upward through magnificent tropical
+forests, where troops of huge gray apes chatter in the upper branches
+and grass-green parrots flash from tree to tree. Palms of all
+varieties, orchids, tree-ferns, bamboos, bananas, mangoes, gradually
+give way to slender pines; the heavy odors of the tropics are replaced
+by a pleasant balsamic fragrance; the hillsides become clothed with
+familiar flowers--daisies, buttercups, heliotrope, roses, fuchsias,
+geraniums, cannas, camelias, Easter lilies, azaleas, morning glories,
+until the mountain-slopes look like a vast old-fashioned garden. In the
+fields, instead of rice and cane, strawberries, potatoes, cabbages,
+onions, and corn, are seen. As the road ascends the air becomes cold
+and very damp; rain-clouds gather on the mountains and there are
+frequent showers. At one point the mist became so thick that I could
+scarcely discern the figure of my chauffeur and we were compelled to
+advance with the utmost caution, for at many points the road, none too
+wide at best, falls sheer away in dizzy precipices. But as suddenly as
+it came, just as suddenly did the mist lift, revealing the great plain
+of Pasuruan, a mile below, stretching away, away, until its green was
+blended with the turquoise of the Java Sea. It is a veritable Road of a
+Thousand Wonders, but there are spots where those who do not relish
+great heights and narrow spaces will explain that they prefer to walk
+so that they may gather wild-flowers.
+
+Were it not for the wild appearance of its Tenngri mountaineers,
+Tosari, which is the best health resort in Java, might be readily
+mistaken for an Alpine village, for it has the same steep and
+straggling streets, the same weather-beaten chalets clinging
+precariously to the rocky hillsides, the same quaint shops, their
+windows filled with souvenirs and postcards, the same glorious view of
+green valleys and majestic peaks, the same crisp, cool air, as
+exhilarating as champagne. The Sanatarium Hotel, which is always filled
+with sallow-faced officials and planters from the plains, consists of a
+large main building built in the Swiss chalet style and numerous
+bungalows set amid a gorgeous garden of old-fashioned flowers. Every
+bedroom has a bath--but such a bath!--a damp, gloomy, cement-lined cell
+having in one corner a concrete cistern, filled with ice-cold mountain
+water. The only furniture is a tin dipper. And it takes real courage,
+let me tell you, to ladle that icy water over your shivering person in
+the chill of a mountain morning.
+
+The mountain slopes in the vicinity of Tosari are dotted with the
+wretched wooden huts of the native tribe called Tenggerese, the only
+race in Java which has remained faithful to Buddhism. There are only
+about five thousand of them and they keep to themselves in their own
+community, shut out from the rest of the world. They are shorter and
+darker than the natives of the plains and, like most savages, are lazy,
+ignorant and incredibly filthy. Because the air is cool and dry, and
+water rather scarce, they never bathe, preferring to remain dirty. As a
+result the aroma of their villages is a thing not soon forgotten. The
+doors of their huts, which have no windows, all face Mount Bromo, where
+their guardian deity, Dewa Soelan Iloe, is supposed to dwell. Once each
+year the Tenggerese hold a great feast at the foot of the volcano, and,
+until the Dutch authorities suppressed the custom, were accustomed to
+conclude these ceremonies by tossing a living child into the crater as
+a sacrifice to their god. Though an ancient tradition forbids the
+cultivation of rice by the Tenggerese, they earn a meager living by
+raising vegetables, which they carry on horseback to the markets on the
+plain, and by acting as guides and coolies. They are incredibly strong
+and tireless, the two men who carried Hawkinson's heavy motion-picture
+outfit to the summit of Bromo making the round trip of forty miles in a
+single day over some of the steepest trails I have ever seen.
+
+Growing on the mountainsides about Tosari are many bushes of thorn
+apple, called _Datara alba_, their white, funnel-shaped flowers being
+sometimes twelve inches long. From the seeds of the thorn apple the
+Tenggerese make a sort of flour which is strongly narcotic in its
+effect. Because of this quality, it is occasionally utilized by
+burglars, who blow it into a room which they propose to rob, through
+the key-hole, thereby drugging the occupants into insensibility and
+making it easy for the burglars to gain access to the room and help
+themselves to its contents. Which reminds me that in some parts of
+Malaysia native desperadoes are accustomed to pound the fronds of
+certain varieties of palm to the consistency of powdered glass. They
+carry a small quantity of this powder with them and when they meet
+anyone against whom they have a grudge they blow it into his face. The
+sharp particles, being inhaled, quickly affect the lungs and death
+usually results. A friend of mine, for many years an American consul in
+the East, once had the misfortune to be next to the victim of such an
+attack, and himself inhaled a small quantity of the deadly powder. The
+lung trouble which shortly developed hastened, if it did not actually
+cause, his death.
+
+That we might reach the Moengal Pass at daybreak in order to see the
+superb panorama of Bromo and the adjacent volcanoes as revealed by the
+rising sun, we started from Tosari at two o'clock in the morning. Our
+mounts were wiry mountain ponies, hardy as mustangs and sure-footed as
+goats. And it was well that they were, for the trail was the steepest
+and narrowest that I have ever seen negotiated by horses. The Bright
+Angel Trail, which leads from the rim of the Grand Canon down to the
+Colorado, is a Central Park bridle-path in comparison. In places the
+grade rose to fifty per cent and in many of the descents I had to lean
+back until my head literally touched the pony's tail. It recalled the
+days, long past, when, as a student at the Italian Cavalry School, I
+was called upon to ride down the celebrated precipice at Tor di Quinto.
+But there, if your mount slipped, a thick bed of sawdust was awaiting
+you to break the fall. Here there was nothing save jagged rocks. We
+started in pitch darkness and for three hours rode through a night so
+black that I could not see my pony's ears. The trail, which in places
+was barely a foot wide, ran for miles along a sort of hogback, the
+ground falling sheer away on either side. It was like riding
+blindfolded along the ridgepole of a church, and, had my pony slipped,
+the results would have been the same.
+
+But the trials of the ascent were forgotten in the overwhelming
+grandeur of the scene which burst upon us as, just at sunrise, we drew
+rein at the summit of the Moengal Pass. Never, not in the Rockies, nor
+the Himalayas, nor the Alps, have I seen anything more sublime. At our
+feet yawned a vast valley, or rather a depression, like an excavation
+for some titanic building, hemmed in by perpendicular cliffs a thousand
+feet in height. Wafted by the morning breeze a mighty river of clouds
+poured slowly down the valley, filling it with gray-white fleece from
+brim to brim. Slowly the clouds dissolved before the mounting sun until
+there lay revealed below us the floor of the depression, known as the
+Sand Sea, its yellow surface, smooth as the beach at Ormond, slashed
+across by the beds of dried-up streams and dotted with clumps of
+stunted vegetation. Like the Sahara it is boundless--a symbol of
+solitude and desolation. When, in the early morning or toward
+nightfall, the conical volcanoes cast their lengthening shadows upon
+this expanse of sand, it reminds one of the surface of the moon as seen
+through a telescope. But at midday, beneath the pitiless rays of the
+equatorial sun, it resembles an enormous pool of molten brass, the
+illusion being heightened by the heat-waves which flicker and dance
+above it. From the center of the Sand Sea rises the extinct crater of
+Batok, a sugar-loaf cone whose symmetrical slopes are so corrugated by
+hardened rivulets of lava that they look for all the world like folds
+of gray-brown cloth. Beyond Batok we could catch a glimpse of Bromo
+itself, belching skyward great clouds of billowing smoke and steam,
+while from its crater came a rumble as of distant thunder. And far in
+the distance, its purple bulk faintly discernible against the turquoise
+sky, rose Smeroe, the greatest volcano of them all.
+
+[Illustration: The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption]
+
+The descent from the Moengal Pass to the Sand Sea is so steep that it
+is necessary to make it on foot, even the nimble-footed ponies having
+all they can do to scramble down the precipitous and slippery trail. It
+is well to cross the Sand Sea as soon after daybreak as possible, for
+by mid-morning the heat is like a blast from an open furnace-door. It
+is a four mile ride across the Sand Sea to the lower slopes of Bromo,
+but the sand is firm and hard and we let the ponies break into a
+gallop--an exhilarating change from the tedious crawl necessary in the
+mountains. Then came a stiff climb of a mile or more over fantastically
+shaped hills of lava, the final ascent to the brink of the crater being
+accomplished by a flight of two hundred and fifty stone steps. The
+crater of Bromo is shaped like a huge funnel, seven hundred feet deep
+and nearly half a mile across. From it belch unceasingly dark gray
+clouds of smoke and sulphurous fumes, while now and then large rocks
+are spewed high in the air only to fall back again, rolling down the
+inside slope of the crater with a thunderous rumble, as though the god
+whom the Tenggerese believe dwells on the mountain was playing at
+ten-pins. Deep down at the bottom of the crater jets of greenish-yellow
+sulphur flicker in a cauldron of molten lava, from which a red flame
+now and then leaps upward, like an out-thrust serpent's tongue. No
+wonder that the ignorant mountaineers look on Bromo with fear and
+veneration, for it huddles there, in the midst of that awful solitude,
+like some monster in its death agony, gasping and groaning.
+
+The transition from the lofty solitudes of the Tengger Mountains to the
+steaming, teeming thoroughfares of Surabaya, the metropolis of eastern
+Java, is not a pleasant one. For Surabaya--there are no less than
+half-a-dozen ways of spelling its name--though the greatest trading
+port in Java, from the point of view of the visitor is not an
+attractive city. Neither is it a healthy place, for it has a hot,
+humid, sticky climate, it lacks good drinking water and enjoys no
+refreshing breeze; mosquitoes feed on one's body and red ants on one's
+belongings; malaria and typhoid are prevalent and even bubonic plague
+is not unknown, the combined effect of all these showing in the sallow
+and enervated faces of its inhabitants. Yet it is a bustling,
+up-and-doing city, as different from phlegmatic, conservative old
+Batavia as Los Angeles is from Boston.
+
+Unlike the houses of Batavia, which stand far back from the street in
+lovely gardens, the houses of Surabaya are built directly on the
+street, with their gardens at the back. Most of the houses of the
+better class are in the Dutch colonial style--low and white with green
+blinds and across the front a stately row of columns. Every house is
+marked with a huge signboard bearing the number and the owner's name,
+thus making it easy for the stranger to find the one for which he is
+looking. There are no sidewalks and, as a consequence, walking is
+anything but pleasant, the streets being deep in dust during the dry
+season and equally deep in mud during the rains. I do not recall ever
+having seen a city of its size with so much wheeled traffic. Indeed,
+the scene on the Simpang Road about three in the afternoon, when the
+merchants are returning to their offices after the midday siesta,
+resembles that on Fifth Avenue at the rush hour, the broad
+thoroughfare being literally packed from curb to curb with vehicles of
+every description: the ramshackle little victorias known as _mylords_,
+the high, two-wheeled dog-carts, with their seats back to back, called
+_sados_, the two-pony cabs termed _kosongs_, creaking bullock carts
+with wheels higher than a man, hand-cars and rickshaws hauled by
+dripping coolies, and other coolies staggering along beneath the weight
+of burdens swinging from the carrying-poles called _pikolans_, and
+every make and model of motor-cars from ostentatious, self-important
+Rolls-Royces to busybody Fords. Standing in the middle of the roadway,
+controlling and directing this roaring river of traffic with surprising
+efficiency are diminutive Javanese policemen wearing blue helmets many
+sizes too large for them and armed with revolvers, swords and clubs.
+
+The port of Surabaya, which is the busiest in the entire Insulinde, is
+four miles from the business section of the city, with which it is
+connected by a splendid asphalt highway lined by huge warehouses,
+factories, godowns and oil-tanks, many of them bearing familiar
+American names. In fact, one of the first things to attract my
+attention in Java was the great variety of American articles on sale
+and in use--motor cars, tires, typewriters, office supplies, cameras,
+phonographs, agricultural machinery of all descriptions.
+
+More than a tenth of Surabaya's population is Chinese and their
+commercial influence dominates the whole city. They have the finest
+residences, the most luxurious clubs, the largest shops, the
+handsomest motor cars. I was shown a row of warehouses extending along
+the canal for one long block which are the property of a single
+Chinese. Wherever I traveled in the Indies I was impressed by the
+business acumen and success of these impassive, industrious sons of the
+Flowery Kingdom. They are the Greeks of the Far East but without the
+Greek's unscrupulousness and lack of dependability. A Chinese will not
+hesitate to take advantage of you in a business deal, but if he once
+gives you his word he will always keep it, no matter at what cost to
+himself, and if you should leave your pocketbook in his shop he will
+come hurrying after you to restore it. The Chinese living in the Indies
+are uniformly prosperous--many of them are millionaires--they have
+their own clubs and chambers of commerce and charitable organizations;
+they not infrequently control the finances of the districts in which
+they live and, generally speaking, they make excellent citizens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Java has almost exactly the same area--50,000 square miles--and the
+same population--34,000,000--as England. Agriculturally, it is the
+richest country of its size in the world. Because I wished to visit the
+great tea and coffee and indigo plantations of its interior and to see
+its palaces and temples and monuments, I decided to traverse the island
+from end to end by train and motor car. Accordingly we left the
+_Negros_ at Surabaya, directing Captain Galvez to pick us up a
+fortnight later at Batavia, at the other end of the island.
+
+There are at present more than three thousand miles of railways in
+operation in Java, about two-thirds of which are the property of the
+government. With a few exceptions, the lines are narrow gauge. The
+railway carriages are a curious combination of English, Swiss and
+American construction, being divided into compartments, which are
+separated by swinging half-doors, like those which used to be
+associated with saloons. The seats in the second-class compartments,
+which are covered with cane, are decidedly more comfortable than those
+of the first class, which are upholstered in leather. Owing to the
+excessive heat and humidity, the leather has the annoying habit of
+adhering to one's clothing, so that you frequently leave the train
+after a long journey with a section of the seat-covering sticking to
+your trousers or with a section of your trousers sticking to the seat.
+To avoid the discomfort of the midday heat, the long-distance express
+trains usually start at daybreak and reach their destinations at noon,
+which, though doubtless a sensible custom, necessitates the traveler
+arising when it is still dark. The express trains have dining cars, in
+which a meal of sorts can be had for two guilders (about eighty cents)
+and the first and second-class carriages are equipped with electric
+fans and screens. In spite of these conveniences, however, travel in
+Java is hot and dusty and generally disagreeable. After a railway
+journey one needs a bath, a shave, a haircut, a shampoo, a massage, and
+a complete outfit of fresh clothes before feeling respectable again.
+
+In many respects, motoring is more comfortable than railway travel. The
+roads throughout the island are excellent and have been carefully
+marked by the Java Motor Club, though fast driving is made dangerous by
+the bullock carts, pack trains and carabaos, which pay no attention to
+the rules of the road. Nor is motoring particularly expensive, for an
+excellent seven-passenger car of a well-known American make can be
+hired for forty dollars a day. Visitors to Java should bear in mind,
+however, that all their motoring and sight-seeing must be done in the
+morning, as, during the wet season, it invariably rains in torrents
+during the greater part of every afternoon.
+
+The hotels of Java, taking them by and large, are moderately good,
+while certain of them, such as the Oranje at Surabaya, the Grand at
+Djokjakarta, and the Indies at Batavia, are quite excellent in spots,
+with orchestras, iced drinks, electric fans, and well-cooked food.
+Though every room has a bath--a necessity in such a climate--tubs are
+quite unknown, their place being taken by showers, or, in the simpler
+hostleries, by barrels of water and dippers. The mattresses and pillows
+appeared to be filled with asphalt, though it should be remembered that
+a soft bed is unendurable in the tropics. Every bed is provided with a
+cylindrical bolster, six feet long and about fifteen inches in
+diameter, which serves to keep the sheet from touching the body. They
+are known as "Dutch widows."
+
+If you are fond of good coffee, I should strongly advise you to take
+your own with you when you go to Java. From my boyhood "Old Government
+Java" had been a synonym in our household for the finest coffee grown,
+so my astonishment and disappointment can be imagined when, at my first
+breakfast in Java, there was set before me a cup containing a dubious
+looking syrup, like those used at American soda-water fountains, the
+cup then being filled up with hot milk. The Germans never would have
+complained about their war-time coffee, made from chicory and acorns,
+had they once tasted the Java product. Yet I was assured that this was
+the choicest coffee grown in Java. I might add that, as a result of a
+blight which all but ruined the industry in the '70s, fifty-two per
+cent of the total acreage of coffee plantations in the island is now
+planted with the African species, called _Coffea robusta_, and thirteen
+per cent with another African species, _Coffea liberia_, and the rest
+with Japanese and other varieties. Though the term "Mocha and Java" is
+still used by the trade in the United States, few Americans of the
+present generation have ever tasted either, for virtually no Mocha
+coffee and very little Java have been imported into this country for
+many years.
+
+The lazy, leisurely, luxurious existence led by the great Dutch
+planters in Java is in many respects a counterpart of that led by the
+wealthy planters of our own South before the Civil War. Dwelling in
+stately mansions set in the midst of vast estates, waited upon by
+retinues of native servants, they exercise much the same arbitrary
+authority over the thousands of brown men who work their coffee, sugar
+and indigo plantations that the cotton-growers of the old South
+exercised over their slaves. Indeed, it was not until 1914 that a form
+of peonage which had long been authorized in Java was abolished by law,
+for up to that year private landowners had the right to enforce from
+all the laborers on their estates one day's gratuitous work out of
+seven.
+
+There are no shrewder or more capable business men to be found anywhere
+than the Dutch traders and merchants in Java. Many of the great trading
+houses of the Dutch Indies have remained the property of the same
+family for generations, their staffs being as carefully trained for the
+business as the Dutch officials are trained for the colonial service.
+The young men come out from Holland as cadets with the intention of
+spending the remainder of their lives in the Insulinde, studying the
+native languages and acquainting themselves with native prejudices,
+predilections and customs. They are usually blessed with a phlegmatic
+temperament, well suited to life in the tropics, take life easily, live
+in considerable luxury, play a little tennis, grow fat, spend their
+afternoons in pajamas and slippers, stroll down to the local Concordia
+Club in the evenings to sit at small tables on the terrace and drink
+enormous quantities of beer and listen to the band, not infrequently
+marry native women, and often amass great fortunes.
+
+Though the Javanese peasant is, from necessity, industrious, the upper
+classes, particularly the nobles, are effeminate, indolent, decadent,
+and servile. Their amusements are cock-fighting, dancing, shadow
+plays, and gambling, and they lead an utterly worthless existence which
+the Dutch do nothing to discourage. Their Mohammedanism is decadent and
+has none of the virility which distinguishes those followers of Islam
+who dwell in western lands. Though there is no denying that the natives
+are immeasurably more prosperous, on the whole, than before the white
+man came, the Dutch have done little if anything to improve their
+living conditions. True, their rule is a just and a not unkind one;
+they have built roads and railways, but this was done in order to open
+up the island; and they have established a number of industrial and
+technical schools, but there is no system of compulsory education, and
+no systematic attempt has been made to ameliorate the condition of the
+great brown mass of the people. I do not think that I am doing them an
+injustice when I assert that the Dutch are administrators rather than
+altruists, that they are more concerned in maintaining a just and
+stable government in their insular possessions, and in increasing their
+productivity, than they are in improving the moral, mental, and
+material condition of the natives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lying squarely in the middle of Java are the _Vorstenlanden_, "the
+Lands of the Princes"--Soerakarta and Djokjakarta--the most curious, as
+they are the most picturesque, states in the entire Insulinde. But,
+because in their form of government and the lives and customs of their
+inhabitants they are so vastly different from the other portions of
+the island, I feel that they are deserving of a chapter to themselves
+and hence shall omit any account of them here.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bandoeng, the prosperous and extremely up-to-date capital of the
+Preanger Regencies, is the fifth largest city in Java, being exceeded
+in population only by Batavia, Surabaya, Surakarta and Samarang. The
+city, which is the healthiest and most modern in Java, stands in the
+middle of a great plain, 2300 feet above the sea, having, therefore, a
+delightful all-the-year-round climate. It has excellent electric
+lighting, water and sanitary systems, miles of well-paved and shaded
+streets, and many beautiful residences--the finest I saw in
+Malaysia--set in the midst of charming gardens. It is planned to remove
+the seat of government from Batavia to Bandoeng in the not far distant
+future and the handsome buildings which will eventually house the
+various departments are rapidly nearing completion. When they are
+completed Bandoeng will be one of the finest, if not the finest
+colonial capital in the world. But, attractive though the city is, it
+holds nothing of particular interest to the casual visitor unless it be
+the quinine factory. This company seems likely to succeed in cornering
+the supply of Javanese cinchona bark and is fast building up a world
+market for its product. The cinchona tree, from which the bark is
+obtained, was first introduced from South America in the middle of the
+last century and is now widely grown throughout the Preanger Regencies,
+both by the government and by private planters. After six or seven
+years the tree is sufficiently matured for the removal of its bark,
+which, after being carefully dried, sorted, and baled, is shipped to
+the factory in Bandoeng, where it is manufactured into the quinine of
+commerce. The process of manufacture is a secret one, which explains,
+though it does not excuse, the extreme discourtesy shown by the
+management toward foreigners desiring to visit the plant.
+
+It takes three and a half hours by express train from Bandoeng to
+Buitenzorg, the summer capital of the Indies, and the journey is one of
+the pleasantest in Java, the railway being bordered for miles by
+marvellously constructed rice terraces which climb the slopes of the
+Gedei, tier on tier, transforming the mountainsides into a series of
+hanging gardens. When the shallow, water-filled terraces are
+illuminated by the tropic sun, they look for all the world like a
+titanic stairway of silver ascending to the heavens. Take my word for
+it, the rice terraces of the Preangers are in themselves worth
+traveling the length of Java to see.
+
+Though Batavia is the official capital of Netherlands India, the
+hill-station of Buitenzorg, some twenty miles inland, is the actual
+seat of government and the residence of the Governor-General.
+Buitenzorg--the name means "free from care"--is to Java what Simla is
+to India, what Baguio is, in a lesser degree, to the Philippines. It
+has often been compared to Versailles, and, in its pleasant existence,
+in the enchanting effects which have been produced by its landscape
+gardeners, in its great white palace even, one can trace some slight
+resemblance to the famous home of le Roi Soleil. Buitenzorg is
+conspicuously different from other Javanese cities, partly because,
+being the seat of government, its European quarter is exceptionally
+extensive, but primarily because it boasts the famous Botanical
+Gardens, in many respects the finest in the world. Its avenues, shaded
+by splendid trees, are lined with charming, white-walled villas, the
+residences of the government officials and of retired officers and
+merchants, set far back in lovely, fragrant gardens. The palace of the
+Governor-General, a huge, white building of classic lines, faintly
+reminiscent of the White House in Washington, is superbly situated in
+the Botanic Gardens, the rear overlooking a charming lotos pond, its
+surface covered with the huge leaves of the water-plant known as
+_Victoria Regia_, amid which numbers of white swans drift gracefully;
+while the colonnaded front commands a magnificent view of a vast deer
+park which reminds one of the stately manor parks of England.
+
+When you arrive at the Hotel Bellevue in Buitenzorg, be sure and ask
+for one of the "mountain rooms." The view which is commanded by their
+balconies has few equals in all the world. Far in the distance rises
+the majestic, cloud-wreathed cone of Salak, its wooded slopes wrapped
+in a cloak of purple-gray. From its foot, cutting a way toward
+Buitenzorg through a sea of foliage, is a ribbon of brown--the Tjidani
+River. Its banks, lined by miles of waving palms, are crowded with the
+quaint, thatched dwellings of the natives, hundreds of whom--men, women
+and children--are bathing in its water. One of the most curious and
+amusing sights in Java is that of the native women bathing in the
+streams. They enter the river wearing their sarongs, gradually raise
+them as they go deeper into the stream, slip them over their heads when
+the water has reached their armpits, and, when they have completed
+their ablutions, reverse the process, thus achieving the feat of
+bathing in full view of hundreds of spectators without the slightest
+improper revelation. Hawkinson set up his camera on the bank of the
+Tjidani and spent several hundred feet of film in recording one of
+these performances. Even the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors will
+be unable to find any objection to _that_ bathing scene.
+
+Though the gardens of Buitenzorg are a veritable treasure-house for the
+botanist and the horticulturist--for the Dutch are the best gardeners
+in the world--from the standpoint of the casual visitor they cannot
+compare, to my way of thinking, with the Peradenya Gardens of Ceylon.
+It is beyond all doubt, however, the finest collection of tropical
+trees and plants in existence. Here, besides full-grown specimens of
+every known tree of the torrid zone, are culture gardens for sugar
+cane, coffee, tea, rubber, ilang-ilang; for all the spice, gum, and
+fruit trees; for bamboo, rattan, and the hard woods, such as mahogany
+and teak--in short, for every variety of tree or plant of commercial,
+ornamental, or utilitarian value. There are also gardens for all the
+gorgeous flowers of Java: the frangipani, the wax-white, gold-centered
+flower of the dead, the red and yellow lantanas, the scarlet poinsetta,
+the crimson bougainvillea, and others in bewildering variety. There are
+greenhouses to shelter the rarer and more sensitive plants--to shelter
+them not, as in our hothouses, from the cold, but, on the contrary,
+from the heat and the withering rays of the sun. Here too is one of the
+finest collections of orchids in existence, tended by an ancient
+Javanese gardener who is as proud of his curious blooms as a trainer is
+of his race horses or a collector of his porcelains. As for the palms,
+I had no idea that so many varieties existed until I visited
+Buitenzorg--emperor palms, Areca palms, Banka palms, cocoanut palms,
+fan palms, cabbage palms, sago palms, date palms, feather palms,
+travelers' palms, oil palms, Chuson palms, climbing palms over a
+hundred feet long--palms without end, Amen. Small wonder that the palm
+is regarded with affection wherever it can be grown, for what other
+tree can furnish food, shelter, clothing, timber, fuel, building
+materials, fiber, paper, starch, sugar, oil, wax, dyes and wine?
+
+But, when all is said and done, nothing in those splendid gardens, not
+the stately avenue of kanari trees whose interlacing branches form a
+nave as awe-inspiring as that of some great cathedral, not the rare and
+curious orchids which would arouse the envy of a millionaire, appealed
+to me so powerfully as a little Grecian temple of white marble, all but
+hidden by the encircling shrubbery, which marks the sleeping-place of
+Lady Raffles, wife of that Sir Stamford Raffles who once was the
+British lieutenant-governor of Java. It pleases me to think that it is
+toward this little, moss-grown temple that the bronze statue of the
+great empire-builder, which stands on the Esplanade in Singapore, is
+peering with wistful eyes, for on its base he carved these lines:
+
+    "Oh thou whom ne'er my constant heart
+      One moment hath forgot,
+    Tho' fate severe hath bid us part
+      Yet still--forget me not."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Batavia, the capital of the Indies, is built on both banks of the
+Jacatra River, in a swampy and unhealthy plain at the head of a
+capacious bay. Just as New York is divided into the boroughs of
+Manhattan and the Bronx, so the metropolis of Netherlands India is
+divided into the districts of Batavia and Weltevreden, the suburb of
+Meester Cornelis corresponding to Brooklyn. Batavia is the business
+quarter of the city; Weltevreden the residential. The former, which is
+built on the edge of the harbor, is very thickly populated and, because
+of its lowness, very unhealthy. Only natives, Malays, Chinese and Arabs
+live here and the great European houses which were once the homes of
+the Dutch officials and merchants have either fallen into decay or have
+been converted into warehouses and shops. The Europeans now live in
+Weltevreden, or Meester Cornelis, though they have their offices in the
+lower town. Both the upper and lower towns are traversed by the
+Jacatra--sometimes called the Tjiliwoeng--from which branch canals that
+spread through the city in all directions, thereby emphasizing its
+distinctly Dutch atmosphere. The streets are for the most part straight
+and regular, being paved, as in the mother-country, with cobblestones.
+Old Batavia contains very few relics of the early days, but it is
+quaint and delightfully picturesque and its canals, though anything but
+desirable from the standpoint of health, add much to its individuality
+and charm. The most characteristic feature of Batavia, that
+distinguishes it from all other colonial cities of the East, is that in
+all its construction, both public and private, permanency seems to be
+the dominant note. The Dutch do not come to Java, as the English go to
+India and the Americans to the Philippines, in order to amass fortunes
+in a few years and then go home; they come with the intention of
+remaining. When their children grow up they are sent back to Holland to
+be educated, but, once their schooling is completed, they almost
+invariably return to the East and devote their lives to the development
+of the land in which they were born.
+
+Batavia, which means literally 'Fair meadows,' was originally called
+Jacatra. The Dutch established a trading post here in 1610, the land
+being obtained from the natives by a trick similar to that associated
+by tradition with the acquisition of the lower end of Manhattan Island
+by the founders of Nieuw Amsterdam. The Javanese, it seems, were
+reluctant to sell to the Dutch a parcel of land sufficiently large for
+the erection of a fort and trading station, but after much discussion
+they finally consented to part with as much land as could be included
+within a single bullock's hide, which was their way of saying that
+their land was not for sale. This crafty stipulation did not worry the
+equally crafty Dutch, however, for they promptly obtained the largest
+hide available, cut it into narrow strips, and, placing these end to
+end, insisted on their right to the very considerable parcel of ground
+thus enclosed under the terms of the bargain.
+
+A relic illustrative of the barbarous punishments which were in vogue
+during the colony's earlier days is to be seen by driving a short
+distance up Jacatra Road, in the lower town. Close by the ancient
+Portuguese church you will find a short section of old wall. Atop the
+wall, transfixed by a spear-point, is an object which, despite its many
+coats of whitewash, is still recognizable as a human skull. Set in the
+wall is a tablet bearing this inscription:
+
+    "In detested memory of the traitor, Peter Erberveld, who was
+    executed. No one will be permitted to build, lay bricks or plant
+    on this spot, either now or in the future.
+
+                            Batavia, April 14, 1772."
+
+Erberveld was a half-caste agitator who had conspired with certain
+disaffected natives to launch a revolt, massacre all the Dutch in
+Batavia, and have himself proclaimed king. Fortunately for the Dutch,
+the plot was betrayed through the faithlessness of a native girl with
+whom Erberveld was infatuated. Because of the imperative need of
+safeguarding the little handful of white colonists against massacre by
+the natives, it was decided that the half-caste should be punished in
+a manner which would strike fear to the hearts of the Javanese, who
+have no particular dread of death in its ordinary forms. The judges did
+their best to achieve this object, for Erberveld was sentenced to be
+impaled alive, broken on the wheel, his hands and head cut off, and his
+body quartered. Why they omitted hanging and burning from the list I
+can not imagine. The sentence was carried out--the contemporary
+accounts record that he endured his fate with silent fortitude--and his
+head is on the wall to-day. But I think that, were I the
+Governor-General of the Indies, I should have that grisly reminder of
+the bad old days taken down. Many nations have family skeletons but
+they usually prefer to keep them out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS
+
+
+Hamangkoe Boewoenoe Senopati Sahadin Panoto Gomo Kalif Patelah Kandjeng
+VII, Ruler of the World, Spike of the Universe, and Sultan of
+Djokjakarta, is an old, old man, yet his brisk walk and upright
+carriage betrayed no trace of the worries which might be expected to
+beset one who is burdened with the responsibility of supporting three
+thousand wives and concubines. When one achieves a domestic
+establishment of such proportions, however, he doubtless shifts the
+responsibility for its administration, discipline and maintenance to
+subordinates, just as the commander of a division delegates his
+authority to the officers of his staff. The Sultan, who is now in his
+eighty-ninth year, is a worthy emulator of King Solomon, the lowest
+estimate which I heard crediting him with one hundred and eighty
+children. These are the official ones, as it were. How many unofficial
+ones he has, no one knows but himself. The youngest of his children,
+now five years old, was, I imagine, a good deal of a surprise, being
+sometimes referred to by disrespectful Europeans as "the Joke of
+Djokjakarta."
+
+Djokjakarta, or Djokja, as it is commonly called, is set in the middle
+of a broad and fertile plain, at the foot of the slumbering volcano of
+Merapi, whose occasional awakenings are marked by terrific earthquakes,
+which shake the city to its foundations and usually result in
+wide-spread destruction and loss of life. It is a city of broad,
+unpaved thoroughfares, shaded by rows of majestic waringins, and lined,
+in the European quarter, by handsome one-story houses, with white
+walls, green blinds and Doric porticos. There are two hotels in the
+city, one an excellently kept and comfortable establishment, as hotels
+go in Java; a score or so of large and moderately well-stocked European
+stores, and many small shops kept by Chinese; an imposing bank of stone
+and concrete; and one of the most beautiful race-courses that I have
+ever seen, the spring race meeting at Djokja being one of the most
+brilliant social events in Java. The busiest part of the city is the
+Chinese quarter, for, throughout the Insulinde, commerce, both retail
+and wholesale, is largely in the hands of these sober, shrewd,
+hard-working yellow men, of whom there are more than three hundred
+thousand in Java alone and double that number in the archipelago.
+Beyond the European and Chinese quarters, scattered among the palms
+which form a thick fringe about the town, are the _kampongs_ of the
+Javanese themselves--clusters of bamboo-built huts, thatched with
+leaves or grass, encircled by low mud walls. Standing well back from
+the street, and separated from it by a splendid sweep of velvety lawn,
+is the Dutch residency, a dignified building whose classic lines
+reminded me of the manor houses built by the Dutch _patroons_ along
+the Hudson. A few hundred yards away stands Fort Vredenburg, a moated,
+bastioned, four-square fortification, garrisoned by half a thousand
+Dutch artillerymen, whose guns frown menacingly upon the native town
+and the palace of the Sultan. Though its walls would crumble before
+modern artillery in half an hour, it stands as a visible symbol of
+Dutch authority and as a warning to the disloyal that that authority is
+backed up by cannon.
+
+Between Fort Vredenburg and the Sultan's palace stretches the broad
+_aloun-aloun_, its sandy, sun-baked expanse broken only by a splendid
+pair of waringin-trees, clipped to resemble royal _payongs_ or
+parasols. In the old days those desiring audience with the sovereign
+were compelled to wait under these trees, frequently for days and
+occasionally for weeks, until "the Spike of the Universe" graciously
+condescended to receive them. Here also was the place of public
+execution. In the days before the white men came, public executions on
+the _aloun-aloun_ provided pleasurable excitement for the inhabitants
+of Djokjakarta, who attended them in great numbers. The method employed
+was characteristic of Java: the condemned stood with his forehead
+against a wall, and the executioner drove the point of a kris between
+the vertebrae at the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord. But
+the gallows and the rope have superseded the wall and the kris in
+Djokjakarta, just as they have superseded the age-old custom of hurling
+criminals from the top of a high tower in Bokhara or of having the
+brains of the condemned stamped out by an elephant, a method of
+execution which was long in vogue in Burmah.
+
+But, though certain peculiarly barbarous customs which were practised
+under native rule have been abolished by the Dutch, I have no intention
+of suggesting that life in Djokjakarta has become colorless and tame.
+_Au contraire!_ If you will take the trouble to cross the _aloun-aloun_
+to the gates of the palace, your attention will be attracted by a row
+of iron-barred cages built against the kraton wall. Should you be so
+fortunate as to find yourself in Djokjakarta on the eve of a religious
+festival or other holiday, each of these cages will be found to contain
+a full-grown tiger. For tiger-baiting remains one of the favorite
+amusements of the native princes. Nowhere else, so far as I am aware,
+save only in East Africa, where the Masai warriors encircle a lion and
+kill it with their spears, can you witness a sport which is its equal
+for peril and excitement.
+
+On the day set for a tiger-baiting the _aloun-aloun_ is jammed with
+spectators, their gorgeous sarongs and head-kains of batik forming a
+sea of color, while from a pavilion erected for the purpose the Sultan,
+surrounded by his glittering household and a selection of his favorite
+wives, views the dangerous sport in safety. In a cleared space before
+the royal pavilion several hundred half-naked Javanese, armed only with
+spears, stand shoulder to shoulder in a great circle, perhaps ten-score
+yards across, their spears pointing inward so as to form a steel fringe
+to the human barricade. A cage containing a tiger, which has been
+trapped in the jungle for the occasion, is hauled forward to the
+circle's edge. At a signal from the Sultan the door of the cage is
+opened and the great striped cat, its yellow eyes glaring malevolently,
+its stiffened tail nervously sweeping the ground, slips forth on padded
+feet to crouch defiantly in the center of the extemporized arena.
+Occasionally, but very occasionally, the beast becomes intimidated at
+sight of the waiting spearmen and the breathless throng beyond them,
+but usually it is only a matter of seconds before things begin to
+happen. The long tail abruptly becomes rigid, the muscles bunch
+themselves like coiled springs beneath the tawny skin, the sullen
+snarling changes to a deep-throated roar, and the great beast launches
+itself against the levelled spears. Sometimes it tears its way through
+the ring of flesh and steel, leaving behind it a trail of dead or
+wounded spearmen, and creating consternation among the spectators, who
+scatter, panic-stricken, in every direction. But more often the
+spearmen drive it back, snarling and bleeding, whereupon, bewildered by
+the multitude of its enemies and maddened by the pain of its wounds, it
+hurls itself against another segment of the steel-fringed cordon. After
+a time, baffled in its attempts to escape, the tiger retreats to the
+center of the circle, where it crouches, snarling. Then, at another
+signal from the Sultan, the spearmen begin to close in. Smaller and
+smaller grows the circle, closer and closer come the remorseless
+spear-points ... then a hoarse roar of fury, a spring too rapid for the
+eye to follow, a wild riot of brown bodies glistening with sweat ...
+spear-hafts rising and falling above a sea of turbaned heads as the
+blades are driven home ... again ... again ... again ... yet again ...
+into the great black-and-yellow carcass, which now lies inanimate upon
+the sand in a rapidly widening pool of crimson.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Like the palaces of most Asiatic rulers, the kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta is really a royal city in the heart of his capital. It
+consists of a vast congeries of palaces, barracks, stables, pagodas,
+temples, offices, courtyards, corridors, alleys and bazaars, containing
+upward of fifteen thousand inhabitants, the whole encircled by a high
+wall four miles in length. Everything that the sovereign can require,
+every necessity and luxury of life, every adjunct of pleasure, is
+assembled within the kraton. As the Sultan's world is practically
+bounded by his palace walls, the kraton is to all intents and purposes
+a little kingdom in itself, for there dwell within it, besides the
+officials of the household and the women of the harem, soldiers,
+priests, gold and silversmiths, tailors, weavers, makers of batik,
+civil engineers, architects, carpenters, stonemasons, manufacturers of
+musical instruments, stage furniture, and puppets, all supported by the
+court. The Sultan rarely leaves the kraton save on occasions of
+ceremony, when he appears in state, a thin, aristocratic-looking old
+man, somewhat taller than the average of his subjects, wrapped in a
+sarong of cloth-of-gold, hung with jewels, shaded by a golden parasol,
+surrounded by an Arabian Nights court, and guarded--curious
+contrast!--by a squadron of exceedingly businesslike-looking Dutch
+cavalry in slouch hats and green denim uniforms.
+
+The first impression which one receives upon entering the inner
+precincts of the kraton is of tawdriness and dilapidation. Half-naked
+soldiers of the royal body-guard, armed with ten-foot pikes and clad
+only in baggy, scarlet breeches and brimless caps of black leather,
+shaped like inverted flower-pots, lounge beside the gateway giving
+access to the Sultan's quarters or snore blissfully while stretched
+beneath the trees. The "Ruler of the World" receives his visitors--who,
+if they are foreigners, must always be accompanied by the Dutch
+Resident or a member of his staff--in the _pringitan_, or hall of
+audience, an immense, marble-floored chamber, supported by many marble
+columns. The _pringitan_ is open on three sides, the fourth
+communicating with the royal apartments and the harem, to which
+Europeans are never admitted. At the rear of the _pringitan_ are a
+number of ornate state beds, hung with scarlet and heavily gilded,
+evidently placed there for purposes of display, for they showed no
+evidences of having been slept in. Close by is a large glass case
+containing specimens of the taxidermist's art, including a number of
+badly moth-eaten birds of paradise. On the walls I noticed a
+steel-engraving of Napoleon crossing the Alps, a number of English
+sporting prints depicting hunting and coaching scenes, and three
+villainous chromos of Queen Wilhelmina, Prince Henry of the
+Netherlands, and the Princess Juliana.
+
+Thanks to the courtesy of the Resident, who had notified the
+authorities of the royal household of our visit in advance, we found
+that a series of Javanese dances had been arranged in our honor. Now
+Javanese dancing is about as exciting as German grand opera, and, like
+opera, one has to understand it to appreciate it. Personally, I should
+have preferred to wander about the kraton, but court etiquette demanded
+that I should sit upon a hard and exceedingly uncomfortable chair
+throughout a long and humid morning, with the thermometer registering
+one hundred and four degrees in the shade, and watch a number of
+anaemic and dissipated-looking youths, who composed the royal ballet,
+go through an interminable series of posturings and gestures to the
+monotonous music of a native orchestra.
+
+Those who have gained their ideas of Javanese dancing from the
+performances of Ruth St. Denis and Florence O'Denishawn have
+disappointment in store for them when they go to Java. To tell the
+truth I found the dancers far less interesting than their audience,
+which consisted of several hundred women of the harem, clad in filmy,
+semi-transparent garments of the most beautiful colors, who watched the
+proceedings from the semi-obscurity of the _pringitan_. I cannot be
+certain, because the light was poor and their faces were in the
+shadow, but I think that there were several extremely good-looking
+girls among them. There was one in particular that I remember--a
+slender, willowy thing with an apricot-colored skin and an oval,
+piquant face framed by masses of blue-black hair. Her orange sarong was
+so tightly wound about her that she might as well have been wearing a
+wet silk bathing-suit, so far as concealing her figure was concerned.
+Whenever she caught my eye she smiled mischievously. I should have
+liked to have seen more of her, but an unamiable-looking sentry armed
+with a large scimitar prevented.
+
+By extraordinary good fortune we arrived in Djokjakarta on the eve of
+the celebration of a double royal wedding, two of the Sultan's
+grandsons marrying two of his granddaughters. Thanks to the cooperation
+of the Dutch Resident, Hawkinson was enabled to obtain a remarkable
+series of pictures of the highly spectacular marriage ceremonies, it
+being the first time, I believe, that a motion-picture camera had been
+permitted within the closely guarded precincts of the kraton.
+
+The festivities, which occupied several days, consisted of receptions,
+fireworks, reviews, games, dances, and religious ceremonies,
+culminating in a most impressive and colorful pageant, when the two
+bridegrooms proceeded to the palace in state to claim their brides.
+Nowhere outside the pages of _The Wizard of Oz_ could one find such
+amazing and fantastic costumes as those worn by the thousands of
+natives who took part in that procession. Every combination of colors
+was used, every period of European and Asiatic history was
+represented. Some of the costumes looked as though they owed their
+inspiration to Bakst's designs for the Russian ballet--or perhaps Bakst
+obtained his ideas in Djokjakarta; others were strongly reminiscent of
+Louis XIV's era, of the courts of the great Indian princes, of the
+Ziegfeld Follies.
+
+The procession was led by four peasant women bearing trays of
+vegetables and fruits, symbols of fecundity, I assumed. Behind them,
+sitting cross-legged in glass cages swung from poles, each borne by a
+score of sweating coolies in scarlet liveries, were the four chief
+messengers of the royal harem--former concubines of the Sultan who had
+once been noted for their influence and beauty. The cages--I can think
+of no better description--were of red lacquer, about four feet square,
+with glass sides, and, so far as I could see, entirely air-tight. They
+looked not unlike large goldfish aquariums. As they were passing us the
+procession halted for a few moments and the panting coolies lowered
+their burdens to the ground. Whereupon Hawkinson, who is no respecter
+of persons when the business of getting pictures is concerned, set up
+his camera within six feet of one of the cages and proceeded to take a
+"close-up" of the indignant but helpless occupant, who, unable to
+escape or even turn away, could only assume an indifference which she
+was evidently far from feeling.
+
+Following the harem attendants marched a company of the royal
+body-guard, in scarlet cutaway coats like those worn by the British
+grenadiers during the American Revolution, pipe-clayed cross-belts,
+white nankeen breeches, enormous cavalry boots, extending half-way up
+the thigh, and curious hats of black glazed leather, of a shape which
+was a cross between a fireman's helmet and the cap of a Norman
+man-at-arms. They were armed indiscriminately with long pikes and
+ancient flint-locks, and marched to the music of fife and drum. The
+leader of the band danced a sort of shimmy as he marched, at the same
+time tootling on a flute. He looked like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
+Perhaps the most curious feature of the procession was provided by the
+clowns, both men and women--an interesting survival of the
+court-jesters of the Middle Ages--powdered and painted like their
+fellows of the circus, and performing many of their stereotyped antics.
+One of them, wearing an enormous pair of black goggles, bestrode a sort
+of hobby-horse, made of papier-mach�, and, when he saw that Hawkinson
+was taking his picture, cavorted and grimaced, to the huge delight of
+the onlookers. The female clowns, all of whom were burdened by
+excessive avoirdupois, wiggled their hips and shoulders as they marched
+in a sort of Oriental shimmy.
+
+[Illustration: A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo]
+
+[Illustration: A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo]
+
+[Illustration: The Captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+Universe"]
+
+[Illustration: A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta]
+
+Following a gorgeous cavalcade of mounted princes of the blood, in
+uniforms of all colors, periods, and descriptions, their k�pis
+surmounted by towering ostrich plumes, came a long procession of the
+great dignitaries of the household--the royal betel-box bearer, the
+royal cuspidor-carrier, and others bearing on scarlet cushions the
+royal toothpicks, the royal toothbrush, the royal toilet set, and the
+royal mirror, all of gold set with jewels. The mothers of the brides,
+painted like courtesans and hung with jewels, were borne by in
+sedan-chairs, in which they sat cross-legged on silken cushions. Then,
+after a dramatic pause, their approach heralded by a burst of barbaric
+music, came the brides themselves, each reclining in an enormous
+scarlet litter borne by fifty coolies. Beside them sat attendants who
+sprinkled them with perfumes and cooled them with fans of
+peacock-feathers. In accordance with an ancient Javanese custom, the
+faces, necks, arms, and breasts of the brides were stained with saffron
+to a brilliant yellow; their cheeks were as stiff with enamel as their
+garments were with jewels. Immediately behind the palanquins bearing
+the brides--one of whom looked to be about thirteen, the other a few
+years older--rode the bridegrooms; one, a sullen-looking fellow who, I
+was told, already had five wives and plainly showed it, astride a
+magnificent gray Arab; the other, who was still a boy, on a showy bay
+stallion, both animals being decked with flowers and caparisoned in
+trappings of scarlet leather trimmed with silver. The bridegrooms,
+naked to the waist, were, like their brides, dyed a vivid yellow; their
+sarongs were of cloth-of-gold and they were loaded with jeweled
+necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. Royal grooms in scarlet liveries led
+their prancing horses and other attendants, walking at their stirrups,
+bore over their heads golden _payongs_, the Javanese symbol of
+royalty. Following them on foot was a great concourse of dignitaries
+and courtiers, clad in costumes of every color and description and
+walking under a forest of gorgeous parasols, the colors of which
+denoted the rank of those they shaded. The _payongs_ of the Sultan, the
+Dutch Resident, and the royal princes are of gold, those of the
+princesses of the royal family are yellow, of the great nobles white,
+of the ministers and the higher officials of the country, red; of the
+lesser dignitaries, dark gray, and so on. This sea of swaying parasols,
+the gorgeous costumes of the dignitaries, the fantastic uniforms of the
+soldiery, the richly caparisoned horses, the gilded litters, the
+burnished weapons, the jewels of the women, the flaunting banners, and
+the rainbow-tinted batiks worn by the tens of thousands of native
+spectators combined to form a scene bewildering in its variety,
+dazzling in its brilliancy and kaleidoscopic in its coloring. Mr.
+Ziegfeld never produced so fantastic and colorful a spectacle. It would
+have been the envy and the despair of that prince of showmen, the late
+Phineas T. Barnum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A dozen miles or so northwest of Djokjakarta, standing in the middle of
+a fertile plain which stretches away to the lower slopes of slumbering
+Merapi, are the ruins of Boro-Boedor, of all the Hindu temples of Java
+the largest and the most magnificent and one of the architectural
+marvels of the world. They can be reached from Djokjakarta by motor in
+an hour. The road, which skirts the foothills of a volcanic mountain
+range, runs through a number of archways roofed with red tiles which in
+the rainy season afford convenient refuges from the sudden tropical
+showers and in the dry season opportunities to escape from the blinding
+glare of the sun. Leaving the main highway at Kalangan, a quaint hamlet
+with a picturesque and interesting market, we turned into a side road
+and wound for a few miles through cocoanut plantations, then the road
+ascended and, rounding the shoulder of a little hill, we saw, through
+the trees, a squat, pyramidal mass of reddish stone, broken, irregular
+and unimposing. It was Tjandi Boro-Boedor (the name means "shrine of
+the many Buddhas") considered by many authorities the most interesting
+Buddhist remains in existence. Though in magnitude it cannot compare
+with such great Buddhist monuments as those at Ajunta in India, and
+Angkor in Cambodia, yet in its beautiful symmetry and its wealth of
+carving it is superior to them all.
+
+Strictly speaking, Boro-Boedor is not a temple but a hill, rising about
+one hundred and fifty feet above the plain, encased with terraces
+constructed of hewn lava-blocks and crowded with sculptures, which, if
+placed side by side, would extend for upwards of three miles. The
+lowest terrace now above ground forms a square, each side approximately
+five hundred feet long. About fifty feet higher there is another
+terrace of similar shape. Then follow four other terraces of more
+irregular contour, the structure being crowned by a dome or cupola,
+fifty feet in diameter, surrounded by sixteen smaller bell-shaped
+cupolas, known as _dagobas_. The subjects of the bas-reliefs lining the
+lowest terrace are of the most varied description, forming a picture
+gallery of landscapes, agricultural and household episodes and
+incidents of the chase, mingled with mythological and religious scenes.
+It would seem, indeed, as though it had been the architect's intention
+to gradually wean the pilgrims from the physical to the spiritual, for
+as they began to ascend from stage to stage of the temple-hill they
+were insensibly drawn from material, every-day things to the realities
+of religion, so that by the time the _dagoba_ at the top was reached
+they had passed through a course of religious instruction, as it were,
+and were ready, with enlightened eyes, to enter and behold the image of
+Buddha, symbolically left imperfect, as beyond the power of human art
+to realize or portray. From base to summit the whole hill is really a
+great picture-bible of the Buddhist creed.
+
+The building of Boro-Boedor was probably begun in the ninth century,
+when King Asoka was distributing the supposed remains of Buddha
+throughout all the countries of the East in an endeavor to spread the
+faith. A portion of the remains was brought to Boro-Boedor, which had
+been the center of Buddhist influence in Java ever since 603, when the
+Indian ruler, Guzerat, settled in Middle Java with five thousand of his
+followers. In the sixteenth century, when a wave of Mohammedanism swept
+the island from end to end, the Buddhist temples being destroyed by
+the fanatic followers of the Prophet and the priests slaughtered on
+their altars, the Buddhists, in order to save the famous shrine from
+desecration and destruction, buried it under many feet of earth. Thus
+the great monument remained, hidden and almost forgotten, for three
+hundred years, but during the brief period of British rule in Java, Sir
+Stamford Raffles ordered its excavation, the work being accomplished in
+less than two months. Since then the Dutch have taken further steps to
+restore and preserve it, though unfortunately the stone of which it is
+built was too soft to withstand the wear and tear of centuries, many of
+the bas-reliefs now being almost effaced. It remains, however, one of
+the greatest religious monuments of all time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Conditions at Surakarta--usually called Solo for short--are the exact
+counterpart of those in Djokjakarta: the same puppet ruler, who is
+called Susuhunan instead of Sultan, the same semi-barbaric court life,
+the same fantastic costumes, a Dutch resident, a Dutch fort, and a
+Dutch garrison. But the kraton of the Susuhunan is far better kept than
+that of his fellow ruler at Djokjakarta, and shows more evidences of
+Europeanization. The troopers of the royal body-guard are smart,
+soldierly-looking fellows in well-cut uniforms of European pattern, to
+which a distinctly Eastern touch is lent, however, by their steel
+helmets, their brass-embossed leather shields, their scimitars, and
+their shoulder-guards of chain mail. The royal stables, which contain
+several hundred fine Australian horses and a number of beautiful
+Sumbawan ponies, together with a score or more gilt carriages of state,
+are as immaculately kept as those of Buckingham Palace. In the palace
+garage I was shown a row of powerful Fiats, gleaming with fresh varnish
+and polished brass, and beside them, as among equals, a member of the
+well-known Ford family of Detroit, proudly bearing on its panels the
+ornate arms of the Susuhunan. I felt as though I had encountered an old
+friend who had married into royalty.
+
+As though we had not seen enough dancing at Djokjakarta, I found that
+they had arranged another performance for us in the kraton at
+Surakarta. This time, however, the dancers were girls, most of them
+only ten or twelve years old and none of them more than half-way
+through their teens. They wore sarongs of the most exquisite
+colors--purple, heliotrope, violet, rose, geranium, cerise, lemon,
+sky-blue, burnt-orange--and they floated over the marble floor of the
+great hall like enormous butterflies. As a special mark of the
+Susuhunan's favor, the performance concluded with a spear dance by four
+princes of the royal house--blas�, decadent-looking youths, who spend
+their waking hours, so the Dutch official who acted as my cicerone told
+me, in dancing, opium-smoking, cock-fighting and gambling, virtually
+their only companions being the women of the harem. If the Dutch
+Government does not actively encourage dissipation and debauchery among
+the native princes, neither does it take any steps to discourage it,
+the idea being, I imagine, that Holland's administrative problems in
+the _Vorstenlanden_ would be greatly simplified were the reigning
+families to die out. The princes, who were armed with javelins and
+krises, performed for our benefit a Terpsichorean version of one of the
+tales of Javanese mythology. The dance was characterized by the utmost
+deliberation of movement, the dancers holding certain postures for
+several seconds at a time, reminding me, in their rigid
+self-consciousness, of the "living pictures" which were so popular in
+America twenty years ago.
+
+All of the dancers, as I have already remarked, were of the blood royal
+and one, I was told, was in the direct line of succession. Judging from
+the vacuity of his expression, the Dutch have no reason to anticipate
+any difficulty in maintaining their mastery in Soerakarta when he comes
+to the throne. But the Dutch officials take no chances with the
+intrigue-loving native princes; they keep them under close surveillance
+at all times. It is one of the disadvantages of Christian governments
+ruling peoples of alien race and religion that methods of revolt are
+not always visible to the naked eye, and even the Dutch Intelligence
+Service in the Indies, efficient as it is, has no means of knowing what
+is going on in the forbidden quarters of the kratons. In Java, as in
+other Moslem lands, more than one bloody uprising has been planned in
+the safety and secrecy of the harem. Potential disloyalty is
+neutralized, therefore, by a discreet display of force. Throughout the
+performance in the palace a Dutch trooper in field gray, bandoliers
+stuffed with cartridges festooned across his chest and a carbine tucked
+under his arm, paced slowly up and down--an ever-present symbol of
+Dutch power--watching the posturing princes with a sardonic eye. That
+is Holland's way of showing that, should disaffection show its head,
+she is ready to deal with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THROUGH THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE TO ELEPHANT LAND
+
+
+Since the world began the peacock's tail which we call the Malay
+Peninsula has swung down from Siam to sweep the Sumatran shore. A
+peacock's tail not merely in configuration but in its gorgeousness of
+color. Green jungle--a bewildering tangle of trees, shrubs, bushes,
+plants, and creepers, hung with ferns and mosses, bound together with
+rattans and trailing vines--clothes the mountains and the lowlands, its
+verdant riot checked only by the sea. Penetrating the deepest recesses
+of the jungle a network of little, dusky, winding rivers, green-blue
+because the sky that is reflected in them is filtered through the
+interlacing branches. Orchids--death-white, saffron, pink, violet,
+purple, crimson--festooned from the higher boughs like incandescent
+lights of colored glass. The gilded, cone-shaped towers of Buddhist
+temples rising above steep roofs tiled in orange, red, or blue, their
+eaves hung with hundreds of tiny bells which tinkle musically in every
+breeze. The scarlet splotches of spreading fire-trees against
+whitewashed walls. Shaven-headed priests in yellow robes offering
+flowers and food to stolid-faced images of brass and clay. Long files
+of elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath their hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn forest trails.
+Snowy, hump-backed bullocks, driven by naked brown men, splashing
+through the shallow water on the rice-fields harnessed to ploughs as
+primeval in design as those our Aryan ancestors used. Bronze-brown
+women, their lithe figures wrapped in gaily colored cottons, busying
+themselves about frail, leaf-thatched dwellings perched high on bamboo
+stilts above the river-banks. And, arching over all, a sky as
+flawlessly blue as the dome of the Turquoise Mosque in Samarland. Such
+is the land that the ancients called the Golden Chersonese but which is
+labeled in the geographies of today as Lower Siam and the Malay States.
+
+If you will look at the map you will see that Lower Siam extends
+half-way down the Malay Peninsula, running across it from coast to
+coast and thus forming a barrier between British Burmah and British
+Malaya, precisely as German East Africa formerly separated the British
+holdings in the northern and southern portions of the Dark Continent.
+And, were I to indulge in prophecy, I should say that the day would
+come when the fate of German East Africa will overtake Lower Siam.
+History has shown, again and again, that the nation, particularly if it
+is as small and feeble as Siam, which forms a barrier between two
+portions of a powerful and aggressive empire is in anything but an
+enviable position.
+
+Politically that portion of the Malay Peninsula which is within the
+British sphere is divided into three sections: the colony of the
+Straits Settlements, the four Federated Malay States, and the five
+non-federated states under British protection. The crown colony of the
+Straits Settlements consists of the twenty-seven-mile-long island of
+Singapore and the much larger island of Penang; the territory of
+Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite Penang; Malacca, a narrow
+coastal strip between Singapore and Penang; and, to the north of it,
+the tiny island and insignificant territory known as the Dingdings. By
+the acquisition of these small and scattered but strategically
+important territories, England obtained control of the Straits of
+Malacca, which form the gateway to the China Seas. In 1896, as the
+result of a treaty between the British Government and the rajahs of the
+native states of Perak, Selangor, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan, these
+four states were brought into a confederation under British protection.
+Though they are still under the nominal rule of their own rajahs--now
+known as sultans--each has a British adviser attached to his court, the
+Governor of the Straits Settlements being _ex officio_ the High
+Commissioner and administrative head of the confederation. The
+non-federated states consist of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Trengganu,
+the rights of suzerainty, protection, administration, and control of
+which were transferred by treaty from Siam to Great Britain in 1909,
+and the Sultanate of Johore, which occupies the extreme southern end of
+the peninsula, opposite Singapore. In the non-federated, as in the
+Federated Malay States, British advisers reside at the courts of the
+native sultans.
+
+Starting at Johore, which, some Biblical authorities assert, is
+identical with the Land of Ophir, and running through the heart of
+British Malaya from south to north, is the Federated Malay States
+Railway, which has recently been linked up with the Siamese State
+Railways, thus making it possible to travel by rail from Singapore to
+Bangkok in about four days. Aside from the heat (in the railway
+carriages the mercury occasionally climbs to 120), the insects, the
+dust, and the swarms of sweating natives who pile into every
+compartment regardless of the class designated on their tickets, the
+journey is a comfortable one.
+
+That section of the F. M. S. Railways which traverses the Sultanate of
+Johore runs through the greatest tiger country in all Asia. The tiger
+is to Johore what the elephant is to Siam and the kangaroo to
+Australia--a sort of national trademark. Even the postage stamps bear
+an engraving of the striped monarch of the jungle. There is no place in
+the world, so far as I am aware, save only a zoo, of course, where one
+can get a shot at a tiger so quickly and with such minimum of effort.
+In this connection I heard a story at the Singapore Club, the truth of
+which is vouched for by those with whom I was having tiffin. Shortly
+before the war, it seems, an American business man who had amassed a
+fortune in the export business, and who was noted even in down-town New
+York as a hustler, was returning from a business trip to China. In the
+smoking-room of the home ward bound liner, over the highballs and
+cigars, he listened to the stories of an Englishman who had been
+hunting big game in Asia. The conversation eventually turned to tigers.
+
+"Johore's the place for tigers," the Englishman remarked, pouring
+himself another peg of whiskey. "The beggars are as thick as foxes in
+Leicestershire. You're jolly well certain of bagging one the first day
+out."
+
+"I've always wanted a tiger skin for my smoking room," commented the
+American. "Could buy one at a fur shop on the Avenue, of course, but I
+want one that I shot myself. Think I'll run over to Johore while we're
+at Singapore and get one."
+
+"But I say, my dear fellow," expostulated the Briton, "you really can't
+do that, you know. We only stop at Singapore for half a day--get in at
+daybreak and leave again at noon. You can't get a tiger in that time."
+
+"There's no such word as 'can't' in my business. Business methods will
+bring results in tiger shooting as quickly as in anything else,"
+retorted the American, rising and heading for the wireless room.
+
+A few hours later the American's representative in Singapore, a
+youngster who had himself been educated in the school of American
+business, received a wireless message from the head of his house. It
+read: "Arriving Singapore daybreak Thursday. Leaving noon same day.
+Wish to shoot tiger in Johore. Make arrangements."
+
+Now the representative in Singapore knew perfectly well that his
+promotion, if not his job, depended upon his employer getting a tiger.
+And, as the steamer was due in four days, there was no time to spare.
+From the director of the Singapore zoo he purchased for considerably
+above the market price, a decrepit and somewhat moth-eaten tiger of
+advanced years, which he had transported across the straits to Johore,
+whence it was conveyed by bullock cart to a spot in the edge of the
+jungle, a dozen miles outside the town, where it was turned loose in an
+enclosure of wire and bamboo hastily constructed for the purpose.
+
+When the steamer bearing the American magnate dropped anchor in the
+harbor, the local representative went aboard with the quarantine
+officer. Ten minutes later, thanks to arrangements made in advance, a
+launch was bearing him and his chief to the shore, where a motor car
+was waiting. It is barely a dozen miles from the wharf at Singapore to
+Woodlands, the ferry station opposite Johore, and the driver had orders
+to shatter the speed laws. A waiting launch streaked across the two
+miles of channel which separates the island from the mainland and drew
+up alongside the quay at Johore, where another car was waiting. The
+roads are excellent in the sultanate, and thirty minutes of fast
+driving brought the two Americans to the zareba, within which the
+tiger, guarded by natives, was peacefully breakfasting on a goat.
+
+"He's a real man-eater," whispered the agent, handing his employer a
+loaded express rifle. "We only located him yesterday. Lured him with a
+goat, you know ... the smell of blood attracts 'em. You'd better put a
+bullet in him before he sees us. One just behind the shoulder will do
+the business."
+
+The magnate, trembling with excitement for the first time in his busy
+life, drew bead on the tawny stripe behind the tiger's shoulder. There
+was a shattering roar, the great beast pawed convulsively at the air,
+then rolled on its side and lay motionless.
+
+"Good work," the local man commented approvingly. "It's only an hour
+and forty minutes since we left the boat a record for tiger shooting, I
+fancy. We'll be back at Raffles' for breakfast by nine o'clock and
+after that I'll show you round the city. Don't worry about the skin,
+sir. The natives'll tend to the skinning and I'll have it on board
+before you sail."
+
+Now--so the story goes--after dinner in the magnate's New York home he
+takes his guests into the smoking room for cigars and coffee. Spread
+before the fireplace is a great orange and black pelt, a trifle faded
+it is true, but indubitably the skin of a tiger.
+
+"Yes," the host complacently in reply to his guests' admiring comments,
+"a real man-eater. Shot him myself in the Johore jungle. Easy enough to
+get a tiger if you use American business methods."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, upon reaching Singapore, the great seaport at the tip of the
+Malay Peninsula which is the gateway to the Malay States and to Siam, I
+learned that small but not uncomfortable steamers sail weekly for
+Bangkok--a four-day voyage if the monsoon is blowing in the right
+direction--or that, by crossing the narrow straits on the ferry to
+Johore, we could reach the capital of Siam in about the same time by
+the Federated Malay States and Siamese railways, there seemed no valid
+excuse for keeping the _Negros_ any longer. So, bidding good-by to
+Captain Galvez and his officers, I gave orders that the little vessel,
+on which we had cruised upward of six thousand miles, amid some of the
+least-known islands in the world, should return to Manila. To leave her
+was like breaking home ties, and I confess that when she steamed slowly
+out of the harbor, homeward bound, with her Filipino crew lining the
+rail and Captain Galvez waving to us from the bridge and the flag at
+her taffrail dipping in farewell, I suddenly felt lonely and deserted.
+
+When the people whom I met in Singapore learned that I was
+contemplating visiting Siam they attempted to dissuade me. I was warned
+that the train service up the peninsula was uncertain, that the
+steamers up the gulf were uncomfortable, that the hotel in Bangkok was
+impossible, the dirt incredible, the heat unendurable, the climate
+unhealthy. And when, desiring to learn whether these indictments were
+true, I attempted to obtain reliable information about the country to
+which I was going, I found that none was to be had. The latest volume
+on Siam which I could find in Singapore bookshops bore an 1886 imprint.
+The managers of the two leading hotels in Singapore knew, or professed
+to know, nothing about hotel accommodations in Bangkok. Though the
+administration of the Federal Malay States Railways generously offered
+me the use of a private car over their system, I could obtain no
+reliable information as to what connections I could make at the Siamese
+frontier or when I would reach Bangkok. And the only guide book on Siam
+which I could discover--quite an excellent little volume, by the
+way--was published by the Imperial Japanese Railways!
+
+The Siamese are by no means opposed to foreigners visiting their
+country, and they would welcome the development of its resources by
+foreign capital, but, owing to the insularity, indifference, timidity
+and pride which are inherent in the Siamese character, they have taken
+no steps to bring their country to the attention of the outside world.
+When one notes the energetic advertising campaigns which are being
+conducted by the governments of Japan, China, Java, and even
+Indo-China, where the visitor is confronted at every turn by
+advertisements urging him to "Spend the Week-End at Kamakura," "Go to
+the Great Wall," "Don't Miss Boroboedor and Djokjakarta," "Take
+Advantage of the Special Fares to the Ruins of Angkor," you wonder why
+Siam, which has so much that is novel and picturesque to offer, makes
+no effort to swell its revenues by encouraging the tourist industry.
+That the royal prince who is the Minister of Communications recently
+made a tour of the United States for the purpose of studying American
+railway methods suggests, however, that the Land of the White Elephant
+is planning to get its share of tourist travel in the future.
+
+I might as well admit frankly that my first impressions of the Siamese
+capital were extremely disappointing. I didn't expect to be conveyed to
+my hotel atop a white elephant, through streets lined with salaaming
+natives, but neither did I expect to make a wild dash through
+thoroughfares as crowded with traffic as Fifth Avenue, in a vehicle
+which unmistakably owed its paternity to Mr. Henry Ford, or to be
+bruskly halted at busy street crossings by the upraised hand of a
+helmeted and white-gloved traffic policeman. Nor, upon my arrival at
+the hotel--there is only one in Bangkok deserving of the name--did I
+expect to find on the breakfast table a breakfast food manufactured in
+Battle Creek, or beside my bed an electric fan made in New Britain,
+Connecticut, or behind the desk a very wide awake American youth--the
+son, I learned later, of one of the American advisers to the Siamese
+Government--who eagerly inquired whether I had brought any American
+newspapers with me and whether I thought the pennant would be won by
+the Giants or the White Sox.
+
+Bangkok, which, with its suburbs, has a population about equal to that
+of Boston, is built on the banks of the country's greatest river, the
+Menam, some forty miles from its mouth. Though the city has a number of
+fine thoroughfares, straight as though laid out with a pencil and
+ruler, between them lie labyrinths of dim and evil-smelling bazaars,
+their narrow, winding, cobble-paved streets lined on either side by
+stalls in which are displayed for sale all the products of the country.
+Because of the intense heat these stalls are open in front, so that the
+occupants work and eat and sleep in full view of everyone who passes.
+The barber shaves the heads of his customers while they squat in the
+edge of the roadway. In the licensed gambling houses groups of excited
+men and women crowd about gaming tables presided over by greasy,
+half-naked Chinese croupiers, and, when they have squandered their
+trifling earnings, hasten to the nearest pawnshop with any garment or
+article of furniture that is not absolutely indispensable to their
+existence in order to obtain a few more coins to hazard and eventually
+to lose. As a result of this passion for gambling, the city is full of
+pawnshops, some streets containing scarcely anything else. At the far
+end of one of the bazaar streets is the largest idol manufactory in
+Siam, for the temples whose graceful, tapering towers dot the landscape
+are filled with images of Buddha, in all sizes and of all materials
+from wood to gold set with jewels, most of them donated by the devout
+in order to "make merit" for themselves. As all Buddhists wish to
+accumulate as much merit for themselves as possible, in order to be
+assured at death of a through ticket to Nirvana, the idol-making
+industry is in a flourishing condition.
+
+Pushing their way through the crowded thoroughfares, their raucous
+cries rising above the clamor, go the ice cream and curry vendors,
+carrying the paraphernalia of their trade slung from bamboo poles
+borne upon the shoulders--perambulating cafeterias and soda fountains,
+as it were. For a satang--a coin equivalent to about a quarter of a
+cent--you can purchase a bowl of rice, while the expenditure of another
+satang will provide you with an assortment of savories or relishes,
+made from elderly meat, decayed fish, decomposed prawns and other
+toothsome ingredients, which you heap upon the rice, together with a
+greenish-yellow curry sauce which makes the concoction look as though
+it were suffering from a severe attack of jaundice. These relishes are
+cooked, or rather re-warmed, by the simple process of suspending them
+in a sort of sieve in a pot of boiling water, the same pot and the same
+water serving for all customers alike. By this arrangement, the man who
+takes his snack at the close of the day has the advantage of receiving
+not merely what he orders, but also flavors and even floating remnants
+from the dishes ordered by all those who have preceded him. The ice
+cream vendors drive a roaring trade in a concoction the basis of which
+is finely shaven ice, looking like half-frozen and very dirty slush,
+sweetened with sugar and flavored, according to the purchaser's taste
+from an array of metal-topped bottles such as barbers use for bay rum
+and hair oil. But, being cold and sweet, "Isa-kee," as the Chinese
+vendors call it, is as popular among the lower classes in Siam as ice
+cream cones are in the United States.
+
+Though the streets of Bangkok are crowded with vehicles of every
+description--ramshackle and disreputable rickshaws, the worst to be
+found in all the East, drawn by sweating coolies; the boxes of wood and
+glass on wheels, called gharries, drawn by decrepit ponies whose
+harness is pieced out with rope; creaking bullock carts driven by
+Tamils from Southern India; bicycles, ridden by natives whose European
+hats and coats are in striking contrast to their bare legs and
+brilliant _panungs_; clanging street cars, as crowded with humanity as
+those on Broadway; motors of every size and make, from jitneys to
+Rolls-Royces--the bulk of the city's traffic is borne on the great
+river and the countless canals which empty into it. Bangkok has been
+called, and not ineptly, the Venice of the East, for it is covered with
+a net-work of canals, or _klongs_, which spread out in every direction.
+In sampans, houseboats and other craft, moored to the banks of these
+canals, dwells the major portion of the city's inhabitants. The city's
+water population is complete in itself and perfectly independent of its
+neighbors on land, for it has its own shops and dwellings, its own
+markets and restaurants, its own theaters, and gambling establishments,
+its own priests and police. When you go to Bangkok, I strongly advise
+you to hire a sampan and visit the floating portion of the city after
+nightfall. The houseboats are open at both ends and you will see many
+things that the guidebooks fail to mention.
+
+The Oriental Hotel, the banks, the shipping offices, the business
+houses, and all the legations save only the American, are clustered on
+or near the river in a low-lying and unattractive quarter of the town.
+But follow the long, dingy, squalid highway known as the New Road, a
+thoroughfare lined with third-rate Chinese shops and thronged with
+rickshaws, carriages, bicycles, motors, street-cars, and Asiatics of
+every religion and complexion, and you will come at length into a
+portion of the city as different from the mercantile district as
+Riverside Drive is from the Bowery. Here you will find broad
+boulevards, shaded by rows of splendid tamarinds, lined by charming
+villas which peep coyly from the blazing gardens which surround them,
+and broken at frequent intervals by little parks in which are fountains
+and statuary. There is a great common, green with grass during the
+rainy season, known as the Premane Ground, where military reviews are
+held and where the royal cremations take place; a favorite spot in the
+spring for the kite-flying contests in which Siamese of all classes and
+all ages participate. Fronting on the Premane Ground are the not
+unimposing stuccoed buildings which house the Ministries of Justice,
+Agriculture and War. Not far away is the new Throne Hall, a huge,
+ornate structure of white marble, in the modern Italian style, its
+great dome faintly reminiscent of the Capitol at Washington. From the
+center of the spacious plaza rises a rather fine equestrian statue of
+the late king, Chulalungkorn, and, close by, the really charming Dusit
+Gardens, beautifully laid out with walks and lagoons and kiosks and a
+great variety of tropical flowers and shrubs and trees. But, most
+characteristic and colorful of all, a touch of that Oriental splendor
+which one looks for in Siam, is the congeries of palaces, offices,
+stables, courtyards, gardens, shrines and temples, the whole encircled
+by a crenelated, white-washed wall, which is the official residence of
+King Rama VI.
+
+There are said to be nearly four hundred Buddhist temples within a
+two-mile radius of the royal palace, of which by far the most
+interesting and magnificent is the famous Wat Phra Keo, or Temple of
+the Emerald Buddha, which is really a royal chapel, being within the
+outer circumference of the palace walls. I doubt if any space of
+similar size in all the world contains such a bewildering display of
+barbaric magnificence, such a riot of form and color, as the walled
+enclosure in which this remarkable edifice and its attendant structures
+stand. From the center of the marble-paved courtyard rises an enormous,
+cone-shaped _prachadee_, round at the bottom but tapering to a long and
+slender spire said to be covered with plates of gold. It certainly
+looks like a solid mass of that precious metal, and at daybreak and
+nightfall, when it catches the level rays of the sun, it can be seen
+from afar, shining and glittering above the gorgeously colored roofs of
+the temples and the many-tinted lesser spires which surround it. Close
+by the gilded _prachadee_ is the _bote_ or chapel used by the king,
+surmounted by a similar spire which is overlaid with sapphire-colored
+plates of glass and porcelain, while a little distance away stands the
+temple itself, its gilded walls set with mosaics of emerald green.
+Flanking the gateways of the temple courtyard are gigantic, grotesque
+figures, fully thirty feet in height, carved and colored like the
+creatures of a nightmare. They represent demons and are supposed to
+guard the approaches to the temple, being so placed that they glare
+down ferociously on all who enter the sacred enclosure. Other figures
+in marble, bronze, wood and stone, representing dolphins, storks, cows,
+camels, monkeys and the various fabulous monsters of the Hindu
+mythology, are scattered in apparent confusion about the temple
+courtyard, producing an effect as bizarre as it is bewildering. It is
+so unreal, so incredibly fantastic, that I felt that I was looking at
+the papier-mach� setting for a motion picture spectacle, such as
+Griffith used to produce, and that the director and the cameraman would
+appear shortly and end the illusion.
+
+The interior of the main temple is extremely lofty. The walls and
+rafters are of teak and the floor is covered with a matting made of
+silver wire. At the far end of this imposing room an enormous,
+pyramidal shrine of gold rises almost to the roof, its dazzling
+brilliancy somewhat subdued by the semi-obscurity of the interior. Wat
+Phra Keo is unique amongst Siamese temples in containing objects of
+real value. Everything is genuine and costly, as becomes the gifts of a
+king, though it must be admitted that certain of the royal offerings
+which are ranged at the foot of the shrine, such as jeweled French
+clocks, figurines of S�vres and Dresden porcelain, and a large marble
+statue of a Roman goddess, are of doubtful appropriateness. Ranged on a
+table at the back of the altar are seven images of Buddha in pure gold,
+the right hand of each pointed upward. On the thumb and fingers of each
+hand glitters a king's ransom in rings of sapphires, emeralds and
+rubies, while from the center of each palm flashes a rosette of
+diamonds. High up toward the rafters, at the apex of the golden
+pyramid, in a sort of recess toward which the fingers of the seven
+images are pointing, sits an image of Buddha, perhaps twelve inches
+high, said to be cut from one enormous emerald--whence the temple's
+name. As a matter of fact, it is made of jade and is of incalculable
+value. Set in its forehead are three eyes, each an enormous diamond.
+The history of this extraordinary idol is lost in the mists of
+antiquity. Tradition has it that it fell from heaven into one of the
+Laos states, being captured by the Siamese in battle. Since then it has
+been repeatedly lost, captured or stolen. Its story, like that of so
+many famous jewels, might fittingly be written in blood.
+
+It is the custom in Siam for every man to spend a portion of his life
+in a monastery. This rule applies to everyone from the poorest peasant
+upward, the king and all the male members of the royal family having at
+some period worn the yellow robe of a monk. This curious custom is, no
+doubt, an imitation of the so-called Act of Renunciation of Gautama,
+the future Buddha, who, at the age of twenty-nine, moved by the
+sufferings of humanity, renounced his rights to his father's throne
+and, abandoning his wife and child, devoted the remainder of his life
+to religion. Just as every American boy is expected to go to school, so
+every Siamese youth is expected to enter a monastery, the stern
+discipline enforced during this period accounting, I have no doubt, for
+the docility which is so noticeable a part of the Siamese character.
+While I was in Siam I was the guest one day of the officers' mess of
+the crack regiment of the household cavalry. Though my hosts, with few
+exceptions, spoke fluent English, though several of them had been
+educated at English schools and universities, and though the
+conversation over the mess table was of polo and racing and big game
+shooting and bridge, I learned to my astonishment that every one of
+these debonair young officers, with their worldly manners and their
+beautifully cut uniforms, had at one time shaved his head, donned the
+yellow robe of a monk, and begged his food from door to door. In view
+of the universality of the custom, it is small wonder that Siam has ten
+thousand monasteries and that 300,000 of its inhabitants wear the
+ocher-colored robe.
+
+The periods of time which men devote to monastic life are not uniform.
+Some spend between a month and a year, others their entire lives. Some
+enter the monastery in their youth, others in middle age or when old
+men. But they all shave their heads and don the coarse yellow robe and
+lead practically the same existence. Each morning, carrying their
+"begging bowls," they beg their food at the doors of laymen. They come
+quietly and stand at the door, and, accepting the offerings, as quietly
+depart without expressing thanks for what is given them, the idea being
+that they are not begging for their own benefit but in order to evoke a
+spirit of charity in the giver. During the dry season it is the custom
+of the monks to make long pilgrimages for the purpose of visiting other
+monasteries. Each of these itinerant monks is accompanied by a youth
+known as a _yom_, who carries the simple requisites of the journey, the
+chief of which is a large umbrella. Traveling in the interior one
+frequently meets long files of these yellow-clad pilgrims, with their
+attendant _yoms_, moving in silence along a forest trail. When night
+comes the _yom_ opens the large umbrella which he carries, thrusts its
+long handle into the ground, and over it drapes a square of cloth, thus
+extemporizing a sort of tent under which his master sleeps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To visit Siam without seeing the royal white elephants would be like
+visiting Niagara without seeing the falls. The elephant stables stand
+in the heart of the palace enclosure, sandwiched in between the palace
+gardens and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each animal--there were
+only three in the royal stables at the time of my visit--has a separate
+building to itself, within which it stands on a sort of dais, one hind
+leg lashed with a rope to a tall, stout post painted scarlet and
+surmounted by a gilded crown. Much as I dislike to shatter cherished
+illusions, were I to assert that the elephants I saw in the royal
+stables were white, I should be convicting myself of color-blindness.
+The best that can be said of two of them, is that they were a dirty
+gray, about the color of a much-used wash-rag. The third, had it been a
+horse, might have been described as a roan, the whole body being a pale
+reddish-brown, with a sprinkling of real white hairs on the back. All
+three animals were, in reality, albinos, having the light-colored iris
+of the eye, the white toe-nails, and the pink skin at the end of the
+trunk which distinguish the albino everywhere. As a matter of fact,
+"white elephant" is not a correct translation of the Siamese _chang
+penak_, which really means "albino elephant." But most foreigners will
+continue, I have no doubt, to use the term made famous by Barnum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Though the albino elephants are never used nowadays save on occasions
+of great ceremony, being regarded by the educated Siamese with the same
+amused tolerance with which an Englishman regards the great gilt coach,
+drawn by eight cream-colored horses, in which the king goes to open
+Parliament, the ordinary elephant is of enormous economic value to the
+country, being a combination, as it were, of a motor truck, a portable
+derrick, and a freight car. Almost anywhere in the back country, where
+the only roads are trails through the jungle, one can see "elephants
+a-pilin' teak in the sludgy, squdgy creeks" or being loaded with
+merchandise for transport into the far interior. Indeed, the traveler
+who wishes to take a short cut from Siam to Burmah can hire an
+elephant for the journey almost as easily as he could hire a motor car
+in America. It is a novel means of travel, but a little of it goes a
+long way. A good working elephant is a valuable piece of property,
+being worth in the neighborhood of $2,500., but the prospective
+purchaser should remember that the possession of one of these giant
+pachyderms entails considerable overhead, or rather, internal expense.
+De Wolf Hopper was telling only the literal truth when he sang in
+_Wang_ of the tribulations of the peasant who had an elephant on his
+hands:
+
+    "The elephant ate all night,
+    The elephant ate all day;
+    Do what he would to furnish food,
+    The cry was 'Still more hay!'"
+
+[Illustration: An elephant hunt in Siam
+
+A large herd of wild elephants being driven across a
+river
+
+The elephants, herded by domesticated animals, are
+driven into the corral]
+
+Although, as I have already remarked, sophisticated Siamese regard the
+white elephant with amusement tinged with contempt, there is no doubt
+that among the bulk of the people the animals are considered as sacred
+and are treated with great veneration. Indeed, when Siam was forced to
+cede certain of her eastern provinces to France, the treaty contained a
+clause providing that any so-called white elephants which might be
+captured in the ceded territory should be considered the property of
+the King of Siam and delivered to him forthwith. A number of years ago,
+a traveling show known as Wilson's English Circus, gave a number of
+exhibitions in Bangkok, which were attended by the King, the nobility,
+and members of the European colony. When the proprietor saw that the
+popular interest in his exhibition was beginning to wear off, he
+distributed broadcast handbills announcing that at the next performance
+"a genuine white elephant" would take part in the exhibition. Public
+curiosity was reawakened and that evening the circus was crowded. After
+the usual bareback riding, in which the Siamese were treated to the
+sight of European women in pink tights and tulle skirts pirouetting on
+the backs of cantering Percherons, two clowns burst into the ring.
+
+"Hey, you!" bawled one of them, "Have you seen the white elephant?"
+
+"Sure, I have," was the response. "The King has a stable full of them."
+
+"Oh, no, he ain't," shouted the first fun-maker. "The King ain't got
+any _white_ elephants. His are all gray ones. I'll show you the only
+genuine white elephant in the world," whereupon a small elephant, as
+snowy as repeated coats of whitewash could make it, ambled into the
+ring. Though a suppressed titter ran through the more sophisticated
+portion of the audience when it was observed that the ridiculous
+looking animal left white marks on everything it touched, it was quite
+apparent that the bulk of the spectators resented fun being made of an
+animal which they had been taught to consider sacred, certain of the
+more devout asserting that the sacrilegious performance would call down
+the wrath of Buddha. Their prophecies proved to be well founded, for
+the "white" elephant died at sea a few days later--as the result, it
+was hinted, of poison put in its food by the Siamese priests and Wilson
+himself, who had been suffering from dysentery, died the day after he
+landed at Singapore.
+
+Being a young nation, so far as the adoption of Western methods are
+concerned, the Siamese are extremely sensitive, being almost
+pathetically eager to win the good opinion of the Occidental world.
+Thus, upon Siam's entry into the Great War (perhaps you were not aware
+that the little kingdom equipped and sent to France an expeditionary
+force composed of aviation, ambulance and motor units, thus being the
+only independent Asiatic nation whose troops served on European soil)
+the king abolished the white elephant upon a red ground which from time
+immemorial had been the national standard, substituting for it a
+nondescript affair of colored stripes which at first glance appears to
+be a compromise between the flags of China and Montenegro. In doing
+this, I think that the king made a mistake, for he deprived his country
+of a distinctive emblem which was associated with Siam the whole world
+over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fortune was kind to us in the Siamese capital, for we reached that city
+on the eve of a series of royal cremations, the attendant ceremonies
+providing enough action and color to satisfy even Hawkinson. It should
+be explained that instead of cremating a body immediately, as might be
+expected in so torrid a climate, the remains are placed in a large jar
+and kept in a temple or in the house of the deceased for a period
+determined by the rank of the dead man--the King for twelve months and
+so downward. If the relatives are too poor to afford the expenses
+incident to cremation, they bury the body, but exhume it for burning
+when their financial condition permits. On the day of the cremation,
+which is usually fixed by an astrologer, the remains are transferred
+from the jar to a wooden coffin and carried with much pomp to the
+_meru_, or place of cremation. When the deceased is of royal or noble
+blood the _meru_ is frequently a magnificent structure, sometimes
+costing many thousands of dollars, built for the purpose and torn down
+when that purpose has been served. The coffin is placed on the pyre,
+which is lighted by relatives, the occasion being considered one for
+rejoicing rather than mourning. The royal _meru_, which had been
+erected in a small park in the outskirts of the capital at a cost of
+one hundred thousand ticals, was a really beautiful structure of true
+Siamese architecture, elaborately decorated in scarlet and gold and
+draped with hangings of the same colors. Within the _meru_ were three
+pyres, concealed by gilt screens, on which were set the coffins
+containing the bodies. As there were a number of bodies to be burned,
+the ceremonies lasted upward of a week, King Rama going in state each
+afternoon to the _meru_, where he took his place on a throne in an
+elaborately decorated pavilion. After brief ceremonies by a large body
+of yellow-robed Buddhist priests, the King set fire to the end of a
+long fuse, which in turn ignited the three pyres simultaneously, the
+ascending clouds of smoke being greeted by the roll of drums and the
+crash of saluting cannon.
+
+When I first suggested to friends in Bangkok that I wished to obtain
+permission for Hawkinson to take pictures of the cremation, they told
+me that it was out of the question.
+
+"But why?" I demanded. "Motion-pictures were taken of the funerals of
+the Pope, and of King Edward, and of President Roosevelt, without
+anyone dreaming of protesting, so why should there be any objection
+here? Nothing in the least disrespectful is intended."
+
+"But this is Siam," my friends replied pessimistically, "and such
+things simply aren't done here. No one has ever taken a motion-picture
+of a royal cremation."
+
+"It's never too late to begin," I told them.
+
+So I took a rickshaw out to the American Legation and enlisted the
+cooperation of our charge d'affaires, Mr. Donald Rodgers, the very
+efficient young diplomatist who was representing American interests in
+Siam pending the arrival of the new minister.
+
+"I'll do my best to arrange it," Rodgers assured me, "but I'm not
+sanguine about meeting with success. The Siamese are fine people,
+kindly, hospitable and all that, but they're as conservative as
+Bostonians."
+
+Two days later, however, he sent me a letter, signed by the minister of
+the royal household, authorizing Hawkinson to take motion-pictures in
+the grounds of the _meru_ on the following day prior to the cremation.
+I didn't quite like the sound of the last four words, "prior to the
+cremation," but I felt that it was not an occasion for quibbling. So
+the next day, at the appointed hour--which was two hours ahead of the
+time set for the cremation--Hawkinson set out for the _meru_,
+accompanied by his interpreter. He did not return until dinner-time.
+
+"What happened?" I inquired, by way of greeting.
+
+"What didn't happen?" he retorted. "They turned me out just as the
+cremation was commencing. When we reached the _meru_ I was met by an
+official wearing bright-blue pants, who told me that he had been sent
+to assist me in taking the pictures. Well, I got a few shots of the
+_meru_ itself, and of the royal pavilion, and of some of the priests
+and soldiers, but there wasn't much doing because there wasn't any
+action. So I sat down to wait for things to happen. Pretty soon the
+troops began to arrive--lancers and a battery of artillery and a
+company of the royal body-guard in red coats--and after them came the
+guests: officials and dignitaries in all sorts of gorgeous uniforms
+covered with decorations. A few minutes later I heard someone say, 'The
+King is coming,' so I got the camera ready to begin cranking. Just then
+up comes my Siamese chaperone. 'You will have to leave now,' says he.
+'Leave? What for?' said I. 'Because the cremation is about to begin,'
+he tells me. 'But that's what I've come to take pictures of,' I told
+him. 'What did you think that I attended this party for?' 'Oh, no,'
+says he, very polite; 'your permission says that you can take pictures
+_prior to the cremation_.' So they showed me the gate."
+
+"Then you didn't get any pictures?" I queried, deep disappointment in
+my tone.
+
+"Sure, I got the pictures," was the answer. "Some of them, at any rate.
+That's what I went there for, wasn't it?"
+
+"But how did you work it?" I demanded.
+
+"Easy," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "I told the driver to back
+his car up against the iron fence which encircles the _meru_; then I
+set up the camera in the tonneau, so that it was above the heads of the
+crowd, screwed on the six-inch lens which I use for long-distance
+shots, and took the pictures."
+
+[Illustration: King Sisowath of Cambodia
+
+Though the octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, he is
+permitted only a shadow of power]
+
+[Illustration: Rama VI, King of Siam
+
+He is in most respects the antithesis of the popular conception of an
+Oriental monarch]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The present ruler of Siam, King Rama VI, is in most respects the
+antithesis of the popular conception of an Oriental monarch. Though
+polygamy has been practised among the upper classes in Siam from time
+beyond reckoning, he has neither wife nor concubines. Instead of riding
+atop a white elephant, in a gilded howdah, or being borne in a
+palanquin, as is always the custom of Oriental rulers in fiction, he
+shatters the speed laws in a big red Mercedes. For the flaming silks
+and flashing jewels which the movies have educated the American public
+to believe are habitually worn by Eastern potentates, King Rama
+substitutes the uniform of a Siamese general, or, for evening
+functions at the palace, the dress coat and knee-breeches of European
+courts. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and later graduated
+from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, being commissioned an
+honorary colonel in the British Army. He is the founder and chief of an
+organization patterned after the Boy Scouts and known as the Wild
+Tigers, which has hundreds of branches and carries on its rolls the
+name of nearly every youth in the kingdom. Each year the organization
+holds in Bangkok a grand rally, when thousands of youngsters, together
+with many adults from all walks of life, for membership in the corps is
+not confined to boys, are reviewed by the sovereign, who appears in the
+gorgeous and original uniform, designed by himself, of
+commander-in-chief of the Wild Tigers.
+
+In one respect, however, King Rama lives up to the popular conception
+of an Oriental ruler: like his father before him, he is generous to the
+point of prodigality. This trait was illustrated not long ago, when he
+sent eight thousand pounds to the widow of Mr. Westengaard, the
+American who was for many years general adviser to the Government of
+Siam, accompanied by a message that it was to be used for the education
+of her son. This recalls a characteristic little anecdote of the
+present ruler's father, the late King Chulalongkorn. The early youth of
+the late king and his brothers was spent under the tutelage of an
+English governess, who was affectionately addressed by the younger
+members of the royal family as "Mem." Upon her return to England she
+wrote a book entitled _An Englishwoman at the Siamese Court_, in which
+she depicted her employer, King Mongkut, the father of Chulalongkorn,
+in a none too favorable light. Some years later, upon the occasion of
+King Chulalongkorn's visit to England, his former governess, now become
+an old woman, called upon him.
+
+"Mem," he said, in a course of conversation, "how could you write such
+unkind things about my father? He was always very good to you."
+
+"That is true, Majesty," the former governess admitted in some
+confusion, "but the publishers wouldn't take the book unless I made it
+sensational. And I had to do it because I was in financial
+difficulties."
+
+When she had departed the King turned to one of his equerries. "Send
+the poor old lady a hundred pounds," he directed. "She meant no harm
+and she needs the money."
+
+The chief hobby of the present ruler is, curiously enough, amateur
+dramatics, of which his orthodox and conservative ministers do not
+wholly approve. In addition to having translated into Siamese a number
+of Shakesperian plays, he is the author of several original dramas,
+which have been produced at the palace under his personal direction and
+in several of which he has himself played the leading parts. As a
+result of this predilection for dramatics, he has accumulated an
+extensive theatrical wardrobe, to which he is constantly adding. When I
+was in Bangkok I had some clothes made by the English tailor who
+supplies the court--an excellent tailor, but expensive.
+
+"You'll excuse my taking the liberty, I hope, sir," he said during the
+course of a fitting, "but, being as you are an American, perhaps you
+could assist me with some information. I've received a very pressing
+order for a costume such as is worn by the cowboys in your country,
+sir, but, though I've found some pictures in the English illustrated
+weeklies, I don't rightly know how to make it."
+
+"A cowboy's costume?" I exclaimed. "In Siam? Who in the name of Heaven
+wants it?"
+
+"It's for his Majesty," was the surprising answer. "He's written a play
+in which he takes the part of an American cowboy and he's very
+particular, sir, that the costume should be quite correct. Seeing as
+you come from that country, I thought I'd make so bold, sir, as to ask
+if you could give me some suggestions."
+
+It was quite apparent that he believed that when I was at home I
+customarily went about in chaps, a flannel shirt and a sombrero, and,
+knowing the English mind, I realized that nothing was to be gained by
+attempting to disillusionize him.
+
+"Let's see what you've made," I suggested, whereupon he produced an
+outfit which appeared to be a compromise between the costume of an
+Italian bandit, the uniform of an Australian soldier, and the regalia
+of a Spanish bull-fighter. Suppressing my inclination to give way to
+laughter, I sketched for the grateful tailor the sort of garments to
+which cowpunchers--cowpunchers of the screen, at least--are addicted.
+If he followed my directions the King of Siam wore a costume which
+would make William S. Hart green with envy.
+
+King Rama's literary efforts have not been confined to playwriting,
+however, for his book on the wars of the Polish Succession is one of
+the standard authorities on the subject. If you go to Siam expecting to
+see an Oriental potentate such as you have read about in novels, His
+Majesty, Rama VI, is bound to prove very disappointing.
+
+[Illustration: Colorful ceremonies of old Siam
+
+Once each year the King visits the various temples in
+and near Bangkok, travelling in the royal barge, a gorgeously decorated
+affair rowed by threescore oarsmen
+
+The rice-planting ceremony. The Minister of Agriculture
+ploughs a few furrows in a field outside Bangkok, being fallowed by
+four young women of the court who scatter rice grains on the freshly
+opened soil]
+
+But, though the monarch and his court are as up-to-the-minute as the
+Twentieth Century Limited, many of the spectacular and colorful
+ceremonies of old Siam are still celebrated with all their ancient pomp
+and magnificence. For example, each year, at the close of the rainy
+season, the King devotes about a fortnight to visiting the various
+temples in and near Bangkok. On these occasions he goes in the royal
+barge, a gorgeously decorated affair, 150 feet in length, looking not
+unlike an enormous Venetian gondola, rowed by three-score oarsmen in
+scarlet-and-gold liveries. The King, surrounded by a glittering group
+of court officials, sits on a throne at the stern, while attendants
+hold over his head golden umbrellas. From the landing place to the
+temple he is borne in a sedan chair between rows of prostrate natives
+who bow their foreheads to the earth in adoration of this short, stout,
+olive-skinned, good-humored looking young man whom nearly ten millions
+of people implicitly believe to be the earthly representative of
+Buddha.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another picturesque observance, the Rice-Planting Ceremony, takes place
+early in May, when the Minister of Agriculture, as the deputy of the
+King, leads a long procession of officials and priests to a field in
+the outskirts of the capital, where a pair of white bullocks, yoked to
+a gilded plough, are waiting. Surrounded by a throng of functionaries
+glittering like Christmas trees, the Minister ploughs a few furrows in
+the field, being followed by four young women of the court who scatter
+rice grains on the freshly turned soil. Until quite recent years, the
+officials taking part in this procession claimed the privilege of
+appropriating any articles which caught their fancy in the shops along
+the route. But this quaint practise is no longer followed. It was not
+popular with the merchants. The Siamese, like all Orientals, place much
+reliance on omens, the position of the lower hem of the _panung_ worn
+by the Minister of Agriculture on this occasion indicating, it is
+confidently believed, the sort of weather to be expected during the
+ensuing year. If the edge of the _panung_ comes down to the ankles a
+dry season is anticipated, even a drought, perhaps. If, on the
+contrary, the garment is pulled up to the knees--a raining-in-London
+effect, as it were,--it is freely predicted that the country will
+suffer from floods. But if the folds of the silk reach to a point
+midway between knee and ankle, then the farmers look forward to a
+moderate rainfall and a prosperous season. It is as though the United
+States Weather Bureau were to base its forecasts on the height at which
+the Secretary of Agriculture wore his trousers.
+
+The _panung_--a strip of silk or cotton about three yards long is the
+national garment of Siam and among the poorer classes constitutes the
+only article of clothing. It is admirably adapted to the climate, being
+easy to wash and easy to put on: all that is necessary is to wind it
+about the waist, pass the ends between the legs, and tuck them into the
+girdle, thus producing the effect of a pair of knickerbockers. As both
+sexes wear the _panung_, and likewise wear their hair cut short, it is
+somewhat difficult to distinguish between men and women. Siamese women
+keep their hair about four or five inches long and brush it straight
+back, like American college students, without using any comb or other
+ornament, thus giving them a peculiarly boyish appearance. In
+explanation of this fashion of wearing the hair there is an interesting
+tradition. Once upon a time, it seems, a Siamese walled city was
+besieged by Cambodians while the men of the city were fighting
+elsewhere and only women and children remained behind. A successful
+defense was out of the question. In this emergency, a woman of militant
+character--the Sylvia Pankhurst of her time--proposed to her terrified
+sisters that they should cut their hair short and appear upon the walls
+in men's clothing on the chance of frightening away the Cambodians. The
+ruse succeeded, for, while the invaders were hesitating whether to
+carry the city by storm, the Siamese warriors returned and put the
+enemy to flight. The Siamese prince who told me the story, an officer
+who had spent much of his life in Europe, remarked that he understood
+that American women were also cutting off their hair.
+
+"True enough," I admitted. "In the younger set bobbed hair is all the
+vogue. But they don't cut off their hair, as your women did, to
+frighten away the men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If you will take down the family atlas and turn to the map of Southern
+Asia you will see that Siam, with an area about equivalent to that of
+Spain, occupies the uncomfortable and precarious position of a fat
+walnut clinched firmly between the jaws of a nut-cracker, the jaws
+being formed by British Burmah and French Indo-China. And for the past
+thirty years those jaws have been slowly but remorselessly closing.
+Until 1893 the eastern frontier of Siam was separated from the China
+Sea by the narrow strip of Annam, at one point barely thirty miles in
+width, which was under French protection. Its western boundary was the
+Lu Kiang River, which likewise formed the eastern boundary of the
+British possessions in Burmah. On the south the kingdom reached down to
+the Grand Lac of Cambodia, while on the north its frontiers were
+coterminous with those of the great, rich Chinese province of Yunnan.
+Now here was a condition of affairs which was as annoying as it was
+intolerable to the land-hungry statesmen of Downing Street and the
+Quai d'Orsay. That a small and defenseless Oriental nation should be
+permitted to block the colonial expansion of two powerful and
+acquisitive European nations was unthinkable.
+
+The first step in the spoilation of the helpless little kingdom was
+taken by France in 1893, when, claiming that the Mekong--which the
+French were eager to acquire under the impression that it would provide
+them with a trade-route into Southern China--formed the true boundary
+between Siam and Annam, she demanded that the Siamese evacuate the
+great strip of territory to the east of that river. Greatly to the
+delight of the French imperialists, the Siamese refused to yield,
+whereupon, in accordance with the time-honored rules of the game of
+territory grabbing, French gunboats were dispatched to make a naval
+demonstration off Bangkok. The forts at the mouth of the Menam fired
+upon the gunboats, whereupon the French instituted a blockade of the
+Siamese capital and at the same time enormously increased their
+demands. England, which had long professed to be a disinterested friend
+of the Siamese, shrugged her shoulders whereupon they yielded to the
+threat of a French invasion and ceded to France the eastern marches of
+the kingdom. Meanwhile the frontier between Siam and the new British
+possessions in Burmah had been settled amicably, though, as might have
+been expected, in Britain's favor, Siam being shorn of a small strip of
+territory on the northwest. In 1904 the French again brought pressure
+to bear, their territorial booty on this occasion amounting to some
+eight thousand square miles, comprising the Luang Prabang district
+lying east of the Mekong and the provinces of Malupr� and Barsak.
+Seeing that the process of filching territory from the Siamese was as
+safe and easy as taking candy from children, the French tried it again
+in 1907, this time obtaining the provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and
+Siem-Reap, constituting a total of some seven thousand square miles,
+thus bringing within French territory the whole of the Grand Lac and
+the wonderful ruins of Angkor. In 1909 it was England's turn again,
+but, disdaining the crude methods of the French, she informed the
+Siamese Government that she was prepared to relinquish her rights to
+maintain her own courts in Siam, the Siamese being expected to show
+their gratitude for this concession to their national pride by ceding
+to England the states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Kedah, in the Malay
+Peninsula, with a total area of about fifteen thousand square miles. It
+was a costly transaction for the Siamese, but they assented. What else
+was there for them to do? When a burly and determined person holds you
+up in a dark alley with a revolver and intimates that if you will hand
+over your pocketbook he will refrain from hitting you over the head
+with a billy, there is nothing to do but accede with the best grace
+possible to his demands. In a period of only sixteen years, therefore,
+France and England, by methods which, if used in business, would lead
+to an investigation by the Grand Jury, succeeded in stripping Siam of
+about a third of her territory. The history of Siam during that period
+provides a striking illustration of the methods by which European
+powers have obtained their colonial empires.
+
+It was the Great War which, by diverting the attention of France and
+England, probably saved Siam from complete dismemberment. Now, in
+robbing her, they would be robbing an ally and a friend, for in July,
+1917, Siam declared war on the Central Powers, despatched an
+expeditionary force to France, interned every enemy alien in the
+kingdom and confiscated their property, thus ridding France and England
+of the last vestige of Teutonic commercial rivalry in southeastern
+Asia. The Siamese, moreover, have had a national house-cleaning and
+have set their country in thorough order. Their national finances are
+now in admirable condition; they have accomplished far-reaching
+administrative reforms; they are opening up their territory by the
+construction of railway lines in all directions; and they have obtained
+the practical abolition of French and British jurisdiction over certain
+of their domestic affairs, while a treaty which provides that the
+United States shall likewise surrender its extra territorial rights and
+permit its citizens to be tried in Siamese courts has recently been
+signed.
+
+The future of Siam should be of interest to Americans if for no other
+reason than that it is the one remaining independent state of tropical
+Asia. Indeed, it is known to its own people as Muang-Thai--the
+"Kingdom of the Free." Whether it will remain so only the future can
+tell. I should be more sanguine about the continued independence of the
+Land of the White Elephant, however, were it not for the colonial
+records of its two nearest neighbors, which heretofore, in their
+dealings with Asiatic peoples, have usually followed
+
+    "The good old rule ... the simple plan,
+    That they should take who have the power,
+    And they should keep who can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TO PNOM-PENH BY THE JUNGLE TRAIL
+
+
+Indo-China is a great bay-window bulging from the southeastern corner
+of Asia, its casements opening on the China Sea and on the Gulf of
+Siam. Of all the countries of the Farther East it is the most
+mysterious; of them all it is the least known. Larger than the State of
+Texas, it is a land of vast forests and unexplored jungles in which
+roam the elephant, the tiger and the buffalo; a land of palaces and
+pagodas and gilded temples; of sun-bronzed pioneers and priests in
+yellow robes and bejeweled dancing girls. Lured by the tales I had
+heard of curious places and strange peoples to be seen in the interior
+of the peninsula, I refused to content myself with skirting its edges
+on a steamer. Instead, I determined to cross it from coast to coast.
+
+I had looked forward to covering the first stage of this journey, the
+four hundred-odd miles of jungle which separate Bangkok, in Siam, from
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on an elephant. Everyone with whom
+I had discussed the matter in Singapore had assured me that this was
+perfectly feasible. And as a means of transportation it appealed to me.
+It seemed to fit into the picture, as a wheel-chair accords with the
+spirit of Atlantic City, as a cal�che is congruous to Quebec. To my
+friends at home I had planned to send pictures of myself reclining in a
+howdah, rajah-like, as my ponderous mount rocked and rolled along the
+jungle trails. To me the idea sounded fine. But it was not to be. For,
+in shaping my plans, I had been ignorant of the fact that during the
+dry season, which was then at hand, Asiatic elephants are seldom
+worked--that they become morose and irritable and are usually kept in
+idleness until their docility returns with the rains. I was greatly
+disappointed.
+
+The overland route thus proving impracticable, so far as the first part
+of the journey was concerned, the sea road alone remained. Of vessels
+plying between Bangkok and the ports of French Indo-China there were
+but two--the _Bonite_, a French packet slightly larger than a Hudson
+River tugboat, which twice monthly makes the round trip between the
+Siamese capital and Saigon; and a Danish tramp; the _Chutututch_, an
+unkempt vagrant of the seas which wanders at will along the Gulf Coast,
+touching at those obscure ports where cargo or passengers are likely to
+be found. The _Bonite_ swung at her moorings in the Menam, opposite my
+hotel windows, so, made cautious by previous experiences on other
+coastwise vessels, I went out in a sampan to make a preliminary survey.
+But I did not go aboard. The odors which assailed me as I drew near
+caused me to decide abruptly that I wished to make no voyage on _her_.
+The _Chutututch_, I reasoned, _must_ be better; it certainly could not
+be worse. And when I approached her owners they offered no objections
+to earning a few-score extra ticals by extending her itinerary so as to
+drop me at the tiny Cambodian port of Kep. The next day, then, saw me
+on the bridge of the _Chutututch_, smoking for politeness' sake one of
+the genial captain's villainous cigars, as we steamed slowly between
+the palm-fringed, temple-dotted banks of the Menam toward the Gulf.
+
+[Illustration: Transportation in the Siamese jungle
+
+Long files of elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath the hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn jungle trails]
+
+On many kinds of vessels I have voyaged the Seven Seas. I once spent
+Christmas on a Russian steamer, jammed to her guards with lousy
+pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, in a tempest off the Syrian coast. On
+another memorable occasion I skirted the shores of Crete on a Greek
+schooner which was engaged in conveying from Canea to Candia a
+detachment of British recruits much the worse for rum. But that voyage
+on the _Chutututch_ will linger longest in my memory. From stem to
+stern she was packed with yellow, half-naked, perspiring
+humanity--Siamese, Laos, Burmans, Annamites, Cambodians, Malays,
+Chinese--journeying, God knows why, to ports whose very names I had
+never before heard. They lay so thick beneath the awnings that the
+sailors literally had to walk upon them in order to perform their work.
+From the glassy surface of the Gulf the heat rose in waves--blasts from
+an opened furnace door. The flaming ball of molten brass that was the
+sun beat down upon the crowded decks until they were as hot to the
+touch as a railway station stove at white heat. The odors of crude,
+sugar, copra, tobacco, engine oil, perspiration and fish frying in the
+galley mingled in a stench that rose to heaven. In the sweat-box which
+had been allotted to me, called by courtesy a cabin, a large gray
+ship's rat gnawed industriously at my suit-case in an endeavor to
+ascertain what it contained; insects that shall be nameless disported
+themselves upon the dubious-looking blanket which formed the only
+covering of the bed; cockroaches of incredible size used the wash-basin
+as a public swimming-pool.
+
+The other cabin passengers were all three Anglo-Saxons--a young
+Englishman and an American missionary and his wife. These last, I
+found, were convoying a flock of noisy Siamese youngsters, pupils at an
+American school in Bangkok, to a small bathing resort at the mouth of
+the Menam, where, it was alleged, the mercury had been known to drop as
+low as 90 on cold days. Because of its invigorating climate it is a
+favorite hot weather resort for the well-to-do Siamese. Here, in a
+bungalow that had been placed at their disposal by the King, the
+missionary and his charges proposed to spend a glorious fortnight away
+from the city's heat. Now do not draw a mental picture of a
+sanctimonious person with a Prince Albert coat, a white bow tie and a
+prominent Adam's apple. He was not that sort of a missionary at all. On
+the contrary, he was a very human, high-spirited, likeable fellow of
+the type that at home would be a Scout Master or in France would have
+made good as a welfare worker with the A. E. F. Once, when a
+particularly obstreperous youngster drew an over-draft on his stock of
+patience, he endorsed his disapproval with an extremely vigorous
+"_Damn!_" I took to him from that moment.
+
+When, their energy temporarily exhausted, his charges had fallen asleep
+upon the deck and pandemonium had given place to peace, he told me
+something of his story. For four years he had labored in the Vineyard
+of the Lord in Chile, but, feeling that he "was having too good a
+time," as he expressed it, he applied to the Board of Missions for
+transfer to a more strenuous post. He obtained what he asked for, with
+something over for good measure, for he was ordered to a post in the
+northeastern corner of Siam, on the Annam frontier. If there is a more
+remote or inaccessible spot on the map it would be hard to find it.
+Here he and his wife spent ten years preaching the Word to the "black
+bellied Laos," as the tattooed savages of that region are known. Then
+he was transferred to Bangkok. There are no roads in Siam, so he and
+his wife and their five small children made the long journey by river,
+in a native dugout of less than two feet beam, in which they traveled
+and ate and slept for upwards of two weeks.
+
+I asked him if he wasn't becoming weaned of Bangkok, which, as a place
+of residence, leaves much to be desired.
+
+"Yes, I've had about enough of it," he admitted. "I'm anxious to get
+away."
+
+"Back to the Big Town?" I suggested. "To God's Country?"
+
+"Oh, no; not back to the States," he hastened to assure me. "I haven't
+finished my job out here. I want to get back to my people in the
+interior again."
+
+Whether you approve of foreign missions or not, it is impossible to
+withhold your respect and admiration from such men as that. Though at
+home they are too often the butts of ignorant criticisms and cheap
+witticisms, they are carrying civilization, no less than Christianity,
+into the world's dark places. They are the real pioneers. You might
+remember this the next time an appeal is made in your church for
+foreign missions.
+
+The young Englishman was likewise an outpost of progress, though in a
+different fashion. For seven years he had worn the uniform of an
+officer in the Royal Navy. At the close of the war, seeing small
+prospect of promotion, he had entered the employ of a British company
+which held a vast timber concession in the teak forests of northern
+Siam, far up, near the Chinese border. He was, he explained, a
+"girdler," which meant that his duties consisted in riding through the
+forest area allotted to him, selecting and girdling those trees which,
+three years later, would be cut down. To girdle a tree, as everyone
+knows, is to kill it, which is what is wanted, there being no market
+for green teak, which warps. He remained in the forest for four weeks
+at a stretch, he told me, without seeing a white man's face, his only
+companions his coolies and his Chinese cook. His domain comprised a
+thousand square miles of forest through which he moved constantly on
+horseback, followed by elephants bearing his camp equipage and
+supplies. Once each month he spent three days in the village where the
+company maintains its field headquarters. Here he played tennis and
+bridge with other girdlers--young Englishmen like himself who had come
+in from their respective districts to make their monthly reports--and
+in gleaning from the eight-weeks-old newspapers the news of that great
+outside world from which he was a voluntary exile. One would have
+supposed that, after seven years spent in the jovial atmosphere of a
+warship's wardroom, his solitary life in the great forests would
+quickly have become intolerable, and I expressed myself to this effect.
+But he said no, that he was neither lonely nor unhappy in his new life,
+and that his fellow foresters, all of whom had seen service in the
+Army, the Navy or the Royal Air Force, were equally contented with
+their lot. I could understand, though. The wilderness holds no terrors
+for anyone who went through the hell of the Great War.
+
+We dropped anchor at midnight off Chantaboun, where a launch was
+waiting to take him ashore. He was going up-country, he told me, to
+inspect a timber concession recently acquired by the company that
+employed him. Yes, he would be the only white man, but he would not be
+lonely. Besides, he would only be in the interior a couple of months,
+he said. He followed the coolies bearing his luggage down the gangway
+and dropped lightly into the tossing launch, then looked up to wave me
+a farewell.
+
+"Good luck," he called cheerily.
+
+"Good luck to _you_!" said I.
+
+That is the worst of this gadding up and down the earth--it is
+always--"How d'ye do?" and "Good-by."
+
+Three days out of Bangkok the anchor of the _Chutututch_ rumbled down
+off Kep, on the coast of Cambodia. Kep consists of a ramshackle wooden
+pier that reaches seaward like a lean brown finger, an equally decrepit
+custom house, a tin-roofed bungalow which the French Government
+maintains for the use of those fever-stricken officials who need the
+tonic of sea air, a cluster of bamboo huts thatched with nipa--nothing
+more. You will not find the place on any map; it is too small.
+
+It is in the neighborhood of three hundred kilometers from Kep to
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and for nearly the entire distance
+the highway has been hewn through the most savage jungle you can
+imagine. There was only one motor car in Kep and this I hired for the
+journey. I say hired, but bought would be nearer the truth. It was an
+aged and decrepit Renault, held together with string and wire, and
+suffering so badly from asthma and rheumatism that more than once I
+feared it would die on my hands before I reached my destination. It had
+as nurses two Annamites, who took unwarranted liberties with the truth
+by describing themselves as _mechaniciens_. Accompanying them were two
+sullen-faced Chinese. All four of them, I found, proposed to accompany
+me to Pnom-Penh. At this I protested vigorously, on the ground that, as
+the lessee of the machine, I had the right to choose my traveling
+companions, but my objections were overruled by the _Chef des Douanes_,
+the only French functionary in Kep, who assured me that if the car went
+the quartette must go, too. One of the Annamites, he explained, was the
+chauffeur, the other was the cranker, for in Indo-China automobiles are
+not equipped with self-starters and the chauffeurs firmly refuse to
+crank their own cars. They thus "save their face," which is a very
+important consideration in the estimation of Orientals, and they also
+provide easy and pleasant jobs for their friends. It is an idea which
+some of the labor unions in America might adopt to advantage. I make no
+charge for the suggestion. The two Chinese, it appeared, were the joint
+owners of the machine, and both insisted on going along because neither
+would trust the other with the hire-money. Thus it will be seen, we
+made quite a cozy little party.
+
+The road to Pnom-Penh, as I have already remarked, leads through a
+peculiarly lonely and savage region. And it is very narrow, bordered on
+either side by walls of almost impenetrable jungle. A place better
+adapted for a hold-up could hardly be devised. And of the reputations
+or antecedents of my four self-imposed companions, I knew nothing. Nor
+was there anything in their faces to lend me confidence in the honesty
+of their intentions. As we were about to start a native gendarme
+beckoned me to one side.
+
+"Beaucoup des pirats sur la route, M'sieu," he warned me in execrable
+French.
+
+"Brigands, you mean?" I asked him.
+
+"Oui, M'sieu."
+
+That was reassuring.
+
+"How about these men?" I inquired, indicating the motley crew who were
+to accompany me. "Are they to be trusted?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders non-commitally. It was evident that he did
+not hold of them a high opinion.
+
+Producing my .45 caliber service automatic, I slipped a clip into the
+magazine and ostentatiously laid it beside me on the seat. It is the
+most formidable weapon carried by any civilized people. True, the
+German L�ger is larger....
+
+"Tell them," I said to the policeman, "that this gun will shoot through
+twenty millimeters of pine. Tell them that they had better dispose of
+their property and burn a few joss-sticks before they start to argue
+with it. And tell them that, no matter what happens, the car is to keep
+going."
+
+But I was by no means as confident as I sounded, for the road was
+notoriously unsafe, nor did I put much trust in my companions. I
+confess that I felt much happier when that portion of my journey was
+over.
+
+As the road to Pnom-Penh is quite uninteresting--just a narrow yellow
+highway chopped through a dense tangle of tropic vegetation--suppose I
+take advantage of the opportunity to tell you something of this
+little-known land in which we find ourselves.
+
+French Indo-China occupies perhaps two-thirds of that great
+bay-window-shaped peninsula which protrudes from the southeastern
+corner of Asia. In area it is, as I have already remarked, somewhat
+larger than Texas; its population is about equal to that of New York
+and Pennsylvania combined. It consists of five states: the colony of
+Cochin-China, the protectorates of Cambodia, Annam and Tongking, and
+the unorganized territory of Laos, to which might be added the narrow
+strip of borderland, known as Kwang Chau Wan, leased from China. In
+1902 the capital of French Indo-China was transferred from Saigon, in
+Cochin-China, to Hanoi, in Tongking.
+
+By far the most interesting of these political divisions is Cambodia,
+which, for centuries an independent kingdom, was forced in 1862 to
+accept the protection of France. An apple-shaped country, about the
+size of England, with a few score miles of seacoast and without railway
+or regular sea communications, it lies tucked away in the heart of the
+peninsula, its southern borders marching with those of Cochin-China,
+its frontier on the north co-terminous with that of Siam. Though the
+octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, a stable of
+elephants, upwards of two-hundred dancing-girls, and one of the most
+ornate palaces in Asia, he is permitted only a shadow of power, the
+real ruler of Cambodia being the French Resident-Superior, who governs
+the country from the great white Residency on the banks of the Mekong.
+
+I know of no region of like size and so comparatively easy of access
+(the great liners of the _Messageries Maritimes_ touch at Saigon,
+whence the Cambodian capital can be reached by river-steamer in two
+days) which offers so many attractions to the hunter of big game.
+Unlike British East Africa, where, as a result of the commercialization
+of sport, the cost of going on _safari_ has steadily mounted until now
+it is a form of recreation to be afforded only by war profiteers,
+Cambodia remains unexploited and unspoiled. It is in many respects the
+richest, as it is almost the last, of the world's great
+hunting-grounds. It is, indeed, a vast zoological garden, where such
+formalities as hunting licenses are still unknown. In its jungles roam
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards, panthers, bear, deer, and
+the savage jungle buffalo, known in Malaya as the seladang and in
+Indo-China as the gaur--considered by many hunters the most dangerous
+of all big game.
+
+Nailed to the wall of the Government rest-house at Kep was the skin of
+a leopard which had been shot from the veranda the day before my
+arrival, while raiding the pig-pen. The day that I left Kampot an
+elephant herd, estimated by the native trackers at one hundred and
+twenty head, was reported within seven miles of the town. Twice during
+the journey to Pnom-Penh I saw tracks of elephant herds on the road--it
+looked as though a fleet of whippet tanks had passed.
+
+Nevertheless, I should have put mental question-marks after some of the
+big game stories I heard while I was in Indo-China had I not been
+convinced of the credibility of those who told them. Only a few days
+before our arrival at Saigon, for example, an American engaged in
+business in that city set out one morning before daybreak, in a small
+car, for the paddy-fields, where there is excellent bird-shooting in
+the early dawn. The car, which, owing to the intense heat, had no
+wind-shield, was driven by the Annamite chauffeur, the American, a
+double-barrel loaded with bird-shot across his knees, sitting beside
+him on the front seat. Rounding a turn in the jungle road at thirty
+miles an hour, the twin beams of light from the lamps fell on a tiger,
+which, dazzled and bewildered by the on-coming glare, crouched snarling
+in the middle of the highway. There was no time to stop the car, and,
+as the jungle came to the very edge of the narrow road, there was no
+way to avoid the animal, which, just as the car was upon it, gathered
+itself and sprang. It landed on the hood with all four feet, its
+snarling face so close to the men that they could feel its breath. The
+American, thrusting the muzzle of his weapon into the furry neck of the
+great cat, let go with both barrels, blowing away the beast's throat
+and jugular vein and killing it instantly. With the aid of his badly
+frightened driver, he bundled the great striped carcass into the
+tonneau of the car and imperturbably continued on his bird-shooting
+expedition. Some people seem to have a monopoly of luck.
+
+Though Saigon and Pnom-Penh do not possess the facilities for equipping
+shooting expeditions afforded by Mombasa or Nairobi, and though in
+Indo-China there are no professional European guides, such as the late
+Major Cunninghame; the elaborate and costly outfits customary in East
+Africa, with their mile-long trains of bearers, are as unnecessary as
+they are unknown. The arrangements for a tiger hunt in Indo-China are
+scarcely more elaborate and certainly no more expensive, than for a
+moose hunt in Maine. A dependable native _shikari_ who knows the
+country, a cook, half-a-dozen coolies, a sturdy riding-pony, two or
+three pack-animals, a tent and food, that is all you need. With such an
+outfit, particularly in a region so thick with game as, say, the Dalat
+Plateau, in Annam, the hunter should get a shot at a tiger before he
+has been forty-eight hours in the bush. In a clearing in a jungle known
+to be frequented by tigers, the carcass of a bullock, or, if that is
+unavailable, of a pig, is fastened securely to a stake and left there
+until it smells to high heaven. When its odor is of sufficient potency
+to reach the nostrils of the tiger, the hunter takes up his position in
+the edge of the clearing, or on a platform built in a tree if he
+believes in Safety First. For investigating the kill the tiger usually
+chooses the dimness of the early dawn or the semi-darkness which
+precedes nightfall. With no warning save a faint rustle in the
+undergrowth a lean and tawny form slithers on padded feet across the
+open--and the man behind the rifle has his chance. I have found,
+however, that even in tiger lands, tigers are by no means as plentiful
+as one's imagination paints them at home. It is easy to be a big-game
+hunter on the hearth-rug.
+
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, stands on the west bank of the
+mighty Mekong, one hundred and seventy miles from the sea. Pnom,
+meaning "mountain," refers to the hill, or mound, ninety feet high, in
+the heart of the city; Penh was the name of a celebrated Cambodian
+queen. Until twenty years ago Pnom-Penh was a filthy and unsanitary
+native town, its streets ankle-deep with dust during the dry season and
+ankle-deep with mud during the rains. But with the coming of the French
+the flimsy, vermin-infested houses were torn down, the hog-wallows
+which served as thoroughfares were transformed into broad and
+well-paved avenues shaded by double rows of handsome trees, and the
+city was provided with lighting and water systems. The old-fashioned
+open water sewers still remain, however, lending to the place, a rich,
+ripe odor. Pnom-Penh possesses a spacious and well ventilated
+motion-picture house, where Charlie Chaplin known to the French as
+"Charlot" and Fatty Arbuckle convulse the simple children of the jungle
+just as they convulse more sophisticated assemblages on the other side
+of the globe.
+
+But all that is most worth seeing in Pnom-Penh is cloistered within the
+mysterious walls of vivid pink which surround the Royal Palace. Here is
+the residence of His Majesty Prea Bat Samdach Prea Sisowath, King of
+Cambodia; here dwell the twelve score dancing-girls of the famous royal
+ballet and the hundreds of concubines and attendants comprising the
+royal harem; here are the stables of the royal elephants and the sacred
+zebus; here a congeries of palaces, pavilions, throne halls, dance
+halls, temples, shrines, kiosks, monuments, courtyards, and gardens the
+like of which is not to be found outside the covers of _The Thousand
+and One Nights_. It is an architectural extravaganza, a bacchanalia of
+color and design, as fantastic and unreal as the city of a dream. The
+steep-pitched, curiously shaped roofs are covered with tiles of every
+color--peacock blue, vermilion, turquoise, emerald green, burnt orange;
+no inch of exposed woodwork has escaped the carver's cunning chisel;
+everywhere gold has been laid on with a spendthrift hand. And in this
+marvelous setting strut or stroll figures that might have stepped
+straight from the stage of _Sumurun_--fantastically garbed
+functionaries of the Household, shaven-headed priests in yellow robes,
+pompous mandarins in sweeping silken garments, bejeweled and bepainted
+dancing-girls. It is not real, you feel. It is too gorgeous, too
+bizarre. It is the work of stage-carpenters and scene-painters and
+costumers, and you are quite certain that the curtain will descend
+presently and that you will have to put on your hat and go home.
+
+From the center of the great central court rises the famous Silver
+Pagoda. It takes its name from its floor, thirty-six feet wide and one
+hundred and twenty long, which is covered with pure silver. When the
+sun's rays seep through the interstices of the carving it leaps into a
+brilliancy that is blinding. On the high walls of the room are depicted
+in startling colors, scenes from the life of Buddha and realistic
+glimpses of hell, for your Cambodian artist is at his best in
+portraying scenes of horror. The mural decorations of the Silver Pagoda
+would win the unqualified approval of an oldtime fire-and-brimstone
+preacher. Rearing itself roofward from the center of the room is an
+enormous pyramidal altar, littered with a heterogeneous collection of
+offerings from the devout. At its apex is a so-called Emerald
+Buddha--probably, like its fellow in Bangkok, of translucent
+jade--which is the guardian spirit of the place. But at one side of the
+altar stands the chief treasure of the temple--a great golden Buddha
+set with diamonds. The value of the gold alone is estimated at not far
+from three-quarters of a million dollars; at the value of the jewels
+one can only guess. It was made by the order of King Norodom, the
+brother and predecessor of the present ruler, the whole amazing
+edifice, indeed, being a monument into which that monarch poured his
+wealth and ambition. Ranged about the altar are glass cases containing
+the royal treasures--rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds of a size
+and in a profusion which makes it difficult to realize that they are
+genuine. It is a veritable cave of Al-ed-Din. The covers of these cases
+are sealed with strips of paper bearing the royal cypher--nothing
+more. They have never been locked nor guarded, yet nothing has ever
+been stolen, for King Sisowath is to his subjects something more than a
+ruler; he is venerated as the representative of God on earth. For a
+Cambodian to steal from him would be as unthinkable a sacrilege as for
+a Roman Catholic to burglarize the apartments of the Pope. And should
+their religious scruples show signs of yielding to temptation, why,
+there are the paintings on the walls to warn them of the torments
+awaiting them in the hereafter. It struck me, however, that the Silver
+Pagoda offers a golden, not to say a jeweled opportunity to an
+enterprising American burglar.
+
+On the south side of the courtyard containing the Silver Pagoda is a
+relic far more precious in the eyes of the natives, however, than all
+the royal treasures put together--a footprint of Buddha. It was left,
+so the priests who guard it night and day reverently explain, by the
+founder of their faith when he paid a flying visit to Cambodia. Over
+the footprint has been erected a shrine with a floor of solid gold.
+Buddha did not do as well by Cambodia as by Ceylon, however, for
+whereas at Pnom-Penh he left the imprint of his foot, at Kandy he left
+a tooth. I know, for I have seen it.
+
+In an adjacent courtyard is the Throne Hall, a fine example of
+Cambodian architecture, the gorgeous throne of the monarch standing on
+a dais in the center of a lofty apartment decorated in gold and green.
+Close by is the Salle des F�tes, or Dance Hall, a modern French
+structure, where the royal ballet gives its performances. Ever since
+there have been kings in Cambodia each monarch has chosen from the
+daughters of the upper classes two hundred and forty showgirls and has
+had them trained for dancing. These girls, many of whom are brought to
+the palace by their parents when small children and offered to the
+King, eventually enter the monarch's harem as concubines. Admission to
+the royal ballet is to a Cambodian maiden what a position in the
+Ziegfeld Follies is to a Broadway chorus girl. It is the blue ribbon of
+female pulchritude. Unlike Mr. Ziegfeld's carefully selected beauties,
+however, who frequently find the stage a stepping-stone to independence
+and a limousine, the Cambodian show-girl, once she enters the service
+of the King, becomes to all intents and purposes a prisoner. And
+Sisowath, for all his eighty-odd years, is a jealous master. Never
+again can she stroll with her lover in the fragrant twilight on the
+palm-fringed banks of the Mekong. Never again can she leave the
+precincts of the palace, save to accompany the King. The bars behind
+which she dwells are of gold, it is true, but they are bars just the
+same.
+
+When I broached to the French Resident-Superior, who is the real ruler
+of Cambodia, the subject of taking motion-pictures within the royal
+enclosure, he was anything but encouraging.
+
+"I'm afraid it's quite impossible," he told me. "The King is at his
+summer palace at Kampot, where he will remain for several weeks.
+Without his permission nothing can be done. Moreover, the royal
+ballet, which is the most interesting sight in Cambodia, is never under
+any circumstances permitted to dance during his Majesty's absence."
+
+"But why not telegraph the King?" I suggested, though with waning hope.
+"Or get him on the telephone. Tell him how much the pictures would do
+to acquaint the American public with the attractions of his country;
+explain to him that they would bring here hundreds of visitors who
+otherwise would never know that there is such a place as Pnom-Penh.
+More than that," I added diplomatically, "they would undoubtedly wake
+up American capitalists to a realization of Cambodia's natural
+resources. That's what you particularly want here, isn't it--foreign
+capital?"
+
+That argument seemed to impress the shrewd and far-seeing Frenchman.
+
+"Perhaps something can be done, after all," he told me. "I will send
+for the Minister of the Royal Household and ask him if he can
+communicate with the King. As soon as I learn something definite, you
+will hear from me."
+
+The second day following I received a call from the chief of the
+political bureau.
+
+"Everything has been arranged as you desired," was the cheering news
+with which he greeted me. "The _d�fil�_ will take place in the grounds
+of the palace tomorrow morning. Already the necessary orders have been
+issued. Thirty elephants with their state housings; eighty ceremonial
+cars drawn by sacred bullocks; the royal body-guard in full uniform; a
+delegation of mandarins in court-dress; a hundred Buddhist priests
+attached to the royal temple; and, moreover, his Majesty has granted
+special permission an unheard-of thing, let me tell you!--for the royal
+ballet to give a performance expressly for you to-morrow afternoon on
+the terrace of the throne-hall. It will be a marvelous spectacle."
+
+"Bully!" I exclaimed. "Won't you have a drink?"
+
+"There is one thing I forgot to mention," the official remarked
+hesitatingly, as he sipped the gin sling which is the favorite drink of
+the tropics. "There will be a small charge for expenses--tips, you
+know, for the palace officials."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," I replied lightly. "How much will the tips
+amount to?"
+
+"Only about two hundred piastres," was the somewhat startling answer,
+for, at the then current rate of exchange a piastre was worth about
+$1.50 gold. "The resident will pay half of it, however, as he believes
+that the pictures will prove of great value to the country."
+
+Yet most people think that tipping has reached its apogee in the United
+States!
+
+[Illustration: The head of the pageant approaching the camera in the
+palace at Pnom-Penh
+
+_Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition_]
+
+When we entered the gate of the palace the next morning, I felt as
+though I had been translated to the days of Haroun-al-Raschid, for the
+vast courtyard, flanked on all sides by marble buildings with tiled
+roofs of cobalt blue, of emerald green, of red, of brilliant yellow,
+was literally crowded with elephants, bullocks, horses, chariots,
+palanquins, soldiers, priests, and officials all the pomp and panoply
+of an Asiatic court, in short. Though close examination revealed the
+gold as gilt and the jewels as colored glass, the general effect was
+undeniably gorgeous. In spite of the brilliance of the scene, Hawkinson
+was as blas� as ever. He issued orders to the Minister of the Household
+as though he were directing a Pullman porter.
+
+"Have those elephants come on in double file," he commanded. "Then
+follow 'em with the bullock-carts and the palanquins. I'll shoot the
+priests and the mandarins later."
+
+"But the priests must be taken at once," the minister protested. "They
+have been waiting a long time, and they are already late for the
+morning service in the royal temple."
+
+"Well, they'll have to wait still longer," was the unruffled answer.
+"Tell them not to get impatient. I'll get round to them as soon as I
+finish with the animals. Think what it will mean to them to have their
+pictures shown on the same screen with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas
+Fairbanks and Mary Pickford! I know lots of people who would be willing
+to wait a year for such a chance."
+
+Just then there approached across the courtyard a trio of youths in
+white uniforms and gold-laced k�pis, their breasts ablaze with
+decorations. At sight of them the minister doubled himself in the
+middle like a jack-knife. They were, it appeared, some of the royal
+princes--sons of the King.
+
+There ensued a brief colloquy between the minister and the eldest of
+the princes, the conversation evidently relating, as I gathered from
+the gestures, to the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow, who at the
+moment were delightedly engaged in feeding candies to a baby elephant.
+
+"His Highness wishes to know," the minister interpreted, "when the
+ladies of your company are to appear. His Highness is a great admirer
+of American actresses; he saw your most famous one, Mademoiselle Theda
+Bara, at a cinema in Singapore."
+
+It seemed a thousand pities to destroy the prince's delusion.
+
+"Tell his Highness," I said, "that the ladies will not act in this
+picture. They only play comedy parts."
+
+The princes received the news with open disappointment. If the Lovely
+Lady and the Winsome Widow had only consented to appear on the back of
+an elephant, or even in a palanquin, I imagine that they might have
+received a mark of the royal favor in the form of a Cambodian
+decoration. It is a gorgeous affair and is called, with great
+appropriateness, the "Order of a Million Elephants and Parasols."
+
+[Illustration: Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the King
+of Cambodia
+
+The dancers ranged in age from twelve to fifteen. The costumes were
+wonderful creations of cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels
+
+_Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition_]
+
+That afternoon, on the broad marble terrace of the throne-hall, which
+had been covered with a scarlet carpet for the occasion, the royal
+ballet gave a special performance for our benefit. The dancers were
+much younger than I had anticipated, ranging in age from twelve to
+fifteen. Dancing has ever been a great institution in Cambodia, the
+dances, which have behind them traditions of two thousand years, being
+illustrative of incidents in the poem of the R�m�yana and adhering
+faithfully to the classical examples which are depicted on the walls of
+the great temple at Angkor, such as the dancing of the goddess Apsaras,
+her gestures, and her dress. The costumes worn by the dancing-girls
+were the most gorgeous that we saw in Asia: wonderful creations of
+cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels. Most of the dancers wore
+towering, pointed head-dresses, similar to the historic crowns of the
+Cambodian kings, though a few of them wore masks, one representing the
+head of a fox, another a fish, a third a lion, which could be raised or
+lowered, like the visors of medieval helmets. The faces of all of the
+dancers were so heavily coated with powder and enamel that they would
+have been cracked by a smile. It was a performance which would have
+astonished and delighted the most blas� audience on Broadway, but there
+in the heart of Cambodia, with the terrace of a throne-hall for a
+stage, with palaces, temples, and pagodas for a setting, with a blazing
+tropic sun for a spot-light, and with actors and audience clad in
+costumes as curious and colorful as those worn at the court of the
+Queen of Sheba, it provided a spectacle which we who were privileged to
+see it will remember always. What a pity that Cap'n Bryant was not
+alive so that I might sit on the steps of his Mattapoisett cottage and
+tell him all about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EXILES OF THE OUTLANDS
+
+
+From Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to Saigon, the capital of
+Cochin-China, is in the neighborhood of two hundred miles and two
+routes are open to the traveler. The most comfortable and considerably
+the cheapest is by the bi-weekly steamer down the Mekong. The
+alternative route, which is far more interesting, consists in
+descending the river to Banam, a village some twenty miles below
+Pnom-Penh, on the opposite bank of the Mekong, where, if a car has been
+arranged for, it is possible to motor across the fertile plains of
+Cochin-China to Saigon in a single day. That was the way that we went.
+
+Though separated only by the Mekong, that mighty waterway which, rising
+in the mountains of Tibet, bisects the whole peninsula, Cochin-China is
+as dissimilar from Cambodia as the ordered farmlands of Ohio are from
+the Florida Everglades. In Cambodia, stretches of sand covered with
+low, scraggy, discouraged-looking scrub alternate with tangled and
+impenetrable jungles. It is a savage, untamed land. Cochin-China, on
+the other hand, is one great sweep of plain, green with growing rice
+and dotted with the bamboo poles of well-sweeps, for water can be found
+everywhere at thirty to forty feet. These striking contrasts in
+contiguous states are due in some measure, no doubt, to differences in
+their soils and climates and to the industry of their inhabitants, but
+more largely, I imagine, to the fact that while the Frenchman has been
+at work in Cochin-China for upwards of sixty years, Cambodia is still
+on the frontier of civilization.
+
+The roads which the French have built in Indo-China deserve a paragraph
+of mention, for, barring the rivers and the three short unconnected
+sections of railway on the East coast of the peninsula, they form the
+country's only means of communication. The national highways consist of
+two great systems. The Route Coloniale, which was the one I followed,
+has its beginning at Kep, on the Gulf of Siam, runs north-eastward
+through the jungles of Cambodia to Pnom-Penh, and, recommencing at
+Banam, swings southward across the Cochin-China plain to Saigon. The
+Route Mandarine, beginning at Saigon, hugs the shores of the China Sea
+and, after traversing twelve hundred miles of jungle, forest and
+mountain land in Annam and Tongking, comes to an end at Hanoi, the
+capital of Indo-China. The entire length of the Route Mandarine may now
+be traversed by auto-bus--an excellent way to see the country provided
+you are inured to fatigue, do not mind the heat, and are not
+over-particular as to your fellow passengers. A motor car is, of
+course, more comfortable and more expensive; a small one can be rented
+for ninety dollars a day.
+
+Nowhere has the colonizing white man encountered greater obstacles
+than those which have confronted the French road-builders in
+Indo-China; nowhere has Nature turned toward him a sterner and more
+forbidding face. But, though their coolies have died by the thousands
+from cholera and fever, though their laboriously constructed bridges
+have been swept away in a night by rivers swollen from the torrential
+rains, though the fast-growing jungle persistently encroaches on the
+hard-won right-of-way, though they have had to combat savage beasts and
+still more savage men, they have prosecuted with indomitable courage
+and tenacity the task of building a road "to Tomorrow from the Land of
+Yesterday."
+
+Saigon, the capital of Cochin-China and the most important place in
+France's Asiatic possessions, is a European city set down on the edge
+of Asia. So far as its appearance goes, it might be on the Seine
+instead of the Saigon. The original town was burned by the French
+during the fighting by which they obtained possession of the place and
+they rebuilt it on European lines, with boulevards, shops, caf�s, a
+H�tel de Ville, a Th��tre Municipal, a Mus�e, a Jardin Botanique, all
+complete. The general plan of the city, with its regular streets and
+intersecting boulevards, has evidently been modeled on that of the
+French capital and the Saigonnese proudly speak of it as "the Paris of
+the East." In certain respects this is taking a considerable liberty
+with the truth, but they are very lonely and homesick and one does not
+blame them. Most of the streets, which are paved after a fashion, are
+lined with tamarinds, thus providing the shade so imperatively
+necessary where the mercury hovers between 90 and 110, winter and
+summer, day and night. At almost every street intersection stands a
+statue of some one who bore a hand in the conquest of the country, from
+the cassocked figure of Pigneau de Behaine, Bishop of Adran, the first
+French missionary to Indo-China, to the effigy of the dashing Admiral
+Rigault de Genouilly, flanked by charging marines, who took Saigon for
+France.
+
+The most characteristic feature of Saigon is its caf� life. During the
+heat of the day the Europeans keep within doors, but toward nightfall
+they all come out and, gathering about the little tables which crowd
+the sidewalks before the caf�s in the Boulevard Bonnard and the Rue
+Catinat, they gossip and sip their absinthes and smoke numberless
+cigarettes and mop their florid faces and argue noisily and with much
+gesticulation over the news in the _Courrier de Saigon_ or the
+six-weeks-old _Figaro_ and _Le Temps_ which arrive fortnightly by the
+mail-boat from France. They wear stiffly starched white linen--though
+the jackets are all too often left unfastened at the neck--and enormous
+mushroom-shaped top�es which come down almost to their shoulders and
+are many sizes too large for them, and they consume vast quantities of
+drink, the evening usually ending in a series of violent altercations.
+When the disputants take to backing up their arguments with blows from
+canes and bottles, the caf� proprietor unceremoniously bundles them
+into _pousse-pousses_, as rickshaws are called in Saigon, and sends
+them home.
+
+Along the Rue Catinat in the evenings saunters a picturesque and
+colorful procession--haggard, slovenly officers of the _troupes
+coloniales_ and of the Foreign Legion, the rows of parti-colored
+ribbons on their breasts telling of service in little wars in the
+world's forgotten corners; dreary, white-faced Government employees,
+their cheeks gaunt from fever, their eyes bloodshot from heavy
+drinking; sun-bronzed, swaggering, loud-voiced rubber planters in
+riding breeches and double Terais, down from their plantations in the
+far interior for a periodic spree; women gowned in the height of Paris
+fashion, but with too pink cheeks and too red lips and too ready smiles
+for strangers, equally at home on the Bund of Shanghai or the
+boulevards of Paris; shaven-headed Hindu money-lenders from British
+India, the lengths of cotton sheeting which form their only garments
+revealing bodies as hairy and repulsive as those of apes; barefooted
+Annamite tirailleurs in uniforms of faded khaki, their great round hats
+of woven straw tipped with brass spikes like those on German helmets;
+slender Chinese women, tripping by on tiny, thick-soled shoes in
+pajama-like coats and trousers of clinging, sleazy silk; naked
+_pousse-pousse_ coolies, streaming with sweat, graceful as the bronzes
+in a museum; friars of the religious orders in shovel-hats and linen
+robes; sailors of the fleet and of the merchant vessels in the harbor,
+swaggering along with the roll of the sea in their gait; Armenian
+peddlers with piles of rugs and embroideries slung across their
+shoulders; Arabs, Indians, Malays, Cambodians, Laos, Siamese, Burmese,
+Chinese, world without end, Amen.
+
+But, beneath it all, a paralysis is on everything--the paralysis of the
+excessive administration with which the French have ruined Indo-China.
+There are too many people in front of the caf�s and too few in the
+offices and shops. There is too much drinking and too little work. The
+officials are alternately melancholy and overbearing; the natives
+cringing and sullen. It is not a wholesome atmosphere. Corruption, if
+not universal, is appallingly common. Foreigners engaged in business in
+Saigon told me that it is necessary to "grease the palms" of everyone
+who holds a Government position. As a result of this practise,
+officials who are poor men when they arrive in the colony retire after
+four or five years' service with comfortable fortunes--and France does
+not pay her public servants highly either. And there are other vices.
+The manager of a great American corporation doing business in Saigon
+told me that ninety per cent of the city's European population are
+confirmed users of opium. And, judging from their unhealthy pallor and
+lacklustre eyes, I can well believe it. But what else could you expect
+in a country where the drug is sold to anyone who has money to pay for
+it; where it is one of the Government's chief sources of revenue?
+
+On the native population the hand of the French lies heavily. In 1916
+there was an attempted jail delivery of political prisoners in Saigon,
+but the plot was discovered before it could be put into execution, the
+ring-leaders arrested, and thirty-eight of them condemned to death.
+They were executed in batches of four, kneeling, blind-folded, lashed
+to stakes. The firing party consisted of a platoon of Annamite
+tirailleurs. Behind them, with machine guns trained, was drawn up a
+battalion of French infantry. The occasion was celebrated in Saigon as
+a public holiday, hundreds of Frenchmen, accompanied by their wives and
+children, driving out to see the sight. The next day picture postcards
+of the execution were hawked about the streets. But the authorities in
+Paris evidently disapproved of the proceeding, for the governor of the
+colony and the commander of the military forces were promptly recalled
+in disgrace. The terrible object-lesson doubtless had the desired
+effect, for the natives cringe like whipped dogs when a Frenchman
+speaks to them. But there is that in their manner which bodes ill for
+their masters if a crisis ever arises in Indo-China. I should not like
+to see our own brown wards, the Filipinos, look at Americans with the
+murderous hate with which the Annamites regard the French. In Africa,
+by moderation and tolerance and justice, France has built up a mighty
+colonial empire whose inhabitants are as loyal and contented as though
+they had been born under the Tricolor. But in far-off Indo-China French
+administration seems, even to as staunch a friend of France as myself,
+to be very far from an unqualified success.
+
+During the ten days that I spent in Saigon I stayed at the H�tel
+Continental. I shall remember it as the place where they charged a
+dollar and a half for a highball and fifty cents for a lemonade. It was
+insufferably hot. I can sympathize now with the recalcitrant convict
+who is punished by being sent to the sweat-box. Battalions of ferocious
+mosquitoes launched their assaults against my unprotected person with
+the persistence that the Germans displayed at Verdun. In the next room
+the tenor of the itinerant grand opera company that was giving a series
+of performances at the Th��tre Municipal squabbled unceasingly with his
+woman companion. Both were generally much the worse for drink. One
+particularly sultry afternoon, when the whole world seemed like the
+steam room of a Turkish bath, their voices rose to an unprecedented
+pitch of violence. Through the thin panels of the door came the sound
+of scuffling feet. Some heavy article of furniture went over with a
+crash. Then came the thud of a falling body.
+
+"Thou accurst one!" I heard the tenor groan. Then "Help me!... I'm
+dying!"
+
+"She's done it now!" I exclaimed, springing from my bed.
+
+"Are you stifling with blood?" the woman hissed, fierce exultation in
+her tone.
+
+"Help me!... I'm dying!" moaned the man. "And done to death by a
+woman!"
+
+It was murder--no doubt about that. Clad only in my pajamas though I
+was, I prepared to throw myself against the door.
+
+"Die, thou accurst one! Perish!" shrieked the woman.
+
+I was on the point of bursting into the room when I was arrested by the
+sound of the tenor's voice speaking in normal tones. There followed a
+woman's laugh. I paused to listen. It was well that I did so. They were
+rehearsing for the evening's performance the murder scene from _La
+Tosca_!
+
+On another occasion, long after midnight, I was aroused from sleep by a
+terrific racket which suddenly burst forth in the streets below. I
+heard the crash of splintering bottles followed by the steps of the
+native gendarmes beating a hasty retreat. Then, from throats that spoke
+my own tongue, rose the rollicking words of a long-familiar chorus:
+
+    "I was drunk last night,
+    I was drunk the night before,
+    I'll get drunk tomorrow night
+    If I never get drunk any more;
+    For when I'm drunk
+    I'm as happy as can be,
+    For I am a member of the Souse Fam-i-lee!"
+
+Leaning from my casement, I hailed a passing Frenchman.
+
+"Who are they?" I asked him.
+
+"Les touristes Americains sont arriv�s, M'sieu," he answered dryly.
+
+By the light of the street-lamps as he turned away I could see him
+shrug his shoulders.
+
+Thinking it over, it struck me that I had been overharsh in my judgment
+of the homesick exiles who in this far corner of the earth are
+clinching the rivets of France's colonial empire.
+
+The next morning I set sail from Saigon for China. Leaving the mouth of
+the river in our wake, we rounded the mighty promontory of Cap St.
+Jacques and headed for the open sea. The palm-fringed shore line of
+Cochin-China dropped away; the blue mountains of Annam turned pale and
+ghostly in the evening mists. A sun-scorched, pestilential land.... I
+was glad to leave it. But already I am longing to return. I want once
+more to sit at a caf� table beneath the awnings of the Rue Catinat,
+before me a tall glass with ice tinkling in it. I want to hear the
+_pousse-pousse_ coolies padding softly by in the gathering twilight. I
+want to see the little Annamite women in their sleazy silken garments
+and the boisterous, swaggering _legionnaires_ in their white helmets. I
+want to stroll once more beneath the tamarinds beside the Mekong, to
+smell the odors of the hot lands, to hear again the throbbing of the
+tom-toms and the soft music of the wind-blown temple bells. For
+
+    "When you've 'eard the East a-callin'
+    You won't never 'eed naught else."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (blind-folded,
+blindfolded; body-guard, bodyguard; coast-guard, coastguard;
+co-operation, cooperation; co-terminous, coterminous; cock-fighting,
+cockfighting; harbour-master, harbourmaster; head-dresses, headdresses;
+light-houses, lighthouses; net-work, network; off-shore, offshore;
+old-time, oldtime; three-score, threescore; to-day, today; to-morrow,
+tomorrow; water-front, waterfront; white-washed, whitewashed;
+wide-spread, widespread)
+
+Table of Contents, heading for Chapter IX says "PROSPECT RULERS AND
+COMIC OPERA COURTS" while the chapter heading in the main text says
+"PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS". "PUPPET" is more likely to have
+been the word intended by the author but the original words have been
+preserved in both cases.
+
+Pg. 73, opening double quote mark at beginning of paragraph removed as
+text here does not appear to be quoted speech and there is no closing
+quote at the end. (There is held each year)
+
+Pg. 79, "Portgual" changed to "Portugal". (King of Portugal, had
+shifted)
+
+Pg. 148, "ampitheatre" is more commonly spelled "amphitheatre".
+Author's original text preserved.
+
+Pg. 209, "Turquoise Mosque in Samarland". "Samarland" is more likely to
+be "Samarkand" but the author's original text is preserved.
+
+Pg. 221, "Chulalungkorn" is spelled elsewhere in the text
+"Chulalongkorn". Author's original text preserved.
+
+Pg. 237, inserted closing double quote mark. (know how to make it.")
+
+Pg. 265, inserted opening double quote mark. (he greeted me. "The)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by 
+E. Alexander Powell
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by E. Alexander Powell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where the Strange Trails Go Down
+       Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits
+              Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam,
+              Cochin-China
+
+Author: E. Alexander Powell
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2008 [EBook #27404]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="cover" id="cover"></a>
+<img  src="images/cover.jpg" width="348" height="550" alt="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="advert">
+<p class="center"><i>BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL</i></p>
+
+<p class="aditem">WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">THE NEW FRONTIERS OF FREEDOM</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">THE LAST FRONTIER</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">GENTLEMEN ROVERS</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">THE END OF THE TRAIL</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">FIGHTING IN FLANDERS</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">THE ROAD TO GLORY</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">VIVE LA FRANCE!</p>
+
+<p class="aditem">ITALY AT WAR</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</i></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h1><span class="tiny">WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN</span></h1>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<img  src="images/frontis.jpg" width="344" height="550" alt="Dyak hunter" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 344px;">
+<p class="caption"> A <i>real</i> wild man of Borneo</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">A Dyak head-hunter using the <i>sumpitan</i>,
+or blow-gun, in the jungle of Central Borneo</p>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>WHERE<br />
+THE STRANGE TRAILS<br />
+GO DOWN</h1>
+
+<p class="title" style="margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;">SULU, BORNEO, CELEBES, BALI, JAVA,
+SUMATRA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,
+MALAY STATES, SIAM, CAMBODIA,
+ANNAM, COCHIN-CHINA</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="title">BY<br />
+<big><b>E. ALEXANDER POWELL</b></big></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p class="title">NEW YORK<br />
+<big>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</big><br />
+1921</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><small>COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY</small></span><br />
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p>
+<hr class="hr1" />
+<p class="center"><small>Published October, 1921</small></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>PRINTED AT<br />
+THE SCRIBNER PRESS<br />
+NEW YORK, U. S. A.</small></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">To</p>
+
+<p class="title"><small>THE WINSOME WIDOW</small><br />
+MARGARET CAMPBELL McCUTCHEN<br />
+<small>WHO, DESPITE COUNTLESS DISCOMFORTS,<br />
+ALWAYS KEPT SMILING</small></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is a curious thing, when you stop to think about it, that, though of
+late the public has been deluged with books on the South Seas, though
+the shelves of the public libraries sag beneath the volumes devoted to
+China, Japan, Korea, next to nothing has been written, save by a
+handful of scientifically-minded explorers, about those far-flung,
+gorgeous lands, stretching from the southern marches of China to the
+edges of Polynesia, which the ethnologists call Malaysia. Siam,
+Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China, the Malay States, the Straits
+Settlements, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Borneo, Sulu ... their very
+names are synonymous with romance; the sound of them makes restless the
+feet of all who love adventure. Sultans and rajahs ... pirates and
+head-hunters ... sun-bronzed pioneers and white-helmeted <i>legionnaires</i>
+... blow-guns with poisoned darts and curly-bladed krises ... elephants
+with gilded howdahs ... tigers, crocodiles, orang-utans ... pagodas and
+palaces ... shaven-headed priests in yellow robes ... flaming
+fire-trees ... the fragrance of frangipani ... green jungle and
+steaming tropic rivers ... white moonlight on the long white beaches
+... the throb of war-drums and the tinkle of wind-blown
+temple-bells....</p>
+
+<p>But it is not for all of us to go down the strange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>trails which lead
+to these magic places. The world's work must be done. So, for those who
+are condemned by circumstance to the prosaic existence of the office,
+the factory, and the home, I have written this book. I would have them
+feel the hot breath of the South. I would convey to them something of
+the spell of the tropics, the mystery of the jungle, the lure of the
+little, palm-fringed islands which rise from peacock-colored seas. I
+would introduce to them those picturesque and hardy figures planters,
+constabulary officers, consuls, missionaries, colonial administrators
+who are carrying civilization into these dark and distant corners of
+the earth. I would have them know the fascination of leaning through
+those "magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery
+lands forlorn."</p>
+
+<p>I had planned, therefore, that this should be a light-hearted,
+care-free, casual narrative. And so, in parts, it is. But more serious
+things have crept, almost imperceptibly, into its pages. The
+achievements of the Dutch empire-builders in the Insulinde, the
+conditions which prevail under the rule of the chartered company in
+Borneo, the opening-up of Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula, the
+regeneration of Siam, the epic struggle between civilization and
+savagery which is in progress in all these lands&mdash;these are phases of
+Malaysian life which, if this book is to have any serious value, I
+cannot ignore. That is why it is a m&eacute;lange of the frivolous and the
+serious, the picturesque and the prosaic, the superficial and the
+significant. If, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>when you lay it down, you have gained a better
+understanding of the dangers and difficulties which beset the
+colonizing white man in the lands of the Malay, if you realize that
+life in the eastern tropics consists of something more than sapphire
+seas and bamboo huts beneath the slanting palm trees and native maidens
+with hibiscus blossoms in their dusky hair, if, in short, you have been
+instructed as well as entertained, then I shall feel that I have been
+justified in writing this book.</p>
+
+<p class="sigblock">E. ALEXANDER POWELL.</p>
+
+<p>York Harbor, Maine,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;October first, 1921.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p>
+<h2>AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT</h2>
+
+
+<p>For the courtesies they showed me, and the assistance they afforded me
+during the long journey which is chronicled in this book, I am deeply
+indebted to many persons in many lands. I welcome this opportunity of
+expressing my gratitude to the Hon. Francis Burton Harrison, former
+Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, and to the Hon. Manuel
+Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate, for placing at my disposal
+the coastguard cutter <i>Negros</i>, on which I cruised upward of six
+thousand miles, as well as for countless other courtesies.
+Brigadier-General Ralph W. Jones, Warren H. Latimer, Esq., and Major
+Edwin C. Bopp shamefully neglected their personal affairs in order to
+make my journey comfortable and interesting. Dr. Edward C. Ernst, of
+the United States Quarantine Service at Manila, who served as volunteer
+surgeon of the expedition; John L. Hawkinson, Esq., the man behind the
+camera; James Rockwell, Esq., and Captain A. B. Galvez, commander of
+the <i>Negros</i>, by their unfailing tactfulness and good nature, did much
+to add to the success of the enterprise. I am likewise under the
+deepest obligations to Colonel Ole Waloe, commanding the Philippine
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>Constabulary in Zamboanga; to the Hon. P. W. Rogers, Governor of Jolo;
+to Captain R. C. d'Oyley-John, formerly Chief Police Officer of
+Sandakan, British North Borneo; to M. de Haan, Resident at Samarinda,
+Dutch Borneo; and to his colleagues at Makassar, Singaradja,
+Kloeng-Kloeng, Surabaya, Djokjakarta, and Surakarta; to the Hon. John
+F. Jewell, American Consul-General at Batavia; to the Hon. Edwin N.
+Gunsaulus, American Consul-General at Singapore; to J. D. C. Rodgers,
+Esq., American Charg&eacute; d'Affaires at Bangkok; to his late Royal Highness
+the Crown Prince of Siam; to his Serene Highness Prince Traidos
+Prabandh, Siamese Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; to his
+Serene Highness Colonel Prince Amoradhat, Chief of Intelligence of the
+Siamese Army, who constituted himself my guide and cicerone during our
+stay in his country; to the French Resident-Superior at Pnom-Penh; and
+to the other French officials who aided me during my travels in
+Indo-China. His Excellency J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador at
+Washington and his Excellency Phya Prabha Karavongse, Siamese Minister
+at Washington, provided me with letters which obtained for me many
+facilities in French Indo-China and in Siam. Nor am I unappreciative of
+the many kindnesses shown me by James R. Bray, Esq., of New York City;
+by Austin Day Brixey, Esq., of Greenwich, Conn.; and by Dr. Eldon R.
+James, General Adviser to the Siamese Government. I also wish to
+acknowledge my indebtedness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> to A. Cabaton, Esq., from whose extremely
+valuable study of Netherlands India I have drawn freely in describing
+the Dutch system of administration in the Insulinde. I have also
+obtained much valuable data from "<i>Java and Her Neighbors</i>" by A. C.
+Walcott, Esq., and from "<i>The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe</i>" by Ernest
+Young, Esq.</p>
+
+
+<p class="sigblock">E. ALEXANDER POWELL.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="65%" summary="Table of contents">
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt" style="padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 0em;"><span class="tiny">CHAPTER</span></td><td></td><td class="tocpg"><span class="tiny">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt" style="padding-top: 0em;">I.</td><td class="toc" style="padding-top: 0em;">Magic Isles and Fairy Seas</td><td class="tocpg" style="padding-top: 0em;"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">II.</td><td class="toc">Outposts of Empire</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">III.</td><td class="toc">"Where There Ain't No Ten Commandments"</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">IV.</td><td class="toc">The Emeralds of Wilhelmina</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">V.</td><td class="toc">Man-Eaters and Head-Hunters</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">VI.</td><td class="toc">In Bugi Land</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">VII.</td><td class="toc">Down to an Island Eden</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">VIII.</td><td class="toc">The Garden That Is Java</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">IX.</td><td class="toc">Prospect Rulers and Comic Opera Courts</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">X.</td><td class="toc">Through the Golden Chersonese to Elephant Land</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">XI.</td><td class="toc">To Pnom-penh by the Jungle Trail</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="tdrt">XII.</td><td class="toc">Exiles of the Outlands</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="List of Illustrations">
+
+<tr><td class="illo">A <i>real</i> wild man of Borneo</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="tocpg" style="padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 0em;"><span class="tiny">FACING PAGE</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo" style="padding-top: 0em;">Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon</td>
+<td class="tocpg" style="padding-top: 0em;"><a href="#hawkinson">10</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+coast of Bali</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#members">10</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">The bull-fight at Parang</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#bullfight">22</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Dusun women</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#dusun">60</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#headhunters">60</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#tiga">70</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">A patron of a Sandakan opium farm</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#patron">70</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#crocodile">112</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+steps at Tenggaroeng</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#regent">124</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">State procession in the Kraton of the Sultan of Djokjakarta</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#kraton">124</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#strange">130</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#bromo">170</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#tenggaroeng">200</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#tenggaroeng">200</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">The captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+Universe"</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#captain">200</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#captain">200</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">An elephant hunt in Siam</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#elephant">228</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span>King Sisowath of Cambodia</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#sisowath">234</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Rama VI, King of Siam</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#ramavi">234</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Colorful ceremonies of Old Siam</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#ceremonies">238</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Transportation in the Siamese jungle</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#transportation">248</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">The head of the pageant approaching the camera in
+the palace at Pnom-Penh</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#pageant">266</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the King
+of Cambodia</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#dancers">268</a></td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<h2 style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0em;">MAP</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="List of Maps">
+
+<tr><td class="illo">Malaysia</td>
+<td class="tocpg"><a href="#map">28</a></td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>WHERE THE STRANGE<br />
+TRAILS GO DOWN</h1>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I<br />
+<small>MAGIC ISLES AND FAIRY SEAS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>When I was a small boy I spent my summers at the quaint old
+fishing-village of Mattapoisett, on Buzzard's Bay. Next door to the
+house we occupied stood a low-roofed, unpretentious dwelling, white as
+an old-time clipper ship, with bright green blinds. I can still catch
+the fragrance of the lilacs by the gate. The fine old doorway,
+brass-knockered, arched by a spray of crimson rambler, was flanked on
+one hand by a great conch-shell, on the other by an enormous specimen
+of branch-coral, thus subtly intimating to passers-by that the owner of
+the house had been in "foreign parts." A distinctly nautical atmosphere
+was lent to the broad, deck-like verandah by a ship's barometer, a
+chart of Cape Cod, and a highly polished brass telescope mounted on a
+tripod so as to command the entire expanse of the bay. Here Cap'n
+Bryant, a retired New Bedford whaling captain, was wont to spend the
+sunny days in his big cane-seated rocking-chair, puffing meditatively
+at his pipe and for my boyish edification spinning yarns of adventure
+in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>far-distant seas and on islands with magic names&mdash;Tawi Tawi,
+Makassar Straits, the Dingdings, the Little Paternosters, the Gulf of
+Boni, Thursday Island, Java Head. Of cannibal feasts in New Guinea, of
+head-hunters in Borneo, of strange dances by dusky temple-girls in
+Bali, of up-country expeditions with the White Rajah of Sarawak, of
+desperate encounters with Dyak pirates in the Sulu Sea, he discoursed
+at length and in fascinating detail, while I, sprawled on the verandah
+steps, my knees clasped in my hands, listened raptly and, when the
+veteran's flow of reminiscence showed signs of slackening, clamored
+insistently for more.</p>
+
+<p>Then and there I determined that some day I would myself sail those
+adventurous seas in a vessel of my own, that I would poke the nose of
+my craft up steaming tropic rivers, that I would drop anchor off towns
+whose names could not be found on ordinary maps, and that I would go
+ashore in white linen and pipe-clayed shoes and a sun-hat to take
+tiffin with sultans and rajahs, and to barter beads and brass wire for
+curios&mdash;a curly-bladed Malay kris, carved cocoanuts, a shark's-tooth
+necklace, a blow-gun with its poisoned darts, a stuffed bird of
+paradise, and, of course, a huge conch-shell and an enormous piece of
+branch-coral&mdash;which I would bring home and display to admiring
+relatives and friends as convincing proofs of where I had been.</p>
+
+<p>But school and college had to be gotten through with, and after them
+came wars in various parts of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>the world and adventurings in many
+lands, so that thirty years slipped by before an opportunity presented
+itself to realize the dream of my boyhood. But when at last I set sail
+for those far-distant seas it was on an enterprise which would have
+gladdened the old sailor's soul&mdash;an expedition whose object it was to
+seek out the unusual, the curious, and the picturesque, and to capture
+them on the ten miles of celluloid film which we took with us, so that
+those who are condemned by circumstance to the humdrum life of the
+farm, the office, or the mill might themselves go adventuring o'nights,
+from the safety and comfort of red-plush seats, through the magic of
+the motion-picture screen. When I set out on my long journey the old
+whaling captain whose tales had kindled my youthful imagination had
+been sleeping for a quarter of a century in the Mattapoisett graveyard,
+but when our anchor rumbled down off Tawi Tawi, when, steaming across
+Makassar Straits, we picked up the Little Paternosters, when our tiny
+vessel poked her bowsprit up the steaming Koetei into the heart of the
+Borneo jungle, I knew that, though invisible to human eyes, he was
+standing beside me on the bridge.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Until I met the young-old man to whom those magazines which devote
+themselves to the gossip of the film world admiringly refer as "the
+Napoleon of the movies," it had never occurred to me that adventure has
+a definite market value. At least I had never realized that there are
+people who stand ready to buy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>it by the foot, as one buys real estate
+or rope. I had always supposed that the only way adventure could be
+capitalized was as material for magazine articles and books and for
+dinner-table stories.</p>
+
+<p>"What we are after" the film magnate began abruptly, motioning me to a
+capacious leather chair and pushing a box of cigars within my reach,
+"is something new in travel pictures. Like most of the big producers,
+we furnish our exhibitors with complete programmes&mdash;a feature, a
+comedy, a topical review, and a travel or educational picture. We make
+the features and the comedies in our own studios; the weeklies we buy
+from companies which specialize in that sort of thing. But heretofore
+we have had to pick up our travel stuff&mdash;where we could get it from
+free lances mostly&mdash;and there is never enough really good travel
+material to meet the demand. For quite ordinary travel or educational
+films we have to pay a minimum of two dollars a foot, while really
+unusual pictures will bring almost any price that is asked for them.
+The supply is so uncertain, however, and the price is so high that we
+have decided to try the experiment of taking our own. That is what I
+wanted to talk to you about."</p>
+
+<p>"Before the war," he continued, "there was almost no demand in the
+United States for travel pictures. In fact, when a manager wanted to
+clear his house for the next show, he would put a travel picture on the
+screen. But since the boys have been coming back from France and
+Germany and Siberia and Russia the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>public has begun to call for travel
+films again. They've heard their sons and brothers and sweethearts tell
+about the strange places they've been, and the strange things they've
+seen, and I suppose it makes them want to learn more about those parts
+of the world that lie east of Battery Place and west of the Golden
+Gate. But we don't want the old bromide stuff, mind
+you&mdash;mountain-climbing in Switzerland, cutting sugar-cane in Cuba,
+picking cocoanuts in Ceylon. That sort of thing goes well enough on the
+Chautauqua circuits, but it's as dead as the corner saloon so far as
+the big cities are concerned. What we are looking for are unusual
+pictures&mdash;tigers, elephants, pirates, brigands, cannibals, Oriental
+temples and palaces, war-dances, weird ceremonies, curious customs,
+natives with rings in their noses and feathers in their hair, scenes
+that are spectacular and exciting&mdash;in short, what the magazine editors
+call 'adventure stuff.' We want pictures that will make 'em sit up in
+their seats and exclaim, 'Well, what d'ye know about that?' and that
+will send them away to tell their friends about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Like the publisher," I suggested, "who remarked that his idea of a
+good newspaper was one that would cause its readers to exclaim when
+they opened it, 'My God!'?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the idea," he agreed. "And if the pictures are from places that
+most people have never heard of before, so much the better. I'm told
+that you've spent your life looking for queer places to write about. So
+why can't you suggest some to take pictures of?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>"But I've had no practical experience in taking motion-pictures," I
+protested. "The only time I ever touched a motion-picture camera was
+when I turned the crank of Donald Thompson's for a few minutes during
+the entry of the Germans into Antwerp in 1914."</p>
+
+<p>"Were the pictures a success?" the Napoleon of the Movies queried
+interestedly. "I don't recall having seen them."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you wouldn't," I hastened to explain. "You see, it wasn't until
+the show was all over that Thompson discovered that he had forgotten to
+take the cap off the lens."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let that worry you," he assured me. "We'll take care of the
+technical end. We'll provide you with the best camera man to be had and
+the best equipment. All you will have to do is to show him what to
+photograph, arrange the action, decide on the settings, obtain the
+permission of the authorities, the good-will of the officials, the
+co-operation of the military, engage interpreters and guides, reserve
+hotel accommodations, arrange for motor-cars and boats and horses and
+special trains, and keep everyone jollied up and feeling good
+generally. Aside from that, there won't be anything for you to do
+except to enjoy yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly sounds alluring," I admitted. "The trouble is that you
+are looking for something that can't always be found. You don't find
+adventure the way you find four-leaf clovers; it just happens to you,
+like the measles or a blow-out. Still, if one has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>the time and money
+to go after them, there are a lot of curious things that might pass for
+adventure when they are shown on the screen."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?" the film magnate asked eagerly, spreading upon his
+mahogany desk a map of the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little disconcerting, this request to point out those regions
+where adventure could be found, very much as a visitor from the
+provinces might ask a New York hotel clerk to tell him where he could
+see the Bohemian life of which he had read in the Sunday supplements.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Russian Central Asia, of course," I suggested tentatively.
+"Samarkand and Bokhara and Tashkent, you know. But I'm afraid they're
+out of the question on account of the Bolsheviki. Besides, I'm not
+looking for the sort of adventure that ends between a stone wall and a
+firing-party. Then there are some queer emirates along the southern
+edge of the Sahara: Sokoto and Kanem and Bornu and Wadai. But it would
+take at least six months to obtain the necessary permission from the
+French and British colonial offices and to arrange the other details of
+the expedition."</p>
+
+<p>"But that doesn't exhaust the possibilities by any means," I continued
+hastily, for nothing was farther from my wish than to discourage so
+fascinating a plan. "There ought to be some splendid picture material
+among the Dyaks of Borneo&mdash;they're head-hunters, you know. From there
+we could jump across to the Celebes and possibly to New Guinea. And I
+understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> that they have some queer customs on the island of Bali,
+over beyond Java; in fact, I've been told that, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Dutch to stop it, the Balinese still practise <i>suttee</i>.
+A picture of a widow being burned on her husband's funeral pyre would
+be a bit out of the ordinary, wouldn't it? That reminds me that I read
+somewhere the other day that next spring there is to be a big royal
+wedding in Djokjakarta, in middle Java, with all sorts of gorgeous
+festivities. At Batavia we would have no difficulty in getting a
+steamer for Singapore, and from there we could go overland by the new
+Federated Malay States Railway, through Johore and Malacca and Kuala
+Lumpur, to Siam, where the cats and the twins and the white elephants
+come from. From Bangkok we might take a short-cut through the Cambodian
+jungle, by elephant, to Pnom-Penh and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on!" the Movie King protested. "That's plenty. Let me come up for
+air. Those names you've been reeling off mean as much to me as the
+dishes on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. But that's what we're
+after. We want the people who see the pictures to say: 'Where the
+dickens <i>is</i> that place? I never heard of it before.' They get to
+arguing about it, and when they get home they look it up in the family
+atlas, and when they find how far away it is, they feel that they've
+had their money's worth. How soon can you be ready to start?"</p>
+
+<p>"How soon," I countered, "can you have a letter of credit ready?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>Owing to the urgent requirements of the European governments, vessels
+of every description were, as I discovered upon our arrival at Manila,
+few and far between in Eastern seas; so, in spite of the assurance that
+I was not to permit the question of expense to curtail my itinerary, it
+is perfectly certain that we could not have visited the remote and
+inaccessible places which we did had it not been for the lively
+interest taken in our enterprise by the Honorable Francis Burton
+Harrison, Governor-General of the Philippines, and by the Honorable
+Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate. When
+Governor-General Harrison learned that I wished to take pictures in the
+Sulu Archipelago, he kindly offered, in order to facilitate our
+movements from island to island, to place at my disposal a coast-guard
+cutter, just as a friend might offer one the use of his motor-car.
+There was at first some question as to whether the Governor-General had
+the authority to send a government vessel outside of territorial
+waters, but Mr. Quezon, who, so far as influence goes, is a Henry Cabot
+Lodge and a Boies Penrose combined, unearthed a law which permitted him
+to utilize the vessels of the coast-guard service for the purpose of
+entertaining visitors to the islands in such ways as the Government of
+the Philippines saw fit. And, in a manner of speaking, Mr. Quezon is
+the Government of the Philippines. Thus it came about that on the last
+day of February, 1920, the coast-guard cutter <i>Negros</i>, 150 tons and
+150 feet over all&mdash;with a crew of sixty men, Captain A. B. Galvez
+commanding, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>and having on board the Lovely Lady, who accompanies me on
+all my travels; the Winsome Widow, who joined us in Seattle; the
+Doctor, who is an officer of the United States Health Service stationed
+at Manila; John L. Hawkinson, the efficient and imperturbable man
+behind the camera; three friends of the Governor-General, who went
+along for the ride; and myself&mdash;steamed out of Manila Bay into the
+crimson glory of a tropic sunset, and, when past Cavite and Corregidor,
+laid her course due south toward those magic isles and fairy seas which
+are so full of mystery and romance, so packed with possibilities of
+high adventure.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="hawkinson" id="hawkinson"></a>
+<img src="images/010a.jpg" width="426" height="550" alt="boats on rapids" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 426px;">
+<p class="caption">Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">His camera is set up astride of two native dugouts lashed together</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="members" id="members"></a>
+<img src="images/010b.jpg" width="426" height="545" alt="people landing from boats" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 426px;">
+<p class="caption">Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+coast of Bali</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">Mrs. Powell being carried ashore by sailors.
+The <i>Negros</i> in the distance</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Governor-General Harrison believed, by methods that are legitimate, in
+adding to the American public's knowledge of the Philippines, and it
+was owing to his broad-minded point of view and to the many cablegrams
+which he sent ahead of us, that at each port in the islands at which we
+touched we found the local officials waiting on the pier-head to bid us
+welcome and to assist us. At Jolo, which is the capital of the Moro
+country, two lean, sun-tanned, youthful-looking men came aboard to
+greet us: one was the Honorable P. W. Rogers, Governor of the
+Department of Sulu; the other was Captain Link, a former officer of
+constabulary who is now the Provincial Treasurer. In the first five
+minutes of our conversation I discovered that they knew exactly the
+sort of picture material that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>I wanted and that they would help me to
+the limit of their ability to get it. For that matter, they themselves
+personify adventure in its most exciting form.</p>
+
+<p>Rogers, who was originally a soldier, went to the Philippines as
+orderly for General Pershing long before the days when "Black Jack" was
+to win undying fame on battlefields half the world away. The young
+soldier showed such marked ability that, thanks to Pershing's
+assistance, he obtained a post as stenographer under the civil
+government, thence rising by rapid steps to the difficult post of
+Governor of Sulu. A better selection could hardly have been made, for
+there is no white man in the islands whom the Moros more heartily
+respect and fear than their boyish-looking governor. Mrs. Rogers is the
+daughter of a German trader who lived in Jolo and died there with his
+boots on. A year or so prior to her marriage she was sitting with her
+parents at tiffin when a Moro, with whom her father had had a trifling
+business disagreement, knocked at the door and asked for a moment's
+conversation. Telling the native that he would talk with him after he
+had finished his meal, the trader returned to the table. Scarcely had
+he seated himself when the Moro, who had slipped unobserved into the
+dining room, sprang like a panther, his broad-bladed <i>barong</i>
+describing a glistening arc, and the trader's head rolled among the
+dishes. Another sweep of the terrible weapon and the mother's hand was
+severed at the wrist, while the future Mrs. Rogers owes her life to the
+fact that she fainted and slipped <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>under the table. I relate this
+incident in order to give you some idea of the local atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks before our arrival at Jolo, Governor Rogers, in compliance
+with instructions from Manila, had ordered a census of the inhabitants.
+But the Moros are a highly suspicious folk, so, when some one started
+the rumor that the government was planning to brand them, as it brands
+its mules and horses, it promptly gained wide credence. By tactful
+explanations the suspicions of most of the natives were allayed, but
+one Moro, notorious as a bad man, barricaded himself, together with
+five of his friends, three women and a boy, in his house&mdash;a nipa hut
+raised above the ground on stilts&mdash;and defied the Governor to enumerate
+<i>them</i>. Now, if the Governor had permitted such open defiance to pass
+unnoticed, the entire population of Jolo, always ready for trouble,
+promptly would have gotten out of hand. So, accompanied by five
+troopers of the constabulary, he rode out to the outlaw's house and
+attempted to reason with him. The man obstinately refused to show
+himself, however, even turning a deaf ear to the appeals of the village
+<i>imam</i>. Thereupon Rogers ordered the constabulary to open fire, their
+shots being answered by a fusillade from the Moros barricaded in the
+house. In twenty minutes the flimsy structure looked more like a sieve
+than a dwelling. When the firing ceased a six-year-old boy descended
+the ladder and, approaching the Governor, remarked unconcernedly: "You
+can go in now. They're all dead." Then Rogers called up the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>census-taker and told him to go ahead with his enumeration.</p>
+
+<p>The provincial treasurer, Captain Link, is a lean, lithe South
+Carolinian who has spent fifteen years in Moroland. He is what is known
+in the cattle country as a "go-gitter." It is told of him that he once
+nearly lost his commission, while in the constabulary, by sending to
+the Governor, as a Christmas present, a package which, upon being
+opened, was found to contain the head of a much-wanted outlaw.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew he wanted that fellow's head more than anything else in the
+world," Captain Link said na&iuml;vely, in telling me the story, "so it
+struck me it would be just the thing to send him for a Christmas
+present. I spent a lot of time and trouble getting it too, for the
+fellow sure was a bad hombre. It would have gotten by all right, but
+the Governor's wife, thinking it was a present for herself, had to go
+and open the package. She went into hysterics when she saw what was
+inside and the Governor was so mad he nearly fired me. Some people have
+no sense of humor."</p>
+
+<p>Atop of the bookcase in Captain Link's study&mdash;the bookcase, by the way,
+contains Burton's <i>Thousand and One Nights</i>, the <i>Discourses</i> of
+Epictetus, and President Eliot's tabloid classics&mdash;is the skull in
+question, surmounted by a Moro fez. Across the front of the fez is
+printed this significant legend:</p>
+
+<div class="epigraph">
+<p class="center">
+THIS IS JOHN HENRY<br />
+JOHN HENRY DISOBEYED CAPTAIN LINK<br />
+<i>Sic Transit Gloria Mundi</i><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>While we are on the subject, let me tell you about another of these
+advance-guards of civilization who, single-handed, transformed a
+worthless island in the Sulu Sea into a veritable Garden of the Lord
+and its inhabitants from warlike savages into peaceful and prosperous
+farmers. In 1914 a short, bespectacled Michigander named Warner was
+sent by the Philippine Bureau of Education to Siassi, one of the
+islands of the Sulu group, to teach its Moro inhabitants the rudiments
+of American civilization. Warner's sole equipment for the job
+consisted, as he candidly admitted, of a medical education. He took
+with him a number of Filipino assistants, but as they did not get along
+with the Moros, he shipped them back to Manila and sent for an Airedale
+dog. He also sent for all the works on agriculture and gardening that
+were to be had in the bookshops of the capital. For five years he
+remained on Siassi, the only white man. As even the little inter-island
+steamers rarely find their way there, months sometimes passed without
+his hearing from the outside world. But he was too busy to be lonely.
+His jurisdiction extended over two islands, separated by a narrow
+channel, but this he never crossed at night and in the daytime only
+when he was compelled to, as the narrow channel was the home of giant
+crocodiles which not infrequently attacked and capsized the frail
+native <i>vintas</i>, killing their occupants as they struggled in the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>Warner, who had spent four years among the Visayans before going to
+Siassi, and who was, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>therefore, eminently qualified to compare the
+northern islanders with the Moros, told me that the latter possess a
+much higher type of intelligence than the Filipinos and assimilate new
+ideas far more quickly. He added that they have a highly developed
+sense of humor; that they are quick to appreciate subtle stories, which
+the Tagalogs and Visayans are not; and that they are much more ready to
+accept advice on agricultural and economic matters than the Christian
+Filipinos, who have a life-sized opinion of their own ability. When the
+day's work was over, he said, he would seat himself in the doorway of
+his hut, surrounded by a group of Moros, and discuss crops and weather
+prospects, swap jokes and tell stories, just as he might have done with
+lighter skinned sons of toil around the cracker-barrel of a cross-roads
+store in New England. He added that he was sadly in need of some new
+stories to tell his Moro proteg&eacute;s, as, after six years on the island,
+his own fund was about exhausted. But he was growing weary of life on
+Siassi, he told me; he wanted action and excitement; so he was
+preparing to move, with his Airedale, to Bohol, in the Visayas, where,
+he had heard it rumored, there was another white man.</p>
+
+<p>Still another of the picturesque characters with whom I foregathered
+nightly on the after-deck of the <i>Negros</i> during our stay at Jolo was a
+former soldier, John Jennings by name. He was an operative of the
+Philippine Secret Service, being engaged at the time in breaking up the
+running of opium from Borneo <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>across the Sulu Sea to the Moro islands.
+Jennings is a short, thickset, powerfully-built man, all nerve and no
+nerves. Adventure is his middle name. He has lived more stories than I
+could invent. Shortly before our arrival at Jolo Jennings had learned
+from a native in his pay that a son of the Flowery Kingdom, the
+proprietor of a notorious gambling resort situated on the
+quarter-mile-long ramshackle wharf known as the Chinese pier, was
+driving a roaring trade in the forbidden drug. So one afternoon
+Jennings, his hands in his pockets and in each pocket a service
+automatic, sauntered carelessly along the pier and upon reaching the
+reputed opium den, knocked briskly on the door. The Chinese proprietor
+evidently suspected the purpose of his visit, however, for he was
+unable to gain admittance. So that night, wearing the huge straw
+sun-hat and flapping garments of blue cotton of a coolie, he tried
+again. This time in response to his knock the heavy door swung open.
+Within all was black and silent as the tomb. The lintel was low and
+Jennings was compelled to stoop in order to enter. As he cautiously set
+foot across the threshold there was a sudden swish of steel in the
+darkness and the blade of a <i>barong</i> whistled past his face, slicing
+off the front of his hat and missing his head by the width of an
+eyelash. As he sprang back the door slammed in his face and he heard
+the bolts shot home, followed by the sound of a weapon clattering on
+the floor and the patter of naked feet. Realizing that the men he was
+after were making their escape by another <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>exit, Jennings hurled
+himself against the door, an automatic in either hand. It gave way
+before his assault and he was precipitated headlong into the inky
+blackness of the room. Taking no chances this time, he raked it with a
+stream of lead from end to end. Then, there being no further sound, he
+swept the place with a beam from his electric torch. Stretched on the
+floor were three dead Chinamen and beside them was enough opium to have
+drugged everyone on the island. That little episode, as Jennings
+remarked dryly, put quite a crimp in the opium traffic in Jolo.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Cockfighting, which is as popular throughout the Philippines as
+baseball is in the United States, finds its most enthusiastic devotees
+among the Moros, every community in the Sulu islands having its cockpit
+and its fighting birds, on whose prowess the natives gamble with
+reckless abandon. Gambling is, indeed, the <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i> of
+cockfighting in Moroland, for, as the birds are armed with four-inch
+spurs of razor sharpness, and as one or both birds are usually killed
+within a few minutes after they are tossed into the pit, very little
+sport attaches to the contest. The villagers are inordinately proud of
+their local fighting-cocks, boasting of their prowess as a Bostonian
+boasts of the Braves or a New Yorker of the Giants, and are always
+ready to back them to the limit of their means.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, according to a story that was told <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>me in the
+islands&mdash;for the truth of which I do not vouch&mdash;an American destroyer
+dropped anchor off Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines.
+That night a shore party of bluejackets, wandering about the town in
+quest of amusement, dropped in at a cockpit where a main was in
+progress. Noting the large wagers laid by the excited natives on their
+favorite birds, the sailors offered to back a "chicken" which they had
+aboard the destroyer against all the cocks in Cebu. The natives,
+smiling in their sleeves at the prospect of taking money so easily from
+the Americanos, promptly accepted the challenge and some hundreds of
+pesos were laid against the unknown bird. At the hour set for the fight
+the grinning sailors appeared at the cockpit with their "chicken," the
+mascot of the destroyer&mdash;a large American eagle! Ensued, of course, a
+torrent of protest and remonstrance, but the money was already up and
+the bluejackets demanded action. So the eagle was anchored by a chain
+in the center of the pit, where it sat motionless and apathetic, head
+on one side, eyelids drooping, apparently half asleep&mdash;until a cock was
+tossed into the pit. Then there was a lightning-like flash of the
+mighty talons and all that was left of the Cebuan champion was a heap
+of bloodied feathers. The "match" was quickly over and the triumphant
+sailors, collecting their bets, departed for their ship. Ever since
+then there has been a proverb in Cebu&mdash;"Never match your cock against
+an American chicken."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>Governor Rogers informed me that, in compliance with a cablegram from
+the Governor-General, he had arranged a "show" for us at a village
+called Parang, on the other side of the island. The "show," I gathered,
+was to consist of a stag-hunt, shark-fishing, war-dances, and pony
+races, and was to conclude with a native bull-fight. One of the
+favorite sports of the Moros is hunting the small native stag on
+horseback, tiring it out, and killing it with spears. As it developed,
+however, that there was no certainty of being able so to stage-manage
+the affair that either the hunters or the hunted would come within the
+range of the camera, we regretfully decided to dispense with that
+number of the programme.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at Parang it looked as though the entire population of
+the island had assembled for the occasion. The native police were
+keeping clear a circle in which the dances were to take place, while
+the slanting trunks of the cocoanut-palms provided reserved seats for
+scores of tan and chocolate and coffee-colored youngsters. We were
+greeted by the Panglima of Parang, the overlord of the district, who
+explained, through Governor Rogers, that he had had prepared a little
+repast of which he hoped that we would deign to partake. Now, after you
+know some of the secrets of Moro cooking and have had a glimpse into a
+Moro kitchen, even the most robust appetite is usually dampened. But
+the Governor whispered "The old man has gone to a lot of trouble to
+arrange this show and if you refuse to eat his food he'll be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>mortally
+offended," so, purely in the interests of amity, we seated ourselves at
+the table, which had been set under the palms in the open. I don't know
+what we ate and I don't care to know&mdash;though I admit that I had some
+uneasy suspicions&mdash;but, with the uncompromising eye of the old Panglima
+fixed sternly upon us, we did our best to convince him that we
+appreciated his cuisine.</p>
+
+<p>But the dancing which followed made us forget what we had eaten. During
+the ensuing months we were to see dances in many lands&mdash;in Borneo and
+Bali and Java and Siam and Cambodia&mdash;but they were all characterized by
+a certain monotony and sameness. These Moro dancers, however, were in a
+class by themselves. If they could be brought across the ocean and
+would dance before an audience on Broadway with the same savage abandon
+with which they danced before the camera under the palm-trees of
+Parang, there would be a line a block long in front of the box-office.
+One of the dances was symbolical of a cock-fight, the cocks being
+personified by a young woman and a boy. It was sheer barbarism, of
+course, but it was fascinating. And the curious thing about it was that
+the hundreds of Moros who stood and squatted in a great circle, and who
+had doubtless seen the same thing scores of times before, were so
+engrossed in the movements of the dance, each of which had its subtle
+shade of meaning, that they became utterly oblivious to our presence or
+to Hawkinson's steady grinding of the camera. In the war-dance the
+participants, who were Moro fighting men, and were armed with spears,
+shields, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>the vicious, broad-bladed knives known as <i>barongs</i>, gave
+a highly realistic representation of pinning an enemy to the earth with
+a spear, and with the <i>barong</i> decapitating him. The first part of the
+dance, before the passions of the savages became aroused, was, however,
+monotonous and uninteresting.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you stir 'em up a little?" called Hawkinson, who, like all
+camera men, demands constant action. "Tell 'em that this film costs
+money and that we didn't come here to take pictures of Loie Fuller
+stuff."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it might be as well to let them take their time about it,"
+remarked Captain Link. "These Moros always get very much worked up in
+their war-dances, and occasionally they forget that it is all
+make-believe and send a spear into a spectator. It's safer to leave
+them alone. They're very temperamental."</p>
+
+<p>"That would make a corking picture," said Hawkinson enthusiastically,
+"if I only knew which fellow was going to be speared so that I could
+get the camera focussed on him."</p>
+
+<p>"The only trouble is," I remarked dryly, "that they might possibly pick
+out <i>you</i>."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>In Spanish bull-fights, after the banderillos and picadores have
+tormented the bull until it is exhausted, the matador flaunts a scarlet
+cloak in front of the beast until it is bewildered and then despatches
+it with a sword. In Moroland, however, the bulls, which are bred and
+trained for the purpose, do their best to kill each other, thus making
+the fight a much more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>sporting proposition. The bull-fight which was
+arranged for our benefit at Parang was staged in a field of about two
+acres just outside the town, the spectators being kept at a safe
+distance by a troop of Moro horsemen under the direction of the old
+Panglima. After Hawkinson had set up his camera on the edge of this
+extemporized arena the bulls were brought in: medium-sized but
+exceptionally powerful beasts, the muscles rippling under their sleek
+brown coats, their short horns filed to the sharpness of lance-tips.
+Each animal was led by its owner, who was able to control it to a
+limited degree during the fight by means of a cord attached to the ring
+in its nose. When the signal was given for the fight to begin, the
+bulls approached each other cautiously, snorting and pawing the ground.
+They reminded me of two strange dogs who cannot decide whether they
+wish to fight or be friends. For ten minutes, regardless of the jeers
+of the spectators and the proddings of their handlers, the great brown
+beasts rubbed heads as amicably as a yoke of oxen. Then, just as we had
+made up our minds that it was a fiasco and that there would be no
+bull-fight pictures, there was a sudden angry bellow, the two great
+heads came together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was
+on. The next twenty minutes Hawkinson and I spent in alternately
+setting up his camera within range of the panting, straining animals
+and in picking it up and running for our lives, in order to avoid being
+trampled by the maddened beasts in their furious and unexpected
+onslaughts. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>The men at the ends of the nose-ropes were as helpless to
+control their infuriated charges as a trout fisherman who has hooked a
+shark. With horns interlocked and with blood and sweat dripping from
+their massive necks and shoulders, they fought each other, step by
+step, across the width of the arena, across a cultivated field which
+lay beyond, burst through a thorn hedge surrounding a native's patch of
+garden, trampled the garden into mire, and narrowly escaped bringing
+down on top of them the owner's dwelling, which, like most Moro houses,
+was raised above the ground on stilts. It looked for a time as though
+the fight would continue over a considerable portion of the island, but
+it was brought to an abrupt conclusion when one of the bulls,
+withdrawing a few yards, to gain momentum, charged like a tank
+attacking the Hindenburg Line, driving one of its horns deep into its
+adversary's eye-socket, whereupon the wounded animal, half-blinded and
+mad with pain, turned precipitately, jerked the nose-rope from its
+owner's grasp, and stampeding the spectators in its mad flight,
+disappeared in the depths of the jungle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="bullfight" id="bullfight"></a>
+<div class="cap" style="width: 550px; margin-bottom: 2em;"><p class="caption">The bull-fight at Parang</p></div>
+<img src="images/022a.jpg" width="550" height="408" alt="bulls fighting" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 550px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">There was a sudden bellow, the two great heads came
+together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was on</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/022b.jpg" width="425" height="550" alt="Moro horsemen" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 425px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">The spectators were kept at a distance by M&oacute;r&oacute; horsemen
+under the Panglima</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"That," announced the Governor, "concludes the morning performance.
+This afternoon we will present for your approval a programme consisting
+of pony races, a carabao fight, a shark-fishing expedition, and, if
+time permits, a visit to the pearl-fisheries to see the divers at work.
+This evening we will call on the Princess Fatimah, the daughter of the
+Sultan, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>tomorrow I have arranged to take you to Tapul Island to
+shoot wild carabao. After that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"After that," I interrupted, "we go away from here. If we stayed on in
+this quiet little island of yours much longer, we shouldn't have any
+film left for the other places."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II<br />
+<small>OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>We sailed at sunset out of Jolo and all through the breathless tropic
+night the <i>Negros</i> forged ahead at half-speed, her sharp prow cleaving
+the still bosom of the Sulu Sea as silently as a gondola stealing down
+the Canale Grande. So oppressive was the night that sleep was out of
+the question, and I leaned upon the rail of the bridge, the hot land
+breeze, laden with the mysterious odors of the tropics, beating softly
+in my face, and listlessly watched the phosphorescent ostrich feathers
+curling from our bows. Behind me, in the darkened chart-room, the
+Filipino quartermaster gently swung the wheel from time to time in
+response to the direction of the needle on the illuminated
+compass-dial. So lifeless was the sea that our foremast barely swayed
+against the stars. The smoke from our funnel trailed across the purple
+canopy of the sky as though smeared with an inky brush.</p>
+
+<p>How long I stood there, lost in reverie, I have no idea: hours no
+doubt. I must have fallen into a doze, for I was awakened by the brisk,
+incisive strokes of the ship's bell, echoed, a moment later, by eight
+fainter strokes coming from the deck below. Then the soft patter of
+bare feet which meant the changing of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>watch. Though the velvety
+darkness into which we were steadily ploughing had not perceptibly
+decreased, it was now cut sharply across, from right to left, by what
+looked like a tightly stretched wire of glowing silver. Even as I
+looked this slender fissure of illumination widened, almost
+imperceptibly at first, then faster, faster, until at one burst came
+the dawn. The sombre hangings of the night were swept aside by an
+invisible hand as are drawn back the curtains at a window. As you have
+seen from a hill the winking lights of a city disappear at daybreak,
+so, one by one, the stars went out. Masses of angry clouds reared
+themselves in ominous, fantastic forms against a sullen sky. The hot
+land breeze changed to a cold wind which made me shiver. Suddenly the
+mounting rampart of clouds, which seemed about to burst in a tempest,
+was pierced by a hundred flaming lances coming from beyond the
+horizon's rim. Before their onslaught the threatening cloud-wall
+crumbled, faded, and abruptly dropped away to reveal the sun advancing
+in all that brazen effrontery which it assumes in those lawless
+latitudes along the Line. Now the sky was become a huge inverted bowl
+of flawless azure porcelain, the surface of the Sulu Sea sparkled as
+though strewn with a million diamonds, and, not a league off our bows,
+rose the jungle-clothed shores of Borneo.</p>
+
+<p>Scattered along the fringes of the world are certain places whose names
+ring in the ears of youth like trumpet-calls. They are passwords to
+romance and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>high adventure. Their very mention makes the feet of the
+young men restless. They mark the places where the strange trails go
+down. Of them all, the one that most completely captivated my boyish
+imagination was Borneo. To me, as to millions of other youngsters, its
+name had been made familiar by that purveyor of entertainment to
+American boyhood, Phineas T. Barnum, as the reputed home of the wild
+man. In its jungles, through the magic of Marryat's breathless pages, I
+fought the head-hunter and pursued the boa-constrictor and the
+orang-utan. It was then, a boyhood dream come true when I stood at
+daybreak on the bridge of the <i>Negros</i> and through my glasses watched
+the mysterious island, which I had so often pictured in my imagination,
+rise with tantalizing slowness from the sapphire sea.</p>
+
+<p>We forged ahead cautiously, for our charts were none too recent or
+reliable and we lacked the "Malay Archipelago" volume of <i>The Sailing
+Directions</i>&mdash;the "Sailor's Bible," as the big, orange-covered book,
+full of comforting detail, is known. As the morning mists dissolved
+before the sun I could make out a pale ivory beach, and back of the
+beach a band of green which I knew for jungle, and back of that, in
+turn, a range of purple mountains which culminated in a majestic,
+cloud-wreathed peak. An off-shore breeze brought to my nostrils the
+strange, sweet odors of the hot lands. A Malay <i>vinta</i> with widespread
+bamboo outriggers and twin sails of orange flitted by an enormous
+butterfly skimming the surface of the water. I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>actually within
+sight of that grim island whose name has ever been a synonym for
+savagery. For never think that piracy, head-hunting, poisoned darts
+shot from blow-guns are horrors extinct in Borneo today, for they are
+not. Ask the mariners who sail these waters; ask the keepers of the
+lonely lighthouses, the officers who command the constabulary outposts
+in the bush. They know Borneo, and not favorably.</p>
+
+<p>You will picture Borneo, if you please, as a vast, squat island the
+third largest in the world, in fact&mdash;half again as large as France,
+bordered by a sandy littoral, moated by swamps reeking with putrid
+miasmata and pernicious vapors, covered with dense forests and
+impenetrable jungles, ridged by mile-high mountain ranges, seamed by
+mighty rivers, inhabited by the most savage beasts and the most bestial
+savages known to man. Lying squarely athwart the Line, the sun beats
+down upon it like the blast from an open furnace-door. The story is
+told in Borneo of a dissolute planter who died from sunstroke. The day
+after the funeral a spirit message reached the widow of the dear
+departed. "Please send down my blankets" it said. But it is the
+terrible humidity which makes the climate dangerous; a humidity due to
+the innumerable swamps, the source of pestilence and fever, and to the
+incredible rainfall, which <i>averages over six and a half feet a year</i>.
+No wonder that in the Indies Borneo is known as "The White Man's
+Graveyard."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<p class="center"><small><a href="images/map-big.png">View larger image</a></small></p>
+<a name="map" id="map"></a>
+<img src="images/map-th.png" width="471" height="550" alt="Map of Malaysia" />
+</div>
+
+<p>Imbedded in the northern coast of the island, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> a row of
+semi-precious stones set in a barbaric brooch, are the states of
+British North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak. Their back-doors open on the
+wilderness of mountain, forest and jungle which marks the northern
+boundary of Dutch Borneo; their front windows look out upon the Sulu
+and the China Seas. Of these three territories, the first is under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, a private
+corporation, which administers it under the terms of a royal charter.
+The second is ruled by the Sultan of Brunei, whose once vast dominions
+have steadily dwindled through cession and conquest until they are now
+no larger than Connecticut. On the throne of the last sits one of the
+most romantic and picturesque figures in the world, His Highness James
+Vyner Brooke, a descendant of that Sir James Brooke who, in the middle
+years of the last century, made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak,
+and who might well have been the original of <i>The Man Who Would Be
+King</i>. Though all three governments are permitted virtually a free hand
+so far as their domestic affairs are concerned, they are under the
+protection of Great Britain and their foreign affairs are controlled
+from Westminster. The remaining three-quarters of Borneo, which
+contains the richest mines, the finest forests, the largest rivers,
+and, most important of all, the great oil-fields of Balik-Papan, forms
+one of the Outer Possessions, or Outposts, of Holland's East Indian
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>Long before the yellow ribbon of the coast, with its fringe of palms,
+became visible we could make out the towering outline of Kina Balu, the
+sacred mountain, fourteen thousand feet high, which, seen from the
+north, bears a rather striking resemblance in its general contour to
+Gibraltar. The natives regard Kina Balu with awe and veneration as the
+home of departed spirits, believing that it exercises a powerful
+influence on their lives. When a man is dying they speak of him as
+ascending Kina Balu and in times of drought they formerly practised a
+curious and horrible custom, known as <i>sumunguping</i>, which the
+authorities have now suppressed. When the crops showed signs of failing
+the natives decided to despatch a messenger direct to the spirits of
+their relatives and friends in the other world entreating them to
+implore relief from the gods who control the rains. The person chosen
+to convey the message was usually a slave or an enemy captured in
+battle. Binding their victim to a post, the warriors of the tribe
+advanced, one by one, and drove their spears into his body, shouting
+with each thrust the messages which they wished conveyed to the spirits
+on the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>With the coming of day we pushed ahead at full speed. Soon we could
+make out the precipitous sandstone cliffs of Balhalla, the island which
+screens the entrance to Sandakan harbor. But long before we came
+abreast of the town signs of human habitation became increasingly
+apparent: little clusters of nipa-thatched huts built on stilts over
+the water; others <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>hidden away in the jungle and betraying themselves
+only by spirals of smoke rising lazily above the feathery tops of the
+palms. Sandakan itself straggles up a steep wooded hill, the Chinese
+and native quarters at its base wallowing amid a network of
+foul-smelling and incredibly filthy sewers and canals or built on
+rickety wooden platforms which extend for half a mile or more along the
+harbor's edge. A little higher up, fronting on a parade ground which
+looks from the distance like a huge green rug spread in the sun to air,
+are the government offices, low structures of frame and plaster,
+designed so as to admit a maximum of air and a minimum of heat; the
+long, low building of the Planters Club, encircled by deep, cool
+verandahs; a Chinese joss-house, its facade enlivened by grotesque and
+brilliantly colored carvings; and a down-at-heels hotel. Close by are
+the churches erected and maintained by the Protestant and Roman
+Catholic missions&mdash;the former the only stone building in the
+protectorate. At the summit of the hill, reached by a steeply winding
+carriage road, are the bungalows of the Europeans, their white walls,
+smothered in crimson masses of bougainvill&aelig;a and shaded by stately
+palms and blazing fire-trees, peeping out from a wilderness of tropic
+vegetation. Viewed from the harbor, Sandakan is one of the most
+enchanting places that I have ever seen. It looks like a setting on a
+stage and you have the feeling that at any moment the curtain may
+descend and destroy the illusion. It is not until you go ashore and
+wander in the native <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>quarter, where vice in every form stalks naked
+and unashamed, that you realize that the town is like a beautiful
+harlot, whose loveliness of face and figure belie the evil in her
+heart. Even after I came to understand that the place is a sink of
+iniquity, I never ceased to marvel at its beauty. It reminded me of the
+exclamation of a young English girl, the wife of a German merchant, as
+their steamer approached Hong Kong and the superb panorama which
+culminates in The Peak slowly unrolled.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Otto! Look!" she cried. "You must say that it is beautiful even
+if it <i>is</i> English."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Of those lands which have not yet submitted to the bit and bridle of
+civilization&mdash;and they can be numbered on the fingers of one's two
+hands&mdash;Borneo is the most intractable. Of all the regions which the
+predatory European has claimed for his own, it is the least submissive,
+the least civilized, the least exploited and the least known. Its
+interior remains as untamed as before the first white man set foot on
+its shores four hundred years ago. The exploits of those bold and hardy
+spirits&mdash;explorers, soldiers, missionaries, administrators&mdash;who have
+attempted to carry to the natives of Borneo the Gospel of the Clean
+Shirt and the Square Deal form one of the epics of colonization. They
+have died with their boots on from fever, plague and snake-bite, from
+poisoned dart and Dyak spear. Though their lives would yield material
+for a hundred books of adventure, their story, which is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>story of
+the white man's war for civilization throughout Malaysia, is epitomized
+in the few lines graven on the modest marble monument which stands at
+the edge of Sandakan's sun-scorched parade ground:</p>
+
+<div class="epigraph">
+<p class="center">
+In<br />
+Memory<br />
+of<br />
+Francis Xavier Witti<br />
+Killed near the Sibuco River<br />
+May, 1882<br />
+of<br />
+Frank Hatton<br />
+Accidentally shot at Segamah<br />
+March, 1883<br />
+of<br />
+Dr. D. Manson Fraser<br />
+and<br />
+Jemadhar Asa Singh<br />
+the two latter mortally wounded at Kopang<br />
+May, 1883<br />
+and of<br />
+Alfred Jones, Adjutant<br />
+Shere Singh, Regimental Sergeant-Major<br />
+of the British North Borneo Constabulary<br />
+Killed at Ranau 1897-98<br />
+and of<br />
+George Graham Warder<br />
+District Officer, Tindang Batu<br />
+Murdered at Marak Parak<br />
+28th July 1903<br />
+This Monument Is Erected as a Mark of Respect<br />
+by their Brother Officers<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Though Sandakan is the chief port of British North Borneo, with a
+population of perhaps fifteen thousand, it has barely a hundred
+European inhabitants, of whom only a dozen are women. Girls marry
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>almost as fast as they arrive, and the incoming boats are eagerly
+scanned by the bachelor population, much in the same spirit as that in
+which a ticket-holder scans the lists of winning numbers in a lottery,
+wondering when his turn will come to draw something. If the bulk of the
+men are confirmed misogynists and confine themselves to the club bar
+and card-room it is only because there are not enough women to go
+round. The sacrifice of the women who, in order to be near their
+husbands, consent to sicken and fade and grow old before their time in
+such a spot, is very great. With their children at school in England,
+they pass their lonely lives in palm-thatched bungalows, raised high
+above the ground on piles as a protection against insects, snakes and
+floods, without amusements save such as they can provide themselves,
+and in a climate so humid that mushrooms will grow on one's boots in a
+single night during the rains. They are as truly empire-builders as the
+men and, though the parts they play are less conspicuous, perhaps, they
+are as truly deserving of honors and rewards.</p>
+
+<p>There is no servant problem in Borneo. Cooks jostle one another to cook
+for you. They will even go to the length of poisoning each other in
+order to step into a lucrative position, with a really big master and a
+memsahib who does not give too much trouble. But there are other
+features of domestic life for which the plenitude of servants does not
+compensate. Because existence is made almost unendurable by mosquitoes
+and other insects, within each sleeping room is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>constructed a
+rectangular framework, covered with mosquito-netting and just large
+enough to contain a bed, a dressing-table and an arm-chair. In these
+insect-proof cells the Europeans spend all of their sleeping and many
+of their waking hours. So aggressive are the mosquitoes, particularly
+during the rains, that, when one invites people in for dinner or
+bridge, the servants hand the guests long sacks of netting which are
+drawn over the feet and legs, the top being tied about the waist with a
+draw-string. Were it not for these mosquito-bags there would be neither
+bridge nor table conversation. Everyone would be too busy scratching.</p>
+
+<p>The houses, as I have already mentioned, are raised above the ground on
+brick piles or wooden stilts. Though this arrangement serves the
+purpose of keeping things which creep and crawl out of the house
+itself, the custom of utilizing the open space beneath the house as a
+hen-roost offers a standing invitation to the reptiles with which
+Borneo abounds. While we were in Sandakan a python invaded the
+chicken-house beneath the dwelling of the local magistrate one night
+and devoured half a dozen of the judge's imported Leghorns. Gorged to
+repletion, the great reptile fell asleep, being discovered by the
+servants the next morning. The magistrate put an end to its predatory
+career with a shot-gun. It measured slightly over twenty feet from nose
+to tail and in circumference was considerably larger than an inflated
+fire-hose. Imagine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>finding such a thing coiled up at the foot of your
+cellar-stairs after you had been indulging in home-brew!</p>
+
+<p>One evening a party of us were seated on the verandah of the Planters
+Club in Sandakan. The conversation, which had pretty much covered the
+world, eventually turned to snakes.</p>
+
+<p>"That reminds me," remarked a constabulary officer who had spent many
+years in Malaysia, "of a queer thing that happened in a place where I
+was stationed once in the Straits Settlements. It was one of those
+deadly dull places&mdash;only a handful of white women, no cinema, no race
+course, nothing. But the Devil, you know, always finds mischief for
+idle hands to do. One day a youngster&mdash;a subaltern in the battalion
+that was stationed there&mdash;returned from a leave spent in England. He
+brought back with him a young English girl whom he had married while he
+was at home. A slender, willowy thing she was, with great masses of
+coppery-red hair and the loveliest pink-and-white complexion. She
+quickly adapted herself to the disagreeable features of life in the
+tropics&mdash;with one exception. The exception was that she could never
+overcome her inherent and unreasoning fear of snakes. The mere sight of
+one would send her into hysterics.</p>
+
+<p>"One afternoon, while she was out at tea with some friends, the Malay
+gardener brought to the house the carcass of a hamadryad which he had
+killed in the garden. The hamadryad, as you probably know, is perhaps
+the deadliest of all Eastern reptiles. Its bite usually causes death in
+a few minutes. Moreover, it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>one of the few snakes that will attack
+human beings without provocation. The husband, with two other chaps,
+both officers in his battalion, was sitting on the verandah when the
+snake was brought in.</p>
+
+<p>"'I say,' suggested one of the officers, 'here's a chance to break
+Madge of her fear of snakes. Why not curl this fellow up on her bed?
+She'll get a jolly good fright, of course, but when she discovers that
+he's dead and that she's been panicky about nothing, she'll get over
+her silly fear of the beggars. What say, old chap?'</p>
+
+<p>"To this insane suggestion, in spite of the protests of the other
+officer, the husband assented. Probably he had been having too many
+brandies and sodas. I don't know. But in any event, they put the
+witless idea into execution. Toward nightfall the young wife returned.
+She had on a frock of some thin, slinky stuff and a droopy garden hat
+with flowers on it and carried a sunshade. She was awfully pretty. She
+hadn't been out there long enough to lose her English coloring, you
+see.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, I say, Madge,' called her husband, 'There's a surprise for you in
+your bedroom.'</p>
+
+<p>"With a little cry of delighted anticipation she hurried into the
+house. She thought her husband had bought her a gift, I suppose. A
+moment later the trio waiting on the verandah heard a piercing shriek.
+The first shriek was followed by another and then another. Pretty soon,
+though, the screams died down to a whimper&mdash;a sort of sobbing moan.
+Then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>silence. After a few minutes, as there was no further sound from
+the bedroom and his wife did not reappear, the husband became uneasy.
+He rose to enter the house, but the chap who had suggested the scheme
+pulled him back.</p>
+
+<p>"'She's all right,' he assured him. 'She sees it's a joke and she's
+keeping quiet so as to frighten you. If you go in there now the laugh
+will be on you. She'll be out directly.'</p>
+
+<p>"But as the minutes passed and she did not reappear all three of the
+men became increasingly uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"'We'd better have a look,' the one who had demurred suggested after a
+quarter of an hour had passed, during which no further sound had come
+from the bedroom. 'Madge is very high-strung. She may have fainted from
+the shock. I told you fellows that it was an idiotic thing to do.'</p>
+
+<p>"When they opened the door they thought that she had fainted, for she
+lay in an inert heap on the floor at the foot of the bed. But a hasty
+examination showed them, to their horror, that the girl was dead&mdash;heart
+failure, presumably. But when they raised her from the floor they
+discovered the real cause of her death, for a <i>second hamadryad</i>, which
+had been concealed by her skirts, darted noiselessly under the bed. It
+was the mate of the one that had been killed&mdash;for hamadryads always
+travel in pairs, you know&mdash;and had evidently entered the room in quest
+of its companion."</p>
+
+<p>"What happened to the husband and to the man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>who suggested the plan?"
+I asked. "Were they punished?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were punished right enough," the constabulary officer said dryly.
+"The chap who suggested the scheme tried to forget it in drink, was
+cashiered from the army and died of delirium tremens. As for the
+husband, he is still living&mdash;in a madhouse."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Even in so far-distant a corner of the Empire as Borneo, ten thousand
+miles from the lights of the restaurants in Piccadilly, the men
+religiously observe the English ritual of dressing for dinner, for when
+the mercury climbs to 110, though the temptation is to go about in
+pajamas, one's drenched body and drooping spirits need to be bolstered
+up with a stiff shirt and a white mess jacket. That the stiffest
+shirt-front is wilted in an hour makes no difference: it reminds them
+that they are still Englishmen. Nor, in view of the appalling
+loneliness of the life, is it to be wondered at that the Chinese
+bartenders at the club are kept busy until far into the night, and that
+every month or so the entire male white population goes on a terrific
+spree. The government doctor in Sandakan assured me very earnestly
+that, in order to stand the climate, it is necessary to keep one's
+liver afloat&mdash;in alcohol. He had contributed to thus preserving the
+livers and lives of his fellow exiles by the invention of two drinks,
+of which he was inordinately proud. One he had dubbed "Tarantula
+Juice;" the other he called "Whisper of Death." He told me that the
+amateur <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>who took three drinks of the latter would have no further need
+for his services; the only person whose services he would require would
+be the undertaker.</p>
+
+<p>There is something of the pathetic in the eagerness with which the
+white men who dwell in exile along these forgotten seaboards long for
+news from Home. After dinner they would cluster about me on the club
+verandah and clamor for those odds-and-ends of English gossip which are
+not important enough for inclusion in the laconic cable despatches
+posted daily on the club bulletin-board and which the two-months-old
+newspapers seldom mention. They insisted that I repeat the jokes which
+were being cracked by the comedians at the Criterion and the
+Shaftesbury. They wanted to know if toppers and tailcoats were again
+being worn in The Row. They pleaded for the gossip of the clubs in Pall
+Mall and Piccadilly. They begged me to tell them about the latest books
+and plays and songs. But after a time I persuaded them to do the
+talking, while I lounged in a deep cane chair, a tall, thin glass, with
+ice tinkling in it, at my elbow, and listened spellbound to strange
+dramas of "the Islands" recited by men who had themselves played the
+leading roles. At first they were shy, as well-bred English often are,
+but after much urging an officer of constabulary, the glow from his
+cigar lighting up his sun-bronzed face and the rows of campaign ribbons
+on his white jacket, was persuaded into telling how he had trailed a
+marauding band of head-hunters right across Borneo, from coast to
+coast, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>his only companions a handful of Dyak police, themselves but a
+degree removed in savagery from those they were pursuing. A
+bespectacled, studious-looking man, whom I had taken for a scientist or
+a college professor, but who, I learned, had made a fortune buying
+bird-of-paradise plumes for the European market, described the strange
+and revolting customs practised by the cannibals of New Guinea. Then a
+broad-shouldered, bearded Dutchman, a very Hercules of a man, with a
+voice like a bass drum, told, between meditative puffs at his pipe, of
+hair-raising adventures in capturing wild animals, so that those smug
+and sheltered folk at home who visit the zoological gardens of a Sunday
+afternoon might see for themselves the crocodile and the
+boa-constrictor, the orang-utan and the clouded tiger. When, after the
+last tale had been told and the last glass had been drained, we
+strolled out into the fragrant tropic night, with the Cross swinging
+low to the morn, I felt as though, in the space of a single evening, I
+had lived through a whole library of adventure.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>I once wrote&mdash;in <i>The Last Frontier</i>, if I remember rightly&mdash;that when
+the English occupy a country the first thing they build is a
+custom-house; the first thing the Germans build is a barracks; the
+first thing the French build is a railway. As a result of my
+observations in Malaysia, however, I am inclined to amend this by
+saying that the first thing the English build is a race course. Lord
+Cromer was fond of telling how, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>when he visited Perim, a miserable
+little island at the foot of the Red Sea, inhabited by a few Arabs and
+many snakes, his guide took him to the top of a hill and pointed out
+the race course.</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you want with a race course?" demanded the great
+proconsul. "I didn't suppose that there was a four-footed animal on the
+island."</p>
+
+<p>The guide reluctantly admitted that, though they had no horses on the
+island at the moment, if some were to come, why, there was the race
+course ready for them. Though I don't recall having seen more than a
+dozen horses in Borneo, the British have been true to their traditions
+by building two race courses: one at Sandakan and one at Jesselton. On
+the latter is run annually the North Borneo Derby. It is the most
+brilliant sporting and social event of the year, the Europeans flocking
+into Jesselton from the little trading stations along the coast and
+from the lonely plantations in the interior just as their friends back
+in England flock to Goodwood and Newmarket and Epsom. The Derby is
+always followed by the Hunt Ball. In spite of the fact that there are
+at least twenty men to every woman this is always a tremendous success.
+It usually ends in everyone getting gloriously drunk.</p>
+
+<p>Almost the only other form of entertainment is provided by a company of
+Malay players which makes periodical visits to Sandakan and Jesselton.
+Though the actors speak only Malay, this does not deter them from
+including a number of Shakesperian plays in their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>repertoire (imagine
+Macbeth being played by a company of piratical-looking Malays in a nipa
+hut on the shores of the Sulu Sea!) but they attain their greatest
+heights in <i>Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves</i>. There are no programmes,
+but, in order that the audience may not be left in doubt as to the
+identity of the players, the manager introduces the members of his
+company one by one. "This is Ali Baba," he announces, leading a fat and
+greasy Oriental to the footlights. "This is Fatimah." "These are the
+Forty Thieves." When the latter announcement is made four actors stalk
+ten times across the stage in na&iuml;ve simulation of the specified number.
+After the thieves have concealed themselves behind pasteboard
+silhouettes of jars, Ali Baba's wife waddles on the stage bearing a
+Standard Oil tin on her shoulder and with a dipper proceeds to ladle a
+few drops of cocoanut oil on the head of each of the robbers. While she
+is being introduced one of the thieves seizes the opportunity to take a
+few whiffs from a cigarette, the smoke being plainly visible to the
+audience. Another, wearying of his cramped position, incautiously shows
+his head, whereupon Mrs. Ali Baba raps it sharply with her dipper,
+eliciting from the actor an exclamation not in his lines. During the
+intermissions the clown who accompanies the troupe convulses the
+audience with side-splitting imitations of the pompous and frigid
+Governor, who, as someone unkindly remarked, "must have been born in an
+ice-chest," and of the bemoustached and bemonocled officer who commands
+the constabulary, locally referred to as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>Galloping Major. Compared
+with the antics of these Malay comedians, the efforts of our own
+professional laugh-makers seem dull and forced. Until you have seen
+them you have never really laughed.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>His Highness Haji Mohamed Jamalulhiram, Sultan of Sulu, was temporarily
+sojourning in Sandakan when we were there, having come across from his
+capital of Jolo for the purpose of collecting the monthly subsidy of
+five hundred pesos paid him by the British North Borneo Company for
+certain territorial concessions. The company would have sent the money
+to Jolo, of course, but the Sultan preferred to come to Sandakan to
+collect it; there are better facilities for gambling there.</p>
+
+<p>Because I was curious to see the picturesque personage around whom
+George Ade wrote his famous opera, <i>The Sultan of Sulu</i>, and because
+the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow had read in a Sunday supplement
+that he made it a practise to present those American women whom he met
+with pearls of great price, upon our arrival at Sandakan I invited the
+Sultan to dinner aboard the <i>Negros</i>. When I called on him at his hotel
+to extend the invitation, I found him clad in a very soiled pink
+kimono, a pair of red velvet slippers, and a smile made somewhat gory
+by the betel-nut he had been chewing, but when he came aboard the
+<i>Negros</i> that evening he wore a red fez and irreproachable dinner
+clothes of white linen. As the crew of the cutter was entirely composed
+of Tagalogs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>and Visayans, from the northern Philippines, who, being
+Christians, regard the Mohammedan Moro with contempt, not unmixed with
+fear, when I called for side-boys to line the starboard rail when his
+Highness came aboard, there were distinctly mutinous mutterings.
+Captain Galvez tactfully settled the matter, however, by explaining to
+the crew that the Sultan was, after all, an American subject, which
+seemed to mollify, even if it did not entirely satisfy them. The
+armament of the <i>Negros</i> had been removed after the armistice, so that
+we were without anything in the nature of a saluting cannon, but, as we
+wished to observe all the formalities of naval etiquette, the Doctor
+and Hawkinson volunteered to fire a royal salute with their automatic
+pistols as the Sultan came over the side. That, in their enthusiasm,
+they lost count and gave him about double the number of "guns"
+prescribed for the President of the United States caused Haji Mohamed
+no embarrassment; on the contrary, it seemed to please him immensely.
+(Donald Thompson, who was my photographer in Belgium during the early
+days of the war, always made it a point to address every officer he met
+as "General." He explained that it never did any harm and that it
+always put the officer in good humor.)</p>
+
+<p>When the cocktails were served the Sultan gravely explained through the
+interpreter that, being a devout Mohammedan and a Haji, he never
+permitted alcohol to pass his lips, an assertion which he promptly
+proceeded to prove by taking four Martinis in rapid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>succession. Now
+the chef of the <i>Negros</i> possessed the faculty of camouflaging his
+dishes so successfully that neither by taste, looks nor smell could one
+tell with certainty what one was eating. So, when the meat, smothered
+in thick brown gravy, was passed to the Sultan, his Highness, who, like
+all True Believers, abhors pork, regarded it dubiously. "Pig?" he
+demanded of the steward. "No, sare," was the frightened answer. "Cow."</p>
+
+<p>Over the coffee and cigarettes the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+tactfully led the conversation around to the subject of pearls,
+whereupon the Sultan thrust his hand into his pocket and produced a
+round pink box, evidently originally intended for pills. Removing the
+lid, he displayed, imbedded in cotton, half a dozen pearls of a size
+and quality such as one seldom sees outside the window of a Fifth
+Avenue jeweler. I could see that the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+were mentally debating as to whether they would have them set in
+brooches or rings. But when they had been passed from hand to hand,
+accompanied by the customary exclamations of envy and admiration, back
+they went into the royal pocket again. "And to think," one of the party
+remarked afterward, "that we wasted two bottles of perfectly good gin
+and a bottle of vermouth on him!"</p>
+
+<p>It was after midnight when our guest took his departure, the ship's
+orchestra playing him over the side with a selection from <i>The Sultan
+of Sulu</i>, which, in view of my ignorance as to whether Sulu possessed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>a national anthem, seemed highly appropriate to the occasion. As the
+launch bearing the Sultan shot shoreward Hawkinson set off a couple of
+magnesium flares, which he had brought along for the purpose of taking
+pictures at night, making the whole harbor of Sandakan as bright as
+day. I heard afterward that the Sultan remarked that we were the only
+visitors since the Taft party who really appreciated his importance.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Two hours steam off the towering promontory which guards the entrance
+to Sandakan harbor lies Baguian, a sandy islet covered with
+cocoanut-palms, which is so small that it is not shown on ordinary
+maps. Though the island is, for some unexplained reason, under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, it is a part of the
+Sulu Archipelago and belongs to the United States. Baguian is famed
+throughout those seas as a rookery for the giant tortoise&mdash;<i>testudo
+elephantopus</i>. Toward nightfall the mammoth chelonians&mdash;some of them
+weigh upward of half a ton&mdash;come ashore in great numbers to lay their
+eggs in nests made in the edge of the jungle which fringes the beach,
+the old Chinaman and his two assistants, who are the only inhabitants
+of the island, frequently collecting as many as four thousand eggs in a
+single morning. The eggs, which in size and color exactly resemble
+ping-pong balls and are almost as unbreakable, are collected once a
+fortnight by a junk which takes them to China, where they are
+considered great delicacies and command high prices. As <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>we had brought
+with us a supply of magnesium flares for night photography, we decided
+to take the camera ashore and attempt to obtain pictures of the turtles
+on their nests.</p>
+
+<p>As we were going ashore in the gig we caught sight of a huge bull, as
+large as a hogshead, which was floating on the surface. Ordering the
+sailors to row quietly, we succeeded in getting within a hundred yards
+before I let go with my .405, the soft-nosed bullet tearing a great
+hole in the turtle's neck and dyeing the water scarlet. Almost before
+the sound of the shot had died away one of the Filipino boat's crew
+went overboard with a rope, which he attempted to attach to the monster
+before it could sink to the bottom, but the turtle, though desperately
+wounded, was still very much alive, giving the sailor a blow on his
+head with its flapper which all but knocked him senseless. By the time
+we had hauled the man into the boat the turtle had disappeared into the
+depths.</p>
+
+<p>Waiting until darkness had fallen, we sent parties of sailors, armed
+with electric torches, along the beach in both directions with orders
+to follow the tracks made by the turtles in crossing the sand, and to
+notify us by firing a revolver when they located one. We did not have
+long to wait before we heard the signal agreed upon, and, picking up
+the heavy camera, we plunged across the sands to where the sailors were
+awaiting us in the edge of the bush. While the bluejackets cut off the
+retreat of the hissing, snapping monster, Hawkinson set up his camera
+and, when all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>was ready, some one touched off a flare, illuminating
+the beach and jungle as though the search-light of a warship had been
+turned upon them. In this manner we obtained a series of
+motion-pictures which are, I believe, from the zoological standpoint,
+unique. Before leaving the island we killed two tortoises for food for
+the crew&mdash;enough to keep them in turtle soup for a month. The larger,
+which I shot with a revolver, weighed slightly over five hundred pounds
+and lived for several days with three .45 caliber bullets in its
+brain-pan. Everything considered, it was a very interesting expedition.
+The only person who did not enjoy it was the old Chinese who held the
+concession for collecting the turtle-eggs. Instead of recognizing the
+great value of the service we were rendering to science, he acted as
+though we were robbing his hen-roost. He had a sordid mind.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III<br />
+<small>"WHERE THERE AIN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS"</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Until I went to British North Borneo I had considered the British the
+best colonial administrators in the world. And, generally speaking, I
+hold to that opinion. But what I saw and heard in that remote and
+neglected corner of the Empire disclosed a state of affairs which I had
+not dreamed could exist in any land over which flies the British flag.
+It was not the iniquitous character of the administration which
+surprised me, for I had seen the effects of bad colonial administration
+in other distant lands&mdash;in Mozambique, for example, and in Germany's
+former African possessions&mdash;but rather that such an administration
+should be carried on by Englishmen, by Anglo-Saxons. Were you to read
+in your morning paper that an ignorant alien had been arrested for
+brutally mistreating one of his children you would not be particularly
+surprised, because that is the sort of thing that might be expected
+from such a man. But were you to read that a neighbor, a man who went
+to the same church and belonged to the same clubs, whom you had known
+and respected all your life, had been arrested for mistreating one of
+<i>his</i> children, you would be shocked and horrified.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>Save on the charge of indifference and neglect, neither the British
+people nor the British government can be held responsible for the
+conditions existing in North Borneo, for strictly speaking, the country
+is not a British colony, but merely a British protectorate, being owned
+and administered by a private trading corporation, the British North
+Borneo Company, which operates under a royal charter. But the idea of
+turning over a great block of territory, with its inhabitants, to a
+corporation whose sole aim is to earn dividends for its absentee
+stockholders, is in itself abhorrent to most Americans. What would we
+say, I ask you, if Porto Rico, which is only one-tenth the size of
+North Borneo, were to be handed over, lock, stock and barrel, to the
+Standard Oil Company, with full authorization for that company to make
+its own laws, establish its own courts, appoint its own officials,
+maintain its own army, and to wield the power of life and death over
+the natives? And, conceiving such a condition, what would we say if the
+Standard Oil Company, in order to swell its revenues, not only
+permitted but officially encouraged opium smoking and gambling; if, in
+order to obtain labor for its plantations, it imported large numbers of
+ignorant blacks from Haiti and permitted the planters to hold those
+laborers, through indenture and indebtedness, in a form of servitude
+not far removed from slavery; if it authorized the punishment of
+recalcitrant laborers by flogging with the cat-o'nine-tails; if it
+denied to the natives as well as to the imported laborers a system <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>of
+public education or a public health service or trial by jury; and
+finally, if, in the event of insurrection, it permitted its soldiery,
+largely recruited from savage tribes, to decapitate their prisoners and
+to bring their ghastly trophies into the capital and pile them in a
+pyramid in the principal plaza? Yet that would be a fairly close
+parallel to what the chartered company is doing in British North
+Borneo. As I have already remarked, North Borneo is a British
+protectorate. And it is in more urgent need of protection from those
+who are exploiting it than any country I know. But the voices of the
+natives are very weak and Westminster is far away.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of Rhodesia, and of certain territories in
+Portuguese Africa, North Borneo is the sole remaining region in the
+world which is owned and administered by that political anachronism, a
+chartered company. It was in the age of Elizabeth that the chartered
+company, in the modern sense of the term, had its rise. The discovery
+of the New World and the opening out of fresh trading routes to the
+Indies gave a tremendous impetus to shipping, commercial and industrial
+enterprises throughout western Europe and it was in order to encourage
+these enterprises that the British, Dutch and French governments
+granted charters to various trading associations. It was the Russia
+Company, for example, which received its first charter in 1554, which
+first brought England into intercourse with an empire then unknown. The
+Turkey Company&mdash;later known as the Levant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>Company&mdash;long maintained
+British prestige in the Ottoman Empire and even paid the expenses of
+the embassies sent out by the British Government to the Sublime Porte.
+The Hudson's Bay Company, which still exists as a purely commercial
+concern, was for nearly two centuries the undisputed ruler of western
+Canada. The extraordinary and picturesque career of the East India
+Company is too well known to require comment here. In fact, most of the
+thirteen British colonies in North America were in their inception
+chartered companies very much in the modern acceptation of the term.
+But, though these companies contributed in no small degree to the
+commercial progress of the states from which they held their charters,
+though they gave colonies to the mother countries and an impetus to the
+development of their fleets, they were all too often characterized by
+misgovernment, incompetence, injustice and cruelty in their dealings
+with the natives. Moreover, they were monopolies, and therefore,
+obnoxious, and almost without exception the colonies they founded
+became prosperous and well-governed only when they had escaped from
+their yoke. The existence of such companies today is justified&mdash;if at
+all&mdash;only by certain political and economic reasons. It may be
+desirable for a government to occupy a certain territory, but political
+exigencies at home may not permit it to incur the expense, or
+international relations may make such an adventure inexpedient at the
+time. In such circumstances, the formation of a chartered company to
+take over the desired territory <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>may be the easiest way out of the
+difficulty. But it has been demonstrated again and again that a
+chartered company can never be anything but a transition stage of
+colonization and that sooner or later the home government must take
+over its powers and privileges.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the rise of the British North Borneo Company provides an
+illuminating insight into the methods by which that Empire On Which the
+Sun Never Sets has acquired many of its far-flung possessions. Though
+the British had established trading posts in northern Borneo as early
+as 1759, and had obtained the cession of the whole northeastern
+promontory from the Sultan of Sulu, who was its suzerain, the hostility
+of the natives, who resented their transfer to alien rule, was so
+pronounced that the treaty soon became virtually a dead letter and by
+the end of the century British influence in Borneo was to all intents
+and purposes at an end. Nor was it resumed until 1838, when an
+adventurous Englishman, James Brooke, landed at Kuching and eventually
+made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak. In 1848 the island of
+Labuan, off the northwestern coast of Borneo, was occupied by the
+British as a crown colony and some years later the Labuan Trading
+Company established a trading post at Sandakan. In an attempt to open
+up the country and to start plantations the company imported a
+considerable number of Chinese laborers, but it did not prosper and its
+financial affairs steadily went from bad to worse. As <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>long as the
+company kept its representative in Sandakan supplied with funds he
+managed to maintain a certain authority among the natives. But one day
+he received a letter bearing the London postmark from the company's
+chairman. It read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sir: We are sorry to inform you that we cannot send you
+further funds, but you should not let this prevent you from
+keeping up your dignity." </p></div>
+
+<p>To which the agent replied:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sir: I have on a pair of trousers and a flannel shirt&mdash;all I
+possess in the world. I think my dignity is about played out." </p></div>
+
+<p>Another syndicate for the exploitation of North Borneo was formed in
+England in 1878, however, to which the Sultan of Sulu was induced to
+transfer all his rights in that region, of which he had been from time
+immemorial the overlord. Four years later this syndicate, now known as
+the British North Borneo Company, took over all the sovereign and
+diplomatic rights ceded by the original grants and proceeded to
+organize and administer the territory. In 1886 North Borneo was made a
+British protectorate, but its administration remained entirely in the
+hands of the company, the Crown reserving only control of its foreign
+relations, though it was also agreed that governors appointed by the
+company should receive the formal sanction of the British Colonial
+Secretary. To quote the chairman of the board of directors: "We are not
+a trading company. We are a government, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>an administration. The
+Colonial Office leaves us alone as long as we behave ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>The government is vested primarily in a board of directors who sit in
+London and few of whom have ever set foot in the country which they
+rule. The supreme authority in Borneo is the governor, under whom are
+the residents of the three chief districts, who occupy positions
+analogous to that of collector or magistrate. The six less important
+districts are administered by district magistrates, who also collect
+the taxes. Though there is a council, upon which the principal heads of
+departments and one unofficial member have seats, it meets irregularly
+and its functions are largely ornamental, the governor exercising
+virtually autocratic power. Unfortunately, there is no imperial
+official, as in Rhodesia, to supervise the company's activities. As was
+the case with the East India Company, the minor posts in the North
+Borneo service are filled by cadets nominated by the board of
+directors, a system which provides a considerable number of positions
+for younger sons, poor relations and titled ne'er-do-wells. Most of the
+officials go out to Borneo as cadets, serve a long and arduous
+apprenticeship in one of the most trying climates in the world, are
+miserably paid (I knew one official who held five posts at the same
+time, including those of assistant magistrate and assistant protector
+of labor and who received for his services the equivalent of $100. a
+month), and eventually retire, broken in health, on a pension which
+permits them to live in a Bloomsbury <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>lodging-house, to ride on a
+tuppenny bus, and to occasionally visit the cinema.</p>
+
+<p>There is no trial by jury in North Borneo, all cases being decided by
+the magistrates, who are appointed by the company and who must be
+qualified barristers. Nor are there mixed courts, as in Egypt and other
+Oriental countries, though in the more important cases five or six
+assessors, either native or Chinese, according to the nationality of
+those involved, are permitted to listen to the evidence and to submit
+recommendations, which the magistrate may follow or not, as he sees
+fit. Neither is there a court of appeal, the only recourse from the
+decision of a magistrate being an appeal to the governor, whose
+decision is final.</p>
+
+<p>The country is policed by a force of constabulary numbering some six
+hundred men, comprising Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mohammedans, Malays,
+and Dyaks, officered by a handful of Europeans. Curiously enough, the
+tall, dignified, deeply religious Sikhs and the little, nervous,
+high-strung Dyak pagans get on very well together, eating, sleeping and
+drilling in perfect harmony. Though the Dyak members of the
+constabulary are recruited from the wild tribes of the interior, most
+of them having indulged in the national pastime of head-hunting until
+they donned the company's uniform, they make excellent soldiers,
+courageous, untiring, and remarkably loyal. Upon King Edward's
+accession to the throne a small contingent of Dyak police was sent to
+England to march in the coronation procession. When, owing to the
+serious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>illness of the king, the coronation was indefinitely postponed
+and it was proposed to send the Dyaks home, the little brown fighters
+stubbornly refused to go, asserting that they would not dare to show
+their faces in Borneo without having seen the king. They did not wish
+to put the company to any expense, they explained, so they would give
+up their uniforms and live in the woods on what they could pick up if
+they were permitted to remain until they could see their ruler.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Dyaks make excellent soldiers, as I have said, they are
+always savages at heart. In fact, when they are used in operations
+against rebellious natives, their officers permit and sometimes
+actively encourage their relapse into the barbarous custom of taking
+heads. An official who was stationed in Sandakan during the
+insurrection of 1908 told me that for days the police came swaggering
+into town with dripping heads hanging from their belts and that they
+piled these grisly trophies in a pyramid eight feet high on the parade
+ground in front of the government buildings. Imagine, if you please,
+the storm of indignation and disgust which would have swept the United
+States had American officers permitted the Maccabebe Scouts, who served
+with our troops against the insurgents in the Aguinaldo insurrection,
+to decapitate their Filipino prisoners and to bring the heads into
+Manila and pile them in a pyramid on the Luneta!</p>
+
+<p>Though the term Dyak is often carelessly applied to all the natives of
+North Borneo, as a matter of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>fact the Dyaks form only a small minority
+of the population, the bulk of the inhabitants being Bajows, Dusuns and
+Muruts. The Bajows, who are Mohammedans and first cousins of the Moros
+of the southern Philippines, are found mainly along the east coast of
+Borneo. They are a dark-skinned, wild, sea-gipsy race, rovers,
+smugglers and river thieves. Though, thanks to the stern measures
+adopted by the British and the Americans, they no longer indulge in
+piracy, which was long their favorite occupation, they still find
+profit and excitement in running arms and opium across the Sulu Sea to
+the Moro Islands, in attacking lonely light-houses, or in looting
+stranded merchantmen. It is the last coast in the world that I would
+choose to be shipwrecked on.</p>
+
+<p>The Dusuns and the Muruts, who are generally found in widely scattered
+villages in the jungles of the interior, represent a very low stage of
+civilization, being unspeakably filthy in their habits and frequently
+becoming disgustingly intoxicated on a liquor of their own
+manufacture&mdash;the Bornean equivalent of home brew. A Murut or Dusun
+village usually consists of a single long hut divided into a great
+number of small rooms, one for each family&mdash;a jungle apartment house,
+as it were. These rooms open out into a common gallery or verandah
+along which the heads taken by the warriors of the tribe are festooned.
+It is as though the tenants of a New York apartment house had the heads
+of the landlord and the rent-collector and the janitor swinging over
+the front entrance. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>should add, perhaps, that the practise of
+head-hunting of which I shall speak at greater length when we reach
+Dutch Borneo is fostered and encouraged by the unmarried women, for
+every self-respecting Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall
+establish his social position in the tribe by acquiring a respectable
+number of heads, just as an American girl insists that the man she
+marries must provide her with a solitaire, a flat and a flivver.</p>
+
+<p>Though the chartered company has ruled in North Borneo for more than
+forty years, it has only nibbled at the edges of the country. The
+interior is still uncivilized and largely unexplored, the home of
+savage animals and still more savage men. Though a railway has been
+pushed up-country from Jesselton for something over a hundred miles,
+both road and rolling-stock leave much to be desired, the little
+tin-pot locomotives not infrequently leaving the rails altogether and
+landing in the river. Some years ago an attempt was made to build a
+highway across the protectorate, from coast to coast, but after sixty
+miles had been completed the project was abandoned. It was known as the
+Sketchley Road and ran through a rank and miasmatic jungle, it being
+said that every hundred yards of construction cost the life of a
+Chinese laborer and that those who were left died at the end. Today it
+is only a memory, having long since been swallowed up by the
+fast-growing vegetation.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="dusun" id="dusun"></a>
+<img src="images/060a.jpg" width="349" height="550" alt="Dusun women" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 349px;">
+<p class="caption">Dusun women</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">The Dusuns, who are found in the jungles of the interior, represent a
+very low state of civilization</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="headhunters" id="headhunters"></a>
+<img src="images/060b.jpg" width="349" height="548" alt="Dyak head-hunters" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 349px;">
+<p class="caption">Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">Every Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall establish his social
+position by acquiring a few heads</p>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The company has taken no steps toward establishing a system of public
+schools, as we have done in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>Philippines, for it holds to the
+outworn theory that, so far as the natives are concerned, a little
+learning is a dangerous thing. Perhaps the company is right. Were the
+natives to acquire a little learning it might prove dangerous&mdash;for the
+company. There are a few schools in North Borneo, but they are
+maintained by the Protestant and Roman Catholic missions and are
+attended mainly by Chinese. Whether they have proved as potent an
+influence in the propagation of the Christian faith as their founders
+anticipated is open to doubt. When I was in Sandakan I made some
+purchases in the bazaars from a Chinese lad who addressed me quite
+fluently in my own tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"How does it happen that you speak such good English?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to school," he grunted, none too amiably.</p>
+
+<p>"Where? To a public school?"</p>
+
+<p>"No public school. Church school."</p>
+
+<p>"So you're a good Christian now, I suppose?" I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"To hell with Clistianity," he retorted. "Me go to school to learn
+English."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The chartered company maintains no public health service, nor, so far
+as I was able to discover, has it adopted the most rudimentary sanitary
+or quarantine precautions. It is, indeed, so notoriously lax in this
+respect that when we touched at ports in Dutch Borneo, the Celebes, and
+Java, the mere fact that we had come from British North Borneo caused
+the health <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>officers to view us with grave suspicion. When we were in
+Sandakan the town was undergoing a periodic visitation of that
+deadliest and most terrifying of all Oriental diseases, bubonic plague.
+As it is transmitted by the fleas on plague-infested rats, we took the
+precaution, when we went ashore, of wearing boots and breeches or of
+tying the bottoms of our trousers about our ankles with string, so as
+to prevent the fleas from biting us. It being necessary to go alongside
+the coal-wharves in order to replenish the bunkers of the <i>Negros</i>,
+orders were given that rat-guards&mdash;circular pieces of tin about the
+size of a barrel-top&mdash;should be fixed to our hawsers, thus making it
+difficult, if not impossible, for rats to invade the ship by that
+route, while sailors armed with clubs were posted along the landward
+rail to despatch any rodents that might succeed in gaining the deck. As
+the native and Chinese laborers had fled in terror from the wharves,
+where the dreaded disease had first manifested itself through the
+deaths of several stevedores, the authorities offered their freedom to
+those prisoners in the local jail who would volunteer for the hazardous
+work of cleaning up the wharves and warehouses and sprinkling them with
+petroleum. Six prisoners volunteered, but they might better have served
+out their terms, for the next day four of them were dead. Though the
+stout Cockney, harbormaster, known as "Pinkie" because of his rosy
+complexion, was pallid with fear, the other European residents of
+Sandakan seemed utterly indifferent to the danger to which they were
+exposed. But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>life in a land like Borneo breeds fatalism. As an
+official remarked, with a shrug of his shoulders, "After you have spent
+a few years out here you don't much care how you die, or how soon.
+Plague is as convenient a way of going out as any other."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The greatest obstacle to the successful development of Borneo's
+enormous natural resources is the labor problem. The truth of the
+matter is that life in these tropical islands is too easy for the
+natives' own good. In a land where a man has no need for clothing,
+being, indeed, more comfortable without it; where he can pick his food
+from the trees or catch it with small effort in the sea; and where
+bamboos and nipa are all the materials required for a perfectly
+satisfactory dwelling, there is no incentive for work. It being
+impossible, therefore, to depend on native labor, the company has been
+forced to import large numbers of coolies from China. These coolies,
+whom the labor agents attract with promises of high wages, a delightful
+climate, unlimited opium, and other things dear to the Chinese heart,
+are employed under an indenture system, the duration of their contracts
+being limited by law to three hundred days. That sounds, on the face of
+it, like a safeguard against peonage. The trouble is, however, that it
+is easily circumvented. Here is the way it works in practise. Shortly
+after the laborer reaches the plantation where he is to be employed he
+is given an advance on his pay, frequently amounting to thirty
+Singapore dollars, which he is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>encouraged to dissipate in the opium
+dens and gambling houses maintained on the plantation. Any one who has
+any knowledge of the Chinese coolie will realize how temperamentally
+incapable he is of resistance where opium and gambling are concerned.
+This pernicious system of advances has the effect, as it is intended to
+have, of chaining the laborer to the plantation by debt. For the first
+advance is usually followed by a second, and sometimes by a third, and
+to this debit column are added the charges made for food, for medical
+attendance, for opium, and for purchases made at the plantation store,
+so that, upon the expiration of his three-hundred-day contract, the
+laborer almost invariably owes his employer a debt which he is quite
+unable to pay. As he cannot obtain employment elsewhere in the colony
+under these conditions, he is faced with the alternative of being
+shipped back to China a pauper or of signing another contract. There is
+no breaking of the law by the planter, you see: the laborer is
+perfectly free to leave when his contract has expired&mdash;as free as any
+man can be who is absolutely penniless.</p>
+
+<p>Let me quote from a letter from the former Assistant Protector of Labor
+of British North Borneo. From the very nature of his duties he knows
+whereof he speaks:</p>
+
+<p>"One sees a large number of healthy, able-bodied Chinese coming into
+the country as laborers and, at the end of a year or two, instead of
+going back to their homes with money in their pockets and healthy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>with
+outdoor work, they go back as broken beggars, pitifully saturated with
+disease or confirmed drug fiends. It is really sad to see some of them
+return home after a struggle of four or five years to save money&mdash;a
+struggle not only against themselves and their acquired opium habit,
+but against the numerous parasites which always fatten on laborers."</p>
+
+<p>During the term of his indenture the laborer is to all intents and
+purposes a prisoner, his only appeal against any injustices practised
+on the plantation being to the Protector of Labor, who is supposed to
+visit each estate once a month. In theory this system is admirable, but
+in practise it does not afford the laborer the protection which the law
+intends, for it frequently happens that laborers who have been brutally
+mistreated have been coerced into silence by the plantation managers by
+threats of what will happen to them if they dare to lay a complaint
+before the inspecting official. Moreover, many of the plantations are
+so remotely situated, so far removed from civilization, that a manager
+can treat his laborers as he pleases with little fear of detection or
+punishment. If negroes are held in peonage, flogged, and even murdered
+on plantations in our own South, within rifle-shot of courthouses and
+sheriffs' offices and churches, is it to be wondered at that similar
+conditions can and do exist in the world-distant jungles of Borneo.
+Mind you, I do not say that such conditions exist on all or most of the
+estates in British North Borneo, but I have the best <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>of reasons for
+believing that they exist on some of them.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most serious defects in the labor laws of North Borneo is
+that trivial actions or omissions on the part of ignorant coolies, such
+as misconduct, neglect of work, or absence from the estate without
+leave, are punishable by imprisonment. As a result, the illiterate and
+incoherent coolie does not know where he stands. He can never be sure
+that some trivial action on his part, no matter how innocent his
+intent, will not bring him within reach of the criminal law. He is,
+moreover, denied the right of trial by jury, his case usually being
+decided off-hand by a bored and unsympathetic magistrate who has no
+knowledge of the defendant's tongue. Moreover, the company's laws
+permit the punishment of unruly laborers by flogging, with a maximum of
+twelve lashes. In view of the remoteness of most of the estates, it is
+scarcely necessary for me to point out that this is a form of
+punishment open to the gravest abuse.</p>
+
+<p>Although, as I have shown, the British North Borneo Company permits the
+existence of a system not far removed from slavery, a far more serious
+indictment of the company's administration lies in its systematic
+debauchery of its laborers by encouraging them to indulge in opium
+smoking and gambling for the purpose of swelling its revenues. Nor does
+its heartless exploitation of the laborer end there, for when a coolie
+has dissipated all his earnings in the opium dens and gaming houses,
+which are run under government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> concessions, he can usually realize a
+little more money for the same purpose by pawning his few poor
+belongings at one of the pawnshops controlled by the company. In other
+words, from the day a laborer sets foot in Borneo until the day he
+departs, he is systematically separated from his earnings, which are
+diverted, through the channels provided by the opium dens, the gambling
+houses and the pawn shops, into a stream which eventually empties into
+the company's coffers. For, mark you, the chartered company did not go
+to North Borneo from any altruistic motives. It is animated by no
+desire to ameliorate the condition of the natives or to increase the
+well-being and happiness of its imported laborers. It is there with one
+object in view, and one alone&mdash;to pay dividends to its stockholders. As
+the chairman of the company said at a recent North Borneo dinner in
+London: "They have acted the parts of Empire makers and yet they are
+filling their own pockets, for the golden rain is beginning to fall."</p>
+
+<p>Let me show you where this "golden rain" comes from. The two principal
+sources of revenue of the British North Borneo Company are opium and
+gambling. Suppose that you come with me for a stroll down the Jalan
+Tiga in Sandakan and see the gaming houses and the opium dens for
+yourself. Jalan Tiga (literally "Number Two Street") is a moderately
+broad thoroughfare, perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, which is
+solidly lined on both sides with gambling houses, or, as they are
+called in Borneo, gambling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>farms, the term being due to the fact that
+the gambling privileges are farmed out by the government. There may be
+wickeder streets somewhere in the East than the Jalan Tiga, but I do
+not recall having seen them. It, and the thoroughfares immediately
+adjoining, in which are situated the opium dens and the houses of
+prostitution, form a district which represents the very quintessence of
+Oriental vice. Over virtually every door are signs in Chinese, Malay
+and English announcing that games of chance are played within. Such
+resorts are not camouflaged in Borneo. They are as open as a railway
+station or a public library in the United States. From afternoon until
+sunrise these resorts are crowded to the doors with half-naked,
+perspiring humanity, brown skins and yellow being in about equal
+proportions, for the Malay is as inveterate a gambler as the Chinese.
+The downstairs rooms, which are frequented by the lower classes, are
+thickly sprinkled with low tables covered with mats divided into four
+sections, each of which bears a number. A dice under a square brass cup
+is shaken on the table and the cup slowly raised. Those players who
+have been lucky enough to place their bets on the square whose number
+corresponds to the number uppermost on the dice have their money
+doubled, the others see their earnings swept into the lap of the
+croupier, a fat and greasy Chinaman, usually stripped to the waist. In
+this system the chances against the player are enormous. The play is
+very rapid, the dice being shaken, the cup raised, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>winners paid
+and the wagers of the losers raked in too quickly for the untrained eye
+to follow. The players seldom quit as long as they have any money left
+to wager, but as soon as one drops out there is another ready to take
+his place. The upstairs rooms, which are usually handsomely decorated
+and luxuriously furnished, are reserved for the wealthier patrons, it
+being by no means uncommon for a player to lose several thousand
+dollars in a single night. Here cards are generally used instead of
+dice to separate the players from their money, fan-tan being the
+favorite game. I was told that the monthly subsidy paid by the British
+North Borneo Company to the Sultan of Sulu, who comes over from Jolo
+with great regularity to collect it, never leaves the country, as he
+invariably loses it over a Sandakan gaming-table. Gambling is a
+government monopoly in Borneo, the company farming out the privilege
+each year to the highest bidder. In 1919 the gambling rights for the
+entire protectorate were sold for approximately $144,000.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the Jalan Tiga at right angles and running from the heart of
+the town down to the edge of the harbor is the street of the
+prostitutes. It is easy to recognize the houses of ill-fame by their
+scarlet blinds and by the scarlet numbers over their doors. Should you
+stroll down the street during the day you will find the sullen-eyed
+inmates seated in the doorways, brushing their long and lustrous
+blue-black hair or painting their faces in white and vermillion
+preparatory to the evening's entertainment. Probably four-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>fifths of
+the <i>filles de joie</i> in Sandakan are Chinese, the others are products
+of Nippon&mdash;quaint, dainty, doll-like little women with faces so heavily
+enameled that they would be cracked by a smile. When a Chinese merchant
+wants a wife he usually visits a house of prostitution, selects one of
+the inmates, drives a hard bargain with the hard-eyed mistress of the
+establishment, and, the transaction concluded, brusquely tells the girl
+to pack her belongings and accompany him to his home. I might add that
+the girls thus chosen invariably make good wives and remain faithful to
+their husbands.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="tiga" id="tiga"></a>
+<img src="images/070a.jpg" width="600" height="420" alt="Jalan Tiga, Sandakan" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="caption">The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">A moderately broad thoroughfare, lined on both sides with
+gambling-houses</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="patron" id="patron"></a>
+<img src="images/070b.jpg" width="600" height="417" alt="an opium smoker" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="caption">A patron of a Sandakan opium farm</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">Each smoker is provided with a lamp for heating his "pill" and a wooden
+head-rest</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Running parallel to the Jalan Tiga is another street&mdash;I do not recall
+its name&mdash;in which are the opium farms. Far from being veiled in
+secrecy, they are operated as openly as American soda fountains. A
+typical opium farm consists of a two-story wooden house, one of a long
+row of similar buildings, containing a number of small, ill-lighted
+rooms which reek with the sickly sweet fumes of the drug. The furniture
+consists of a number of so-called beds, which in reality are wooden
+platforms or tables, their tops, which are raised about three feet
+above the floor, providing space on which two smokers can recline. Each
+smoker is provided with a block of wood which serves as a pillow and a
+small lamp for heating his "pill." The number of patrons who may be
+accommodated at one time is prescribed by law and rigidly enforced,
+signs denoting the authorized capacity of the house being posted at the
+door, like the signs in elevators and on ferry-boats in America. For
+example, the door <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>of one farm that I visited bore the notice "Only
+fifteen beds. Room for thirty persons." Over-crowding is forbidden by
+the authorities, not, as in the case of elevators and ferry-boats, for
+reasons of safety, but for financial reasons. The more opium farms
+there are, you see, the greater the company's profits.</p>
+
+<p>The opium is purchased by the chartered company from the Government of
+the Straits Settlements for $1.20 a tael (about one-tenth of a pound
+troy) and, after being adulterated with various substances, is sold to
+the opium farmers, nearly all of whom are Chinese, for $8.50 a tael,
+the company thus making a very comfortable margin of profit on the
+transaction. The opium farmers either keep opium dens themselves or
+sell the drug to anyone wishing to buy it, just as a tobacconist sells
+cigars and cigarettes. The sale of the opium privilege in Sandakan
+alone nets the government, so I was informed, something over $500,000
+annually.</p>
+
+<p>Now, iniquitous and deplorable as such a traffic is, the British North
+Borneo administration is not the only government engaged in the sale of
+opium. But it is the only government, so far as I am aware, which
+virtually forces the drug on its people by insisting that it shall be
+purchasable in localities which might otherwise escape its malign
+influence. A planter who, actuated either by moral scruples or by a
+desire to maintain the efficiency of his laborers, opposes the opening
+of an opium farm on his estate, might as well sell out and leave
+Borneo, for the company will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>promptly retaliate for such interference
+with its revenues by cutting off his supply of labor. It will defend
+its action by na&iuml;vely asserting that, as the coolies would contrive to
+obtain the drug any way, the planter, in refusing to permit the opening
+of an opium farm on his property, is guilty of conniving at the illegal
+use of the drug!</p>
+
+<p>The British North Borneo Company professes to find justification for
+engaging in the opium traffic by insisting that, as the Chinese will
+certainly obtain opium clandestinely if they cannot obtain it openly,
+it is better for everyone concerned that its sale and use should be
+kept under government control. The fact remains, however, that China,
+decadent though she may be and desperately in need of increased
+revenues, has succeeded, in spite of the powerful opposition of the
+British-owned Opium Ring, in putting an end to the traffic within her
+borders, while Siam, likewise under Oriental rule, is about to do the
+same. It is a curious commentary on European civilization that this
+vice, which the so-called "backward" races are vigorously attempting to
+stamp out, should be not only permitted but encouraged in a country
+over which flies the flag of England. Its effects on the population are
+summed up in this sentence from a letter written me by a former high
+official of the chartered company: "Fifty per cent of the thefts and
+robberies committed during the period that I was magistrate in that
+territory can be directly traced to opium and gambling."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>There is held each year, at one of the great London hotels, the North
+Borneo Dinner. It is one of the most brilliant affairs of the season.
+At the head of the long table, banked with flowers and gleaming with
+glass and silver, sits the chairman of the chartered company, flanked
+by cabinet ministers, archbishops, ambassadors, admirals, field
+marshals. The speakers work the audience into a fervor of patriotic
+pride by their sonorous word-pictures of England's services to humanity
+in bearing the white man's burden, and of the spread of enlightenment
+and progress under the Union Jack. But the heartiest applause
+invariably greets the announcement that the North Borneo Company has
+declared a dividend. Whence the money to pay the dividend was derived
+is tactfully left unsaid. The dinner always concludes with the singing
+of the anthem <i>Land of Hope and Glory</i>. Yet they say that the English
+have no sense of humor!</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV<br />
+<small>THE EMERALDS OF WILHELMINA</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>In Singapore stands one of the most significant statues in the world.
+From the centre of its sun-scorched Esplanade rises the bronze figure
+of a youthful, slender, clean-cut, keen-eyed man, clad in the
+high-collared coat and knee-breeches of a century ago, who, from his
+lofty pedestal, peers southward, beyond the shipping in the busy
+harbor, beyond the palm-fringed straits, toward those mysterious,
+alluring islands which ring the Java Sea. Though his name, Thomas
+Stamford Raffles, doubtless holds for you but scanty meaning, and
+though he died when only forty-five, his last years shadowed by the
+ingratitude of the country whose commercial supremacy in the East he
+had secured and to which he had offered a vast, new field for colonial
+expansion, he was one of the greatest architects of empire that ever
+lived. He combined the vision and administrative genius of Clive and
+Hastings with the audacity and energy of Hawkins and Drake. It was his
+dream, to use his own words, "to make Java the center of an Eastern
+insular empire" ruled "not only without fear but without reproach"; an
+empire to consist of that great archipelago&mdash;Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the
+Celebes, New Guinea, and the lesser islands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>&mdash;which sweeps southward
+and eastward from the Asian mainland to the edges of Australasia.
+Though this splendid colonial structure was erected according to the
+plans that Raffles drew, by curious circumstance the flag that flies
+over it today is not his flag, not the flag of England, for, instead of
+being governed from Westminster, as he had dreamed, it is governed from
+The Hague, the ruler of its fifty million brown inhabitants being the
+stout, rosy-cheeked young woman who dwells in the Palace of Het Loo.</p>
+
+<p>Though in area Queen Wilhelmina's colonial possessions are exceeded by
+those of Britain and France, she is the sovereign of the second largest
+colonial empire, in point of population, in the world. But, because it
+lies beyond the beaten paths of tourist travel, because it has been so
+little advertised by plagues and famines and rebellions, and because it
+has been so admirably and unobtrusively governed, it has largely
+escaped public attention&mdash;a fact, I imagine, with which the Dutch are
+not ill-pleased. Did <i>you</i> realize, I wonder, that the Insulinde, as
+Netherlands India is sometimes called, is as large, or very nearly as
+large, as all that portion of the United States lying east of the
+Mississippi? Did you know that in the third largest island of the
+archipelago, Sumatra, the State of California could be set down and
+still leave a comfortable margin all around? Or that the fugitive from
+justice who turns the prow of his canoe westward from New Guinea must
+sail as far as from Vancouver to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>Yokohama before he finds himself
+beyond the shadow of the Dutch flag and the arm of Dutch law?</p>
+
+<p>Until the closing years of the sixteenth century, European trade with
+the Far East was an absolute monopoly in the hands of Spain and
+Portugal. Incredible as it may seem, the two Iberian nations alone
+possessed the secret of the routes to the East, which they guarded with
+jealous care. In 1492, Columbus, bearing a letter from the King of
+Spain to the Khan of Tartary, whose power and wealth had become
+legendary in Europe through the tales of Marco Polo and other overland
+travelers, sailed westward from Cadiz in search of Asia, discovering
+the islands which came to be known as the West Indies. Five years later
+a Portuguese sea-adventurer, Vasco da Gama, turned the prow of his
+caravel south from the mouth of the Tagus, skirted the coast of Africa,
+rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and dropped
+his anchor in the harbor of Calicut&mdash;the first European to reach the
+beckoning East by sea. For a quarter of a century the Portuguese were
+the only people in Europe who knew the way to the East, and their
+secret gave them a monopoly of the Eastern trade. Lisbon became the
+richest port of Europe. Portugal was mistress of the seas. But in 1519
+another Portuguese seafarer, Hernando de Maghallanes&mdash;we call him
+Ferdinand Magellan&mdash;who, resenting his treatment by the King of
+Portugal, had shifted his allegiance to Spain, sailed southwestward
+across the Atlantic, rounded the southern extremity of America by the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>straits which bear his name, crossed the unknown Pacific, and raised
+the flag of Spain over the islands which came in time to be called the
+Philippines. Spain had reached the Indies by sailing west, as Portugal
+had reached them by sailing east.</p>
+
+<p>Though the fabulous wealth of the lands thus discovered was discussed
+around every council table and camp-fire in Europe, the routes by which
+that wealth might be attained were guarded by Portugal and Spain as
+secrets of state. The charts showing the routes were not intrusted to
+the captains of vessels in the Eastern trade until the moment of
+departure, and they were taken up immediately upon their return; the
+silence of officers and crews was insured by every oath that the church
+could frame and every penalty that the state could devise. For more
+than three-quarters of a century, indeed, the two Iberian nations
+succeeded in keeping the secret of the sea roads to the East, its
+betrayal being punishable by death. In 1580, however, the English
+freebooter, Francis Drake, nicknamed "The Master Thief of the Unknown
+World," duplicated the voyage of Magellan's expedition of threescore
+years before, thus discovering the route to the Indies used by Spain.</p>
+
+<p>At this period the Dutch, "the waggoners of the sea," possessed, as
+middlemen, a large interest in the spice trade, for the Portuguese,
+having no direct access to the markets of northern Europe, had made a
+practise of sending their Eastern merchandise to the Netherlands in
+Dutch bottoms for distribution by way <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>of the Rhine and the Scheldt. As
+a result, the enormous carrying trade of Holland was wholly dependent
+upon Lisbon. But when Spain unceremoniously annexed Portugal in 1580,
+the first act of Philip, upon becoming master of Lisbon, was to close
+the Tagus to the Dutch, his one-time subjects, who had revolted eight
+years before. As a result of the revenge thus taken by the Spanish
+tyrant, the Dutch were faced by the necessity of themselves going in
+quest of the Indies if their flag was not to disappear from the seas.
+Their opportunity came a dozen years later when a venturesome
+Hollander, Cornelius Houtman, who was risking imprisonment and even
+death by trading surreptitiously in the forbidden city on the Tagus,
+succeeded in obtaining through bribery a copy of one of the secret
+charts. The Spanish authorities scarcely could have been aware that he
+had learned a secret of such immense importance, or his silence would
+have been insured by the headsman. As it was, he was thrown into prison
+for illegal trading, where he was held for heavy ransom. But he managed
+to get word to Amsterdam of the priceless information which had come
+into his possession, whereupon the merchants of that city promptly
+formed a syndicate, subscribed the money for his ransom, and obtained
+his release. Thus it came about that shortly after his return to
+Holland there was organized the Company of Distant Lands, a title as
+vague, grandiose and alluring as the plans of those who founded it. In
+1595, then, nearly a century after da Gama had shown the way, four
+caravels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> under the command of Houtman, the banner of the Netherlands
+flaunting from their towering sterns, sailed grandly out of the Texel,
+slipped past the white chalk cliffs of Dover, sped southward before the
+trades, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and laid their course across the
+Indian Ocean for the Spice Islands. When the adventurers returned, two
+years later, they brought back tales of islands richer than anything of
+which the Dutch burghers had ever dreamed, and produced cargoes of
+Eastern merchandise to back their stories up.</p>
+
+<p>The return of Houtman's expedition was the signal for a great outburst
+of commercial enterprise in the Low Countries, seekers after fortune or
+adventure flocking to the Indies as, centuries later, other
+fortune-seekers, other adventurers, flocked to the gold-diggings of the
+Sierras, the Yukon, and the Rand. On those distant seas, however, the
+adventurers were beyond the reach of any law, the same lawless
+conditions prevailing in the Indies at the beginning of the seventeenth
+century which characterized Californian life in the days of '49. The
+Dutch warred on the natives and on the Portuguese, and, when there was
+no one else to offer them resistance, they fought among themselves. By
+1602 conditions had become so intolerable that the government of
+Holland, in order to tranquillize the Indies, and to stabilize the
+spice market at home, decided to amalgamate the various trading
+enterprises into one great corporation, the Dutch East India Company,
+which was authorized to exercise the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>functions of government in those
+remote seas and to prosecute the war against Spain. When Philip shut
+the Dutch out of Lisbon, he made a formidable enemy for himself, for,
+though the burghers went to the East primarily in order to save their
+commerce from extinction, they were animated in a scarcely less degree
+by a determination to even their score with Spain.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the Dutch East India Company is not a savory one. It was
+a powerful instrument for extracting the wealth of the Indies, and, so
+long as the wealth was forthcoming, the stockholders at home in Holland
+did not inquire too closely as to how the instrument was used. The
+story of the company from its formation in 1602 until its dissolution
+nearly two centuries later is a record of intrigue, cruelty and
+oppression. It exercised virtually sovereign powers. It made and
+enforced its own laws, it maintained its own fleet and army, it
+negotiated treaties with Japan and China, it dethroned sultans and
+rajahs, it established trading-posts and factories at the Cape of Good
+Hope, in the Persian Gulf, on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, and
+in Bengal; it waged war against the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the
+English in turn. When at the summit of its power, in 1669, the company
+possessed forty warships and one hundred and fifty merchantmen,
+maintained an army of ten thousand men, and paid a forty per cent
+dividend.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile a formidable rival to the Dutch company, the English East
+India Company, had arisen, but the accession of a Dutchman, William,
+Prince of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>Orange, to the throne of England in 1688 turned the rivals
+into allies, the trade of the eastern seas being divided between them.
+But toward the close of the eighteenth century there came another
+change in the <i>status quo</i>, for the Dutch, by allying themselves with
+the French, became the enemies of England. By this time Great Britain
+had become the greatest sea power in the world, so that within a few
+months after the outbreak of hostilities in 1795 the British flag had
+replaced that of the Netherlands over Ceylon, Malacca, and other
+stations on the highway to the Insulinde. When the Netherlands were
+annexed to the French Empire by Napoleon in 1810 the British seized the
+excuse thus provided to occupy Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles, the
+brilliant young Englishman who was then the agent of the British East
+India Company at Malacca, in the Malay States, being sent to Java as
+lieutenant-governor. Urgent as were his appeals that Java should be
+retained by Britain as a jewel in her crown of empire, the readjustment
+of the territories of the great European powers which was effected at
+the Congress of Vienna, in 1816, after the fall of Napoleon, resulted
+in the restoration to the Dutch of those islands of the Insulinde,
+including Java, which the British had seized. But, though Raffles ruled
+in Java for barely four and a half years, his spirit goes marching on,
+the system of colonial government which he instituted having been
+continued by the Dutch, in its main outlines, to this day. He won the
+confidence and friendship of the powerful native <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>princes,
+revolutionized the entire legal system, revived the system of village
+or communal government, reformed the land-tenure, abolished the
+abominable system of forcing the natives to deliver all their crops,
+and gave to the Javanese a rule of honesty, justice and wisdom with
+which, up to that time, they had not had even a bowing acquaintance. As
+a result of the lessons learned from Stamford Raffles, the Dutch
+possessions in the East are today more wisely and justly administered
+than those of any other European nation.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch had not seen the last of Raffles, however, for in 1817 he
+returned from England, where he had been knighted by the Prince Regent,
+to take the post of lieutenant-governor of Sumatra, to which the
+British did not finally relinquish their claims until half a century
+later. His administration of that great island was characterized by the
+same breadth of vision, tact, and energy which had marked his rule in
+Java. It was during this period that Raffles rendered his greatest
+service to the empire. The Dutch, upon regaining Java, attempted to
+obtain complete control of all the islands of the archipelago, which
+would have resulted in seriously hampering, if not actually ending,
+British trade east of Malacca. But Raffles, recognizing the menace to
+British interests, defeated the Dutch scheme in January, 1819, by a
+sudden <i>coup d'etat</i>, when he seized the little island at the tip of
+the Malay Peninsula which commands the Malacca Straits and the entrance
+to the China seas, and founded Singapore, thereby giving Britain
+control of the gateway <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>to the Farther East and ending forever the
+Dutch dream of making of those waters a <i>mare clausum</i>&mdash;a Dutch lake.</p>
+
+<p>The thousands of islands, islets, and atolls which comprise Netherlands
+India&mdash;the proper etymological name of the archipelago is
+Austronesia&mdash;are scattered over forty-six degrees of longitude, on both
+sides of the equator. Although in point of area Java holds only fifth
+place, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea and the Celebes being much larger,
+it nevertheless contains three-fourths of the population and yields
+four-fifths of the produce of the entire archipelago. Though scarcely
+larger than Cuba, it has more inhabitants than all the Atlantic Coast
+States, from Maine to Florida, combined. This, added to the strategic
+importance of its situation, the richness of its soil, the variety of
+its products, the intelligence, activity and civilization of its
+inhabitants, and the fact that it is the seat of the colonial
+government, makes Java by far the most important unit of the Insulinde.
+Because of its overwhelming importance in the matters of position,
+products and population, it is administered as a distinct political
+entity, the other portions of the Dutch Indies being officially
+designated as the Outposts or the Outer Possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Westernmost and by far the most important of the Outposts is Sumatra,
+an island four-fifths the size of France, as potentially rich in
+mineral and agricultural wealth as Java, but with a sparse and
+intractable population, certain of the tribes, notably the Achinese,
+who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>inhabit the northern districts, still defying Dutch rule in spite
+of the long and costly series of wars which have resulted from
+Holland's attempt to subjugate them. The unmapped interior of Sumatra
+affords an almost virgin field for the explorer, the sportsman and the
+scientist. It has ninety volcanoes, twelve of which are active (the
+world has not forgotten the eruption, in 1883, of Krakatu, an island
+volcano off the Sumatran coast, which resulted in the loss of forty
+thousand human lives); the jungles of the interior are roamed by
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, panthers and occasional orang-utans,
+while in the scattered villages, with their straw-thatched, highly
+decorated houses, dwell barbarous brown men practising customs so
+incredibly eerie and fantastic that a sober narration of them is more
+likely than not to be greeted with a shrug of amused disbelief. One who
+has no first-hand knowledge of the Sumatran tribes finds it difficult
+to accept at their face value the accounts of the customs practised by
+the Bataks of Tapanuli, for example, who, when their relatives become
+too old and infirm to be of further use, give them a pious interment by
+eating them. When the local Doctor Oslers have decided that a man has
+reached the age when his place at the family table is preferable to his
+company, the aged victim climbs a lemon-tree, beneath which his
+relatives stand in a circle, wailing the deathsong, the weird,
+monotonous chant being continued until the condemned one summons the
+courage to throw himself to the ground, whereupon the members <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>of his
+family promptly despatch him with clubs, cut up his body, roast the
+meat, and eat it. Thus every stomach in the tribe becomes, in effect, a
+sort of family burial-plot. I was unable to ascertain why the victim is
+compelled to throw himself from a lemon-tree. It struck me that some
+taller tree, like a palm, would better accomplish the desired result. A
+matter of custom, doubtless. Perhaps that explains why we dub persons
+who are pass&eacute; "lemons." Then there are the Achinese, whose women
+frequently marry when eight years old, and are considered as well along
+in life when they reach their teens; and the Niassais, who are in
+deadly fear of albino children and who kill all twins as soon as they
+are born. Or the Menangkabaus, whose tribal government is a matriarchy:
+lands, houses, crops and children belonging solely to the wife, who
+may, and sometimes does, sell her husband as a slave in order to pay
+her debts.</p>
+
+<p>Trailing from the eastern end of Java in a twelve-hundred-mile-long
+chain, like the wisps of paper which form the tail of a kite, and
+separated by straits so narrow that artillery can fire across them, are
+the Lesser Sundas&mdash;Bali, noted for its superb scenery and its alluring
+women; Lombok, the northernmost island whose flora and fauna are
+Australian; Sumbawa, where the sandalwood comes from; Flores, whose
+inhabitants consider the earth so holy that they will not desecrate it
+by digging wells or cultivation; Timor, the northeastern half of which,
+together with Goa in India and Macao in China, forms the last remnant
+of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>Portugal's once enormous Eastern empire; Rotti, Kei, and Aroo, the
+great chain thus formed linking New Guinea, the largest island in the
+world, barring Australia, with the mainland of Asia. Of the last-named
+island, the entire western half belongs to Holland, the remaining half
+being about equally divided between British Papua, in the southeast,
+and in the northeast the former German colony of Kaiser Wilhelm Land,
+now administered by Australia under a mandate from the League of
+Nations.</p>
+
+<p>The population of Dutch New Guinea is estimated at a quarter of a
+million, but the predilection of its puff-ball-headed inhabitants for
+human flesh has discouraged the Dutch census-takers from making an
+accurate enumeration, as the Papuan cannibal does not hesitate to
+sacrifice the needs of science to those of the cooking-pot. Though New
+Guinea is believed to be enormously rich in natural resources, and has
+many excellent harbors, the secrets of its mysterious interior can only
+be conjectured. The natives are as degraded as any in the world; their
+principal vocation is hunting birds of paradise, whose plumes command
+high prices in the European markets; their chief avocation in recent
+years has been staging imitation cannibal feasts for the benefit of
+motion-picture expeditions. But, unknown and unproductive as it is at
+present, I would stake my life that New Guinea will be a great colony
+some day.</p>
+
+<p>To the west of New Guinea and to the south of the Philippines lie the
+Moluccas&mdash;Ceram, Amboin, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>Ternate, Halmahera, and the rest&mdash;the Spice
+Islands of the old-time voyagers, the scented tropic isles of which
+Camoens sang. Amboin, owing to the fact that Europeans have been
+established there for centuries on account of its trade in spices, is
+characterized by a much higher degree of civilization than the rest of
+the Moluccas, a considerable proportion of its inhabitants professing
+to be Christians. The flower of the colonial army is recruited from the
+Amboinese, who regard themselves not as vassals of the Dutch but as
+their allies and equals, a distinction which they emphasize by wearing
+shoes, all other native troops going barefoot. Beyond the Moluccas,
+across the Banda Sea, sprawls the Celebes,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> familiar from our
+school-days because of its fantastic outline, the plural form of its
+name being due to the supposition of the early explorers that it was a
+group of islands instead of one. And finally, crossing Makassar
+Straits, we come to Borneo, the habitat of the head-hunter and the
+orang-utan. Though Borneo is a treasure-house for the naturalist, the
+botanist, and the ethnologist, the Dutch, as in New Guinea, have merely
+scratched its surface, almost no attempt having thus far been made to
+exploit its enormous natural resources. Thus I have arrayed for your
+cursory inspection the congeries of curious and colorful islands which
+constitute Netherlands India in order that you may comprehend the
+problems of civilization and administration which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>Holland has had to
+solve in those distant seas, and that you may be better qualified to
+judge the results she has achieved.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The Insulinde has eight times the population and sixty times the area
+of the mother country, from which it is separated by ten thousand miles
+of sea, yet the sovereignty of Queen Wilhelmina is upheld among the
+cannibals of New Guinea, the head-hunters of Borneo, and the savages of
+Achin, no less than among the docile millions of Java, by less than ten
+thousand European soldiers. That a territory so vast and with so
+enormous a population, should be so admirably administered, everything
+considered, by so small a number of white men, is in itself proof of
+the Dutch genius for ruling subject races.</p>
+
+<p>From the day when Holland determined to organize her colonial empire
+for the benefit of the natives themselves, instead of exploiting it for
+the benefit of a handful of Dutch traders and settlers, as she had
+previously done, she has employed in her colonial service only
+thoroughly trained officials of proved ability and irreproachable
+character. The Dutch officials whom I met in Java and the Outposts
+impressed me, indeed, as being men of altogether exceptional capacity
+and attainments, better educated and qualified, as a whole, than those
+whom I have encountered in the British and French colonial possessions.
+Since the war, owing to the difficulty of obtaining men of sufficient
+caliber and experience to fill the minor posts, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>which are not
+particularly well paid, Holland has given employment in her colonial
+service to a considerable number of Germans, most of whom had been
+trained in colonial administration in Germany's African and Pacific
+possessions, but they are appointed, of course, only to posts of
+relative unimportance.</p>
+
+<p>Every year the Minister of the Colonies ascertains the number of
+vacancies in the East Indian service, and every year the Grand
+Examination of Officials is held simultaneously in The Hague and
+Batavia, the results of this examination determining the eligibility of
+candidates for admission to the colonial service and the fitness of
+officials already in the service for promotion. With the exception of
+the Governor-General and two or three other high officials, who are
+appointed by the crown, no official can evade this examination, to pass
+which requires not only an intimate knowledge of East Indian languages,
+politics and customs, but real scholarship as well. The names of those
+candidates who pass this examination are certified to the Minister of
+the Colonies, who thereupon directs them to report to the
+Governor-General at Batavia and provides them with funds for the
+voyage. Upon their arrival in the Indies the Governor-General appoints
+them to the grade of <i>controleur</i> and tests their capacity by sending
+them to difficult and trying posts in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, or
+New Guinea, where they must conclusively prove their ability before
+they can hope for promotion to the grades of assistant resident and
+resident, and the relative comfort of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>official life in Java. In the
+Outposts they at once come face to face with innumerable difficulties
+and responsibilities, for the <i>controleur</i> is responsible, though
+within narrower limits than the resident, for everything: justice,
+police, agriculture, education, public works, the protection of the
+natives, and the requirements of the settlers in such matters as labor
+and irrigation. He is, in short, an administrator, a police official, a
+judge, a diplomatist, and an adviser on almost every subject connected
+with the government of tropical dependencies. The officials in the
+Outposts are given more authority and greater latitude of action than
+their colleagues in Java, for they have greater difficulties to cope
+with, while the intractability, if not the open hostility of the
+natives whom they are called upon to rule demands greater tact and
+diplomacy than are required in Java, where the officials are inclined
+to become spoiled by their easy-going life and the semi-royal state
+which they maintain.</p>
+
+<p>Though Holland demands much of those who uphold her authority in the
+Indies, she is generous in her rewards. The Governor-General draws a
+salary of seventy thousand dollars together with liberal allowances for
+entertaining, and is provided with palaces at Batavia and Buitenzorg,
+while at Tjipanas, on one of the spurs of the Gedei, nearly six
+thousand feet above the sea, he has a country house set in a great
+English park. Wherever he is in residence he maintains a degree of
+state scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign herself. The residents
+are paid from five <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>thousand dollars to nine thousand dollars according
+to their grades, the assistant residents from three thousand five
+hundred dollars to five thousand dollars, and the <i>controleurs</i> from
+one thousand eight hundred dollars to two thousand four hundred
+dollars. Though officials are permitted leaves of absence only once in
+ten years, those who complete twenty-five years' service in the
+Insulinde may retire on half-pay. Even at such salaries, however, and
+in a land where living is cheap as compared with Europe, it is almost
+impossible for the officials to save money, for they are expected to
+entertain lavishly and to live in a fashion which will impress the
+natives, who would be quick to seize on any evidence of economy as a
+sign of weakness.</p>
+
+<p>Netherlands India is ruled by a dual system of administration&mdash;European
+and native. By miracles of patience, tact, and diplomacy, the Dutch
+have succeeded in building up in the Indies a gigantic colonial empire,
+which, however, they could not hope to hold by force were there to be a
+concerted rising of the natives. Realizing this, Holland&mdash;instead of
+attempting to overawe the natives by a display of military strength, as
+England has done in Egypt and India, and France in Algeria and
+Morocco&mdash;has succeeded, by keeping the native princes on their thrones
+and according them a shadowy suzerainty, in hoodwinking the ignorant
+brown mass of the people into the belief that they are still governed
+by their own rulers. Though at first the princes, as was to be
+expected, bitterly resented the curtailment of their prerogatives and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>powers, they decided that they might better remain on their thrones,
+even though the powers remaining to them were merely nominal, and
+accept the titles, honors and generous pensions which the Dutch offered
+them, than to resist and be ruthlessly crushed. In pursuance of this
+shrewd policy, every province in the Indies has as its nominal head a
+native puppet ruler, known as a regent, usually a member of the house
+which reigned in that particular territory before the white man came.
+Though the regents are appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the
+government, and though they are obliged to accept the advice and obey
+the orders of the Dutch residents, they remain the highest personages
+in the native world and the intermediaries through whom Holland
+transmits her wishes and orders to the native population.</p>
+
+<p>In order to lend color to the fiction that the natives are still ruled
+by their own princes, the regents are provided with the means to keep
+up a considerable degree of ceremony and pomp; they have their
+opera-bouffe courts, their gorgeously uniformed body-guards, their
+gilded carriages and golden parasols, and some of the more important
+ones maintain enormous households. But, though they preside at
+assemblies, sign decrees, and possess all the other external attributes
+of power, in reality they only go through the motions of governing, for
+always behind their gorgeous thrones sits a shrewd and silent Dutchman
+who pulls the strings. Though this system of dual government has the
+obvious disadvantage of being both cumbersome <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>and expensive, it is,
+everything considered, perhaps the best that could have been devised to
+meet the existing conditions, for nothing is more certain than that,
+should the Dutch attempt to do away with the native princes, there
+would be a revolt which would shake the Insulinde to its foundations
+and would gravely imperil Dutch domination in the islands.</p>
+
+<p>The most interesting examples of this system of dual administration are
+found in the <i>Vorstenlanden</i>, or "Lands of the Princes," of Surakarta
+and Djokjakarta, in Middle Java. These two principalities, which once
+comprised the great empire of Mataram, are nominally independent, being
+ostensibly ruled by their own princes: the Susuhunan of Surakarta and
+the Sultan of Djokjakarta, who are, however, despite their
+high-sounding titles and their dazzling courts, but mouthpieces for the
+Dutch residents. The series of episodes which culminated in the Dutch
+acquiring complete political ascendency in the <i>Vorstenlanden</i> form one
+of the most picturesque and significant chapters in the history of
+Dutch rule in the East. Until the last century these territories were
+undivided, forming the kingdom of the Susuhunan of Surakarta, who,
+being threatened by a revolt of the Chinese who had settled in his
+dominions, called in the Dutch to aid him in suppressing it. They came
+promptly, helped to crush the rebellion, and so completely won the
+confidence of the Susuhunan that he begged their arbitration in a
+dispute with one of his brothers, who had launched an insurrection in
+an attempt to place himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>on the throne. Certain historians assert,
+and probably with truth, that this insurrection was instigated and
+encouraged by the Dutch themselves, who foresaw that it would be easier
+to subjugate two weak states than a single strong one. In pursuance of
+this policy, they suggested that, in order to avoid a fratricidal and
+bloody war, the kingdom be divided, two-thirds of it, with Surakarta as
+the capital, to remain under the rule of the Susuhunan; the remaining
+third to be handed over to the pretender, who would assume the title of
+Sultan and establish his court at Djokjakarta. This settlement was
+reluctantly accepted by the Susuhunan because he realized that he could
+hope for nothing better and by his brother because he recognized that
+he might do much worse.</p>
+
+<p>In principle, at least, the Sultan remained the vassal of the
+Susuhunan, in token of which he paid him public homage once each year
+at Ngawen, near Djokjakarta, where, in the presence of an immense
+concourse of natives, he was obliged to prostrate himself before the
+Susuhunan's throne as a public acknowledgment of his vassalage. But as
+the years passed the breach thus created between the Susuhunan and the
+Sultan showed signs of healing, which was the last thing desired by the
+Dutch, who believed in the maxim <i>Divide ut imperes</i>. So, before the
+next ceremony of homage came around, they sent for the Sultan, pointed
+out to him the humiliation which he incurred in kneeling before the
+Susuhunan, and offered to provide him with a means of escaping this
+abasement. Their offer was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>as simple as it was ingenious&mdash;permission
+to wear the uniform of a Dutch official. This was by no means as empty
+an honor as it seemed, as the Sultan was quick to recognize, for one of
+the tenets of Holland's rule in the Indies is that no one who wears the
+Dutch uniform, whether European or native, shall impair the prestige of
+that uniform by kneeling in homage. The Sultan, needless to say,
+eagerly seized the opportunity thus offered, and, when the date for the
+next ceremony fell due he arrived at Ngawen arrayed in the blue and
+gold panoply of a Dutch official, but, instead of prostrating himself
+before the Susuhunan in the grovelling <i>dodok</i>, he coolly remained
+seated, as befitted a Dutch official and an independent prince.</p>
+
+<p>The animosity thus ingeniously revived between the princely houses
+lasted for many years, which was exactly what the Dutch had foreseen.
+But, though the Susuhunan and the Sultan had been goaded into hating
+each other with true Oriental fervor, they hated the Dutch even more.
+In order to divert this hostility toward themselves into safer
+channels, the Dutch evolved still another scheme, which consisted in
+installing at the court of the Susuhunan, as at that of the Sultan, a
+counter-irritant in the person of a rival prince, who, though
+theoretically a vassal, was in reality as independent as the titular
+ruler. And, as a final touch, the Dutch decreed that the cost of
+maintaining the elaborate establishments of these hated rivals must be
+defrayed from the privy purses of the Susuhunan and the Sultan. The
+"independent" prince <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>at Surakarta is known as the Pangeran Adipati
+Mangku Negoro; the one at Djokjakarta as the Pangeran Adipati Paku
+Alam. Both of these princes have received military educations in
+Holland, hold honorary commissions in the Dutch army, and wear the
+Dutch uniform; their handsome palaces stand in close proximity to those
+of the Susuhunan and the Sultan, and both are permitted to maintain
+small but well-drilled private armies, armed with modern weapons and
+organized on European lines. The "army" of Mangku Negoro consists of
+about a thousand men, and is a far more efficient fighting force than
+the fantastically uniformed rabble maintained by his suzerain, the
+Susuhunan. In certain respects this arrangement resembles the plan
+which is followed at West Point and Annapolis, where, if the appointee
+fails to meet the entrance requirements, the appointment goes to an
+alternate, who has been designated with just such a contingency in
+view. Both the Susuhunan and the Sultan are perfectly aware that the
+first sign of disloyalty to the Dutch on their part would result in
+their being promptly dethroned and the "independent" princes being
+appointed in their stead. So, as they like their jobs, which are well
+paid and by no means onerous&mdash;the Susuhunan receives an annual pension
+from the Dutch Government of some three hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars and has in addition one million dollars worth of revenues to
+squander each year&mdash;their conduct is marked by exemplary obedience and
+circumspection.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>Ever since the Dipo Negoro rebellion of 1825, which was caused by the
+insulting behavior of an incompetent and tactless resident toward a
+native prince, to suppress which cost Holland five years of warfare and
+the lives of fifteen thousand soldiers, the Dutch Government has come
+more and more to realize that most of the disaffection and revolts in
+their Eastern possessions have been directly traceable to tactlessness
+on the part of Dutch officials, who either ignored or were indifferent
+to the customs, traditions, and susceptibilities of the natives. It is
+the recognition and application of this principle that has been
+primarily responsible for the peace, progress, and prosperity which, in
+recent years, have characterized the rule of Holland in the Indies.
+When a nation with a quarter the area of New York State, and less than
+two-thirds its population, with a small army and no navy worthy of the
+name, can successfully rule fifty million people of alien race and
+religion, half the world away, and keep them loyal and contented, that
+nation has, it seems to me, a positive genius for colonial
+administration.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Some one has described the Dutch East Indies as a necklace of emeralds
+strung on the equator. To those who are familiar only with colder, less
+gorgeous lands, that simile may sound unduly fanciful, but to those who
+have seen these great, rich islands, festooned across four thousand
+miles of sea, green and scintillating under the tropic sun, the
+description will not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>appear as far-fetched as it seems. A necklace of
+emeralds! The more I ponder over that description the better I like it.
+Indeed, I think that that is what I will call this chapter&mdash;The
+Emeralds of Wilhelmina.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="center"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Pronounced as though it were spelled Cel-lay-bees, with
+the accent on the second syllable.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V<br />
+<small>MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>There is no name between the covers of the atlas which so smacks of
+romance and adventure as Borneo. Show me the red-blooded boy who, when
+he sees that magic name over the wild man's cage in the circus sideshow
+or over the orang-utan's cage in the zoo, does not secretly long to go
+adventuring in the jungles of its mysterious interior. So, because
+there is still in me a good deal of the boy, thank Heaven, I ordered
+the course of the <i>Negros</i> laid for Samarinda, which, if the charts
+were to be believed, was the principal gateway to the hinterland of
+Eastern Borneo. There are no roads in Borneo, you understand, only
+narrow foot-trails through the steaming jungle, so that the only
+practicable means of penetrating the interior is by ascending one of
+the great rivers. The Koetei, which has its nativity somewhere in the
+mysterious Kapuas Mountains, winds its way across four hundred miles of
+unmapped wilderness, and, a score of miles below Samarinda, empties
+into Makassar Straits, answered my requirements admirably, providing a
+highroad to the country of my boyish dreams. Though I told the others
+that I was going up the Koetei in order to see the strange tribes who
+dwell <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>along its upper reaches, I admitted to myself that I had one
+object in view and one alone&mdash;to see the Wild Man.</p>
+
+<p>Viewed from the deck of the <i>Negros</i>, Samarinda, which is the capital
+of the Residency of Koetei, was entirely satisfying. It corresponded in
+every respect to the mental picture which I had drawn of a Bornean
+town. It straggles for two miles or more along a dusty road shaded by a
+double row of flaming fire-trees. Facing on the road are a few-score
+miserable shops kept by Chinese and Arabs and the somewhat more
+pretentious buildings which house the offices of the European trading
+companies. Further out, at the edge of the town, are the dwellings of
+the Dutch officials and traders&mdash;comfortable-looking, one-story,
+whitewashed houses with deep verandahs, peering coyly out from the
+midst of fragrant, blazing gardens. The Residency, the Custom House,
+the Police Barracks and the Koetei Club can readily be distinguished by
+the Dutch flags that droop above them. The river-bank itself is one
+interminable street. Here dwells the brown-skinned population&mdash;Malays,
+Bugis, Makassars, and a sprinkling of Sea Dyaks. Sometimes the flimsy,
+cane-walled, leaf-thatched huts, perched aloft on bamboo stilts, stand,
+like flocks of storks, in clusters. Again they stray a little apart,
+seeking protection from the pitiless sun beneath clumps of palms.
+Malays in short, tight jackets and long, tight breeches of
+kaleidoscopic colors were sauntering along the yellow road, oblivious
+of the sun.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> On the shelving beach naked brown men were mending their
+nets or pottering about their dwellings. Now and then I caught a
+glimpse of a European, cool and comfortable in topee and white linen.
+It was all exactly as I had expected. It was, indeed, almost too
+story-booky to be true. Here, at last, was a green and lovely land,
+unspoiled by noisy, prying tourists, where one could lounge the lazy
+days away beneath the palm-trees or stroll with dusky beauties on a
+beach silvered by the tropic moon. I was impatient to go ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Changing from pajamas to whites, I ordered the launch to the gangway
+and went ashore to pay my respects to the Resident. To leave your card
+on the local representative of Queen Wilhelmina is the first rule of
+etiquette to be observed by the foreigner traveling in the Outer
+Possessions. In Java, which is more highly civilized, it is not so
+necessary. Unlike the Latin races, the Dutch are not by nature a
+suspicious people, but political unrest is prevalent throughout the
+East, and with Bolshevists, Chinese agitators and other fomenters of
+disaffection surreptitiously at work among the natives, it is the part
+of prudence to establish your respectability at the start. To gain a
+friendly footing with the authorities is to save yourself from possible
+annoyance later on.</p>
+
+<p>As I approached the shore the glamor lent by distance disappeared. The
+river-bank, which had looked so alluring from the cutter's deck, proved
+on closer inspection to be as squalid as the back-yard of a Neapolitan
+tenement. It was littered with dead cats <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>and fowls and fish and
+castaway vegetables and rotten fruit and tin cans and greasy ashes and
+refuse from fishing nets and decaying cocoanuts by the million and
+sodden rags. This stewing garbage was strewn ankle-deep upon the sand
+or was floating on the surface of the river, not drifting seaward, as
+one would expect, but languidly following the tide up and down, forever
+lolling along the bank. Above this putrefying feast swarmed myriads of
+flies, their buzzing combining in a drone like that of an electric fan.
+The sun struck viciously down upon the yellow foreshore, its glare
+reflected by the hard-packed sands as by a sheet of brass; the
+heat-waves danced and flickered. Sending the launch back to the cutter,
+I picked my way across this noisome place to the shelter of the trees
+along the road. But the shade that had appeared so inviting from the
+river proved as illusory as everything else. Grass? There was none. The
+earth was baked to the hardness of asphalt.</p>
+
+<p>To make matters worse, I found that I had landed too far down the
+beach. The building that I had assumed was the Residency proved to be
+the Custom House. The Harbor Master, whom I encountered there, seized
+the opportunity to present me with a bill for a hundred
+guilders&mdash;something over forty dollars&mdash;for port dues. It seemed a high
+price to pay for the privilege of lying in the stream, a quarter-mile
+off-shore. In all the Dutch ports at which we touched I noted this same
+disposition on the part of the authorities to charge all that the
+traffic would bear&mdash;and then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>some. Foreign vessels are rarely seen at
+Samarinda, and one would suppose that they would be welcomed
+accordingly, but the Dutch are a business people and do not permit
+sentiment to interfere with a chance to make a few honest guilders.</p>
+
+<p>The Residency, I found upon inquiry, was two miles away, in the
+outskirts of the town. And, as there are neither rickshaws nor
+carriages for hire in Samarinda, I was compelled to walk. It was really
+too hot to move. In five minutes my clothes were as wet as though I had
+fallen in the river. The green silk lining of my sun-hat crocked and
+ran down my face in emerald rivulets. When I had covered half the
+distance I paused beneath a waringin tree to rest. A breath of breeze
+from the river, sighing through the palms, brought to my streaming
+cheeks a hint of coolness and to my nostrils more than a hint of the
+garbage broiling on the beach. Anyone who could be romantic in Borneo
+<i>must</i> be in love.</p>
+
+<p>The Assistant Resident, Monsieur de Haan, was as glad to see me as a
+banker away from home is to see a copy of <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>. I
+brought him a whiff of that great outside world from which he was an
+exile, with whose doings he kept in touch only through the meager
+despatches in the papers brought by the fortnightly mail-boat from
+Java, or through occasional travelers like myself. Dutch officials in
+the Indies can obtain leave only once in ten years and Monsieur de Haan
+had not visited the mother country for nearly a decade, so that when he
+learned I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>had recently been in Holland he was pathetically eager to
+hear the gossip of the homeland. For an hour I lounged in a Cantonese
+chair beneath the leisurely swinging punkah&mdash;the motive power for the
+punkah being provided by a native on the verandah outside, who
+mechanically pulled the cord even while he slept&mdash;and chatted of homely
+things: of a restaurant which we both knew on the Dam in Amsterdam, of
+bathing on the sands of Scheviningen, of band concerts on summer
+evenings in the Haagsche Bosch. Only when his long-pent curiosity as to
+happenings in Europe had been appeased did I find an opportunity to
+mention the reasons which had brought me to Samarinda. I wished to go
+up country, I explained. I wanted to see the real jungle and the
+strange tribes which dwell in it; particularly I wished to see the
+head-hunters. Now in this I was fully prepared for discouragement and
+dissuasion, for head-hunters are not assets to a country; to a visitor
+they are not displayed with pride. When, in the Philippines, I wished
+to see the head-hunting Igorots; when I asked the Japanese for
+permission to visit the head-hunters of Formosa, I met only with
+excuses and evasions. At my taste the officials pretended to be
+surprised and grieved. But Monsieur de Haan, doubtless because he had
+lived so long in the wilds that head-hunters were to him a commonplace,
+not only made no objection, he even offered to accompany me.</p>
+
+<p>"We can go up the Koetei on your cutter," he suggested. "It is
+navigable as far as Long Iram, two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>hundred miles up-country, which is
+the farthest point inland that one of our garrisons is stationed. Thus
+you will be able to see the Dyak country as comfortably as you could
+see Holland from the deck of a canal boat. On our way we might pay a
+visit to the Sultan of Koetei, who has a palace at Tenggaroeng. Though
+he has no real power to speak of, he exercises considerable influence
+among the wild tribes, of which he is the hereditary ruler. He's the
+very man to put you in touch with the head-hunters."</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion sounded fine. Moreover, in visiting savages as
+temperamental as the Dyaks, there would be a certain comfort in having
+the head of the government along. So, as Monsieur de Haan did not
+appear to be pressed with business, we arranged to start up-river the
+following morning.</p>
+
+<p>It was late afternoon when I returned to the <i>Negros</i>. I was completely
+wilted by the terrible humidity, and, as the river looked cool and
+inviting in the twilight, I decided to refresh my body and my spirits
+by a swim. But when I suggested to the Doctor that he join me he shook
+his head gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing doing," he said. "I've been wanting to go in all day but the
+port surgeon tells me that I'd be committing suicide."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" I demanded irritably, for I was ill-tempered from the heat.
+"It's perfectly clean out here in mid-stream and there is no danger
+from sharks here, as there was at Zamboanga and Jolo."</p>
+
+<p>By way of replying he pointed to a black object, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>which I took to be a
+log, that was floating on the surface of the river, perhaps fifty yards
+off the cutter's gangway.</p>
+
+<p>"That's why," he said dryly.</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke a dugout, driven by half-a-dozen paddles in the hands of
+lusty natives, came racing down stream. As the canoe drew abreast of
+us, the paddlers chanting a barbaric chorus, there was a sudden swirl
+in the water and the object which I had taken for a log abruptly
+dropped out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"A crocodile!" I ejaculated, a little shiver chasing itself up and down
+my spine.</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"The river is alive with them," he said. "Man-eaters, too. The port
+surgeon told me that they get a native or so every day."</p>
+
+<p>"I've changed my mind about wanting a swim," I remarked, heading for
+the ship's shower-bath.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>(Dusk is settling on the great river and the palm fronds are gently
+stirring before the breeze that comes with nightfall on the Line. If
+you have nothing better to do, suppose you sit down beside me in a
+deck-chair and let me tell you something about these cruel and cunning
+monsters and the curious methods by which they are captured. <i>Boy! Pass
+the cheroots and bring us something cold to drink.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>Though crocodiles are found everywhere in Malaysia, they attain their
+greatest size and ferocity in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> rivers of Borneo, it being no
+uncommon thing for them to attack and capsize the frail native canoes,
+killing their occupants as they flounder in the water. I suppose that
+the crocodile of Borneo more nearly approaches the giant saurians of
+prehistoric times than anything alive to-day. Imagine, if you please, a
+creature as large as a ship's launch, with the swiftness and ferocity
+of a man-eating shark, the cunning of a snake, a body so heavily
+armored with scales that it is impervious to everything save the most
+high-powered bullets, a tail that is capable of knocking down an ox,
+and a pair of jaws that can cut a man in two at a single snap. How
+would you like to encounter that sort of thing when you were having a
+pleasant swim, I ask you? Compared to the crocodile of Malaysia, the
+Florida alligator is about as formidable as a lizard. One was captured
+while we were at Sandakan which measured slightly over twenty-eight
+feet from the end of his ugly snout to the tip of his vicious tail.
+Before you raise your eyebrows incredulously you might take a look at
+the accompanying photograph of this monster. Nor was this a record
+crocodile, for, shortly before our arrival at Samarinda, one was caught
+in the Koetei which measured ten metres, or within a few inches of
+thirty-three feet.</p>
+
+<p>The crocodile obtains its meals by the simple expedient of lying
+motionless just beneath the surface of a pool where the natives are
+accustomed to bathe or where they go for water. The unsuspecting brown
+girl trips jauntily down to the river-bank to fill her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+amphora&mdash;usually a battered Standard Oil tin. As she bends over the
+stream there comes without the slightest warning the lightning swish of
+a scaly tail, a scream, the crunch of monster jaws, a widening eddy, a
+scarlet stain overspreading the surface of the water&mdash;and there is one
+less inhabitant of Borneo. But instead of proceeding to devour its
+victim then and there, the crocodile carries the body up a convenient
+creek, where it has the self-control to leave it until it is
+sufficiently gamey to satisfy its palate. For the crocodile, like the
+hunter, does not like freshly killed meat. Hence, a crocodile swimming
+up-stream with a native in its mouth is by no means an uncommon sight
+on Borne an rivers.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is a quick death," as an Englishman whom I met in Borneo
+philosophically observed. "They don't play with you as a cat plays with
+a mouse&mdash;they just hold you under the water until you are drowned."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, in spite of the hundreds who fall victim to the terrible jaws each
+year, the natives seem incapable of observing the slightest
+precautions. For superstitious reasons they will not disturb the
+crocodile until it has shown itself to be a man-eater. If the crocodile
+will live at peace with him the native has no wish to start a quarrel.
+But the day usually comes when a native who has gone down to the river
+fails to return. In America, under such circumstances, the relatives of
+the missing man would send for grappling irons and an undertaker. But
+in Borneo they summon a professional crocodile hunter. The idea of this
+is not so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> much to obtain revenge as to recover the brass ornaments
+which the dear departed was wearing at the moment of his taking off,
+for, though human life is the cheapest thing there is in Borneo, brass
+is extremely dear.</p>
+
+<p>The professional crocodile hunters are usually Malays. One of the best
+known and most successful in Borneo is an old man who runs a ferry
+across the Barito at Bandjermasin. He has capitalized his skill and
+cunning by organizing himself into a sort of crocodile liability
+company, as it were. Anyone may secure a policy in this company by
+paying him a weekly premium of 2� Dutch cents. When one of his
+policy holders is overtaken by death in the form of a pair of four-foot
+jaws the old man turns the ferry over to one of his children and sets
+out to fulfill the terms of his contract by capturing the offending
+saurian, recovering from its stomach the weighty bracelets, anklets and
+earrings worn by the deceased, and restoring them to the next of kin.
+In order to make good he sometimes has to kill a number of crocodiles,
+but he keeps on until he gets the right one. This is not as difficult
+as it sounds, for the big man-eaters usually have their recognized
+haunts in certain deep pools in the rivers, many of them, indeed, being
+known to the natives by name. The old ferryman at Bandjermasin has been
+so successful in the conduct of his curious avocation that, so the
+Dutch Resident assured me, he has several hundred policy holders who
+pay him their premiums<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> with punctilious regularity, thereby giving him
+a very comfortable income.</p>
+
+<p>The method pursued by the crocodile hunters of Borneo is as effective
+as it is ingenious. Their fishing tackle consists of a hook, which is a
+straight piece of hard wood, about the size of a twelve-inch ruler,
+sharpened at both ends; a ten-foot leader, woven from the tough,
+stringy bark of the baru tree; and a single length of rattan or cane,
+fifty feet or so in length, which serves as a line. One end of the
+leader is attached to a shallow notch cut in the piece of wood, the
+other end is fastened to the rattan. With a few turns of cotton one end
+of the stick is then lightly bound to the leader, thus bringing the two
+into a straight line. Then comes the bait, which must be chosen with
+discrimination. Though the body of a dog or pig will usually answer,
+the morsel that most infallibly tempts a crocodile is the carcass of a
+monkey. But it must not be a freshly killed monkey, mind you. A
+crocodile will only swallow meat that is in an advanced stage of
+decomposition, the more overpowering its stench the greater the
+likelihood of the bait being taken. The bait is securely lashed to the
+pointed stick, though anyone but a Malay would require a gas-mask to
+perform this part of the operation.</p>
+
+<p>Everything now being ready, the bait is suspended from the bough of a
+tree overhanging the pool which the crocodile is known to frequent,
+being so arranged that the carcass swings a foot or so above the
+surface of the stream at high water level, the end of the rattan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> being
+planted in the bank. Lured by the smell of the bait, which in that
+torrid climate quickly acquires a bouquet which can be detected a mile
+to leeward, the crocodile is certain sooner or later to thrust its long
+snout out of the water and snap at the odoriferous bundle dangling so
+temptingly overhead, the slack line offering no resistance until the
+bait has been swallowed and the brute starts to make off. Then the
+man-eater gets the surprise of its long and checkered life, for the
+planted end of the rattan holds sufficiently to snap the threads which
+bind the pointed stick to the leader. The stick, thus caused to resume
+its original position at right angles to the line, becomes jammed
+across the crocodile's belly, the pointed ends burying themselves in
+the tender abdominal lining.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning the hunter finds bait and tackle missing, but a brief
+search usually reveals the coils of rattan floating on the surface of
+some deep pool at no great distance from the spot where the bait was
+taken. At the bottom of the pool Mr. Crocodile is writhing in the
+throes of acute indigestion. Taking the end of the line ashore, the
+hunter summons assistance. A score of jubilant natives lay hold on the
+rattan. Then ensues a struggle that makes tarpon fishing as tame in
+comparison as catching shiners. At first the monster tries to resist
+the straining line, its tail flailing the water into foam. The great
+jaws close on the leader like a bear-trap, but the loosely braided
+strands of baru fiber slip between the pointed teeth. The leader holds.
+The natives haul at the line as sailors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> haul at a halliard. Soon there
+emerges from the churning waters a long and incredibly ugly snout,
+followed by a low, reptilian head, with venomous, heavy-lidded, scarlet
+eyes, a body as broad as a row-boat and armored with horny scales, and
+finally a tremendous tail, twice as long as an elephant's trunk and
+twice as powerful, that spells death for any human being that comes
+within its reach. Sometimes it happens that the hunters momentarily
+become the hunted, for the infuriated beast, catching sight of its
+enemies, may come at them with a rush and a bellow, but more often it
+has to be dragged to land, fighting every inch of the way.</p>
+
+<p>Now comes the most hazardous part of the whole proceeding&mdash;the securing
+of the monster. By means of a noose, deftly thrown, the great jaws are
+rendered harmless. Another noose encircles the lashing tail and binds
+it securely to a tree. The front legs are next lashed behind the back
+and the hind legs treated in the same fashion. Thus deprived of the
+support of its legs, the crocodile is helpless and it is safe to
+release its tail. A stout bamboo is then passed between the bound legs
+and a score of sweating natives bear the captive in triumph to the
+nearest government station, where the bounty is claimed. The crocodile
+is then killed, the stomach cut open and its contents examined, any
+brassware or other ornaments worn by its victim at the time of his
+demise being handed over to the heirs.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="crocodile" id="crocodile"></a>
+<img src="images/112.jpg" width="600" height="373" alt="men hauling on a crocodile" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="caption">Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The method of fishing pursued by the Dyaks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> Borneo is quite as
+curious, in its way, as their manner of catching crocodiles. Instead of
+netting the fish, or catching them with hook and line, they asphyxiate
+them, using for the purpose a poison obtained from the tuba root, known
+to scientists as <i>Cocculus indicus</i>. When a Dyak village is in need of
+food the entire community, men, women and children, repairs to a stream
+in which fish are known to be plentiful. Across the stream a sort of
+picket fence is erected by planting bamboos close together. In the
+center of this fence is a narrow opening leading into an enclosure like
+a corral, the walls of which are made in the same fashion. When this
+part of the preparations has been completed a party of natives proceeds
+up-stream by canoe for a dozen, or more miles, taking with them a
+plentiful supply of tuba root. Early the next morning the canoes are
+filled with water, in which the tuba root is beaten until the water is
+as white and frothy as soapsuds. When a sufficient quantity of this
+highly toxic liquid has thus been obtained, it is emptied into the
+stream and, after a brief wait, the canoes are again launched and the
+fishermen drift slowly down the current in the wake of the poison. Many
+of the fish are stupefied by the tuba and, as they rise struggling to
+the surface, are speared by the Dyaks. Other, seeking to escape the
+poisonous wave, dart down-stream and, when halted by the barrier, pour
+through the opening into the corral, where they are captured by the
+thousands. I might add that the tuba does not affect the flesh of the
+fish, which can be eaten with safety. As a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> means of obtaining food in
+wholesale quantities fishing with tuba is perhaps justified. As a sport
+it is in the same class with shooting duck from airplanes with
+machine-guns.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Monsieur de Haan, wearing the brass-buttoned white uniform and
+gold-laced conductor's cap which is the garb prescribed for Dutch
+colonial officials, came abroad the <i>Negros</i> shortly after breakfast.
+The gangway was hoisted, Captain Galvez gave brisk orders from the
+bridge, there was a jangle of bells in the engine-room, and we were off
+up the Koetei, into the mysterious heart of Borneo. Above Samarinda the
+great river flows between solid walls of vegetation. The density of the
+Bornean jungle is indeed almost unbelievable. It is a savage tangle of
+bamboos, palms, banyans, mangroves, and countless varieties of shrubs
+and giant ferns, the whole laced together by trailers and creepers.
+Contrary to popular belief, there is little color to relieve the somber
+monotony of dark brown trunks and dark green foliage. It is as gloomy
+as the nave of a cathedral at twilight. Here and there may be seen some
+vine with scarlet berries and many orchids swing from the higher
+branches like incandescent globes of colored glass. But it is usually
+impossible for one on the ground to see the finest blooms, which turn
+their faces to the sunlight above the canopy of green. Gray apes
+chatter in the tree-tops; strange tropic birds of gorgeous plumage flit
+from bough to bough, monstrous reptiles slip silently through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+undergrowth; insects buzz in swarms above the putrid swamps;
+occasionally the jungle crashes beneath the tread of some heavy
+animal&mdash;a rhinoceros, perhaps, or a wild bull, or an orang-utan. (I
+might mention, parenthetically, that <i>orang-utan</i> means, in the Malay
+language, "man of the forest," while <i>orang-outang</i>, the name which we
+incorrectly apply to the great red-haired anthropoid, means "man in
+debt.") The Bornean jungle is a place of indescribable dismalness and
+dread, its gloom seldom dissipated by the sun, its awesome silence
+broken only by the stirrings of the unseen creatures which lurk
+underfoot and overhead and all around.</p>
+
+<p>The palace of the Sultan of Koetei stands in the edge of the jungle at
+a horseshoe bend in the river. You come on it with startling
+abruptness&mdash;miles and miles of primeval wilderness and then, quite
+unexpectedly, a bit of civilization. In no respect does its exterior
+come up to what you would expect the palace of an Oriental ruler to be.
+It is a great barn of a place, two stories in height, painted a bright
+pink, with the arms of Koetei emblazoned above the entrance. It
+reminded me of a Coney Island dance hall or one of the tabernacles
+built for Billy Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>A broad flight of white marble steps leads to a wide, covered terrace
+of the same incongruous material. This terrace opens directly into the
+great throne-hall, a lofty apartment of impressive proportions, though
+its furnishings are a bizarre mixture of Oriental taste and Occidental
+tawdriness. Its marble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> floor is strewn with splendid rugs and
+tiger-skins; hanging from the ceiling are enormous cut-glass
+chandeliers; set in the walls, on either side of the scarlet-and-gold
+throne, are life-size portraits of the present Sultan's father and
+grandfather done in glazed Delft tiles, which seem more appropriate for
+a bathroom than a throne-hall. From each end of the apartment
+scarlet-carpeted staircases, with gilt balustrades, lead to the second
+floor. Under one of these staircases is a sort of closet, with glass
+doors, which looks for all the world like a large edition of a
+telephone booth in an American hotel. The doors were sealed with strips
+of paper affixed by means of wax wafers, but, peering through the
+glass, I could made out a large table piled high with trays of precious
+stones, ingots of virgin gold and silver, vessels, utensils and images
+of the same precious metals. It was the state treasure of Koetei and
+was worth, so the Resident told me, upward of a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>When I was at Tenggaroeng the young Sultan, an anaemic-looking youth in
+the early twenties, had not yet been permitted by the Dutch authorities
+to ascend the throne, the country being ruled by his uncle, the Regent,
+an elderly, affable gentleman who, in his white drill suit and round
+white cap, was the image of a Chinese cook employed by a Californian
+friend of mine. Upon the formal accession of the young Sultan the seals
+of the treasury would be broken, I was told, and the treasure would be
+his to spend as he saw fit. I rather imagine, however, that the Dutch
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span><i>controleur</i> attached to his court in the capacity of adviser will
+have something to say should the youthful monarch show a disposition to
+squander his inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>Up-stairs we were shown through a series of apartments filled to
+overflowing with the loot of European shops&mdash;ornate brass beds, inlaid
+bureaus and chiffoniers, toilet-sets of tortoise-shell and ivory,
+washbowls and pitchers of S&egrave;vres, Dresden and Limoges, garnish vases,
+statuettes, music-boxes, mechanical toys, models of all ships and
+engines, and a thousand other useless and inappropriate articles, for,
+when the late Sultan paid his periodic visits to Europe, the
+shopkeepers of Paris, Amsterdam and The Hague seized the opportunity to
+unload on him, at exorbitant prices, their costliest and most unsalable
+wares. Opening a marquetry wardrobe, the Regent displayed with great
+pride his collection of uniforms and ceremonial costumes, most of
+which, the Resident told me, had been copied from pictures which had
+caught his fancy in books and magazines. That wardrobe would have
+delighted the heart of a motion-picture company's property-man, for it
+contained everything from a Dutch court dress, complete with sword and
+feathered hat, to a state costume of sky-blue broadcloth edged with
+white fur and trimmed with diamond buttons. I expressed a desire to see
+the royal crown, for I had noticed that the pictures of former sultans,
+which I had seen in the throne-room, showed them wearing crowns of a
+peculiar design, strikingly similar to those worn by the Emperors of
+Abyssinia. My request resulted in a whispered colloquy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>between the
+Resident, the Controleur, the Regent and the young Sultan. After a
+brief discussion the Resident explained that the Controleur kept the
+crown locked up in his safe, but that he would get it if I wished to
+see it. To the obvious relief of everyone except the young Sultan I
+assured them that it did not matter. He seemed distinctly disappointed.
+I imagine that he would have liked to have gotten his hands on it.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the palace&mdash;just below its windows, in fact&mdash;is a long, low,
+dirt-floored, wooden-roofed shed, such as American farmers build to
+keep their wagons and farm machinery under. This was the royal
+cemetery. Beneath it the former rulers of Koetei lie buried, their
+resting-places being marked by a most curious assortment of
+fantastically carved tombs and headstones. Some of the tombs hold the
+ashes of men who sat on the throne of Koetei when it was one of the
+great kingdoms of the East, long before the coming of the white man.</p>
+
+<p>Lady luck was kind to me, for shortly after our arrival at Tenggaroeng
+a delegation of Dyaks from one of the tribes of the far interior
+appeared at the palace to lay some tribal dispute before the Regent for
+his adjudication. There were about a score of them, including a rather
+comely young woman, whose comeliness was somewhat marred, however,
+according to European standards at least, by the lobes of her ears
+being stretched until they touched her shoulders by the great weight of
+the brass earrings which depended from them. The warriors were the
+finest physical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>specimens of manhood that I saw in all Malaysia&mdash;tall,
+slim, muscular, magnificently developed fellows, with bright, rather
+intelligent faces. They had the broad shoulders and small hips of Roman
+athletes and when the sun struck on their oiled brown skins they looked
+like the bronzes in a museum. Unlike the natives we had seen along the
+coast, whose garments made a slight concession to the prejudices of
+civilization, these children of the wild "wore nothing much before and
+rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind." Several of them were armed with
+the sumpitan, or blow-gun, which is the national weapon of the Dyaks,
+and each of them carried at his waist a <i>parang-ilang</i>, the terrible
+long-bladed knife which the head-hunter uses to kill and decapitate his
+victims.</p>
+
+<p>Monsieur de Haan, as well as the other Dutch officials whom I
+questioned on the subject, attributed the prevalence of head-hunting in
+Borneo to the vanity of the Dyak women. He explained that, just as
+American girls expect candy and flowers from the young men who are
+attentive to them, so Dyak maidens expect freshly severed human heads.
+The warrior who refused to present his lady-love with such grisly
+evidences of his devotion would be rejected by her and ostracized by
+his tribe. Nor does head-hunting end with marriage, for the standing of
+both the man and his wife in the community depends upon the number of
+grinning skulls which swing from the ridgepole of their hut. Heads are
+to a Dyak what money is to a man in civilized countries&mdash;the more he
+has, the greater his importance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> The Controleur at Tenggaroeng assured
+me very earnestly that his Dyak charges were by no means ferocious or
+bloodthirsty by nature and that they practised head-hunting less from
+pleasure than from force of custom. But I am compelled to accept such
+an estimate of the Dyak character with reservations. From all that I
+could learn, head-hunting is a sport, like fox-hunting in England. Nor
+does it, as a rule, involve any great risk to the hunters, for the
+head-hunting raids are usually mere butcheries of defenceless people,
+the Dyaks either stalking their victim in the bush and killing him from
+behind, or attacking a village when the warriors are absent and
+slaughtering everyone whom they find in it&mdash;old, men, women, and
+children. The head of an orang-utan, by the way, is as highly prized in
+many of the Dyak tribes as that of a human being. Nor is this
+surprising, for the warrior who single-handed can kill one of the
+mighty anthropoids is deserving of the trophy.</p>
+
+<p>During my stay in Borneo I heard many theories advanced in explanation
+of head-hunting. Some authorities claimed that it is the Dyak's way of
+establishing a reputation for prowess. Others asserted that he takes
+heads merely to gratify the vanity of his women. There are still others
+who hold the opinion that the Dyak believes that he inherits the
+courage and cunning of those he kills. In certain of the Dyak tribes
+the heads are treated with profound reverence, being wreathed with
+flowers, offered the choicest morsels of food, and sometimes being
+given a place at the table,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> while in other tribes they are hung from
+the ridgepole and displayed as trophies of the chase. My own opinion is
+that, though prestige and vanity and superstition all contribute to the
+prevalence of head-hunting, in the inherent savagery of the Dyak is
+found the true explanation of the custom.</p>
+
+<p>I have already made passing mention of that characteristic weapon of
+the Dyaks, the sumpitan, or, as it is called by foreigners, the
+blow-gun. The sumpitan is a piece of hard wood, from six to eight feet
+in length and in circumference slightly larger than the handle of a
+broom. Running through it lengthwise is a hole about the size of a
+lead-pencil. A broad spear-blade is usually lashed to one end of the
+sumpitan, like a bayonet, thus providing a weapon for use at close
+quarters. The dart is made from a sliver of bamboo, or from a
+palm-frond, scraped to the size of a steel knitting-needle. One end of
+the dart is imbedded in a cork-shaped piece of pith which fits the hole
+in the sumpitan as a cartridge fits the bore of a rifle; the other end,
+which is of needle-sharpness, is smeared with a paste made from the
+milky sap of the upas tree dissolved in a juice extracted from the root
+of the tuba. With the possible exception of curare, this is the
+deadliest poison known, the slightest scratch from a dart thus poisoned
+paralyzing the respiratory center and causing almost instant death. The
+dart is expelled from the sumpitan by a quick, sharp exhalation of the
+breath. In fact, M. de Haan told me that among certain of the Dyak
+tribes virtually all of the men suffer from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> rupture as a result of the
+constant use of the blow-gun. Though I have heard those who have never
+seen the sumpitan in use sneer at it as a toy, it is, at short
+distances, one of the most accurate weapons in existence and, when its
+darts are poisoned, one of the deadliest. In order to show me what
+could be done with the sumpitan, the Regent stuck in the earth a bamboo
+no larger than a woman's little finger, and a Dyak, taking up his
+position at a distance of thirty paces which I stepped off myself, hit
+the almost indistinguishable mark with his darts twelve times running.
+That, as the late Colonel Cody would have put it, "is some shooting."</p>
+
+<p>In Borneo the use of the blow-gun is not confined to the Dyaks. They
+are also used by fish! That is to say, by a certain species of fish.
+This fish, which is remarkable neither in size nor color, seldom being
+larger than our domestic goldfish, is known to the natives as <i>ikan
+sumpit</i> (literally "fish with a sumpitan") and to science as <i>Toxodes
+jaculator</i>. But it is unique among the finny tribe in possessing the
+curious power, on corning to the surface, of being able to squirt from
+its mouth a tiny jet of water. This it uses with unerring aim against
+insects, such as flies, grasshoppers and spiders, resting on plants
+along the edge of the streams, causing them to fall into the water,
+where they become an easy prey to these Dyaks of the deep. It was lucky
+for us that the crocodiles were not armed with blow-guns!</p>
+
+<p>When Latins engage in a serious quarrel they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> prone to decide it
+with the stiletto, or, if they belong to the class which subscribes to
+the code, they meet on the field of honor with rapiers or pistols;
+Anglo-Saxons are accustomed to settle their disputes in a court of law
+or with their fists; but when Dyaks become involved in a controversy
+which cannot be adjusted by the tribal council, they have recourse to
+the <i>s'lam ayer</i>, or trial by water. This curious method of deciding
+disputes is conducted with great formality, according to the rules of
+an established code. For example, should two husky young head-hunters
+become involved in a lovers' quarrel over a village belle&mdash;the lobes of
+whose ears are probably pulled down to her shoulders by the weight of
+her brass earrings&mdash;they adjourn, with their seconds and their friends,
+to what might appropriately be called the pool of honor. Almost any
+place where there are four or five feet of water will do. Into the
+bottom of the pool the seconds drive two stout bamboo poles, a few
+yards apart. The rivals then wade out into the water and take up their
+positions, each grasping a pole. At a signal from the chief who is
+acting as umpire they plunge beneath the water, each duelist keeping
+his nostrils closed with one hand while with the other he clings to the
+pole so as to keep his head below the surface. As both of them would
+drown themselves rather than acknowledge defeat by coming to the
+surface voluntarily, at the first sign either of the two gives of being
+asphyxiated, the seconds, who are watching their principals closely,
+drag the rivals from the water. They are then held up by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> the heels,
+head downward, in order to drain off the water they have swallowed, the
+one who first recovers consciousness being declared the victor and
+awarded the hand of the lady fair. It is a quaint custom.</p>
+
+<p>As I have no desire to strain your credulity to the breaking-point, I
+will touch on only one more Dyak custom&mdash;the disposal of the dead. It
+seems a fitting subject with which to bring this account of the wild
+men to a close. Certain of the Dyak tribes expose their dead in trees,
+some burn them, while still others bury them until the flesh has
+disappeared, when they exhume the skeletons, disarticulate them, and
+seal the bones in the huge jars of Chinese porcelain which are a Dyak's
+most prized possession. Sometimes these burial-jars are kept in the
+family dwelling&mdash;a rather gruesome article of furniture to the European
+mind&mdash;but more often they are deposited in a grave-house, a small,
+fantastically decorated hut or shed which serves as a family vault. But
+I doubt if any people on the face of the globe have so weird a custom
+of disposing of their dead as the Kapuas of Central Borneo, who hollow
+out the trunk of a growing tree and in the space thus prepared insert
+the corpse of the departed. The bark is carefully replaced over the
+opening and the tree continues to grow and flourish&mdash;literally a living
+tomb.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="regent" id="regent"></a>
+<img src="images/124a.jpg" width="600" height="426" alt="Major Powell with Regent and Sultan" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="caption">Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+steps of the palace at Tenggaroeng</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">From left to right: the regent, Major Powell, the prime minister, the
+Sultan of Koetei (who has since ascended the throne), and the Dutch
+resident, M. de Haan</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="kraton" id="kraton"></a>
+<img src="images/124b.jpg" width="600" height="409" alt="a royal procession" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="caption">State procession in the Kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Noticing that I was interested in the equipment of the Dyaks, the
+Regent of Koetei called up their chief and, without so much as a
+by-your-leave, presented me with his sumpitan and the quiver of
+poisoned darts, his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>wooden shield&mdash;a long, narrow buckler of some
+light wood, tastily trimmed with seventy-two tufts of human hair,
+mementoes of that number of enemies slain on head-hunting
+expeditions&mdash;a peculiar coat of mail, composed of overlapping pieces of
+bark, capable of turning an arrow, and his imposing head-dress, which
+consisted of a cap formed from a leopard's head, with a sort of visor
+made from the beak of a hornbill, the whole surmounted by a bunch of
+yard-long tail-feathers from some bright-plumaged bird. When the
+presentation was concluded all the chieftain had left was his
+breech-clout. He did not share in my enthusiasm. From the murderous
+glance which he shot at me when the Regent was not looking, I judged
+that if he ever met me alone in the jungle he would get his shield
+back, with another scalp to add to his collection. And I could guess
+whose head that scalp would come from.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI<br />
+<small>IN BUGI LAND</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>The <i>Negros</i> was not fast&mdash;thirteen knots was about the best she could
+do&mdash;so that it took us two days to cross from Samarinda, in Borneo, to
+Makassar, the capital of the Celebes. Our course took us within sight
+of "the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank," where, as
+you may remember, Sir Anthony Gloster, of Kipling's ballad of <i>The Mary
+Gloster</i>, was buried beside his wife. Before our hawsers had fairly
+been made fast to the wharf at Makassar it became evident that among
+the natives our arrival had created a distinct sensation. The wharf was
+crowded with Bugis, as the natives of the southern Celebes are known,
+who tried in vain to make themselves understood by our Filipino crew.
+Instead of the boisterous curiosity which had marked the attitude of
+the natives at the other ports, the Bugis appeared to be laboring under
+a suppressed but none the less evident excitement. When I went ashore
+to call on the American Consul they made way for me with a respect
+which verged on reverence. This curious attitude was explained by the
+Consul.</p>
+
+<p>"Your coming has revived among the natives a very curious and ancient
+legend," he told me. "When the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> Dutch established their rule in the
+Celebes, something over three centuries ago, the King of the Bugis
+mysteriously disappeared. Whether he fled or was killed in battle, no
+one knows. In any event, from his disappearance arose a tradition that
+he had founded another kingdom in some islands far to the north, but
+that, when the time was propitious, he would return to free his people
+from foreign domination. Thus he came in time to be regarded as a
+divinity, a sort of Messiah. Curiously enough, the natives refer to him
+by a name which, translated into English, means 'the King of Manila.'
+Some months ago it was reported in the Makassar papers that the
+Governor-General of the Philippines expected to visit the Celebes upon
+his way to Australia, whereupon the rumor spread among the Bugis like
+wild-fire that 'the King of Manila' was about to return to his ancient
+kingdom, but the excitement gradually subsided when the
+Governor-General failed to appear. But when the <i>Negros</i> entered the
+harbor this morning, and it was reported that she was from Manila and
+had on board a white man who had some mysterious mission in the
+interior of the island, the excitement flamed up again. The natives,
+you see, who are as simple and credulous as children, believe that you
+are the Messiah of their legend and that you have come to liberate them
+from Dutch rule."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>"But look here," said I, annoyance in my tone, "this isn't as funny as
+it seems. Tying me up to this fool tradition may result in spoiling my
+plans for taking pictures in the Celebes. Of course the Dutch
+authorities know perfectly well that I haven't come here to start a
+revolution, but, on the other hand, they may not want a person whom the
+natives regard as a Messiah to go wandering about in the interior,
+where Dutch rule is none too firmly established anyway, for fear that
+my presence might be used as an excuse for an insurrection."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let that worry you," the Consul reassured me. "I'll take you
+over now to call on the Governor. He's a good sort and he'll do
+everything he can to help you. Then I'll send the editors of the
+vernacular papers around to the <i>Negros</i> this afternoon to call on you.
+You can explain that you're here to get motion-pictures to illustrate
+the progress and prosperity of the Celebes, and it might be a good idea
+to tell them that some of your ancestors were Dutch. That will help to
+make you solid with the authorities. The interview will appear in the
+papers tomorrow and in twenty-four hours the news will have spread
+among the Bugis that you're not their Messiah after all."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm not Dutch," I protested. "All my people were Welsh and
+English. The only connection I have with Holland is that the house in
+which I was born is on a street that has a Dutch name."</p>
+
+<p>"Fine!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Born on Van Rensselaer street,
+you say? Be sure and tell 'em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> that. That's the next best thing to
+having been born in Holland."</p>
+
+<p>"I know now," I said, "how it feels to refuse a throne."</p>
+
+<p>At tiffin that noon on the <i>Negros</i> I told the story to the others. "So
+you see," I concluded, "if I had been willing to take a chance, I might
+have been King of the Bugis."</p>
+
+<p>"They wouldn't have called you that at home," the Lovely Lady said
+unkindly. "There they would have called you the King of the Bugs."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Nature must have created Celebes in a capricious moment, such a medley
+of bold promontories, jutting peninsulas, deep gulfs and curving bays
+does its outline present. Indeed, its coast line is so irregular and so
+deeply indented by the three great gulfs or bays of Tomini, Tolo, and
+Boni that it is small wonder that the first European explorers assumed
+it was a group of islands and gave it the name of plural form which
+still perpetuates the very natural mistake. Its length is roughly about
+five hundred miles but its width is so varying that while it is over a
+hundred miles across the northern part of the island at the middle it
+is a scant twenty miles from coast to coast.</p>
+
+<p>Though the census of 1905 gave the population of the island as less
+than nine hundred thousand, the latest official estimate places it at
+about three millions. The actual number of inhabitants is probably
+midway between these figures. But, to tell the truth, the temperament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+of the savages who inhabit the interior is not conducive to an accurate
+enumeration, the Dutch census-takers being greeted with about the same
+degree of cordiality that the moonshiners of the Kentucky mountains
+extend to United States revenue agents.</p>
+
+<p>The three most important peoples of Celebes are the Bugis, the
+Makassars, and the Mandars. The medley of more or less savage tribes
+dwelling in the island are known as Alfuros&mdash;literally "wild"&mdash;which is
+the term applied by the Malays to all the uncivilized non-Mohammedan
+peoples in the eastern part of the archipelago. For the Bugis to refer
+to the tribes of the interior as wild is like the pot calling the
+kettle black. The Bugis, a passionate, half-savage, extremely
+revengeful people, originally occupied only the kingdom of Boni, in the
+southwestern peninsula, but from this district they have spread over
+the whole of Celebes and have founded settlements on many of the
+adjacent islands. They are the seamen of the archipelago, the greatest
+navigators and the most enterprising tradesmen, and were, in times gone
+by, the greatest pirates as well. In fact, the harbor master at
+Makassar told us that the crews of many of the rakish looking sailing
+craft which were anchored in close proximity to the <i>Negros</i> were
+reformed buccaneers. Certainly they looked it. They may have reformed,
+but that did not prevent Captain Galvez from doubling the deck-watch at
+night while we were in Celebes waters. He believed in safety first.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="strange" id="strange"></a>
+<img src="images/130.jpg" width="390" height="550" alt="native women of the interior of Dutch Borneo" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 390px;">
+<p class="caption">Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">Native women of the interior of Dutch Borneo</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>The Winsome Widow had been very enthusiastic about going to the Celebes
+because Makassar is the greatest market in the world for those
+ornaments so dear to the feminine heart&mdash;bird-of-paradise plumes. I
+explained to her that it was against the law to bring them into the
+United States, but no matter, she wanted to buy some. To visit Makassar
+without buying bird-of-paradise plumes, she said, would be like
+visiting Japan without buying a kimono. The bird is usually sold
+entire, the prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty dollars,
+according to size and condition, though, owing to the ruthless
+slaughter of the birds to meet the demands of the European market,
+prices are steadily advancing. The Winsome Widow bought four of the
+finest birds I have ever seen&mdash;gorgeous, flame-colored things with
+plumes nearly two feet long. How she proposed getting them into the
+United States she did not tell me, and I thought it as well not to ask
+her. She had them carefully packed in a wooden box made for the purpose
+which she did not open until nearly two months later, when we were
+steaming down the coast of Siam on a cargo boat, long after I had sent
+the <i>Negros</i> back to Manila. Imagine her feelings when, upon opening
+the box to feast her eyes on her contraband treasures, she found it to
+contain nothing but waste paper! I suspect that the sweetheart of one
+of our Filipino cabin-boys is now wearing a hat fairly smothered in
+bird-of-paradise plumes.</p>
+
+<p>The Bugis' love of the sea has given them almost a monopoly of the
+trade around Celebes. Despite their fierce and warlike dispositions
+they are industrious and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> ingenious&mdash;qualities which usually do not go
+together; they practise agriculture more than the neighboring tribes
+and manufacture cotton cloth not only for their own use but for export.
+They also drive a thriving trade in such romantic commodities as gold
+dust, tortoise shell, pearls, nutmegs, camphor, and bird-of-paradise
+plumes. They dwell for the most part in walled enclosures known as
+<i>kampongs</i>, in flimsy houses built of bamboo and thatched with grass or
+leaves. But as diagonal struts are not used the walls soon lean over
+from the force of the wind, giving to the villages a curiously
+inebriated appearance. In several of the eight petty states which
+comprise the confederation of Boni the ruler is not infrequently a
+woman, the female line having precedence over the male line in
+succession to the throne. The women rulers of the Bugis have invariably
+shown themselves as astute, capable and warlike as the men, the
+princess who ruled in Boni during the middle of the last century having
+defeated three powerful military expeditions which the Dutch sent
+against her. Everything considered, the Bugis are perhaps the most
+interesting race in the entire archipelago.</p>
+
+<p>The Bugis are said to be more predisposed toward "running amok" than
+any other Malayan people. Having been warned of this unpleasant
+idiosyncrasy, I took the precaution, when among them, of carrying in
+the right-hand pocket of my jacket a service automatic, loaded and
+ready for instant action. For when a Bugi runs amok he will almost
+certainly get you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> unless you get him first. Running amok, I should
+explain, is the native term for the homicidal mania which attacks
+Malays. Without the slightest warning, and apparently without reason, a
+Malay, armed with a kris or other weapon, will rush into the street and
+slash at everybody, friends and strangers alike, until he is killed.
+These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity, but it
+is now believed that the typical <i>amok</i> is the result of excitement due
+to circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which
+render the man desperate and weary of life. It is, in fact, the Malay
+equivalent of suicide. Though so intimately associated with the Malay,
+there are good grounds for believing the word to have an Indian origin.
+Certainly the act is far from unknown in Indian history. In Malabar,
+for example, it was long the custom for the zamorin or king of Calicut
+to cut his throat in public after he had reigned twelve years. But in
+the seventeenth century there was inaugurated a variation in this
+custom. After a great feast lasting for nearly a fortnight the ruler,
+surrounded by his bodyguard, had to take his seat at a national
+assembly, on which occasion it was lawful for anyone to attack him,
+and, if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself assumed the
+crown. In the year 1600, it is recorded, thirty men who would be king
+were killed while thus attempting to gain the throne. These men were
+called <i>Amar-khan</i>, and it has been suggested that their action was
+"running amok" in the true sense of the term. From this it would appear
+that a king of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> Calicut was about as good an insurance risk as a
+president of Haiti.</p>
+
+<p>The act of running amok is probably due to causes over which the
+culprit has some measure of control, as the custom has now virtually
+died out in the Philippines and in the British possessions in Malaysia,
+owing to the drastic measures adopted by the authorities. Among the
+Mohammedans of the southern Philippines, where the custom is known as
+<i>juramentado</i>, it was discouraged by burying the carcass of a pig&mdash;an
+animal abhorred by all Moslems&mdash;in the grave with the body of the
+assassin. When I was in Jolo the governor told me of a novel and highly
+effective method which had been adopted by the officer commanding the
+American forces in that island for discouraging the custom. A number of
+American soldiers had been killed by Moros running amok. The American
+commander took up the matter with the local priests but they only
+shrugged their shoulders with true Oriental stoicism, saying that when
+a man went <i>juramentado</i> it was the will of Allah and that nothing
+could be done. The next day an American soldier, a revolver in either
+hand, burst into a Moro village, notorious for its <i>juramentados</i>,
+firing at everyone whom he saw and yelling like a mad man. The
+terrified villagers took to the bush, where they remained in fear and
+trembling until the crazy Americano had taken his departure. That
+evening the village priests appeared at headquarters to complain to the
+American commander.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>"But Americans have just as much right to go <i>juramentado</i> as the
+Moros," said the general. "I can do nothing. The man is not
+responsible. It is the will of Allah." That was the end of
+<i>juramentado</i> in Jolo.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The wharves and godowns which line Makassar's water-front form an
+unattractive screen to a picturesque and charming town. Though, owing
+to its commercial importance as a half-way station on the road from
+Asia to Australia, Makassar promises to become a second Singapore, it
+has as yet neither an electric lighting, gas, nor water system. It is,
+however, very beautifully laid out, the streets, which are broad and
+well-kept, being lined by double rows of magnificent canarium trees or
+tamarinds, whose branches interlace high overhead in a canopy of green.
+The European life of Makassar centers in the great grass-covered
+<i>plein</i>, or common, where band concerts, reviews, horse races,
+festivals, and similar events are held. Facing on the <i>plein</i> is the
+palace of the Governor of the Celebes, a one-story, porticoed building
+with white walls and green blinds, in the Dutch colonial style, a type
+of architecture which is admirably adapted to the tropics. Next to the
+palace is the Oranje Hotel, a well-kept and comfortable hostelry as
+hotels go in Malaysia. On its terrace the homesick Europeans gather
+toward twilight to sip <i>advocat</i>&mdash;a drink which is a first cousin to
+the egg-nogg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> of pre-Volstead days, very popular in the Indies&mdash;and to
+listen to the military band playing on the <i>plein</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Diagonally across the <i>plein</i> rise the massive walls of Fort Rotterdam,
+erected by one of the native rulers, the King of Goa, with the
+assistance of the Portuguese, when the seventeenth century was still in
+its infancy and when the settlement on the lower end of Manhattan
+Island was still called Nieuw Amsterdam. The capture of the fort by the
+Dutch in 1667 signalized the passing of Portuguese power in Asia. Pass
+the slovenly native sentry at the outer gate, cross the creaking
+drawbridge, and, were it not for the tropical vegetation and the
+oppressive heat, you might think yourself in the Low Countries instead
+of a few degrees below the Line, for the crenelated ramparts, the
+shaded, gravelled paths, the ancient garrison church, the officers'
+quarters with their steep-pitched, red-tiled roofs, make the interior a
+veritable bit of Holland, transplanted to a tropic island half the
+world away.</p>
+
+<p>Makassar has a population of about fifty thousand, including something
+over a thousand Europeans and some five thousand Chinese, but as most
+of the natives live in their walled kampongs in the environs, the city
+appears much smaller than it really is. The retail trade is almost
+wholly in the hands of the Chinese, many of whom are men of great
+wealth and influence. There was also a small colony of Japanese, but,
+as a result of the boycott which the Chinese had instituted against
+them in reprisal for Japan's refusal to evacuate Shantung, they were
+unable to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> find markets for their wares or to obtain employment and,
+in consequence, were being forced to leave the island. The only
+American in the Celebes when we were there was the representative of
+the Standard Oil Company&mdash;a desperately homesick youngster from
+Missouri who had been a lieutenant of aviation. He introduced himself
+to us on the terrace of the Oranje Hotel, begged the privilege of
+buying the drinks, and pleaded with an eagerness that was almost
+pathetic for the latest news from God's Country. At almost every place
+of importance which we visited in Malaysia we found these agents of
+Standard Oil&mdash;alert and clean-cut young fellows, who, far from home and
+friends, are helping to build up a commercial empire for America
+oversea.</p>
+
+<p>The native soldiery, who form the bulk of the Makassar garrison, are
+quartered, with their families, in long, stone barracks&mdash;ten couples to
+a room. For every soldier of the colonial forces, whether European or
+native, is permitted to keep a woman in the barracks with him. If she
+is the soldier's wife, well and good, but the authorities do not frown
+if the couple have omitted the formality of standing up before a
+clergyman. The rooms in which the soldiers and their families live have
+no partitions, to each couple being assigned a space about eight feet
+square, which is chalk-marked on the floor. The only article of
+furniture in each of these "apartments" is a bed, which is really a
+broad, low platform covered with a grass-mat, for in a land where the
+mercury not infrequently climbs to 120<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> in the shade, there is no need
+for bedding. Here they eat and sleep and make their toilets, the women
+preparing the meals for their men and for themselves in ovens
+out-of-doors. At night the beds may be separated by drawing the
+flimsiest of cotton curtains&mdash;the only concession to privacy that I
+could discover. As Malays invariably have large families, the barrack
+room usually has the appearance of a day nursery, with naked brown
+youngsters crawling everywhere, but at night they are disposed of in
+fiber hammocks which are slung over the parents' heads. The colonel in
+command at Fort Rotterdam told me that in the new type of barracks
+which were being built in Java each family would be assigned a separate
+room, but he seemed to regard such provisions for privacy as wholly
+unnecessary and a shameful waste of money.</p>
+
+<p>The military authorities not only permit, but encourage the Dutch
+soldiers to contract alliances of a temporary character with native
+women during their term of service in the Insulinde, with the idea, no
+doubt, of making them more contented. During operations in the field
+the women and children, instead of remaining behind in barracks,
+accompany the troops almost to the firing-line, a custom which,
+apparently, does not interfere with efficiency or discipline. Indeed,
+there are few forces of equal size in the world which have seen as much
+active service as the army of Netherlands India, for in the extension
+of Dutch dominion throughout the archipelago the native rulers rarely
+have surrendered their authority without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> fighting. Though the
+newspapers seldom mention it, Holland is almost constantly engaged in
+some little war in some remote corner of her Indian empire, in certain
+districts of Sumatra, for example, fighting having been almost
+continuous these many years.</p>
+
+<p>Though the flag of Holland was first hoisted over the Celebes more than
+three centuries ago, Dutch commercial interests are still virtually
+confined to the four chief towns&mdash;Makassar, Menado, Gorontalo, and
+Tondano&mdash;and this in spite of the fact that the interior of the island
+is known to be immensely rich in natural resources. In the native
+states Dutch authority is little more than nominal, the repeated
+attempts which have been made to subjugate them invariably having met
+with discouragement and not infrequently with disaster. Hence the
+island is still without railways, though it is being slowly opened up
+by means of roads, some of which are practicable for motor-cars. Most
+of the roads in the Celebes were originally built by means of the
+Corv&eacute;e, or forced labor, the natives being compelled to spend one month
+out of the twelve in road construction. But, though they were taken for
+this work at a season when they could best be spared from their fields,
+it was an enormous tax to impose upon an agricultural population,
+resulting in grave discontent and in seriously retarding the
+development of the island. For, ever since Marshal Daendels, "the Iron
+Marshal," who ruled the Indies under Napoleon, utilized forced labor to
+build the splendid eight-hundred-mile-long highway which runs from one
+end of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> Java to the other, the corv&eacute;e has been a synonym for
+unspeakable cruelty and oppression throughout the Insulinde. Each
+<i>dessa</i>, or district, through which the great trans-Java highway runs
+was forced to construct, within an allotted period, a certain section
+of the road, the natives working without pay while their crops rotted
+in the fields and their families starved. As a final touch of tyranny,
+the grim old Marshal gave orders that if a <i>dessa</i> did not complete its
+section of the road within the allotted time the chiefs of that
+district were to be taken out and hung.</p>
+
+<p>When the Dutch determined to open up Celebes by the construction of a
+highway system they realized the wisdom of obtaining the cooperation of
+the native rulers. But when they outlined their scheme to the King of
+Goa, the most powerful chieftain in the southern part of the island,
+they encountered, if not open opposition, at least profound
+indifference. This was scarcely a matter for surprise, however, for the
+King quite obviously had no use for roads, first, because when he had
+occasion to journey through his dominions he either rode on horseback
+or was carried in a palanquin along the narrow jungle trails; secondly,
+because he was perfectly well aware that by aiding in the construction
+of roads he would be undermining his own power, for roads would mean
+white men. To attempt to build a road across Goa in the face of the
+King's opposition, would, as the Dutch realized, probably precipitate a
+native uprising, for, without his cooperation, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> be necessary
+to make use of the corv&eacute;e to obtain laborers.</p>
+
+<p>But the Governor of the Celebes had been trained in a different school
+from the Iron Marshal. He believed that with an ignorant and suspicious
+native, such as the King of Goa, tact could accomplish more than
+threats. So, instead of attempting to build the road by forced labor,
+he sent to Batavia for a fine European horse and a luxurious carriage,
+gaudily painted, which he presented to the King as a token of the
+government's esteem and friendship. Now the King of Goa, as the
+governor was perfectly aware, had about as much use for a wheeled
+vehicle in his roadless dominions as a Bedouin of the Sahara has for a
+sailboat. But the King did precisely what the governor anticipated that
+he would do: in order that he might display his new possession he
+promptly ordered his subjects to build him a carriage road from his
+capital to Makassar. Thus the government of the Celebes obtained a
+perfectly good highway for the price of a horse and carriage, and won
+the friendship of the most powerful of the native rulers into the
+bargain. After some years, however, the road began to fall into
+disrepair, but as by this time the novelty of the horse and carriage
+had worn off, the King took little interest in its improvement. So the
+governor again had recourse to diplomacy to gain his ends, this time
+presenting his Goanese Majesty with a motor-car, gorgeous with scarlet
+paint and polished brass. And, in order that the King might be brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+to realize that the roads were not in a condition conducive to
+comfortable motoring, a young Dutch officer took him for his first
+motor ride. That ride evidently jolted the memory as well as the body
+of the dusky monarch, for the next day a royal edict was issued
+summoning hundreds of natives to put the road in good repair. And, as
+the King quickly acquired a taste for speeding, in good repair it has
+remained ever since.</p>
+
+<p>I have related this episode not because it is in itself of any great
+importance, but because it serves to illustrate the methods used by the
+Dutch officials in handling recalcitrant or stubborn natives. Though
+Holland rules her fifty million brown subjects with an iron hand, she
+has long since learned the wisdom of wearing over the iron a velvet
+glove.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="center"><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Owing to my ignorance of Dutch and Buginese, I was unable
+to obtain a dependable account of this curious legend, but the several
+versions which I heard agreed in the main with that given above.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII<br />
+<small>DOWN TO AN ISLAND EDEN</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>I went to Bali, which is an island two-thirds the size of Porto Rico,
+off the eastern extremity of Java, because I wished to see for myself
+if the accounts I had heard of the surpassing beauty of its women were
+really true. The Dutch officials whom I had met in Samarinda and
+Makassar had depicted the obscure little isle as a flaming, fragrant
+garden, overrun with flowers, a sort of unspoiled island Eden, where
+bronze-brown Eves with faces and figures of surpassing loveliness
+disported themselves on the long white beaches, or loitered the lazy
+days away beneath the palms. But I went there skeptical at heart, for,
+ever since I journeyed six thousand miles to see the women for whom
+Circassia has long been undeservedly famous, I have listened with doubt
+and distrust to the tales told by returned travelers of the nymphs whom
+they had found, leading an Arcadian existence, on distant tropic isles.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I must admit that, when the anchor of the <i>Negros</i> splashed into
+the blue waters off Boeleleng, on the northern coast of the island, and
+a boat's crew of white-clad Filipinos rowed me ashore, I half expected
+to find a Balinese edition of the Ziegfeld Follies chorus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> waiting to
+greet me with demonstrations of welcome and garlands of flowers. What I
+did find on the wharf was a surly Dutch harbor-master, who, judging
+from his breath and disposition, had been on a prolonged carouse. Of
+the women whose beauty I had heard chanted in so many ports, or,
+indeed, of a native Balinese of any kind, there was no sign. Barring
+the harbor-master and a handful of Chinese, Boeleleng, which is a place
+of some size, appeared to be deserted. Yet, as I strolled along its
+waterfront, I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched by
+many pairs of unseen eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Where has everyone gone?" I demanded of the impassive Chinese steward
+who served me liquid refreshment at the Concordia Club. (Every town in
+the Insulinde has its Concordia Club, just as every Swiss town has its
+Grand Hotel.)</p>
+
+<p>"Menjepee," he answered mystically, shrugging his shoulders. "Evlyone
+stay in house."</p>
+
+<p>"Menjepee, eh?" I repeated. "Never heard of it. Some sort of disease, I
+suppose, like cholera or plague. If that's why everyone has run away I
+think that I'd better be leaving."</p>
+
+<p>A ghost of a smile flitted across the Celestial's impassive
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"No clolra. No pleg," he assured me. "Menjepee make by pliest."</p>
+
+<p>Before I could elucidate this curious statement there entered the club
+a young Hollander immaculate in pipe-clayed top&eacute;e and freshly starched
+white linen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>"It's not a disease; it's a religious observance," he explained in
+perfect English, overhearing my last words. "They call it Menjepee,
+which, literally translated, means 'silence.' The Balinese are Hindus,
+you know&mdash;about the only ones left in the Islands&mdash;and they observe the
+Hindu festivals very strictly. Their priests raise the very devil with
+them if they don't. During Menjepee, which lasts twenty-four hours, no
+native is permitted to set foot outside the wall of his kampong except
+for the most urgent reasons, and even then he has to get permission
+from his priest. If he is caught outside his kampong without permission
+he is heavily fined, to say nothing of being given the cold shoulder by
+his neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>"I was told in Samarinda," I remarked carelessly, by way of introducing
+the topic in which I was most interested, "that some of the native
+girls here in Bali are remarkably good looking."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you'd be asking about them," the Hollander commented dryly.
+"That's usually the first question asked by everyone who comes to Bali.
+But you won't find them on this side of the island. If you want to see
+them you'll have to cross over to the south side. The prettiest girls
+are to be found in the vicinity of Den Pasar and Kloeng Kloeng."</p>
+
+<p>"So I had heard," I told him. "I am going to cross the island by motor
+and have my boat pick me up on the other side. How far is it to Den
+Pasar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only about sixty miles and you'll have a tolerably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> good mountain road
+all the way. But you can't go today."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Menjepee," was the laconic answer. "You won't be able to get anyone to
+take you. There are only four or five motor cars in Boeleleng and their
+drivers are all Hindus."</p>
+
+<p>I smothered an expletive of annoyance, for my time was limited and the
+<i>Negros</i> had already sailed.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you don't mean to tell me that there is no way in which I can
+get across the island today?" I demanded. "This Menjepee business is as
+infernal a nuisance as a taxicab strike in New York."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the Resident might be able to do something for you," my
+acquaintance suggested after a moment's consideration. "He's a good
+sort and he's always glad to meet visitors. We don't have many of them
+here, heaven knows. Look here. I've a sado outside. Suppose you hop in
+and I'll drive you up to the Residency and you can ask the Resident to
+help you out."</p>
+
+<p>As we rattled in a sort of governess-cart, called sado, up the broad,
+palm-lined avenue which leads from Boeleleng to Singaradja, the seat of
+government, three miles away, I caught fleeting glimpses of natives
+peering at me furtively over the mud walls which surround their
+kampongs, but the instant they saw that they were observed they
+disappeared from view. The Resident I found to be a man of charm and
+culture who had twice crossed the United States on his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> way to and from
+Holland. At first he was dubious whether anything could be done for me,
+explaining that Menjepee is as devoutly observed by the Hindus of Bali
+as the fasting month of Ramadan is by the Mohammedans of Turkey, and
+that the Dutch officials make it a rule never to interfere with the
+religious observances of the natives. He finally consented, however, to
+send for the chief priest and see if he could persuade him, in view of
+my limited time, to grant a special dispensation to a native who could
+drive a car. I don't know what arguments he used, but they must have
+been effective, for within the hour we heard the honk of a motor-horn
+at the Residency gate.</p>
+
+<p>"We have no hotels in Bali," the Resident remarked as I was taking my
+departure, "but I'll telephone over to the Assistant Resident at Den
+Pasar to have a room ready for you at the passangrahan&mdash;that's the
+government rest-house, you know. And I'll also send word to the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng that you are coming and ask him to arrange
+some native dances for you. He's very keen about that sort of thing and
+knows where to get the best dancers in the island."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I queried, as I was about to enter the car, "are these girls
+I've heard so much about really pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>The Resident smiled cynically.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he replied, and I thought that I could detect a note of
+homesickness in his voice, "it depends upon the point of view. When you
+first arrive in Bali you swear that they are the prettiest
+brown-skinned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> women in the world. But after you have been here a year
+or so you get so tired of everything connected with the tropics that
+you don't give the best of them a second glance. For my part, give me a
+plain, wholesome-looking Dutch girl with a lusty figure and
+corn-colored hair and cheeks like apples in preference to all the
+cafe-au-lait beauties in Bali."</p>
+
+<p>"Au revoir," I called, as I signaled to the driver and the car leaped
+forward. "If I listen to you any longer I shall have no illusions
+left."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Save only its western end, which is covered with dense jungle inhabited
+by tigers and boa-constrictors, Bali is a vast garden, ablaze with the
+most gorgeous flowers that you can imagine and criss-crossed by a
+net-work of hard, white roads which alternately wind through huge
+cocoanut plantations or skirt interminable paddy fields. From the coast
+the ground rises steadily to a ridge formed by a central range of
+mountains, which culminate in the imposing, cloud-wreathed Peak of
+Bali, two miles high. Streams rushing down from the mountains have cut
+the rich brown loam of the lowlands into deep ravines, down which the
+brawling torrents make their way to the sea between high banks
+smothered in tropical vegetation. The most remarkable feature of the
+landscape, however, are the rice terraces, built by hand at an
+incredible cost of time and labor, which climb the slopes of the
+mountains, tier on tier, like the seats in a Roman ampitheatre,
+sometimes to a height of three thousand feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> or more, constituting one
+of the engineering marvels of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The southern slope of the divide appeared to be much more thickly
+peopled than the northern, for, as we sped down the steep grades with
+brakes a-squeal, villages of mud-walled, straw-thatched huts became
+increasingly frequent, nor did the natives appear to be observing
+Menjepee as strictly as in the vicinity of Boeleleng, for they stood in
+the gateways of their kampongs and waved at us as we whirled past, and
+more than once we saw groups of them squatting in a circle beside the
+road, engaged in the national pastime of cock-fighting. Now we began to
+encounter the women whose beauty is famous throughout Malaysia:
+glorious, up-standing creatures with great masses of blue-black hair, a
+faint <i>couleur de rose</i> diffusing itself through their skins of brown
+satin. They were taller than any other women I saw in Malaysia, lithe
+and supple as Ruth St. Denis, and bearing themselves with a quiet
+dignity and lissome grace. From waist to ankle they were tightly
+wrapped in <i>kains</i> of brilliant batik, which defined, without
+revealing, every line and contour of their hips and lower limbs, but
+from the waist up they were entirely nude, barring the flame-colored
+flowers in their dusky hair.</p>
+
+<p>Unlike most Malays, the eyes of the Balinese, instead of being oblique,
+are set straight in the head. The nose, which frequently mars what
+would otherwise be well-nigh perfect features, is generally small and
+flat, with too-wide nostrils, though I saw a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>number of Balinese women
+with noses which were distinctly aquiline&mdash;the result of a strain of
+European blood, perhaps. The lips are thick, yet well formed; the teeth
+are naturally regular and white but are all too often stained scarlet
+with betel-nut, which is to the Balinese girl what chewing-gum is to
+her sister of Broadway. The complexion ranges from a deep but rosy
+brown to a <i>nuance</i> no darker than that of a European brunette, but in
+the eyes of the Balinese themselves a golden-yellow complexion, the
+color of weak tea, is the perfection of female beauty. But the chief
+charm of these island Eves is found, after all, not in their faces but
+in their figures&mdash;slender, rounded, willowy, deep-bosomed, such as
+Botticelli loved to paint.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the alluring tales brought back by South Sea travelers of the
+radiant creatures who go about unclad as when they were born, I have
+myself found no spot, save only Equatorial Africa, where women dispense
+with clothing habitually and without shame. Indeed, I have seen girls
+far more scantily clad on the stage of the Ziegfeld Roof or the Winter
+Garden than I ever have in those distant lands which have not yet
+received the blessings of civilization. In most of the Polynesian
+islands the painter or photographer can usually bribe a native girl to
+disrobe for him, just as in Paris or New York he can find models who
+for a consideration will pose in the nude, but when the picture is
+completed she promptly resumes the shapeless and hideous garments of
+Mother Hubbard cut which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> the missionaries were guilty of introducing
+and whose all-enveloping folds, they na&iuml;vely believe, form a shield and
+a buckler against temptations of the flesh. But there are no
+missionaries in Bali, not one&mdash;though the Board of Foreign Missions may
+interest itself in the islanders after this book appears&mdash;and the women
+continue to dress as they should with such figures and in such a
+climate.</p>
+
+<p>Because of a flat tire, the driver stopped the car beside a little
+stream in which two extremely pretty girls were bathing. With the
+evening sun glinting on their brown bodies and their piquant, oval
+faces framed by the dusky torrents of their loosened hair, they looked
+like those bronze maidens which disport themselves in the fountain of
+the Piazza delle Terme in Rome, come to life. I felt certain that they
+would take to flight when Hawkinson unlimbered his motion-picture
+camera and trained it upon them, but they continued their joyous
+splashing without the slightest trace of self-consciousness or
+confusion. In fact, when a Balinese girl becomes embarrassed, she does
+not betray it by covering her body but by drawing over her face a veil
+which looks like a piece of black fishnet. Their bath completed, the
+maidens emerged from the water on to the farther bank, paused for a
+moment to arrange their hair, like wood nymphs of the Golden Age, then
+wound their gorgeous <i>kains</i> about them and vanished amid the trees.
+From somewhere on the distant hillside came the sweet, shrill quaver of
+a reed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> instrument. The driver said it was a native flute, but I knew
+better. It was the pipes of Pan....</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Rather than that you should be scandalized when you visit Bali, let me
+make it quite clear that in matters of morality the Balinese women are
+as easy as an old shoe. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that
+they are unmoral rather than immoral. This is one of the conditions of
+life in the Insulinde which must be accepted by the traveler, just as
+he accepts as a matter of course the heat and the insects and the dirt.
+Though polygamy is practised, it is confined, because of the expense
+involved in maintaining a matrimonial stable, to the wealthier chiefs
+and other men of means. A Turkish pasha who maintained a large harem
+once told me that polygamy is as trying to the disposition as it is to
+the pocketbook, because of the incessant jealousies and bickerings
+among the wives. And I suppose the same conditions obtain in the
+seraglios of Bali. The former rajah of Kloeng Kloeng, now known as the
+Regent, a stout and jovial old gentleman arrayed in a cerise <i>kain</i>, a
+sky-blue head-cloth, and a white jacket with American twenty-dollar
+gold pieces for buttons, told me with a touch of pride that he had
+twenty-five wives in his harem. But his pride subsided like a pricked
+toy balloon when the Controleur, who had overheard the boast, mentioned
+that another regent, the ruler of a district at the western end of the
+island, possessed upward of three hundred wives&mdash;of the exact number he
+was not certain as it was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>constantly fluctuating. To my great regret I
+could not spare the time to pay a visit to this Balinese Brigham Young.
+There were a number of questions relative to domestic economy and
+household administration which I should have liked to have asked him.</p>
+
+<p>Until very recent years, the young Balinese girl who married an old
+husband incurred the risk of meeting an untimely and extremely
+unpleasant end, for the island was the last stronghold of that strange
+and dreadful Hindu custom, <i>suttee</i>&mdash;the burning of widows. The last
+public <i>suttee</i> in Bali was held as recently as 1907, but, in spite of
+the stern prohibition of the practise by the Dutch, it is said that
+some women faithful to the old customs and to their dead husbands
+continue to join the latter on the funeral pyre. In fact, the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng told me that, only a few weeks before my
+arrival, two women had begged him on their knees for permission to be
+burned with the body of the dear departed, whom they wished to share in
+death as in life.</p>
+
+<p>The Balinese, being devout Hindus, burn their dead, but the cremations
+are held only twice yearly, being observed as holidays, like
+Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. If a man dies shortly before the
+cremation season is due, his remains are kept in the house until they
+can be incinerated with befitting ceremony&mdash;though I imagine that, in
+view of the torrid climate, the members of his family perforce move
+elsewhere for the time being&mdash;but if he is so inconsiderate as to
+postpone his dying until after one of these semi-annual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> burnings, it
+becomes necessary to bury him. In a land where the thermometer
+frequently registers 100 and above, you couldn't keep a corpse around
+the house for several months, could you? When cremation day comes round
+again, however, he is dug up, taken to a temple and burned. There is no
+escaping the funeral-pyre in Bali. As we were leaving one of the
+cremation places I overheard the Doctor irreverently humming a
+paraphrase of a song which was very popular in the army during the war:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If the grave don't get you the wood-pile must."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Unlike the South Sea islanders, who are rapidly dying out as the result
+of diseases introduced by Europeans, the population of Bali&mdash;which is
+one of the most densely peopled regions in the world, with 325
+inhabitants to the square mile&mdash;is rapidly increasing, having more than
+doubled in the last fifteen years. This is due in some measure, no
+doubt, to the climate, which, though hot, is healthy save in certain
+low-lying coastal districts, but much more, I imagine, to the fact that
+there are scarcely a hundred Europeans on the island, and that, as
+there are no harbors worthy the name, European vessels rarely touch
+there. It is well for the Balinese that their enchanted island has no
+harbors, for harbors mean ships, and ships mean white men, and white
+men, particularly sailors, all too often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> leave undesirable mementoes
+of their visits behind them.</p>
+
+<p>The men of Bali are a fine, strong, dignified, rather haughty race, fit
+mates in physique for their women. They are considerably taller than
+any other Malays whom I saw and possess less Mongoloid and Negroid
+characteristics, these being subdued by some strong primeval alien
+strain which is undoubtedly Caucasian. Though now peaceable enough,
+every Balinese man carries in his sash a kris&mdash;the long, curly-bladed
+knife which is the national weapon of Malaysia. Most of the krises that
+I examined were more ornamental than serviceable, some of them having
+scabbards of solid gold and hilts set with precious stones. Moreover,
+they are worn against the middle of the back, where they must be
+difficult to reach in an emergency. I imagine that the kris, universal
+though it is, serves as a symbol of former militancy rather than as a
+fighting weapon, just as the buttons at the back of our tailcoats serve
+to remind us that their original purpose was to support a sword-belt.
+But, though the Balinese have made no serious trouble for their Dutch
+rulers for upward of a decade, they long resisted European domination,
+as evidenced by the four bloody uprisings in the last three-quarters of
+a century&mdash;the last was in 1908&mdash;which were suppressed only with
+difficulty and considerable loss of life. When the shells from the
+gunboats began to burst over their towns, the rajahs, recognizing that
+their cause was lost, nerved themselves with opium and committed the
+traditional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> <i>puputan</i>, or, with their wives, threw themselves on the
+Dutch bayonets. But, though the Balinese have bowed perforce to the
+authority of the stout young woman who dwells in The Hague, they have
+none of the cringing servility, that look of pathetic appeal such as
+you see in the eyes of dogs which have been mistreated, so
+characteristic of the Javanese.</p>
+
+<p>Though the three-quarters of a million natives in Bali have behind them
+the traditions of countless wars, the Dutch, who seem to possess an
+extraordinary talent for governing brown-skinned peoples, maintain
+their authority with a few companies of native soldiery officered by a
+handful of Europeans. The success of the Dutch in ruling Malays, who
+are notoriously turbulent and warlike, is largely due to the fact that,
+so long as the customs of the natives are not inimical to good
+government or to their own well-being, they studiously refrain from
+interfering with them. Nor is there the same social chasm separating
+Europeans and natives in the Insulinde which is found in Britain's
+Eastern possessions. Were a British official in India to marry a native
+woman he would be promptly recalled in disgrace; if a Dutch official
+marries a native woman she is accorded the same social recognition as
+her husband. Though in the old days probably ninety per cent of the
+Dutch officials and planters in the Insulinde lived with native women,
+these unions are constantly decreasing, today probably not more than
+ten per cent of the Europeans thus solving their domestic problems. It
+struck me, moreover,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> that the Dutch are more in sympathy with their
+native subjects, that they understand them better, than the British. It
+is a remarkable thing, when you stop to think of it, that a little
+nation like Holland, with a colonial army of less than thirty-five
+thousand men and no fleet worthy of the name, should be able to
+maintain its authority over fifty millions of natives, ten thousand
+miles away, with so little friction.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the night in the small rest-house at Den Pasar which the
+government maintains for the use of its officials. I have said that we
+<i>passed</i> the night, mark you; I refuse to toy with the truth to the
+extent of saying that we slept. Why they call it a rest-house I cannot
+imagine. Never that I can recall, save only in a zoo, have I found
+myself on such intimate terms with so many forms of animal life as in
+that <i>passangrahan</i>. Cockroaches nearly as large as mice (before you
+raise your eyebrows at this statement talk with anyone who has traveled
+in Malaysia), spiders, centipedes, ants and beetles made my bedroom an
+entomologist's paradise. Some large winged animal, presumably a
+fruit-bat or a flying-fox, entered by the window and circled the room
+like an airplane; and, judging from the sounds which proceeded from
+beneath the bed, I gathered that the room also harbored a snake or a
+large rat, though which I was not certain as I saw no reason for
+investigating. A family of lizards disported themselves on the ceiling
+and when I menaced them with a stick they departed so hastily that one
+of them abandoned his tail, which dropped on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> wash-stand. A
+squadron of mosquitoes&mdash;a sort of <i>escadrille de chasse</i>, as it
+were&mdash;kept me awake until daybreak, when they were relieved by a
+skirmishing party of <i>cimex lectulariae</i>, which are well known in
+America under a shorter and less polite name. Fishes only were absent,
+but I am convinced that their neglect of me was due to ignorance of my
+presence. Had they known of it I feel certain that the climbing fish,
+which is one of the curiosities of these waters, would have flopped on
+to my pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Upon our arrival at Kloeng Kloeng I found the Controleur, who had been
+notified by the Resident at Singaradja of our coming, had made
+arrangements for an elaborate series of native dances to be given that
+afternoon on the lawn of the residency. It is a simple matter to
+arrange a dance in Bali, for every village, no matter how small,
+supports a ballet, and usually a troupe of actors as well, just as an
+American community supports a baseball team. The money for the gorgeous
+costumes worn by the dancers is raised by local subscription and the
+ballet frequently visits the neighboring towns to give exhibitions or
+to engage in competitions, contingents of the dancers' townspeople
+usually going along to root for them.</p>
+
+<p>The Balinese dances require many years of arduous and constant
+training. A girl is scarcely out of the sling by which Balinese
+children are carried on the mother's back before, under the tutelage of
+her mother, who has herself perhaps been a dancing-girl in her time,
+she begins the severe course of gymnastics<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> and muscle training which
+are the foundations of all Eastern dances. From infancy until, not yet
+in her teens, she becomes a member of the village ballet or enters the
+harem of a local rajah, she is as assiduously trained and groomed as a
+race-horse entered for the Derby. From morning until night, day after
+day, year after year, the muscles of her shoulders, her back, her hips,
+her legs, her abdomen are suppled and developed until they will respond
+to her wishes as readily as her slender, henna-stained fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The lawn on which the dances were held sloped down, like a great green
+rug, from the squat white residency to an ancient Hindu temple, whose
+walls, of red-brown sandstone, were transformed by the setting sun into
+rosy coral. The Bali temples are but open courtyards enclosed within
+high walls, their entrances flanked by towering gate-posts, grotesquely
+carved. Within the courtyards, which have arrangements for the
+cremation of the dead as well as for the refreshment of the living, are
+numerous roofed platforms and small, elevated shrines, reached by steep
+flights of narrow steps, every square inch being covered with intricate
+and fantastic carvings. These carvings are for the most part
+beautifully colored, so that, when illuminated by the sun, they look
+like those porcelain bas-reliefs which one buys in Florence, or, if the
+colors are undimmed by age, like Persian enamel. In some of the temples
+which I visited, the colorings had been ruthlessly obliterated by coats
+of whitewash, but in those communities where Hinduism is still a
+living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> force, the inhabitants frequently impoverish themselves in
+order to provide the gold-leaf with which the interiors of the shrines
+are covered, just as the congregations of American churches praise God
+with carven pulpits and windows of stained glass.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The stage setting for the dances consisted of a small, portable pagoda,
+heavily gilded and set with mirrors&mdash;nothing more, unless you include
+the backdrop provided by the Indian Ocean. On either side of the
+pagoda, which was set in the centre of the lawn, squatted a motionless
+native holding a long-handled parasol of gold, known as a <i>payong</i>. So
+far as I could discover, the purpose of these parasol holders was
+purely ornamental, like the palms that flank a concert stage, for they
+never stirred throughout the four hours that the dancing lasted. The
+dancers themselves were extremely young&mdash;barely in their teens, I
+should say&mdash;but I could only guess their ages as their faces were so
+heavily enameled that they might as well have been wearing masks. Their
+costumes, faithful reproductions of those depicted in the carvings on
+the walls of the temples, were of a gorgeousness which made the
+creations of Bakst seem colorless and tame: tightly-wound <i>kains</i> of
+cloth-of-gold over which were draped silks in all the colors of the
+chromatic scale. Their necks and arms, which were stained a saffron
+yellow, were hung with jewels or near-jewels. On their heads were
+towering, indescribable affairs of feathers, flowers and tinsel,
+faintly reminiscent of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> fantastic headdresses affected by the
+lamented Gaby. The music was furnished by a <i>gamelan</i>, or orchestra, of
+half-a-hundred musicians playing on drums, gongs and reeds, with a few
+xylophones thrown in for good measure. I am no judge of music, but it
+seemed to me that when the <i>gamelan</i> was working at full speed it
+compared very favorably with an American jazz orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>All the dances illustrated episodes from the Ramayana or other Hindu
+mythologies localized, the story being recited in a monotonous,
+sing-song chant, in the old Kawi or sacred language, by a professional
+accompanist who sat, cross-legged, in the orchestra. As a result of
+constant drilling since babyhood, the Balinese dancers attain a
+perfection of technique unknown on the western stage, but the visitor
+who expects to see the verve and abandon of the Indian dances as
+portrayed by Ruth St. Denis is certain to be disappointed. To tell the
+truth, the dances of Bali, like those I saw in Java and Cambodia, are
+rather tedious performances, beautiful, it is true, but almost totally
+lacking in that fire and spirit which we associate with the East. It is
+probable, however, that I am not sufficiently educated in the art of
+Terpsichore to appreciate them. It was as though I had been given a
+selection from <i>Die Niebelungen Lied</i> when I had looked for rag-time.
+But the natives are passionately fond of them, it being by no means
+uncommon, I was told, for a dance to begin in the late afternoon and
+continue without interruption until daybreak. The Controleur told me
+that he planned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> to utilize his next long leave in taking a native
+ballet to Europe, and, perhaps, to the United States. So, should you
+see the Bali dancers advertised to appear on Broadway, I strongly
+advise you not to miss them.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of going to Palm Beach next winter, or to Havana, or to the
+Riviera, why don't you go out to Bali and see its lovely women, its
+curious customs, and its superb scenery for yourself? You can get there
+in about eight weeks, provided you make good connections at Singapore
+and Surabaya. With no railways, no street-cars, no hotels, no
+newspapers, no theatres, no movies, it is a very restful place. You can
+lounge the lazy days away in the cool depths of flower-smothered
+verandahs, with a brown house-boy pulling at the punkah-rope and
+another bringing you cool drinks in tall, thin glasses&mdash;for the
+Volstead Act does not run west of the 160th meridian&mdash;or you can stroll
+in the moonlight on the long white beaches with lithe brown beauties
+who wear passion-flowers in their raven hair. Or, should you weary of
+so <i>dolce far niente</i> an existence, you can sail across to Java with
+the opium-runners in their fragile <i>prahaus</i>, or climb a two-mile-high
+volcano, or in the jungles at the western extremity of the island stalk
+the clouded tiger. And you can wear pajamas all day long without
+apologizing. Everything considered, Bali offers more inducements than
+any place I know to the tired business man or the absconding bank
+cashier.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br />
+<small>THE GARDEN THAT IS JAVA</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>I entered Java through the back door, as it were. That is to say,
+instead of landing at Batavia, which is the capital of Netherlands
+India, and presenting my letters of introduction to the
+Governor-General, Count van Limburg Stirum, I landed at Pasuruan, at
+the eastern extremity of the six-hundred-mile-long island. It was as
+though a foreigner visiting the United States were to land at Sag
+Harbor, on the far end of Long Island, instead of at New York. I
+learned afterward, from the American Consul-General at Batavia, that in
+doing this I committed a breach of etiquette. Though the Dutch make no
+official objections to foreigners landing where they please in their
+Eastern possessions, they much prefer to have them ring the front
+doorbell, hand in their cards, and give the authorities an opportunity
+to look them over. In these days, with Bolshevik emissaries stealthily
+at work throughout the archipelago, the Dutch feel that it behooves
+them to inspect strangers with some care before giving them the run of
+the islands.</p>
+
+<p>We landed at Pasuruan because it is the port nearest to Bromo, the most
+famous of the great volcanoes of Eastern Java, but as there is no
+harbor, only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> a shallow, unprotected roadstead, it was necessary for
+the <i>Negros</i> to anchor nearly three miles offshore. So shallow is the
+water, indeed, that it is a common sight at low tide to see the native
+fishermen standing knee-deep in the sea a mile from land. Until quite
+recently debarkation at Pasuruan was an extremely uncomfortable and
+undignified proceeding, the passengers on the infrequent vessels which
+touch there being carried ashore astride of a rail borne on the
+shoulders of two natives. A coat of tar and feathers was all that was
+needed to make the passenger feel that he was a victim of the Ku Klux
+Klan. But a narrow channel has now been dredged through the sand-bar so
+that row-boats and launches of shallow draught can make their way up
+the squdgy creek to the custom house at high tide.</p>
+
+<p>Until half a century ago Pasuruan was counted as one of the four great
+cities of Java, but with the extension of the railway system throughout
+the island and the development of the harbor at Surabaya, forty miles
+away, its importance steadily diminished, though traces of its one-time
+prosperity are still visible in its fine streets and beautiful houses,
+most of which, however, are now occupied by Chinese. Perhaps the most
+interesting feature of the place today is found in the costumes of the
+native women, particularly the girls, who wear a kind of shirt and veil
+combining all the colors of the rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>From Pasuruan to Tosari, which is a celebrated hill-station and the
+gateway to the volcanoes of eastern Java, is about twenty-five miles,
+with an excellent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> motor road all the way. For the first ten miles the
+road, here a wide avenue shaded by tamarinds and djati trees, runs
+across a steaming plain, between fields of rice and cane, but after
+Pasrepan the ascent of the mountains begins. The highway now becomes
+extremely steep and narrow, with countless hairpin turns, though all
+danger of collision is eliminated by the regulations which permit no
+down-traffic in the morning and no up-traffic in the afternoon. During
+the final fifteen miles, in which is made an ascent of more than six
+thousand feet, one has the curious experience of passing, in a single
+hour, from the torrid to the temperate zone. In the earlier stages of
+the ascent the road zigzags upward through magnificent tropical
+forests, where troops of huge gray apes chatter in the upper branches
+and grass-green parrots flash from tree to tree. Palms of all
+varieties, orchids, tree-ferns, bamboos, bananas, mangoes, gradually
+give way to slender pines; the heavy odors of the tropics are replaced
+by a pleasant balsamic fragrance; the hillsides become clothed with
+familiar flowers&mdash;daisies, buttercups, heliotrope, roses, fuchsias,
+geraniums, cannas, camelias, Easter lilies, azaleas, morning glories,
+until the mountain-slopes look like a vast old-fashioned garden. In the
+fields, instead of rice and cane, strawberries, potatoes, cabbages,
+onions, and corn, are seen. As the road ascends the air becomes cold
+and very damp; rain-clouds gather on the mountains and there are
+frequent showers. At one point the mist became so thick that I could
+scarcely discern the figure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> of my chauffeur and we were compelled to
+advance with the utmost caution, for at many points the road, none too
+wide at best, falls sheer away in dizzy precipices. But as suddenly as
+it came, just as suddenly did the mist lift, revealing the great plain
+of Pasuruan, a mile below, stretching away, away, until its green was
+blended with the turquoise of the Java Sea. It is a veritable Road of a
+Thousand Wonders, but there are spots where those who do not relish
+great heights and narrow spaces will explain that they prefer to walk
+so that they may gather wild-flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for the wild appearance of its Tenngri mountaineers,
+Tosari, which is the best health resort in Java, might be readily
+mistaken for an Alpine village, for it has the same steep and
+straggling streets, the same weather-beaten chalets clinging
+precariously to the rocky hillsides, the same quaint shops, their
+windows filled with souvenirs and postcards, the same glorious view of
+green valleys and majestic peaks, the same crisp, cool air, as
+exhilarating as champagne. The Sanatarium Hotel, which is always filled
+with sallow-faced officials and planters from the plains, consists of a
+large main building built in the Swiss chalet style and numerous
+bungalows set amid a gorgeous garden of old-fashioned flowers. Every
+bedroom has a bath&mdash;but such a bath!&mdash;a damp, gloomy, cement-lined cell
+having in one corner a concrete cistern, filled with ice-cold mountain
+water. The only furniture is a tin dipper. And it takes real courage,
+let me tell you,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> to ladle that icy water over your shivering person in
+the chill of a mountain morning.</p>
+
+<p>The mountain slopes in the vicinity of Tosari are dotted with the
+wretched wooden huts of the native tribe called Tenggerese, the only
+race in Java which has remained faithful to Buddhism. There are only
+about five thousand of them and they keep to themselves in their own
+community, shut out from the rest of the world. They are shorter and
+darker than the natives of the plains and, like most savages, are lazy,
+ignorant and incredibly filthy. Because the air is cool and dry, and
+water rather scarce, they never bathe, preferring to remain dirty. As a
+result the aroma of their villages is a thing not soon forgotten. The
+doors of their huts, which have no windows, all face Mount Bromo, where
+their guardian deity, Dewa Soelan Iloe, is supposed to dwell. Once each
+year the Tenggerese hold a great feast at the foot of the volcano, and,
+until the Dutch authorities suppressed the custom, were accustomed to
+conclude these ceremonies by tossing a living child into the crater as
+a sacrifice to their god. Though an ancient tradition forbids the
+cultivation of rice by the Tenggerese, they earn a meager living by
+raising vegetables, which they carry on horseback to the markets on the
+plain, and by acting as guides and coolies. They are incredibly strong
+and tireless, the two men who carried Hawkinson's heavy motion-picture
+outfit to the summit of Bromo making the round trip of forty miles in a
+single day over some of the steepest trails I have ever seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>Growing on the mountainsides about Tosari are many bushes of thorn
+apple, called <i>Datara alba</i>, their white, funnel-shaped flowers being
+sometimes twelve inches long. From the seeds of the thorn apple the
+Tenggerese make a sort of flour which is strongly narcotic in its
+effect. Because of this quality, it is occasionally utilized by
+burglars, who blow it into a room which they propose to rob, through
+the key-hole, thereby drugging the occupants into insensibility and
+making it easy for the burglars to gain access to the room and help
+themselves to its contents. Which reminds me that in some parts of
+Malaysia native desperadoes are accustomed to pound the fronds of
+certain varieties of palm to the consistency of powdered glass. They
+carry a small quantity of this powder with them and when they meet
+anyone against whom they have a grudge they blow it into his face. The
+sharp particles, being inhaled, quickly affect the lungs and death
+usually results. A friend of mine, for many years an American consul in
+the East, once had the misfortune to be next to the victim of such an
+attack, and himself inhaled a small quantity of the deadly powder. The
+lung trouble which shortly developed hastened, if it did not actually
+cause, his death.</p>
+
+<p>That we might reach the Moengal Pass at daybreak in order to see the
+superb panorama of Bromo and the adjacent volcanoes as revealed by the
+rising sun, we started from Tosari at two o'clock in the morning. Our
+mounts were wiry mountain ponies, hardy as mustangs and sure-footed as
+goats. And it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> well that they were, for the trail was the steepest
+and narrowest that I have ever seen negotiated by horses. The Bright
+Angel Trail, which leads from the rim of the Grand Canon down to the
+Colorado, is a Central Park bridle-path in comparison. In places the
+grade rose to fifty per cent and in many of the descents I had to lean
+back until my head literally touched the pony's tail. It recalled the
+days, long past, when, as a student at the Italian Cavalry School, I
+was called upon to ride down the celebrated precipice at Tor di Quinto.
+But there, if your mount slipped, a thick bed of sawdust was awaiting
+you to break the fall. Here there was nothing save jagged rocks. We
+started in pitch darkness and for three hours rode through a night so
+black that I could not see my pony's ears. The trail, which in places
+was barely a foot wide, ran for miles along a sort of hogback, the
+ground falling sheer away on either side. It was like riding
+blindfolded along the ridgepole of a church, and, had my pony slipped,
+the results would have been the same.</p>
+
+<p>But the trials of the ascent were forgotten in the overwhelming
+grandeur of the scene which burst upon us as, just at sunrise, we drew
+rein at the summit of the Moengal Pass. Never, not in the Rockies, nor
+the Himalayas, nor the Alps, have I seen anything more sublime. At our
+feet yawned a vast valley, or rather a depression, like an excavation
+for some titanic building, hemmed in by perpendicular cliffs a thousand
+feet in height. Wafted by the morning breeze a mighty river of clouds
+poured slowly down the valley, filling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> it with gray-white fleece from
+brim to brim. Slowly the clouds dissolved before the mounting sun until
+there lay revealed below us the floor of the depression, known as the
+Sand Sea, its yellow surface, smooth as the beach at Ormond, slashed
+across by the beds of dried-up streams and dotted with clumps of
+stunted vegetation. Like the Sahara it is boundless&mdash;a symbol of
+solitude and desolation. When, in the early morning or toward
+nightfall, the conical volcanoes cast their lengthening shadows upon
+this expanse of sand, it reminds one of the surface of the moon as seen
+through a telescope. But at midday, beneath the pitiless rays of the
+equatorial sun, it resembles an enormous pool of molten brass, the
+illusion being heightened by the heat-waves which flicker and dance
+above it. From the center of the Sand Sea rises the extinct crater of
+Batok, a sugar-loaf cone whose symmetrical slopes are so corrugated by
+hardened rivulets of lava that they look for all the world like folds
+of gray-brown cloth. Beyond Batok we could catch a glimpse of Bromo
+itself, belching skyward great clouds of billowing smoke and steam,
+while from its crater came a rumble as of distant thunder. And far in
+the distance, its purple bulk faintly discernible against the turquoise
+sky, rose Smeroe, the greatest volcano of them all.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="bromo" id="bromo"></a>
+<img src="images/170.jpg" width="355" height="550" alt="Bromo volcano" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 355px;">
+<p class="caption">The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The descent from the Moengal Pass to the Sand Sea is so steep that it
+is necessary to make it on foot, even the nimble-footed ponies having
+all they can do to scramble down the precipitous and slippery trail. It
+is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>well to cross the Sand Sea as soon after daybreak as possible, for
+by mid-morning the heat is like a blast from an open furnace-door. It
+is a four mile ride across the Sand Sea to the lower slopes of Bromo,
+but the sand is firm and hard and we let the ponies break into a
+gallop&mdash;an exhilarating change from the tedious crawl necessary in the
+mountains. Then came a stiff climb of a mile or more over fantastically
+shaped hills of lava, the final ascent to the brink of the crater being
+accomplished by a flight of two hundred and fifty stone steps. The
+crater of Bromo is shaped like a huge funnel, seven hundred feet deep
+and nearly half a mile across. From it belch unceasingly dark gray
+clouds of smoke and sulphurous fumes, while now and then large rocks
+are spewed high in the air only to fall back again, rolling down the
+inside slope of the crater with a thunderous rumble, as though the god
+whom the Tenggerese believe dwells on the mountain was playing at
+ten-pins. Deep down at the bottom of the crater jets of greenish-yellow
+sulphur flicker in a cauldron of molten lava, from which a red flame
+now and then leaps upward, like an out-thrust serpent's tongue. No
+wonder that the ignorant mountaineers look on Bromo with fear and
+veneration, for it huddles there, in the midst of that awful solitude,
+like some monster in its death agony, gasping and groaning.</p>
+
+<p>The transition from the lofty solitudes of the Tengger Mountains to the
+steaming, teeming thoroughfares of Surabaya, the metropolis of eastern
+Java, is not a pleasant one. For Surabaya&mdash;there are no less than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+half-a-dozen ways of spelling its name&mdash;though the greatest trading
+port in Java, from the point of view of the visitor is not an
+attractive city. Neither is it a healthy place, for it has a hot,
+humid, sticky climate, it lacks good drinking water and enjoys no
+refreshing breeze; mosquitoes feed on one's body and red ants on one's
+belongings; malaria and typhoid are prevalent and even bubonic plague
+is not unknown, the combined effect of all these showing in the sallow
+and enervated faces of its inhabitants. Yet it is a bustling,
+up-and-doing city, as different from phlegmatic, conservative old
+Batavia as Los Angeles is from Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Unlike the houses of Batavia, which stand far back from the street in
+lovely gardens, the houses of Surabaya are built directly on the
+street, with their gardens at the back. Most of the houses of the
+better class are in the Dutch colonial style&mdash;low and white with green
+blinds and across the front a stately row of columns. Every house is
+marked with a huge signboard bearing the number and the owner's name,
+thus making it easy for the stranger to find the one for which he is
+looking. There are no sidewalks and, as a consequence, walking is
+anything but pleasant, the streets being deep in dust during the dry
+season and equally deep in mud during the rains. I do not recall ever
+having seen a city of its size with so much wheeled traffic. Indeed,
+the scene on the Simpang Road about three in the afternoon, when the
+merchants are returning to their offices after the midday siesta,
+resembles that on Fifth Avenue at the rush hour, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> broad
+thoroughfare being literally packed from curb to curb with vehicles of
+every description: the ramshackle little victorias known as <i>mylords</i>,
+the high, two-wheeled dog-carts, with their seats back to back, called
+<i>sados</i>, the two-pony cabs termed <i>kosongs</i>, creaking bullock carts
+with wheels higher than a man, hand-cars and rickshaws hauled by
+dripping coolies, and other coolies staggering along beneath the weight
+of burdens swinging from the carrying-poles called <i>pikolans</i>, and
+every make and model of motor-cars from ostentatious, self-important
+Rolls-Royces to busybody Fords. Standing in the middle of the roadway,
+controlling and directing this roaring river of traffic with surprising
+efficiency are diminutive Javanese policemen wearing blue helmets many
+sizes too large for them and armed with revolvers, swords and clubs.</p>
+
+<p>The port of Surabaya, which is the busiest in the entire Insulinde, is
+four miles from the business section of the city, with which it is
+connected by a splendid asphalt highway lined by huge warehouses,
+factories, godowns and oil-tanks, many of them bearing familiar
+American names. In fact, one of the first things to attract my
+attention in Java was the great variety of American articles on sale
+and in use&mdash;motor cars, tires, typewriters, office supplies, cameras,
+phonographs, agricultural machinery of all descriptions.</p>
+
+<p>More than a tenth of Surabaya's population is Chinese and their
+commercial influence dominates the whole city. They have the finest
+residences, the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> luxurious clubs, the largest shops, the
+handsomest motor cars. I was shown a row of warehouses extending along
+the canal for one long block which are the property of a single
+Chinese. Wherever I traveled in the Indies I was impressed by the
+business acumen and success of these impassive, industrious sons of the
+Flowery Kingdom. They are the Greeks of the Far East but without the
+Greek's unscrupulousness and lack of dependability. A Chinese will not
+hesitate to take advantage of you in a business deal, but if he once
+gives you his word he will always keep it, no matter at what cost to
+himself, and if you should leave your pocketbook in his shop he will
+come hurrying after you to restore it. The Chinese living in the Indies
+are uniformly prosperous&mdash;many of them are millionaires&mdash;they have
+their own clubs and chambers of commerce and charitable organizations;
+they not infrequently control the finances of the districts in which
+they live and, generally speaking, they make excellent citizens.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Java has almost exactly the same area&mdash;50,000 square miles&mdash;and the
+same population&mdash;34,000,000&mdash;as England. Agriculturally, it is the
+richest country of its size in the world. Because I wished to visit the
+great tea and coffee and indigo plantations of its interior and to see
+its palaces and temples and monuments, I decided to traverse the island
+from end to end by train and motor car. Accordingly we left the
+<i>Negros</i> at Surabaya, directing Captain Galvez to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> pick us up a
+fortnight later at Batavia, at the other end of the island.</p>
+
+<p>There are at present more than three thousand miles of railways in
+operation in Java, about two-thirds of which are the property of the
+government. With a few exceptions, the lines are narrow gauge. The
+railway carriages are a curious combination of English, Swiss and
+American construction, being divided into compartments, which are
+separated by swinging half-doors, like those which used to be
+associated with saloons. The seats in the second-class compartments,
+which are covered with cane, are decidedly more comfortable than those
+of the first class, which are upholstered in leather. Owing to the
+excessive heat and humidity, the leather has the annoying habit of
+adhering to one's clothing, so that you frequently leave the train
+after a long journey with a section of the seat-covering sticking to
+your trousers or with a section of your trousers sticking to the seat.
+To avoid the discomfort of the midday heat, the long-distance express
+trains usually start at daybreak and reach their destinations at noon,
+which, though doubtless a sensible custom, necessitates the traveler
+arising when it is still dark. The express trains have dining cars, in
+which a meal of sorts can be had for two guilders (about eighty cents)
+and the first and second-class carriages are equipped with electric
+fans and screens. In spite of these conveniences, however, travel in
+Java is hot and dusty and generally disagreeable. After a railway
+journey one needs a bath, a shave, a haircut, a shampoo, a massage, and
+a complete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> outfit of fresh clothes before feeling respectable again.</p>
+
+<p>In many respects, motoring is more comfortable than railway travel. The
+roads throughout the island are excellent and have been carefully
+marked by the Java Motor Club, though fast driving is made dangerous by
+the bullock carts, pack trains and carabaos, which pay no attention to
+the rules of the road. Nor is motoring particularly expensive, for an
+excellent seven-passenger car of a well-known American make can be
+hired for forty dollars a day. Visitors to Java should bear in mind,
+however, that all their motoring and sight-seeing must be done in the
+morning, as, during the wet season, it invariably rains in torrents
+during the greater part of every afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>The hotels of Java, taking them by and large, are moderately good,
+while certain of them, such as the Oranje at Surabaya, the Grand at
+Djokjakarta, and the Indies at Batavia, are quite excellent in spots,
+with orchestras, iced drinks, electric fans, and well-cooked food.
+Though every room has a bath&mdash;a necessity in such a climate&mdash;tubs are
+quite unknown, their place being taken by showers, or, in the simpler
+hostleries, by barrels of water and dippers. The mattresses and pillows
+appeared to be filled with asphalt, though it should be remembered that
+a soft bed is unendurable in the tropics. Every bed is provided with a
+cylindrical bolster, six feet long and about fifteen inches in
+diameter, which serves to keep the sheet from touching the body. They
+are known as "Dutch widows."</p>
+
+<p>If you are fond of good coffee, I should strongly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> advise you to take
+your own with you when you go to Java. From my boyhood "Old Government
+Java" had been a synonym in our household for the finest coffee grown,
+so my astonishment and disappointment can be imagined when, at my first
+breakfast in Java, there was set before me a cup containing a dubious
+looking syrup, like those used at American soda-water fountains, the
+cup then being filled up with hot milk. The Germans never would have
+complained about their war-time coffee, made from chicory and acorns,
+had they once tasted the Java product. Yet I was assured that this was
+the choicest coffee grown in Java. I might add that, as a result of a
+blight which all but ruined the industry in the '70s, fifty-two per
+cent of the total acreage of coffee plantations in the island is now
+planted with the African species, called <i>Coffea robusta</i>, and thirteen
+per cent with another African species, <i>Coffea liberia</i>, and the rest
+with Japanese and other varieties. Though the term "Mocha and Java" is
+still used by the trade in the United States, few Americans of the
+present generation have ever tasted either, for virtually no Mocha
+coffee and very little Java have been imported into this country for
+many years.</p>
+
+<p>The lazy, leisurely, luxurious existence led by the great Dutch
+planters in Java is in many respects a counterpart of that led by the
+wealthy planters of our own South before the Civil War. Dwelling in
+stately mansions set in the midst of vast estates, waited upon by
+retinues of native servants, they exercise much the same arbitrary
+authority over the thousands of brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> men who work their coffee, sugar
+and indigo plantations that the cotton-growers of the old South
+exercised over their slaves. Indeed, it was not until 1914 that a form
+of peonage which had long been authorized in Java was abolished by law,
+for up to that year private landowners had the right to enforce from
+all the laborers on their estates one day's gratuitous work out of
+seven.</p>
+
+<p>There are no shrewder or more capable business men to be found anywhere
+than the Dutch traders and merchants in Java. Many of the great trading
+houses of the Dutch Indies have remained the property of the same
+family for generations, their staffs being as carefully trained for the
+business as the Dutch officials are trained for the colonial service.
+The young men come out from Holland as cadets with the intention of
+spending the remainder of their lives in the Insulinde, studying the
+native languages and acquainting themselves with native prejudices,
+predilections and customs. They are usually blessed with a phlegmatic
+temperament, well suited to life in the tropics, take life easily, live
+in considerable luxury, play a little tennis, grow fat, spend their
+afternoons in pajamas and slippers, stroll down to the local Concordia
+Club in the evenings to sit at small tables on the terrace and drink
+enormous quantities of beer and listen to the band, not infrequently
+marry native women, and often amass great fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>Though the Javanese peasant is, from necessity, industrious, the upper
+classes, particularly the nobles, are effeminate, indolent, decadent,
+and servile. Their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> amusements are cock-fighting, dancing, shadow
+plays, and gambling, and they lead an utterly worthless existence which
+the Dutch do nothing to discourage. Their Mohammedanism is decadent and
+has none of the virility which distinguishes those followers of Islam
+who dwell in western lands. Though there is no denying that the natives
+are immeasurably more prosperous, on the whole, than before the white
+man came, the Dutch have done little if anything to improve their
+living conditions. True, their rule is a just and a not unkind one;
+they have built roads and railways, but this was done in order to open
+up the island; and they have established a number of industrial and
+technical schools, but there is no system of compulsory education, and
+no systematic attempt has been made to ameliorate the condition of the
+great brown mass of the people. I do not think that I am doing them an
+injustice when I assert that the Dutch are administrators rather than
+altruists, that they are more concerned in maintaining a just and
+stable government in their insular possessions, and in increasing their
+productivity, than they are in improving the moral, mental, and
+material condition of the natives.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Lying squarely in the middle of Java are the <i>Vorstenlanden</i>, "the
+Lands of the Princes"&mdash;Soerakarta and Djokjakarta&mdash;the most curious, as
+they are the most picturesque, states in the entire Insulinde. But,
+because in their form of government and the lives and customs of their
+inhabitants they are so vastly different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> from the other portions of
+the island, I feel that they are deserving of a chapter to themselves
+and hence shall omit any account of them here.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Bandoeng, the prosperous and extremely up-to-date capital of the
+Preanger Regencies, is the fifth largest city in Java, being exceeded
+in population only by Batavia, Surabaya, Surakarta and Samarang. The
+city, which is the healthiest and most modern in Java, stands in the
+middle of a great plain, 2300 feet above the sea, having, therefore, a
+delightful all-the-year-round climate. It has excellent electric
+lighting, water and sanitary systems, miles of well-paved and shaded
+streets, and many beautiful residences&mdash;the finest I saw in
+Malaysia&mdash;set in the midst of charming gardens. It is planned to remove
+the seat of government from Batavia to Bandoeng in the not far distant
+future and the handsome buildings which will eventually house the
+various departments are rapidly nearing completion. When they are
+completed Bandoeng will be one of the finest, if not the finest
+colonial capital in the world. But, attractive though the city is, it
+holds nothing of particular interest to the casual visitor unless it be
+the quinine factory. This company seems likely to succeed in cornering
+the supply of Javanese cinchona bark and is fast building up a world
+market for its product. The cinchona tree, from which the bark is
+obtained, was first introduced from South America in the middle of the
+last century and is now widely grown throughout the Preanger Regencies,
+both by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>government and by private planters. After six or seven
+years the tree is sufficiently matured for the removal of its bark,
+which, after being carefully dried, sorted, and baled, is shipped to
+the factory in Bandoeng, where it is manufactured into the quinine of
+commerce. The process of manufacture is a secret one, which explains,
+though it does not excuse, the extreme discourtesy shown by the
+management toward foreigners desiring to visit the plant.</p>
+
+<p>It takes three and a half hours by express train from Bandoeng to
+Buitenzorg, the summer capital of the Indies, and the journey is one of
+the pleasantest in Java, the railway being bordered for miles by
+marvellously constructed rice terraces which climb the slopes of the
+Gedei, tier on tier, transforming the mountainsides into a series of
+hanging gardens. When the shallow, water-filled terraces are
+illuminated by the tropic sun, they look for all the world like a
+titanic stairway of silver ascending to the heavens. Take my word for
+it, the rice terraces of the Preangers are in themselves worth
+traveling the length of Java to see.</p>
+
+<p>Though Batavia is the official capital of Netherlands India, the
+hill-station of Buitenzorg, some twenty miles inland, is the actual
+seat of government and the residence of the Governor-General.
+Buitenzorg&mdash;the name means "free from care"&mdash;is to Java what Simla is
+to India, what Baguio is, in a lesser degree, to the Philippines. It
+has often been compared to Versailles, and, in its pleasant existence,
+in the enchanting effects which have been produced by its landscape
+gardeners,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> in its great white palace even, one can trace some slight
+resemblance to the famous home of le Roi Soleil. Buitenzorg is
+conspicuously different from other Javanese cities, partly because,
+being the seat of government, its European quarter is exceptionally
+extensive, but primarily because it boasts the famous Botanical
+Gardens, in many respects the finest in the world. Its avenues, shaded
+by splendid trees, are lined with charming, white-walled villas, the
+residences of the government officials and of retired officers and
+merchants, set far back in lovely, fragrant gardens. The palace of the
+Governor-General, a huge, white building of classic lines, faintly
+reminiscent of the White House in Washington, is superbly situated in
+the Botanic Gardens, the rear overlooking a charming lotos pond, its
+surface covered with the huge leaves of the water-plant known as
+<i>Victoria Regia</i>, amid which numbers of white swans drift gracefully;
+while the colonnaded front commands a magnificent view of a vast deer
+park which reminds one of the stately manor parks of England.</p>
+
+<p>When you arrive at the Hotel Bellevue in Buitenzorg, be sure and ask
+for one of the "mountain rooms." The view which is commanded by their
+balconies has few equals in all the world. Far in the distance rises
+the majestic, cloud-wreathed cone of Salak, its wooded slopes wrapped
+in a cloak of purple-gray. From its foot, cutting a way toward
+Buitenzorg through a sea of foliage, is a ribbon of brown&mdash;the Tjidani
+River. Its banks, lined by miles of waving palms, are crowded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> with the
+quaint, thatched dwellings of the natives, hundreds of whom&mdash;men, women
+and children&mdash;are bathing in its water. One of the most curious and
+amusing sights in Java is that of the native women bathing in the
+streams. They enter the river wearing their sarongs, gradually raise
+them as they go deeper into the stream, slip them over their heads when
+the water has reached their armpits, and, when they have completed
+their ablutions, reverse the process, thus achieving the feat of
+bathing in full view of hundreds of spectators without the slightest
+improper revelation. Hawkinson set up his camera on the bank of the
+Tjidani and spent several hundred feet of film in recording one of
+these performances. Even the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors will
+be unable to find any objection to <i>that</i> bathing scene.</p>
+
+<p>Though the gardens of Buitenzorg are a veritable treasure-house for the
+botanist and the horticulturist&mdash;for the Dutch are the best gardeners
+in the world&mdash;from the standpoint of the casual visitor they cannot
+compare, to my way of thinking, with the Peradenya Gardens of Ceylon.
+It is beyond all doubt, however, the finest collection of tropical
+trees and plants in existence. Here, besides full-grown specimens of
+every known tree of the torrid zone, are culture gardens for sugar
+cane, coffee, tea, rubber, ilang-ilang; for all the spice, gum, and
+fruit trees; for bamboo, rattan, and the hard woods, such as mahogany
+and teak&mdash;in short, for every variety of tree or plant of commercial,
+ornamental, or utilitarian value. There are also gardens for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> the
+gorgeous flowers of Java: the frangipani, the wax-white, gold-centered
+flower of the dead, the red and yellow lantanas, the scarlet poinsetta,
+the crimson bougainvillea, and others in bewildering variety. There are
+greenhouses to shelter the rarer and more sensitive plants&mdash;to shelter
+them not, as in our hothouses, from the cold, but, on the contrary,
+from the heat and the withering rays of the sun. Here too is one of the
+finest collections of orchids in existence, tended by an ancient
+Javanese gardener who is as proud of his curious blooms as a trainer is
+of his race horses or a collector of his porcelains. As for the palms,
+I had no idea that so many varieties existed until I visited
+Buitenzorg&mdash;emperor palms, Areca palms, Banka palms, cocoanut palms,
+fan palms, cabbage palms, sago palms, date palms, feather palms,
+travelers' palms, oil palms, Chuson palms, climbing palms over a
+hundred feet long&mdash;palms without end, Amen. Small wonder that the palm
+is regarded with affection wherever it can be grown, for what other
+tree can furnish food, shelter, clothing, timber, fuel, building
+materials, fiber, paper, starch, sugar, oil, wax, dyes and wine?</p>
+
+<p>But, when all is said and done, nothing in those splendid gardens, not
+the stately avenue of kanari trees whose interlacing branches form a
+nave as awe-inspiring as that of some great cathedral, not the rare and
+curious orchids which would arouse the envy of a millionaire, appealed
+to me so powerfully as a little Grecian temple of white marble, all but
+hidden by the encircling shrubbery, which marks the sleeping-place of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+Lady Raffles, wife of that Sir Stamford Raffles who once was the
+British lieutenant-governor of Java. It pleases me to think that it is
+toward this little, moss-grown temple that the bronze statue of the
+great empire-builder, which stands on the Esplanade in Singapore, is
+peering with wistful eyes, for on its base he carved these lines:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Oh thou whom ne'er my constant heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">One moment hath forgot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tho' fate severe hath bid us part<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Yet still&mdash;forget me not."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Batavia, the capital of the Indies, is built on both banks of the
+Jacatra River, in a swampy and unhealthy plain at the head of a
+capacious bay. Just as New York is divided into the boroughs of
+Manhattan and the Bronx, so the metropolis of Netherlands India is
+divided into the districts of Batavia and Weltevreden, the suburb of
+Meester Cornelis corresponding to Brooklyn. Batavia is the business
+quarter of the city; Weltevreden the residential. The former, which is
+built on the edge of the harbor, is very thickly populated and, because
+of its lowness, very unhealthy. Only natives, Malays, Chinese and Arabs
+live here and the great European houses which were once the homes of
+the Dutch officials and merchants have either fallen into decay or have
+been converted into warehouses and shops. The Europeans now live in
+Weltevreden, or Meester Cornelis, though they have their offices in the
+lower town. Both the upper and lower towns are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> traversed by the
+Jacatra&mdash;sometimes called the Tjiliwoeng&mdash;from which branch canals that
+spread through the city in all directions, thereby emphasizing its
+distinctly Dutch atmosphere. The streets are for the most part straight
+and regular, being paved, as in the mother-country, with cobblestones.
+Old Batavia contains very few relics of the early days, but it is
+quaint and delightfully picturesque and its canals, though anything but
+desirable from the standpoint of health, add much to its individuality
+and charm. The most characteristic feature of Batavia, that
+distinguishes it from all other colonial cities of the East, is that in
+all its construction, both public and private, permanency seems to be
+the dominant note. The Dutch do not come to Java, as the English go to
+India and the Americans to the Philippines, in order to amass fortunes
+in a few years and then go home; they come with the intention of
+remaining. When their children grow up they are sent back to Holland to
+be educated, but, once their schooling is completed, they almost
+invariably return to the East and devote their lives to the development
+of the land in which they were born.</p>
+
+<p>Batavia, which means literally 'Fair meadows,' was originally called
+Jacatra. The Dutch established a trading post here in 1610, the land
+being obtained from the natives by a trick similar to that associated
+by tradition with the acquisition of the lower end of Manhattan Island
+by the founders of Nieuw Amsterdam. The Javanese, it seems, were
+reluctant to sell to the Dutch a parcel of land sufficiently large for
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>erection of a fort and trading station, but after much discussion
+they finally consented to part with as much land as could be included
+within a single bullock's hide, which was their way of saying that
+their land was not for sale. This crafty stipulation did not worry the
+equally crafty Dutch, however, for they promptly obtained the largest
+hide available, cut it into narrow strips, and, placing these end to
+end, insisted on their right to the very considerable parcel of ground
+thus enclosed under the terms of the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>A relic illustrative of the barbarous punishments which were in vogue
+during the colony's earlier days is to be seen by driving a short
+distance up Jacatra Road, in the lower town. Close by the ancient
+Portuguese church you will find a short section of old wall. Atop the
+wall, transfixed by a spear-point, is an object which, despite its many
+coats of whitewash, is still recognizable as a human skull. Set in the
+wall is a tablet bearing this inscription:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"In detested memory of the traitor, Peter Erberveld, who was
+executed. No one will be permitted to build, lay bricks or
+plant on this spot, either now or in the future.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 60%;">Batavia, April 14, 1772."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Erberveld was a half-caste agitator who had conspired with certain
+disaffected natives to launch a revolt, massacre all the Dutch in
+Batavia, and have himself proclaimed king. Fortunately for the Dutch,
+the plot was betrayed through the faithlessness of a native girl with
+whom Erberveld was infatuated. Because of the imperative need of
+safeguarding the little handful of white colonists against massacre by
+the natives, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> was decided that the half-caste should be punished in
+a manner which would strike fear to the hearts of the Javanese, who
+have no particular dread of death in its ordinary forms. The judges did
+their best to achieve this object, for Erberveld was sentenced to be
+impaled alive, broken on the wheel, his hands and head cut off, and his
+body quartered. Why they omitted hanging and burning from the list I
+can not imagine. The sentence was carried out&mdash;the contemporary
+accounts record that he endured his fate with silent fortitude&mdash;and his
+head is on the wall to-day. But I think that, were I the
+Governor-General of the Indies, I should have that grisly reminder of
+the bad old days taken down. Many nations have family skeletons but
+they usually prefer to keep them out of sight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX<br />
+<small>PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Hamangkoe Boewoenoe Senopati Sahadin Panoto Gomo Kalif Patelah Kandjeng
+VII, Ruler of the World, Spike of the Universe, and Sultan of
+Djokjakarta, is an old, old man, yet his brisk walk and upright
+carriage betrayed no trace of the worries which might be expected to
+beset one who is burdened with the responsibility of supporting three
+thousand wives and concubines. When one achieves a domestic
+establishment of such proportions, however, he doubtless shifts the
+responsibility for its administration, discipline and maintenance to
+subordinates, just as the commander of a division delegates his
+authority to the officers of his staff. The Sultan, who is now in his
+eighty-ninth year, is a worthy emulator of King Solomon, the lowest
+estimate which I heard crediting him with one hundred and eighty
+children. These are the official ones, as it were. How many unofficial
+ones he has, no one knows but himself. The youngest of his children,
+now five years old, was, I imagine, a good deal of a surprise, being
+sometimes referred to by disrespectful Europeans as "the Joke of
+Djokjakarta."</p>
+
+<p>Djokjakarta, or Djokja, as it is commonly called, is set in the middle
+of a broad and fertile plain, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> the foot of the slumbering volcano of
+Merapi, whose occasional awakenings are marked by terrific earthquakes,
+which shake the city to its foundations and usually result in
+wide-spread destruction and loss of life. It is a city of broad,
+unpaved thoroughfares, shaded by rows of majestic waringins, and lined,
+in the European quarter, by handsome one-story houses, with white
+walls, green blinds and Doric porticos. There are two hotels in the
+city, one an excellently kept and comfortable establishment, as hotels
+go in Java; a score or so of large and moderately well-stocked European
+stores, and many small shops kept by Chinese; an imposing bank of stone
+and concrete; and one of the most beautiful race-courses that I have
+ever seen, the spring race meeting at Djokja being one of the most
+brilliant social events in Java. The busiest part of the city is the
+Chinese quarter, for, throughout the Insulinde, commerce, both retail
+and wholesale, is largely in the hands of these sober, shrewd,
+hard-working yellow men, of whom there are more than three hundred
+thousand in Java alone and double that number in the archipelago.
+Beyond the European and Chinese quarters, scattered among the palms
+which form a thick fringe about the town, are the <i>kampongs</i> of the
+Javanese themselves&mdash;clusters of bamboo-built huts, thatched with
+leaves or grass, encircled by low mud walls. Standing well back from
+the street, and separated from it by a splendid sweep of velvety lawn,
+is the Dutch residency, a dignified building whose classic lines
+reminded me of the manor houses built<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> by the Dutch <i>patroons</i> along
+the Hudson. A few hundred yards away stands Fort Vredenburg, a moated,
+bastioned, four-square fortification, garrisoned by half a thousand
+Dutch artillerymen, whose guns frown menacingly upon the native town
+and the palace of the Sultan. Though its walls would crumble before
+modern artillery in half an hour, it stands as a visible symbol of
+Dutch authority and as a warning to the disloyal that that authority is
+backed up by cannon.</p>
+
+<p>Between Fort Vredenburg and the Sultan's palace stretches the broad
+<i>aloun-aloun</i>, its sandy, sun-baked expanse broken only by a splendid
+pair of waringin-trees, clipped to resemble royal <i>payongs</i> or
+parasols. In the old days those desiring audience with the sovereign
+were compelled to wait under these trees, frequently for days and
+occasionally for weeks, until "the Spike of the Universe" graciously
+condescended to receive them. Here also was the place of public
+execution. In the days before the white men came, public executions on
+the <i>aloun-aloun</i> provided pleasurable excitement for the inhabitants
+of Djokjakarta, who attended them in great numbers. The method employed
+was characteristic of Java: the condemned stood with his forehead
+against a wall, and the executioner drove the point of a kris between
+the vertebrae at the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord. But
+the gallows and the rope have superseded the wall and the kris in
+Djokjakarta, just as they have superseded the age-old custom of hurling
+criminals from the top of a high tower in Bokhara or of having the
+brains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> of the condemned stamped out by an elephant, a method of
+execution which was long in vogue in Burmah.</p>
+
+<p>But, though certain peculiarly barbarous customs which were practised
+under native rule have been abolished by the Dutch, I have no intention
+of suggesting that life in Djokjakarta has become colorless and tame.
+<i>Au contraire!</i> If you will take the trouble to cross the <i>aloun-aloun</i>
+to the gates of the palace, your attention will be attracted by a row
+of iron-barred cages built against the kraton wall. Should you be so
+fortunate as to find yourself in Djokjakarta on the eve of a religious
+festival or other holiday, each of these cages will be found to contain
+a full-grown tiger. For tiger-baiting remains one of the favorite
+amusements of the native princes. Nowhere else, so far as I am aware,
+save only in East Africa, where the Masai warriors encircle a lion and
+kill it with their spears, can you witness a sport which is its equal
+for peril and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>On the day set for a tiger-baiting the <i>aloun-aloun</i> is jammed with
+spectators, their gorgeous sarongs and head-kains of batik forming a
+sea of color, while from a pavilion erected for the purpose the Sultan,
+surrounded by his glittering household and a selection of his favorite
+wives, views the dangerous sport in safety. In a cleared space before
+the royal pavilion several hundred half-naked Javanese, armed only with
+spears, stand shoulder to shoulder in a great circle, perhaps ten-score
+yards across, their spears pointing inward so as to form a steel fringe
+to the human <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>barricade. A cage containing a tiger, which has been
+trapped in the jungle for the occasion, is hauled forward to the
+circle's edge. At a signal from the Sultan the door of the cage is
+opened and the great striped cat, its yellow eyes glaring malevolently,
+its stiffened tail nervously sweeping the ground, slips forth on padded
+feet to crouch defiantly in the center of the extemporized arena.
+Occasionally, but very occasionally, the beast becomes intimidated at
+sight of the waiting spearmen and the breathless throng beyond them,
+but usually it is only a matter of seconds before things begin to
+happen. The long tail abruptly becomes rigid, the muscles bunch
+themselves like coiled springs beneath the tawny skin, the sullen
+snarling changes to a deep-throated roar, and the great beast launches
+itself against the levelled spears. Sometimes it tears its way through
+the ring of flesh and steel, leaving behind it a trail of dead or
+wounded spearmen, and creating consternation among the spectators, who
+scatter, panic-stricken, in every direction. But more often the
+spearmen drive it back, snarling and bleeding, whereupon, bewildered by
+the multitude of its enemies and maddened by the pain of its wounds, it
+hurls itself against another segment of the steel-fringed cordon. After
+a time, baffled in its attempts to escape, the tiger retreats to the
+center of the circle, where it crouches, snarling. Then, at another
+signal from the Sultan, the spearmen begin to close in. Smaller and
+smaller grows the circle, closer and closer come the remorseless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+spear-points ... then a hoarse roar of fury, a spring too rapid for the
+eye to follow, a wild riot of brown bodies glistening with sweat ...
+spear-hafts rising and falling above a sea of turbaned heads as the
+blades are driven home ... again ... again ... again ... yet again ...
+into the great black-and-yellow carcass, which now lies inanimate upon
+the sand in a rapidly widening pool of crimson.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Like the palaces of most Asiatic rulers, the kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta is really a royal city in the heart of his capital. It
+consists of a vast congeries of palaces, barracks, stables, pagodas,
+temples, offices, courtyards, corridors, alleys and bazaars, containing
+upward of fifteen thousand inhabitants, the whole encircled by a high
+wall four miles in length. Everything that the sovereign can require,
+every necessity and luxury of life, every adjunct of pleasure, is
+assembled within the kraton. As the Sultan's world is practically
+bounded by his palace walls, the kraton is to all intents and purposes
+a little kingdom in itself, for there dwell within it, besides the
+officials of the household and the women of the harem, soldiers,
+priests, gold and silversmiths, tailors, weavers, makers of batik,
+civil engineers, architects, carpenters, stonemasons, manufacturers of
+musical instruments, stage furniture, and puppets, all supported by the
+court. The Sultan rarely leaves the kraton save on occasions of
+ceremony, when he appears in state, a thin, aristocratic-looking old
+man, somewhat taller than the average of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> his subjects, wrapped in a
+sarong of cloth-of-gold, hung with jewels, shaded by a golden parasol,
+surrounded by an Arabian Nights court, and guarded&mdash;curious
+contrast!&mdash;by a squadron of exceedingly businesslike-looking Dutch
+cavalry in slouch hats and green denim uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>The first impression which one receives upon entering the inner
+precincts of the kraton is of tawdriness and dilapidation. Half-naked
+soldiers of the royal body-guard, armed with ten-foot pikes and clad
+only in baggy, scarlet breeches and brimless caps of black leather,
+shaped like inverted flower-pots, lounge beside the gateway giving
+access to the Sultan's quarters or snore blissfully while stretched
+beneath the trees. The "Ruler of the World" receives his visitors&mdash;who,
+if they are foreigners, must always be accompanied by the Dutch
+Resident or a member of his staff&mdash;in the <i>pringitan</i>, or hall of
+audience, an immense, marble-floored chamber, supported by many marble
+columns. The <i>pringitan</i> is open on three sides, the fourth
+communicating with the royal apartments and the harem, to which
+Europeans are never admitted. At the rear of the <i>pringitan</i> are a
+number of ornate state beds, hung with scarlet and heavily gilded,
+evidently placed there for purposes of display, for they showed no
+evidences of having been slept in. Close by is a large glass case
+containing specimens of the taxidermist's art, including a number of
+badly moth-eaten birds of paradise. On the walls I noticed a
+steel-engraving of Napoleon crossing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> Alps, a number of English
+sporting prints depicting hunting and coaching scenes, and three
+villainous chromos of Queen Wilhelmina, Prince Henry of the
+Netherlands, and the Princess Juliana.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to the courtesy of the Resident, who had notified the
+authorities of the royal household of our visit in advance, we found
+that a series of Javanese dances had been arranged in our honor. Now
+Javanese dancing is about as exciting as German grand opera, and, like
+opera, one has to understand it to appreciate it. Personally, I should
+have preferred to wander about the kraton, but court etiquette demanded
+that I should sit upon a hard and exceedingly uncomfortable chair
+throughout a long and humid morning, with the thermometer registering
+one hundred and four degrees in the shade, and watch a number of
+anaemic and dissipated-looking youths, who composed the royal ballet,
+go through an interminable series of posturings and gestures to the
+monotonous music of a native orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have gained their ideas of Javanese dancing from the
+performances of Ruth St. Denis and Florence O'Denishawn have
+disappointment in store for them when they go to Java. To tell the
+truth I found the dancers far less interesting than their audience,
+which consisted of several hundred women of the harem, clad in filmy,
+semi-transparent garments of the most beautiful colors, who watched the
+proceedings from the semi-obscurity of the <i>pringitan</i>. I cannot be
+certain, because the light was poor and their faces were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> in the
+shadow, but I think that there were several extremely good-looking
+girls among them. There was one in particular that I remember&mdash;a
+slender, willowy thing with an apricot-colored skin and an oval,
+piquant face framed by masses of blue-black hair. Her orange sarong was
+so tightly wound about her that she might as well have been wearing a
+wet silk bathing-suit, so far as concealing her figure was concerned.
+Whenever she caught my eye she smiled mischievously. I should have
+liked to have seen more of her, but an unamiable-looking sentry armed
+with a large scimitar prevented.</p>
+
+<p>By extraordinary good fortune we arrived in Djokjakarta on the eve of
+the celebration of a double royal wedding, two of the Sultan's
+grandsons marrying two of his granddaughters. Thanks to the cooperation
+of the Dutch Resident, Hawkinson was enabled to obtain a remarkable
+series of pictures of the highly spectacular marriage ceremonies, it
+being the first time, I believe, that a motion-picture camera had been
+permitted within the closely guarded precincts of the kraton.</p>
+
+<p>The festivities, which occupied several days, consisted of receptions,
+fireworks, reviews, games, dances, and religious ceremonies,
+culminating in a most impressive and colorful pageant, when the two
+bridegrooms proceeded to the palace in state to claim their brides.
+Nowhere outside the pages of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> could one find such
+amazing and fantastic costumes as those worn by the thousands of
+natives who took part in that procession. Every combination of colors
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> used, every period of European and Asiatic history was
+represented. Some of the costumes looked as though they owed their
+inspiration to Bakst's designs for the Russian ballet&mdash;or perhaps Bakst
+obtained his ideas in Djokjakarta; others were strongly reminiscent of
+Louis XIV's era, of the courts of the great Indian princes, of the
+Ziegfeld Follies.</p>
+
+<p>The procession was led by four peasant women bearing trays of
+vegetables and fruits, symbols of fecundity, I assumed. Behind them,
+sitting cross-legged in glass cages swung from poles, each borne by a
+score of sweating coolies in scarlet liveries, were the four chief
+messengers of the royal harem&mdash;former concubines of the Sultan who had
+once been noted for their influence and beauty. The cages&mdash;I can think
+of no better description&mdash;were of red lacquer, about four feet square,
+with glass sides, and, so far as I could see, entirely air-tight. They
+looked not unlike large goldfish aquariums. As they were passing us the
+procession halted for a few moments and the panting coolies lowered
+their burdens to the ground. Whereupon Hawkinson, who is no respecter
+of persons when the business of getting pictures is concerned, set up
+his camera within six feet of one of the cages and proceeded to take a
+"close-up" of the indignant but helpless occupant, who, unable to
+escape or even turn away, could only assume an indifference which she
+was evidently far from feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Following the harem attendants marched a company of the royal
+body-guard, in scarlet cutaway coats like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> those worn by the British
+grenadiers during the American Revolution, pipe-clayed cross-belts,
+white nankeen breeches, enormous cavalry boots, extending half-way up
+the thigh, and curious hats of black glazed leather, of a shape which
+was a cross between a fireman's helmet and the cap of a Norman
+man-at-arms. They were armed indiscriminately with long pikes and
+ancient flint-locks, and marched to the music of fife and drum. The
+leader of the band danced a sort of shimmy as he marched, at the same
+time tootling on a flute. He looked like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
+Perhaps the most curious feature of the procession was provided by the
+clowns, both men and women&mdash;an interesting survival of the
+court-jesters of the Middle Ages&mdash;powdered and painted like their
+fellows of the circus, and performing many of their stereotyped antics.
+One of them, wearing an enormous pair of black goggles, bestrode a sort
+of hobby-horse, made of papier-mach&eacute;, and, when he saw that Hawkinson
+was taking his picture, cavorted and grimaced, to the huge delight of
+the onlookers. The female clowns, all of whom were burdened by
+excessive avoirdupois, wiggled their hips and shoulders as they marched
+in a sort of Oriental shimmy.</p>
+
+<p><a name="tenggaroeng" id="tenggaroeng"></a></p>
+<table style="margin-top: 1em;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="20" summary="Illustrations belonging to page 200">
+<tr>
+
+<td class="padr"><img src="images/200a.jpg" width="228" height="550" alt="Dyak girl" /></td>
+<td class="padl"><img src="images/200b.jpg" width="224" height="550" alt="Dyak head-hunter" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdc" style="width: 228px;"><p style="margin-top: -1.5em;" class="caption">A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo</p></td>
+  <td class="tdc" style="width: 224px;"><p style="margin-top: -1.5em;" class="caption">A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><a name="captain" id="captain"></a></p>
+<table style="margin-top: -1em;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="20" summary="Illustrations belonging to page 200">
+<tr>
+
+<td class="padr"><img src="images/200c.jpg" width="224" height="550" alt="Captain of the bodyguard" /></td>
+<td class="padl"><img src="images/200d.jpg" width="224" height="550" alt="clown" /></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdc" style="width: 224px;"><p style="margin-top: -1.5em;" class="caption">The Captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+Universe"</p></td>
+  <td class="tdc" style="width: 224px;"><p style="margin-top: -1.5em;" class="caption">A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta</p></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Following a gorgeous cavalcade of mounted princes of the blood, in
+uniforms of all colors, periods, and descriptions, their k&eacute;pis
+surmounted by towering ostrich plumes, came a long procession of the
+great dignitaries of the household&mdash;the royal betel-box bearer, the
+royal cuspidor-carrier, and others bearing on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> scarlet cushions the
+royal toothpicks, the royal toothbrush, the royal toilet set, and the
+royal mirror, all of gold set with jewels. The mothers of the brides,
+painted like courtesans and hung with jewels, were borne by in
+sedan-chairs, in which they sat cross-legged on silken cushions. Then,
+after a dramatic pause, their approach heralded by a burst of barbaric
+music, came the brides themselves, each reclining in an enormous
+scarlet litter borne by fifty coolies. Beside them sat attendants who
+sprinkled them with perfumes and cooled them with fans of
+peacock-feathers. In accordance with an ancient Javanese custom, the
+faces, necks, arms, and breasts of the brides were stained with saffron
+to a brilliant yellow; their cheeks were as stiff with enamel as their
+garments were with jewels. Immediately behind the palanquins bearing
+the brides&mdash;one of whom looked to be about thirteen, the other a few
+years older&mdash;rode the bridegrooms; one, a sullen-looking fellow who, I
+was told, already had five wives and plainly showed it, astride a
+magnificent gray Arab; the other, who was still a boy, on a showy bay
+stallion, both animals being decked with flowers and caparisoned in
+trappings of scarlet leather trimmed with silver. The bridegrooms,
+naked to the waist, were, like their brides, dyed a vivid yellow; their
+sarongs were of cloth-of-gold and they were loaded with jeweled
+necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. Royal grooms in scarlet liveries led
+their prancing horses and other attendants, walking at their stirrups,
+bore over their heads golden <i>payongs</i>, the Javanese symbol of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>royalty. Following them on foot was a great concourse of dignitaries
+and courtiers, clad in costumes of every color and description and
+walking under a forest of gorgeous parasols, the colors of which
+denoted the rank of those they shaded. The <i>payongs</i> of the Sultan, the
+Dutch Resident, and the royal princes are of gold, those of the
+princesses of the royal family are yellow, of the great nobles white,
+of the ministers and the higher officials of the country, red; of the
+lesser dignitaries, dark gray, and so on. This sea of swaying parasols,
+the gorgeous costumes of the dignitaries, the fantastic uniforms of the
+soldiery, the richly caparisoned horses, the gilded litters, the
+burnished weapons, the jewels of the women, the flaunting banners, and
+the rainbow-tinted batiks worn by the tens of thousands of native
+spectators combined to form a scene bewildering in its variety,
+dazzling in its brilliancy and kaleidoscopic in its coloring. Mr.
+Ziegfeld never produced so fantastic and colorful a spectacle. It would
+have been the envy and the despair of that prince of showmen, the late
+Phineas T. Barnum.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>A dozen miles or so northwest of Djokjakarta, standing in the middle of
+a fertile plain which stretches away to the lower slopes of slumbering
+Merapi, are the ruins of Boro-Boedor, of all the Hindu temples of Java
+the largest and the most magnificent and one of the architectural
+marvels of the world. They can be reached from Djokjakarta by motor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> in
+an hour. The road, which skirts the foothills of a volcanic mountain
+range, runs through a number of archways roofed with red tiles which in
+the rainy season afford convenient refuges from the sudden tropical
+showers and in the dry season opportunities to escape from the blinding
+glare of the sun. Leaving the main highway at Kalangan, a quaint hamlet
+with a picturesque and interesting market, we turned into a side road
+and wound for a few miles through cocoanut plantations, then the road
+ascended and, rounding the shoulder of a little hill, we saw, through
+the trees, a squat, pyramidal mass of reddish stone, broken, irregular
+and unimposing. It was Tjandi Boro-Boedor (the name means "shrine of
+the many Buddhas") considered by many authorities the most interesting
+Buddhist remains in existence. Though in magnitude it cannot compare
+with such great Buddhist monuments as those at Ajunta in India, and
+Angkor in Cambodia, yet in its beautiful symmetry and its wealth of
+carving it is superior to them all.</p>
+
+<p>Strictly speaking, Boro-Boedor is not a temple but a hill, rising about
+one hundred and fifty feet above the plain, encased with terraces
+constructed of hewn lava-blocks and crowded with sculptures, which, if
+placed side by side, would extend for upwards of three miles. The
+lowest terrace now above ground forms a square, each side approximately
+five hundred feet long. About fifty feet higher there is another
+terrace of similar shape. Then follow four other terraces of more
+irregular contour, the structure being crowned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> by a dome or cupola,
+fifty feet in diameter, surrounded by sixteen smaller bell-shaped
+cupolas, known as <i>dagobas</i>. The subjects of the bas-reliefs lining the
+lowest terrace are of the most varied description, forming a picture
+gallery of landscapes, agricultural and household episodes and
+incidents of the chase, mingled with mythological and religious scenes.
+It would seem, indeed, as though it had been the architect's intention
+to gradually wean the pilgrims from the physical to the spiritual, for
+as they began to ascend from stage to stage of the temple-hill they
+were insensibly drawn from material, every-day things to the realities
+of religion, so that by the time the <i>dagoba</i> at the top was reached
+they had passed through a course of religious instruction, as it were,
+and were ready, with enlightened eyes, to enter and behold the image of
+Buddha, symbolically left imperfect, as beyond the power of human art
+to realize or portray. From base to summit the whole hill is really a
+great picture-bible of the Buddhist creed.</p>
+
+<p>The building of Boro-Boedor was probably begun in the ninth century,
+when King Asoka was distributing the supposed remains of Buddha
+throughout all the countries of the East in an endeavor to spread the
+faith. A portion of the remains was brought to Boro-Boedor, which had
+been the center of Buddhist influence in Java ever since 603, when the
+Indian ruler, Guzerat, settled in Middle Java with five thousand of his
+followers. In the sixteenth century, when a wave of Mohammedanism swept
+the island from end to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> end, the Buddhist temples being destroyed by
+the fanatic followers of the Prophet and the priests slaughtered on
+their altars, the Buddhists, in order to save the famous shrine from
+desecration and destruction, buried it under many feet of earth. Thus
+the great monument remained, hidden and almost forgotten, for three
+hundred years, but during the brief period of British rule in Java, Sir
+Stamford Raffles ordered its excavation, the work being accomplished in
+less than two months. Since then the Dutch have taken further steps to
+restore and preserve it, though unfortunately the stone of which it is
+built was too soft to withstand the wear and tear of centuries, many of
+the bas-reliefs now being almost effaced. It remains, however, one of
+the greatest religious monuments of all time.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Conditions at Surakarta&mdash;usually called Solo for short&mdash;are the exact
+counterpart of those in Djokjakarta: the same puppet ruler, who is
+called Susuhunan instead of Sultan, the same semi-barbaric court life,
+the same fantastic costumes, a Dutch resident, a Dutch fort, and a
+Dutch garrison. But the kraton of the Susuhunan is far better kept than
+that of his fellow ruler at Djokjakarta, and shows more evidences of
+Europeanization. The troopers of the royal body-guard are smart,
+soldierly-looking fellows in well-cut uniforms of European pattern, to
+which a distinctly Eastern touch is lent, however, by their steel
+helmets, their brass-embossed leather shields, their scimitars, and
+their shoulder-guards of chain mail. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> royal stables, which contain
+several hundred fine Australian horses and a number of beautiful
+Sumbawan ponies, together with a score or more gilt carriages of state,
+are as immaculately kept as those of Buckingham Palace. In the palace
+garage I was shown a row of powerful Fiats, gleaming with fresh varnish
+and polished brass, and beside them, as among equals, a member of the
+well-known Ford family of Detroit, proudly bearing on its panels the
+ornate arms of the Susuhunan. I felt as though I had encountered an old
+friend who had married into royalty.</p>
+
+<p>As though we had not seen enough dancing at Djokjakarta, I found that
+they had arranged another performance for us in the kraton at
+Surakarta. This time, however, the dancers were girls, most of them
+only ten or twelve years old and none of them more than half-way
+through their teens. They wore sarongs of the most exquisite
+colors&mdash;purple, heliotrope, violet, rose, geranium, cerise, lemon,
+sky-blue, burnt-orange&mdash;and they floated over the marble floor of the
+great hall like enormous butterflies. As a special mark of the
+Susuhunan's favor, the performance concluded with a spear dance by four
+princes of the royal house&mdash;blas&eacute;, decadent-looking youths, who spend
+their waking hours, so the Dutch official who acted as my cicerone told
+me, in dancing, opium-smoking, cock-fighting and gambling, virtually
+their only companions being the women of the harem. If the Dutch
+Government does not actively encourage dissipation and debauchery among
+the native princes, neither does it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> take any steps to discourage it,
+the idea being, I imagine, that Holland's administrative problems in
+the <i>Vorstenlanden</i> would be greatly simplified were the reigning
+families to die out. The princes, who were armed with javelins and
+krises, performed for our benefit a Terpsichorean version of one of the
+tales of Javanese mythology. The dance was characterized by the utmost
+deliberation of movement, the dancers holding certain postures for
+several seconds at a time, reminding me, in their rigid
+self-consciousness, of the "living pictures" which were so popular in
+America twenty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>All of the dancers, as I have already remarked, were of the blood royal
+and one, I was told, was in the direct line of succession. Judging from
+the vacuity of his expression, the Dutch have no reason to anticipate
+any difficulty in maintaining their mastery in Soerakarta when he comes
+to the throne. But the Dutch officials take no chances with the
+intrigue-loving native princes; they keep them under close surveillance
+at all times. It is one of the disadvantages of Christian governments
+ruling peoples of alien race and religion that methods of revolt are
+not always visible to the naked eye, and even the Dutch Intelligence
+Service in the Indies, efficient as it is, has no means of knowing what
+is going on in the forbidden quarters of the kratons. In Java, as in
+other Moslem lands, more than one bloody uprising has been planned in
+the safety and secrecy of the harem. Potential disloyalty is
+neutralized, therefore, by a discreet display of force.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> Throughout the
+performance in the palace a Dutch trooper in field gray, bandoliers
+stuffed with cartridges festooned across his chest and a carbine tucked
+under his arm, paced slowly up and down&mdash;an ever-present symbol of
+Dutch power&mdash;watching the posturing princes with a sardonic eye. That
+is Holland's way of showing that, should disaffection show its head,
+she is ready to deal with it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X<br />
+<small>THROUGH THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE TO ELEPHANT LAND</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Since the world began the peacock's tail which we call the Malay
+Peninsula has swung down from Siam to sweep the Sumatran shore. A
+peacock's tail not merely in configuration but in its gorgeousness of
+color. Green jungle&mdash;a bewildering tangle of trees, shrubs, bushes,
+plants, and creepers, hung with ferns and mosses, bound together with
+rattans and trailing vines&mdash;clothes the mountains and the lowlands, its
+verdant riot checked only by the sea. Penetrating the deepest recesses
+of the jungle a network of little, dusky, winding rivers, green-blue
+because the sky that is reflected in them is filtered through the
+interlacing branches. Orchids&mdash;death-white, saffron, pink, violet,
+purple, crimson&mdash;festooned from the higher boughs like incandescent
+lights of colored glass. The gilded, cone-shaped towers of Buddhist
+temples rising above steep roofs tiled in orange, red, or blue, their
+eaves hung with hundreds of tiny bells which tinkle musically in every
+breeze. The scarlet splotches of spreading fire-trees against
+whitewashed walls. Shaven-headed priests in yellow robes offering
+flowers and food to stolid-faced images of brass and clay. Long files
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath their hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn forest trails.
+Snowy, hump-backed bullocks, driven by naked brown men, splashing
+through the shallow water on the rice-fields harnessed to ploughs as
+primeval in design as those our Aryan ancestors used. Bronze-brown
+women, their lithe figures wrapped in gaily colored cottons, busying
+themselves about frail, leaf-thatched dwellings perched high on bamboo
+stilts above the river-banks. And, arching over all, a sky as
+flawlessly blue as the dome of the Turquoise Mosque in Samarland. Such
+is the land that the ancients called the Golden Chersonese but which is
+labeled in the geographies of today as Lower Siam and the Malay States.</p>
+
+<p>If you will look at the map you will see that Lower Siam extends
+half-way down the Malay Peninsula, running across it from coast to
+coast and thus forming a barrier between British Burmah and British
+Malaya, precisely as German East Africa formerly separated the British
+holdings in the northern and southern portions of the Dark Continent.
+And, were I to indulge in prophecy, I should say that the day would
+come when the fate of German East Africa will overtake Lower Siam.
+History has shown, again and again, that the nation, particularly if it
+is as small and feeble as Siam, which forms a barrier between two
+portions of a powerful and aggressive empire is in anything but an
+enviable position.</p>
+
+<p>Politically that portion of the Malay Peninsula<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> which is within the
+British sphere is divided into three sections: the colony of the
+Straits Settlements, the four Federated Malay States, and the five
+non-federated states under British protection. The crown colony of the
+Straits Settlements consists of the twenty-seven-mile-long island of
+Singapore and the much larger island of Penang; the territory of
+Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite Penang; Malacca, a narrow
+coastal strip between Singapore and Penang; and, to the north of it,
+the tiny island and insignificant territory known as the Dingdings. By
+the acquisition of these small and scattered but strategically
+important territories, England obtained control of the Straits of
+Malacca, which form the gateway to the China Seas. In 1896, as the
+result of a treaty between the British Government and the rajahs of the
+native states of Perak, Selangor, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan, these
+four states were brought into a confederation under British protection.
+Though they are still under the nominal rule of their own rajahs&mdash;now
+known as sultans&mdash;each has a British adviser attached to his court, the
+Governor of the Straits Settlements being <i>ex officio</i> the High
+Commissioner and administrative head of the confederation. The
+non-federated states consist of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Trengganu,
+the rights of suzerainty, protection, administration, and control of
+which were transferred by treaty from Siam to Great Britain in 1909,
+and the Sultanate of Johore, which occupies the extreme southern end of
+the peninsula, opposite Singapore. In the non-federated, as in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> the
+Federated Malay States, British advisers reside at the courts of the
+native sultans.</p>
+
+<p>Starting at Johore, which, some Biblical authorities assert, is
+identical with the Land of Ophir, and running through the heart of
+British Malaya from south to north, is the Federated Malay States
+Railway, which has recently been linked up with the Siamese State
+Railways, thus making it possible to travel by rail from Singapore to
+Bangkok in about four days. Aside from the heat (in the railway
+carriages the mercury occasionally climbs to 120), the insects, the
+dust, and the swarms of sweating natives who pile into every
+compartment regardless of the class designated on their tickets, the
+journey is a comfortable one.</p>
+
+<p>That section of the F. M. S. Railways which traverses the Sultanate of
+Johore runs through the greatest tiger country in all Asia. The tiger
+is to Johore what the elephant is to Siam and the kangaroo to
+Australia&mdash;a sort of national trademark. Even the postage stamps bear
+an engraving of the striped monarch of the jungle. There is no place in
+the world, so far as I am aware, save only a zoo, of course, where one
+can get a shot at a tiger so quickly and with such minimum of effort.
+In this connection I heard a story at the Singapore Club, the truth of
+which is vouched for by those with whom I was having tiffin. Shortly
+before the war, it seems, an American business man who had amassed a
+fortune in the export business, and who was noted even in down-town New
+York as a hustler, was returning from a business trip to China. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>In the
+smoking-room of the home ward bound liner, over the highballs and
+cigars, he listened to the stories of an Englishman who had been
+hunting big game in Asia. The conversation eventually turned to tigers.</p>
+
+<p>"Johore's the place for tigers," the Englishman remarked, pouring
+himself another peg of whiskey. "The beggars are as thick as foxes in
+Leicestershire. You're jolly well certain of bagging one the first day
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I've always wanted a tiger skin for my smoking room," commented the
+American. "Could buy one at a fur shop on the Avenue, of course, but I
+want one that I shot myself. Think I'll run over to Johore while we're
+at Singapore and get one."</p>
+
+<p>"But I say, my dear fellow," expostulated the Briton, "you really can't
+do that, you know. We only stop at Singapore for half a day&mdash;get in at
+daybreak and leave again at noon. You can't get a tiger in that time."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no such word as 'can't' in my business. Business methods will
+bring results in tiger shooting as quickly as in anything else,"
+retorted the American, rising and heading for the wireless room.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours later the American's representative in Singapore, a
+youngster who had himself been educated in the school of American
+business, received a wireless message from the head of his house. It
+read: "Arriving Singapore daybreak Thursday. Leaving noon same day.
+Wish to shoot tiger in Johore. Make arrangements."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>Now the representative in Singapore knew perfectly well that his
+promotion, if not his job, depended upon his employer getting a tiger.
+And, as the steamer was due in four days, there was no time to spare.
+From the director of the Singapore zoo he purchased for considerably
+above the market price, a decrepit and somewhat moth-eaten tiger of
+advanced years, which he had transported across the straits to Johore,
+whence it was conveyed by bullock cart to a spot in the edge of the
+jungle, a dozen miles outside the town, where it was turned loose in an
+enclosure of wire and bamboo hastily constructed for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>When the steamer bearing the American magnate dropped anchor in the
+harbor, the local representative went aboard with the quarantine
+officer. Ten minutes later, thanks to arrangements made in advance, a
+launch was bearing him and his chief to the shore, where a motor car
+was waiting. It is barely a dozen miles from the wharf at Singapore to
+Woodlands, the ferry station opposite Johore, and the driver had orders
+to shatter the speed laws. A waiting launch streaked across the two
+miles of channel which separates the island from the mainland and drew
+up alongside the quay at Johore, where another car was waiting. The
+roads are excellent in the sultanate, and thirty minutes of fast
+driving brought the two Americans to the zareba, within which the
+tiger, guarded by natives, was peacefully breakfasting on a goat.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a real man-eater," whispered the agent, handing his employer a
+loaded express rifle. "We only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> located him yesterday. Lured him with a
+goat, you know ... the smell of blood attracts 'em. You'd better put a
+bullet in him before he sees us. One just behind the shoulder will do
+the business."</p>
+
+<p>The magnate, trembling with excitement for the first time in his busy
+life, drew bead on the tawny stripe behind the tiger's shoulder. There
+was a shattering roar, the great beast pawed convulsively at the air,
+then rolled on its side and lay motionless.</p>
+
+<p>"Good work," the local man commented approvingly. "It's only an hour
+and forty minutes since we left the boat a record for tiger shooting, I
+fancy. We'll be back at Raffles' for breakfast by nine o'clock and
+after that I'll show you round the city. Don't worry about the skin,
+sir. The natives'll tend to the skinning and I'll have it on board
+before you sail."</p>
+
+<p>Now&mdash;so the story goes&mdash;after dinner in the magnate's New York home he
+takes his guests into the smoking room for cigars and coffee. Spread
+before the fireplace is a great orange and black pelt, a trifle faded
+it is true, but indubitably the skin of a tiger.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the host complacently in reply to his guests' admiring comments,
+"a real man-eater. Shot him myself in the Johore jungle. Easy enough to
+get a tiger if you use American business methods."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>When, upon reaching Singapore, the great seaport at the tip of the
+Malay Peninsula which is the gateway to the Malay States and to Siam, I
+learned that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> small but not uncomfortable steamers sail weekly for
+Bangkok&mdash;a four-day voyage if the monsoon is blowing in the right
+direction&mdash;or that, by crossing the narrow straits on the ferry to
+Johore, we could reach the capital of Siam in about the same time by
+the Federated Malay States and Siamese railways, there seemed no valid
+excuse for keeping the <i>Negros</i> any longer. So, bidding good-by to
+Captain Galvez and his officers, I gave orders that the little vessel,
+on which we had cruised upward of six thousand miles, amid some of the
+least-known islands in the world, should return to Manila. To leave her
+was like breaking home ties, and I confess that when she steamed slowly
+out of the harbor, homeward bound, with her Filipino crew lining the
+rail and Captain Galvez waving to us from the bridge and the flag at
+her taffrail dipping in farewell, I suddenly felt lonely and deserted.</p>
+
+<p>When the people whom I met in Singapore learned that I was
+contemplating visiting Siam they attempted to dissuade me. I was warned
+that the train service up the peninsula was uncertain, that the
+steamers up the gulf were uncomfortable, that the hotel in Bangkok was
+impossible, the dirt incredible, the heat unendurable, the climate
+unhealthy. And when, desiring to learn whether these indictments were
+true, I attempted to obtain reliable information about the country to
+which I was going, I found that none was to be had. The latest volume
+on Siam which I could find in Singapore bookshops bore an 1886 imprint.
+The managers of the two leading hotels in Singapore knew, or professed
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> know, nothing about hotel accommodations in Bangkok. Though the
+administration of the Federal Malay States Railways generously offered
+me the use of a private car over their system, I could obtain no
+reliable information as to what connections I could make at the Siamese
+frontier or when I would reach Bangkok. And the only guide book on Siam
+which I could discover&mdash;quite an excellent little volume, by the
+way&mdash;was published by the Imperial Japanese Railways!</p>
+
+<p>The Siamese are by no means opposed to foreigners visiting their
+country, and they would welcome the development of its resources by
+foreign capital, but, owing to the insularity, indifference, timidity
+and pride which are inherent in the Siamese character, they have taken
+no steps to bring their country to the attention of the outside world.
+When one notes the energetic advertising campaigns which are being
+conducted by the governments of Japan, China, Java, and even
+Indo-China, where the visitor is confronted at every turn by
+advertisements urging him to "Spend the Week-End at Kamakura," "Go to
+the Great Wall," "Don't Miss Boroboedor and Djokjakarta," "Take
+Advantage of the Special Fares to the Ruins of Angkor," you wonder why
+Siam, which has so much that is novel and picturesque to offer, makes
+no effort to swell its revenues by encouraging the tourist industry.
+That the royal prince who is the Minister of Communications recently
+made a tour of the United States for the purpose of studying American
+railway methods suggests, however, that the Land of the White <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>Elephant
+is planning to get its share of tourist travel in the future.</p>
+
+<p>I might as well admit frankly that my first impressions of the Siamese
+capital were extremely disappointing. I didn't expect to be conveyed to
+my hotel atop a white elephant, through streets lined with salaaming
+natives, but neither did I expect to make a wild dash through
+thoroughfares as crowded with traffic as Fifth Avenue, in a vehicle
+which unmistakably owed its paternity to Mr. Henry Ford, or to be
+bruskly halted at busy street crossings by the upraised hand of a
+helmeted and white-gloved traffic policeman. Nor, upon my arrival at
+the hotel&mdash;there is only one in Bangkok deserving of the name&mdash;did I
+expect to find on the breakfast table a breakfast food manufactured in
+Battle Creek, or beside my bed an electric fan made in New Britain,
+Connecticut, or behind the desk a very wide awake American youth&mdash;the
+son, I learned later, of one of the American advisers to the Siamese
+Government&mdash;who eagerly inquired whether I had brought any American
+newspapers with me and whether I thought the pennant would be won by
+the Giants or the White Sox.</p>
+
+<p>Bangkok, which, with its suburbs, has a population about equal to that
+of Boston, is built on the banks of the country's greatest river, the
+Menam, some forty miles from its mouth. Though the city has a number of
+fine thoroughfares, straight as though laid out with a pencil and
+ruler, between them lie labyrinths of dim and evil-smelling bazaars,
+their narrow, winding,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> cobble-paved streets lined on either side by
+stalls in which are displayed for sale all the products of the country.
+Because of the intense heat these stalls are open in front, so that the
+occupants work and eat and sleep in full view of everyone who passes.
+The barber shaves the heads of his customers while they squat in the
+edge of the roadway. In the licensed gambling houses groups of excited
+men and women crowd about gaming tables presided over by greasy,
+half-naked Chinese croupiers, and, when they have squandered their
+trifling earnings, hasten to the nearest pawnshop with any garment or
+article of furniture that is not absolutely indispensable to their
+existence in order to obtain a few more coins to hazard and eventually
+to lose. As a result of this passion for gambling, the city is full of
+pawnshops, some streets containing scarcely anything else. At the far
+end of one of the bazaar streets is the largest idol manufactory in
+Siam, for the temples whose graceful, tapering towers dot the landscape
+are filled with images of Buddha, in all sizes and of all materials
+from wood to gold set with jewels, most of them donated by the devout
+in order to "make merit" for themselves. As all Buddhists wish to
+accumulate as much merit for themselves as possible, in order to be
+assured at death of a through ticket to Nirvana, the idol-making
+industry is in a flourishing condition.</p>
+
+<p>Pushing their way through the crowded thoroughfares, their raucous
+cries rising above the clamor, go the ice cream and curry vendors,
+carrying the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>paraphernalia of their trade slung from bamboo poles
+borne upon the shoulders&mdash;perambulating cafeterias and soda fountains,
+as it were. For a satang&mdash;a coin equivalent to about a quarter of a
+cent&mdash;you can purchase a bowl of rice, while the expenditure of another
+satang will provide you with an assortment of savories or relishes,
+made from elderly meat, decayed fish, decomposed prawns and other
+toothsome ingredients, which you heap upon the rice, together with a
+greenish-yellow curry sauce which makes the concoction look as though
+it were suffering from a severe attack of jaundice. These relishes are
+cooked, or rather re-warmed, by the simple process of suspending them
+in a sort of sieve in a pot of boiling water, the same pot and the same
+water serving for all customers alike. By this arrangement, the man who
+takes his snack at the close of the day has the advantage of receiving
+not merely what he orders, but also flavors and even floating remnants
+from the dishes ordered by all those who have preceded him. The ice
+cream vendors drive a roaring trade in a concoction the basis of which
+is finely shaven ice, looking like half-frozen and very dirty slush,
+sweetened with sugar and flavored, according to the purchaser's taste
+from an array of metal-topped bottles such as barbers use for bay rum
+and hair oil. But, being cold and sweet, "Isa-kee," as the Chinese
+vendors call it, is as popular among the lower classes in Siam as ice
+cream cones are in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Though the streets of Bangkok are crowded with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> vehicles of every
+description&mdash;ramshackle and disreputable rickshaws, the worst to be
+found in all the East, drawn by sweating coolies; the boxes of wood and
+glass on wheels, called gharries, drawn by decrepit ponies whose
+harness is pieced out with rope; creaking bullock carts driven by
+Tamils from Southern India; bicycles, ridden by natives whose European
+hats and coats are in striking contrast to their bare legs and
+brilliant <i>panungs</i>; clanging street cars, as crowded with humanity as
+those on Broadway; motors of every size and make, from jitneys to
+Rolls-Royces&mdash;the bulk of the city's traffic is borne on the great
+river and the countless canals which empty into it. Bangkok has been
+called, and not ineptly, the Venice of the East, for it is covered with
+a net-work of canals, or <i>klongs</i>, which spread out in every direction.
+In sampans, houseboats and other craft, moored to the banks of these
+canals, dwells the major portion of the city's inhabitants. The city's
+water population is complete in itself and perfectly independent of its
+neighbors on land, for it has its own shops and dwellings, its own
+markets and restaurants, its own theaters, and gambling establishments,
+its own priests and police. When you go to Bangkok, I strongly advise
+you to hire a sampan and visit the floating portion of the city after
+nightfall. The houseboats are open at both ends and you will see many
+things that the guidebooks fail to mention.</p>
+
+<p>The Oriental Hotel, the banks, the shipping offices, the business
+houses, and all the legations save only the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> American, are clustered on
+or near the river in a low-lying and unattractive quarter of the town.
+But follow the long, dingy, squalid highway known as the New Road, a
+thoroughfare lined with third-rate Chinese shops and thronged with
+rickshaws, carriages, bicycles, motors, street-cars, and Asiatics of
+every religion and complexion, and you will come at length into a
+portion of the city as different from the mercantile district as
+Riverside Drive is from the Bowery. Here you will find broad
+boulevards, shaded by rows of splendid tamarinds, lined by charming
+villas which peep coyly from the blazing gardens which surround them,
+and broken at frequent intervals by little parks in which are fountains
+and statuary. There is a great common, green with grass during the
+rainy season, known as the Premane Ground, where military reviews are
+held and where the royal cremations take place; a favorite spot in the
+spring for the kite-flying contests in which Siamese of all classes and
+all ages participate. Fronting on the Premane Ground are the not
+unimposing stuccoed buildings which house the Ministries of Justice,
+Agriculture and War. Not far away is the new Throne Hall, a huge,
+ornate structure of white marble, in the modern Italian style, its
+great dome faintly reminiscent of the Capitol at Washington. From the
+center of the spacious plaza rises a rather fine equestrian statue of
+the late king, Chulalungkorn, and, close by, the really charming Dusit
+Gardens, beautifully laid out with walks and lagoons and kiosks and a
+great variety of tropical flowers and shrubs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> trees. But, most
+characteristic and colorful of all, a touch of that Oriental splendor
+which one looks for in Siam, is the congeries of palaces, offices,
+stables, courtyards, gardens, shrines and temples, the whole encircled
+by a crenelated, white-washed wall, which is the official residence of
+King Rama VI.</p>
+
+<p>There are said to be nearly four hundred Buddhist temples within a
+two-mile radius of the royal palace, of which by far the most
+interesting and magnificent is the famous Wat Phra Keo, or Temple of
+the Emerald Buddha, which is really a royal chapel, being within the
+outer circumference of the palace walls. I doubt if any space of
+similar size in all the world contains such a bewildering display of
+barbaric magnificence, such a riot of form and color, as the walled
+enclosure in which this remarkable edifice and its attendant structures
+stand. From the center of the marble-paved courtyard rises an enormous,
+cone-shaped <i>prachadee</i>, round at the bottom but tapering to a long and
+slender spire said to be covered with plates of gold. It certainly
+looks like a solid mass of that precious metal, and at daybreak and
+nightfall, when it catches the level rays of the sun, it can be seen
+from afar, shining and glittering above the gorgeously colored roofs of
+the temples and the many-tinted lesser spires which surround it. Close
+by the gilded <i>prachadee</i> is the <i>bote</i> or chapel used by the king,
+surmounted by a similar spire which is overlaid with sapphire-colored
+plates of glass and porcelain, while a little distance away stands the
+temple itself, its gilded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>walls set with mosaics of emerald green.
+Flanking the gateways of the temple courtyard are gigantic, grotesque
+figures, fully thirty feet in height, carved and colored like the
+creatures of a nightmare. They represent demons and are supposed to
+guard the approaches to the temple, being so placed that they glare
+down ferociously on all who enter the sacred enclosure. Other figures
+in marble, bronze, wood and stone, representing dolphins, storks, cows,
+camels, monkeys and the various fabulous monsters of the Hindu
+mythology, are scattered in apparent confusion about the temple
+courtyard, producing an effect as bizarre as it is bewildering. It is
+so unreal, so incredibly fantastic, that I felt that I was looking at
+the papier-mach&eacute; setting for a motion picture spectacle, such as
+Griffith used to produce, and that the director and the cameraman would
+appear shortly and end the illusion.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the main temple is extremely lofty. The walls and
+rafters are of teak and the floor is covered with a matting made of
+silver wire. At the far end of this imposing room an enormous,
+pyramidal shrine of gold rises almost to the roof, its dazzling
+brilliancy somewhat subdued by the semi-obscurity of the interior. Wat
+Phra Keo is unique amongst Siamese temples in containing objects of
+real value. Everything is genuine and costly, as becomes the gifts of a
+king, though it must be admitted that certain of the royal offerings
+which are ranged at the foot of the shrine, such as jeweled French
+clocks, figurines of S&egrave;vres and Dresden porcelain, and a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> marble
+statue of a Roman goddess, are of doubtful appropriateness. Ranged on a
+table at the back of the altar are seven images of Buddha in pure gold,
+the right hand of each pointed upward. On the thumb and fingers of each
+hand glitters a king's ransom in rings of sapphires, emeralds and
+rubies, while from the center of each palm flashes a rosette of
+diamonds. High up toward the rafters, at the apex of the golden
+pyramid, in a sort of recess toward which the fingers of the seven
+images are pointing, sits an image of Buddha, perhaps twelve inches
+high, said to be cut from one enormous emerald&mdash;whence the temple's
+name. As a matter of fact, it is made of jade and is of incalculable
+value. Set in its forehead are three eyes, each an enormous diamond.
+The history of this extraordinary idol is lost in the mists of
+antiquity. Tradition has it that it fell from heaven into one of the
+Laos states, being captured by the Siamese in battle. Since then it has
+been repeatedly lost, captured or stolen. Its story, like that of so
+many famous jewels, might fittingly be written in blood.</p>
+
+<p>It is the custom in Siam for every man to spend a portion of his life
+in a monastery. This rule applies to everyone from the poorest peasant
+upward, the king and all the male members of the royal family having at
+some period worn the yellow robe of a monk. This curious custom is, no
+doubt, an imitation of the so-called Act of Renunciation of Gautama,
+the future Buddha, who, at the age of twenty-nine, moved by the
+sufferings of humanity, renounced his rights to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> father's throne
+and, abandoning his wife and child, devoted the remainder of his life
+to religion. Just as every American boy is expected to go to school, so
+every Siamese youth is expected to enter a monastery, the stern
+discipline enforced during this period accounting, I have no doubt, for
+the docility which is so noticeable a part of the Siamese character.
+While I was in Siam I was the guest one day of the officers' mess of
+the crack regiment of the household cavalry. Though my hosts, with few
+exceptions, spoke fluent English, though several of them had been
+educated at English schools and universities, and though the
+conversation over the mess table was of polo and racing and big game
+shooting and bridge, I learned to my astonishment that every one of
+these debonair young officers, with their worldly manners and their
+beautifully cut uniforms, had at one time shaved his head, donned the
+yellow robe of a monk, and begged his food from door to door. In view
+of the universality of the custom, it is small wonder that Siam has ten
+thousand monasteries and that 300,000 of its inhabitants wear the
+ocher-colored robe.</p>
+
+<p>The periods of time which men devote to monastic life are not uniform.
+Some spend between a month and a year, others their entire lives. Some
+enter the monastery in their youth, others in middle age or when old
+men. But they all shave their heads and don the coarse yellow robe and
+lead practically the same existence. Each morning, carrying their
+"begging bowls," they beg their food at the doors of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>laymen. They come
+quietly and stand at the door, and, accepting the offerings, as quietly
+depart without expressing thanks for what is given them, the idea being
+that they are not begging for their own benefit but in order to evoke a
+spirit of charity in the giver. During the dry season it is the custom
+of the monks to make long pilgrimages for the purpose of visiting other
+monasteries. Each of these itinerant monks is accompanied by a youth
+known as a <i>yom</i>, who carries the simple requisites of the journey, the
+chief of which is a large umbrella. Traveling in the interior one
+frequently meets long files of these yellow-clad pilgrims, with their
+attendant <i>yoms</i>, moving in silence along a forest trail. When night
+comes the <i>yom</i> opens the large umbrella which he carries, thrusts its
+long handle into the ground, and over it drapes a square of cloth, thus
+extemporizing a sort of tent under which his master sleeps.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>To visit Siam without seeing the royal white elephants would be like
+visiting Niagara without seeing the falls. The elephant stables stand
+in the heart of the palace enclosure, sandwiched in between the palace
+gardens and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each animal&mdash;there were
+only three in the royal stables at the time of my visit&mdash;has a separate
+building to itself, within which it stands on a sort of dais, one hind
+leg lashed with a rope to a tall, stout post painted scarlet and
+surmounted by a gilded crown. Much as I dislike to shatter cherished
+illusions, were I to assert that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> the elephants I saw in the royal
+stables were white, I should be convicting myself of color-blindness.
+The best that can be said of two of them, is that they were a dirty
+gray, about the color of a much-used wash-rag. The third, had it been a
+horse, might have been described as a roan, the whole body being a pale
+reddish-brown, with a sprinkling of real white hairs on the back. All
+three animals were, in reality, albinos, having the light-colored iris
+of the eye, the white toe-nails, and the pink skin at the end of the
+trunk which distinguish the albino everywhere. As a matter of fact,
+"white elephant" is not a correct translation of the Siamese <i>chang
+penak</i>, which really means "albino elephant." But most foreigners will
+continue, I have no doubt, to use the term made famous by Barnum.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Though the albino elephants are never used nowadays save on occasions
+of great ceremony, being regarded by the educated Siamese with the same
+amused tolerance with which an Englishman regards the great gilt coach,
+drawn by eight cream-colored horses, in which the king goes to open
+Parliament, the ordinary elephant is of enormous economic value to the
+country, being a combination, as it were, of a motor truck, a portable
+derrick, and a freight car. Almost anywhere in the back country, where
+the only roads are trails through the jungle, one can see "elephants
+a-pilin' teak in the sludgy, squdgy creeks" or being loaded with
+merchandise for transport into the far interior. Indeed, the traveler
+who wishes to take a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> short cut from Siam to Burmah can hire an
+elephant for the journey almost as easily as he could hire a motor car
+in America. It is a novel means of travel, but a little of it goes a
+long way. A good working elephant is a valuable piece of property,
+being worth in the neighborhood of $2,500., but the prospective
+purchaser should remember that the possession of one of these giant
+pachyderms entails considerable overhead, or rather, internal expense.
+De Wolf Hopper was telling only the literal truth when he sang in
+<i>Wang</i> of the tribulations of the peasant who had an elephant on his
+hands:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The elephant ate all night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The elephant ate all day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do what he would to furnish food,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The cry was 'Still more hay!'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="elephant" id="elephant"></a>
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px; margin-bottom: 2em;"><p class="caption">An elephant hunt in Siam</p></div>
+<img src="images/228a.jpg" width="600" height="418" alt="elephants crossing river" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">A large herd of wild elephants being driven across a
+river</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/228b.jpg" width="600" height="420" alt="elephants being herded" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">The elephants, herded by domesticated animals, are
+driven into the corral</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Although, as I have already remarked, sophisticated Siamese regard the
+white elephant with amusement tinged with contempt, there is no doubt
+that among the bulk of the people the animals are considered as sacred
+and are treated with great veneration. Indeed, when Siam was forced to
+cede certain of her eastern provinces to France, the treaty contained a
+clause providing that any so-called white elephants which might be
+captured in the ceded territory should be considered the property of
+the King of Siam and delivered to him forthwith. A number of years ago,
+a traveling show known as Wilson's English Circus, gave a number of
+exhibitions in Bangkok, which were attended by the King, the nobility,
+and members of the European <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>colony. When the proprietor saw that the
+popular interest in his exhibition was beginning to wear off, he
+distributed broadcast handbills announcing that at the next performance
+"a genuine white elephant" would take part in the exhibition. Public
+curiosity was reawakened and that evening the circus was crowded. After
+the usual bareback riding, in which the Siamese were treated to the
+sight of European women in pink tights and tulle skirts pirouetting on
+the backs of cantering Percherons, two clowns burst into the ring.</p>
+
+<p>"Hey, you!" bawled one of them, "Have you seen the white elephant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I have," was the response. "The King has a stable full of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, he ain't," shouted the first fun-maker. "The King ain't got
+any <i>white</i> elephants. His are all gray ones. I'll show you the only
+genuine white elephant in the world," whereupon a small elephant, as
+snowy as repeated coats of whitewash could make it, ambled into the
+ring. Though a suppressed titter ran through the more sophisticated
+portion of the audience when it was observed that the ridiculous
+looking animal left white marks on everything it touched, it was quite
+apparent that the bulk of the spectators resented fun being made of an
+animal which they had been taught to consider sacred, certain of the
+more devout asserting that the sacrilegious performance would call down
+the wrath of Buddha. Their prophecies proved to be well founded, for
+the "white" elephant died at sea a few days later&mdash;as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> result, it
+was hinted, of poison put in its food by the Siamese priests and Wilson
+himself, who had been suffering from dysentery, died the day after he
+landed at Singapore.</p>
+
+<p>Being a young nation, so far as the adoption of Western methods are
+concerned, the Siamese are extremely sensitive, being almost
+pathetically eager to win the good opinion of the Occidental world.
+Thus, upon Siam's entry into the Great War (perhaps you were not aware
+that the little kingdom equipped and sent to France an expeditionary
+force composed of aviation, ambulance and motor units, thus being the
+only independent Asiatic nation whose troops served on European soil)
+the king abolished the white elephant upon a red ground which from time
+immemorial had been the national standard, substituting for it a
+nondescript affair of colored stripes which at first glance appears to
+be a compromise between the flags of China and Montenegro. In doing
+this, I think that the king made a mistake, for he deprived his country
+of a distinctive emblem which was associated with Siam the whole world
+over.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Fortune was kind to us in the Siamese capital, for we reached that city
+on the eve of a series of royal cremations, the attendant ceremonies
+providing enough action and color to satisfy even Hawkinson. It should
+be explained that instead of cremating a body immediately, as might be
+expected in so torrid a climate, the remains are placed in a large jar
+and kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> in a temple or in the house of the deceased for a period
+determined by the rank of the dead man&mdash;the King for twelve months and
+so downward. If the relatives are too poor to afford the expenses
+incident to cremation, they bury the body, but exhume it for burning
+when their financial condition permits. On the day of the cremation,
+which is usually fixed by an astrologer, the remains are transferred
+from the jar to a wooden coffin and carried with much pomp to the
+<i>meru</i>, or place of cremation. When the deceased is of royal or noble
+blood the <i>meru</i> is frequently a magnificent structure, sometimes
+costing many thousands of dollars, built for the purpose and torn down
+when that purpose has been served. The coffin is placed on the pyre,
+which is lighted by relatives, the occasion being considered one for
+rejoicing rather than mourning. The royal <i>meru</i>, which had been
+erected in a small park in the outskirts of the capital at a cost of
+one hundred thousand ticals, was a really beautiful structure of true
+Siamese architecture, elaborately decorated in scarlet and gold and
+draped with hangings of the same colors. Within the <i>meru</i> were three
+pyres, concealed by gilt screens, on which were set the coffins
+containing the bodies. As there were a number of bodies to be burned,
+the ceremonies lasted upward of a week, King Rama going in state each
+afternoon to the <i>meru</i>, where he took his place on a throne in an
+elaborately decorated pavilion. After brief ceremonies by a large body
+of yellow-robed Buddhist priests, the King set fire to the end of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> a
+long fuse, which in turn ignited the three pyres simultaneously, the
+ascending clouds of smoke being greeted by the roll of drums and the
+crash of saluting cannon.</p>
+
+<p>When I first suggested to friends in Bangkok that I wished to obtain
+permission for Hawkinson to take pictures of the cremation, they told
+me that it was out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" I demanded. "Motion-pictures were taken of the funerals of
+the Pope, and of King Edward, and of President Roosevelt, without
+anyone dreaming of protesting, so why should there be any objection
+here? Nothing in the least disrespectful is intended."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is Siam," my friends replied pessimistically, "and such
+things simply aren't done here. No one has ever taken a motion-picture
+of a royal cremation."</p>
+
+<p>"It's never too late to begin," I told them.</p>
+
+<p>So I took a rickshaw out to the American Legation and enlisted the
+cooperation of our charge d'affaires, Mr. Donald Rodgers, the very
+efficient young diplomatist who was representing American interests in
+Siam pending the arrival of the new minister.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best to arrange it," Rodgers assured me, "but I'm not
+sanguine about meeting with success. The Siamese are fine people,
+kindly, hospitable and all that, but they're as conservative as
+Bostonians."</p>
+
+<p>Two days later, however, he sent me a letter, signed by the minister of
+the royal household, authorizing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> Hawkinson to take motion-pictures in
+the grounds of the <i>meru</i> on the following day prior to the cremation.
+I didn't quite like the sound of the last four words, "prior to the
+cremation," but I felt that it was not an occasion for quibbling. So
+the next day, at the appointed hour&mdash;which was two hours ahead of the
+time set for the cremation&mdash;Hawkinson set out for the <i>meru</i>,
+accompanied by his interpreter. He did not return until dinner-time.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" I inquired, by way of greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"What didn't happen?" he retorted. "They turned me out just as the
+cremation was commencing. When we reached the <i>meru</i> I was met by an
+official wearing bright-blue pants, who told me that he had been sent
+to assist me in taking the pictures. Well, I got a few shots of the
+<i>meru</i> itself, and of the royal pavilion, and of some of the priests
+and soldiers, but there wasn't much doing because there wasn't any
+action. So I sat down to wait for things to happen. Pretty soon the
+troops began to arrive&mdash;lancers and a battery of artillery and a
+company of the royal body-guard in red coats&mdash;and after them came the
+guests: officials and dignitaries in all sorts of gorgeous uniforms
+covered with decorations. A few minutes later I heard someone say, 'The
+King is coming,' so I got the camera ready to begin cranking. Just then
+up comes my Siamese chaperone. 'You will have to leave now,' says he.
+'Leave? What for?' said I. 'Because the cremation is about to begin,'
+he tells me. 'But that's what I've come to take pictures of,' I told
+him. 'What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> did you think that I attended this party for?' 'Oh, no,'
+says he, very polite; 'your permission says that you can take pictures
+<i>prior to the cremation</i>.' So they showed me the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you didn't get any pictures?" I queried, deep disappointment in
+my tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I got the pictures," was the answer. "Some of them, at any rate.
+That's what I went there for, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"But how did you work it?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "I told the driver to back
+his car up against the iron fence which encircles the <i>meru</i>; then I
+set up the camera in the tonneau, so that it was above the heads of the
+crowd, screwed on the six-inch lens which I use for long-distance
+shots, and took the pictures."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="sisowath" id="sisowath"></a>
+<img src="images/234a.jpg" width="338" height="550" alt="King Sisowath" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 338px;">
+<p class="caption">King Sisowath of Cambodia</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">
+Though the octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, he is
+permitted only a shadow of power</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="ramavi" id="ramavi"></a>
+<img src="images/234b.jpg" width="339" height="550" alt="King Rama VI" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 339px;">
+<p class="caption">Rama VI, King of Siam</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">He is in most respects the antithesis of the popular conception of an
+Oriental monarch</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The present ruler of Siam, King Rama VI, is in most respects the
+antithesis of the popular conception of an Oriental monarch. Though
+polygamy has been practised among the upper classes in Siam from time
+beyond reckoning, he has neither wife nor concubines. Instead of riding
+atop a white elephant, in a gilded howdah, or being borne in a
+palanquin, as is always the custom of Oriental rulers in fiction, he
+shatters the speed laws in a big red Mercedes. For the flaming silks
+and flashing jewels which the movies have educated the American public
+to believe are habitually worn by Eastern potentates, King Rama
+substitutes the uniform of a Siamese general, or, for evening
+functions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> at the palace, the dress coat and knee-breeches of European
+courts. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and later graduated
+from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, being commissioned an
+honorary colonel in the British Army. He is the founder and chief of an
+organization patterned after the Boy Scouts and known as the Wild
+Tigers, which has hundreds of branches and carries on its rolls the
+name of nearly every youth in the kingdom. Each year the organization
+holds in Bangkok a grand rally, when thousands of youngsters, together
+with many adults from all walks of life, for membership in the corps is
+not confined to boys, are reviewed by the sovereign, who appears in the
+gorgeous and original uniform, designed by himself, of
+commander-in-chief of the Wild Tigers.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect, however, King Rama lives up to the popular conception
+of an Oriental ruler: like his father before him, he is generous to the
+point of prodigality. This trait was illustrated not long ago, when he
+sent eight thousand pounds to the widow of Mr. Westengaard, the
+American who was for many years general adviser to the Government of
+Siam, accompanied by a message that it was to be used for the education
+of her son. This recalls a characteristic little anecdote of the
+present ruler's father, the late King Chulalongkorn. The early youth of
+the late king and his brothers was spent under the tutelage of an
+English governess, who was affectionately addressed by the younger
+members of the royal family as "Mem." Upon her return to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> England she
+wrote a book entitled <i>An Englishwoman at the Siamese Court</i>, in which
+she depicted her employer, King Mongkut, the father of Chulalongkorn,
+in a none too favorable light. Some years later, upon the occasion of
+King Chulalongkorn's visit to England, his former governess, now become
+an old woman, called upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mem," he said, in a course of conversation, "how could you write such
+unkind things about my father? He was always very good to you."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, Majesty," the former governess admitted in some
+confusion, "but the publishers wouldn't take the book unless I made it
+sensational. And I had to do it because I was in financial
+difficulties."</p>
+
+<p>When she had departed the King turned to one of his equerries. "Send
+the poor old lady a hundred pounds," he directed. "She meant no harm
+and she needs the money."</p>
+
+<p>The chief hobby of the present ruler is, curiously enough, amateur
+dramatics, of which his orthodox and conservative ministers do not
+wholly approve. In addition to having translated into Siamese a number
+of Shakesperian plays, he is the author of several original dramas,
+which have been produced at the palace under his personal direction and
+in several of which he has himself played the leading parts. As a
+result of this predilection for dramatics, he has accumulated an
+extensive theatrical wardrobe, to which he is constantly adding. When I
+was in Bangkok I had some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> clothes made by the English tailor who
+supplies the court&mdash;an excellent tailor, but expensive.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll excuse my taking the liberty, I hope, sir," he said during the
+course of a fitting, "but, being as you are an American, perhaps you
+could assist me with some information. I've received a very pressing
+order for a costume such as is worn by the cowboys in your country,
+sir, but, though I've found some pictures in the English illustrated
+weeklies, I don't rightly know how to make it."</p>
+
+<p>"A cowboy's costume?" I exclaimed. "In Siam? Who in the name of Heaven
+wants it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's for his Majesty," was the surprising answer. "He's written a play
+in which he takes the part of an American cowboy and he's very
+particular, sir, that the costume should be quite correct. Seeing as
+you come from that country, I thought I'd make so bold, sir, as to ask
+if you could give me some suggestions."</p>
+
+<p>It was quite apparent that he believed that when I was at home I
+customarily went about in chaps, a flannel shirt and a sombrero, and,
+knowing the English mind, I realized that nothing was to be gained by
+attempting to disillusionize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see what you've made," I suggested, whereupon he produced an
+outfit which appeared to be a compromise between the costume of an
+Italian bandit, the uniform of an Australian soldier, and the regalia
+of a Spanish bull-fighter. Suppressing my inclination to give way to
+laughter, I sketched for the grateful tailor the sort of garments to
+which cowpunchers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>&mdash;cowpunchers of the screen, at least&mdash;are addicted.
+If he followed my directions the King of Siam wore a costume which
+would make William S. Hart green with envy.</p>
+
+<p>King Rama's literary efforts have not been confined to playwriting,
+however, for his book on the wars of the Polish Succession is one of
+the standard authorities on the subject. If you go to Siam expecting to
+see an Oriental potentate such as you have read about in novels, His
+Majesty, Rama VI, is bound to prove very disappointing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="ceremonies" id="ceremonies"></a>
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px; margin-bottom: 2em;"><p class="caption">Colorful ceremonies of old Siam</p></div>
+<img src="images/238a.jpg" width="600" height="428" alt="royal barge" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">Once each year the King visits the various temples in
+and near Bangkok, travelling in the royal barge, a gorgeously decorated
+affair rowed by threescore oarsmen</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/238b.jpg" width="600" height="407" alt="rice planting ceremony" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="captionblockquot">The rice-planting ceremony. The Minister of Agriculture
+ploughs a few furrows in a field outside Bangkok, being fallowed by
+four young women of the court who scatter rice grains on the freshly
+opened soil</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But, though the monarch and his court are as up-to-the-minute as the
+Twentieth Century Limited, many of the spectacular and colorful
+ceremonies of old Siam are still celebrated with all their ancient pomp
+and magnificence. For example, each year, at the close of the rainy
+season, the King devotes about a fortnight to visiting the various
+temples in and near Bangkok. On these occasions he goes in the royal
+barge, a gorgeously decorated affair, 150 feet in length, looking not
+unlike an enormous Venetian gondola, rowed by three-score oarsmen in
+scarlet-and-gold liveries. The King, surrounded by a glittering group
+of court officials, sits on a throne at the stern, while attendants
+hold over his head golden umbrellas. From the landing place to the
+temple he is borne in a sedan chair between rows of prostrate natives
+who bow their foreheads to the earth in adoration of this short, stout,
+olive-skinned, good-humored looking young man whom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>nearly ten millions
+of people implicitly believe to be the earthly representative of
+Buddha.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Another picturesque observance, the Rice-Planting Ceremony, takes place
+early in May, when the Minister of Agriculture, as the deputy of the
+King, leads a long procession of officials and priests to a field in
+the outskirts of the capital, where a pair of white bullocks, yoked to
+a gilded plough, are waiting. Surrounded by a throng of functionaries
+glittering like Christmas trees, the Minister ploughs a few furrows in
+the field, being followed by four young women of the court who scatter
+rice grains on the freshly turned soil. Until quite recent years, the
+officials taking part in this procession claimed the privilege of
+appropriating any articles which caught their fancy in the shops along
+the route. But this quaint practise is no longer followed. It was not
+popular with the merchants. The Siamese, like all Orientals, place much
+reliance on omens, the position of the lower hem of the <i>panung</i> worn
+by the Minister of Agriculture on this occasion indicating, it is
+confidently believed, the sort of weather to be expected during the
+ensuing year. If the edge of the <i>panung</i> comes down to the ankles a
+dry season is anticipated, even a drought, perhaps. If, on the
+contrary, the garment is pulled up to the knees&mdash;a raining-in-London
+effect, as it were,&mdash;it is freely predicted that the country will
+suffer from floods. But if the folds of the silk reach to a point
+midway between knee and ankle, then the farmers look forward to a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>moderate rainfall and a prosperous season. It is as though the United
+States Weather Bureau were to base its forecasts on the height at which
+the Secretary of Agriculture wore his trousers.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>panung</i>&mdash;a strip of silk or cotton about three yards long is the
+national garment of Siam and among the poorer classes constitutes the
+only article of clothing. It is admirably adapted to the climate, being
+easy to wash and easy to put on: all that is necessary is to wind it
+about the waist, pass the ends between the legs, and tuck them into the
+girdle, thus producing the effect of a pair of knickerbockers. As both
+sexes wear the <i>panung</i>, and likewise wear their hair cut short, it is
+somewhat difficult to distinguish between men and women. Siamese women
+keep their hair about four or five inches long and brush it straight
+back, like American college students, without using any comb or other
+ornament, thus giving them a peculiarly boyish appearance. In
+explanation of this fashion of wearing the hair there is an interesting
+tradition. Once upon a time, it seems, a Siamese walled city was
+besieged by Cambodians while the men of the city were fighting
+elsewhere and only women and children remained behind. A successful
+defense was out of the question. In this emergency, a woman of militant
+character&mdash;the Sylvia Pankhurst of her time&mdash;proposed to her terrified
+sisters that they should cut their hair short and appear upon the walls
+in men's clothing on the chance of frightening away the Cambodians. The
+ruse succeeded, for, while the invaders <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>were hesitating whether to
+carry the city by storm, the Siamese warriors returned and put the
+enemy to flight. The Siamese prince who told me the story, an officer
+who had spent much of his life in Europe, remarked that he understood
+that American women were also cutting off their hair.</p>
+
+<p>"True enough," I admitted. "In the younger set bobbed hair is all the
+vogue. But they don't cut off their hair, as your women did, to
+frighten away the men."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>If you will take down the family atlas and turn to the map of Southern
+Asia you will see that Siam, with an area about equivalent to that of
+Spain, occupies the uncomfortable and precarious position of a fat
+walnut clinched firmly between the jaws of a nut-cracker, the jaws
+being formed by British Burmah and French Indo-China. And for the past
+thirty years those jaws have been slowly but remorselessly closing.
+Until 1893 the eastern frontier of Siam was separated from the China
+Sea by the narrow strip of Annam, at one point barely thirty miles in
+width, which was under French protection. Its western boundary was the
+Lu Kiang River, which likewise formed the eastern boundary of the
+British possessions in Burmah. On the south the kingdom reached down to
+the Grand Lac of Cambodia, while on the north its frontiers were
+coterminous with those of the great, rich Chinese province of Yunnan.
+Now here was a condition of affairs which was as annoying as it was
+intolerable to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>land-hungry statesmen of Downing Street and the
+Quai d'Orsay. That a small and defenseless Oriental nation should be
+permitted to block the colonial expansion of two powerful and
+acquisitive European nations was unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>The first step in the spoilation of the helpless little kingdom was
+taken by France in 1893, when, claiming that the Mekong&mdash;which the
+French were eager to acquire under the impression that it would provide
+them with a trade-route into Southern China&mdash;formed the true boundary
+between Siam and Annam, she demanded that the Siamese evacuate the
+great strip of territory to the east of that river. Greatly to the
+delight of the French imperialists, the Siamese refused to yield,
+whereupon, in accordance with the time-honored rules of the game of
+territory grabbing, French gunboats were dispatched to make a naval
+demonstration off Bangkok. The forts at the mouth of the Menam fired
+upon the gunboats, whereupon the French instituted a blockade of the
+Siamese capital and at the same time enormously increased their
+demands. England, which had long professed to be a disinterested friend
+of the Siamese, shrugged her shoulders whereupon they yielded to the
+threat of a French invasion and ceded to France the eastern marches of
+the kingdom. Meanwhile the frontier between Siam and the new British
+possessions in Burmah had been settled amicably, though, as might have
+been expected, in Britain's favor, Siam being shorn of a small strip of
+territory on the northwest. In 1904 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>the French again brought pressure
+to bear, their territorial booty on this occasion amounting to some
+eight thousand square miles, comprising the Luang Prabang district
+lying east of the Mekong and the provinces of Malupr&eacute; and Barsak.
+Seeing that the process of filching territory from the Siamese was as
+safe and easy as taking candy from children, the French tried it again
+in 1907, this time obtaining the provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and
+Siem-Reap, constituting a total of some seven thousand square miles,
+thus bringing within French territory the whole of the Grand Lac and
+the wonderful ruins of Angkor. In 1909 it was England's turn again,
+but, disdaining the crude methods of the French, she informed the
+Siamese Government that she was prepared to relinquish her rights to
+maintain her own courts in Siam, the Siamese being expected to show
+their gratitude for this concession to their national pride by ceding
+to England the states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Kedah, in the Malay
+Peninsula, with a total area of about fifteen thousand square miles. It
+was a costly transaction for the Siamese, but they assented. What else
+was there for them to do? When a burly and determined person holds you
+up in a dark alley with a revolver and intimates that if you will hand
+over your pocketbook he will refrain from hitting you over the head
+with a billy, there is nothing to do but accede with the best grace
+possible to his demands. In a period of only sixteen years, therefore,
+France and England, by methods which, if used in business, would lead
+to an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>investigation by the Grand Jury, succeeded in stripping Siam of
+about a third of her territory. The history of Siam during that period
+provides a striking illustration of the methods by which European
+powers have obtained their colonial empires.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Great War which, by diverting the attention of France and
+England, probably saved Siam from complete dismemberment. Now, in
+robbing her, they would be robbing an ally and a friend, for in July,
+1917, Siam declared war on the Central Powers, despatched an
+expeditionary force to France, interned every enemy alien in the
+kingdom and confiscated their property, thus ridding France and England
+of the last vestige of Teutonic commercial rivalry in southeastern
+Asia. The Siamese, moreover, have had a national house-cleaning and
+have set their country in thorough order. Their national finances are
+now in admirable condition; they have accomplished far-reaching
+administrative reforms; they are opening up their territory by the
+construction of railway lines in all directions; and they have obtained
+the practical abolition of French and British jurisdiction over certain
+of their domestic affairs, while a treaty which provides that the
+United States shall likewise surrender its extra territorial rights and
+permit its citizens to be tried in Siamese courts has recently been
+signed.</p>
+
+<p>The future of Siam should be of interest to Americans if for no other
+reason than that it is the one remaining independent state of tropical
+Asia. Indeed, it is known to its own people as Muang-Thai&mdash;the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>"Kingdom of the Free." Whether it will remain so only the future can
+tell. I should be more sanguine about the continued independence of the
+Land of the White Elephant, however, were it not for the colonial
+records of its two nearest neighbors, which heretofore, in their
+dealings with Asiatic peoples, have usually followed</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The good old rule ... the simple plan,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That they should take who have the power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And they should keep who can."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI<br />
+<small>TO PNOM-PENH BY THE JUNGLE TRAIL</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>Indo-China is a great bay-window bulging from the southeastern corner
+of Asia, its casements opening on the China Sea and on the Gulf of
+Siam. Of all the countries of the Farther East it is the most
+mysterious; of them all it is the least known. Larger than the State of
+Texas, it is a land of vast forests and unexplored jungles in which
+roam the elephant, the tiger and the buffalo; a land of palaces and
+pagodas and gilded temples; of sun-bronzed pioneers and priests in
+yellow robes and bejeweled dancing girls. Lured by the tales I had
+heard of curious places and strange peoples to be seen in the interior
+of the peninsula, I refused to content myself with skirting its edges
+on a steamer. Instead, I determined to cross it from coast to coast.</p>
+
+<p>I had looked forward to covering the first stage of this journey, the
+four hundred-odd miles of jungle which separate Bangkok, in Siam, from
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on an elephant. Everyone with whom
+I had discussed the matter in Singapore had assured me that this was
+perfectly feasible. And as a means of transportation it appealed to me.
+It seemed to fit into the picture, as a wheel-chair accords<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> with the
+spirit of Atlantic City, as a cal&eacute;che is congruous to Quebec. To my
+friends at home I had planned to send pictures of myself reclining in a
+howdah, rajah-like, as my ponderous mount rocked and rolled along the
+jungle trails. To me the idea sounded fine. But it was not to be. For,
+in shaping my plans, I had been ignorant of the fact that during the
+dry season, which was then at hand, Asiatic elephants are seldom
+worked&mdash;that they become morose and irritable and are usually kept in
+idleness until their docility returns with the rains. I was greatly
+disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>The overland route thus proving impracticable, so far as the first part
+of the journey was concerned, the sea road alone remained. Of vessels
+plying between Bangkok and the ports of French Indo-China there were
+but two&mdash;the <i>Bonite</i>, a French packet slightly larger than a Hudson
+River tugboat, which twice monthly makes the round trip between the
+Siamese capital and Saigon; and a Danish tramp; the <i>Chutututch</i>, an
+unkempt vagrant of the seas which wanders at will along the Gulf Coast,
+touching at those obscure ports where cargo or passengers are likely to
+be found. The <i>Bonite</i> swung at her moorings in the Menam, opposite my
+hotel windows, so, made cautious by previous experiences on other
+coastwise vessels, I went out in a sampan to make a preliminary survey.
+But I did not go aboard. The odors which assailed me as I drew near
+caused me to decide abruptly that I wished to make no voyage on <i>her</i>.
+The <i>Chutututch</i>, I reasoned, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span><i>must</i> be better; it certainly could not
+be worse. And when I approached her owners they offered no objections
+to earning a few-score extra ticals by extending her itinerary so as to
+drop me at the tiny Cambodian port of Kep. The next day, then, saw me
+on the bridge of the <i>Chutututch</i>, smoking for politeness' sake one of
+the genial captain's villainous cigars, as we steamed slowly between
+the palm-fringed, temple-dotted banks of the Menam toward the Gulf.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="transportation" id="transportation"></a>
+<img src="images/248.jpg" width="367" height="550" alt="elephants on a jungle trail" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 367px;">
+<p class="caption">Transportation in the Siamese jungle</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">Long files of elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath the hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn jungle trails</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>On many kinds of vessels I have voyaged the Seven Seas. I once spent
+Christmas on a Russian steamer, jammed to her guards with lousy
+pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, in a tempest off the Syrian coast. On
+another memorable occasion I skirted the shores of Crete on a Greek
+schooner which was engaged in conveying from Canea to Candia a
+detachment of British recruits much the worse for rum. But that voyage
+on the <i>Chutututch</i> will linger longest in my memory. From stem to
+stern she was packed with yellow, half-naked, perspiring
+humanity&mdash;Siamese, Laos, Burmans, Annamites, Cambodians, Malays,
+Chinese&mdash;journeying, God knows why, to ports whose very names I had
+never before heard. They lay so thick beneath the awnings that the
+sailors literally had to walk upon them in order to perform their work.
+From the glassy surface of the Gulf the heat rose in waves&mdash;blasts from
+an opened furnace door. The flaming ball of molten brass that was the
+sun beat down upon the crowded decks until they were as hot to the
+touch as a railway station stove at white heat. The odors of crude,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>sugar, copra, tobacco, engine oil, perspiration and fish frying in the
+galley mingled in a stench that rose to heaven. In the sweat-box which
+had been allotted to me, called by courtesy a cabin, a large gray
+ship's rat gnawed industriously at my suit-case in an endeavor to
+ascertain what it contained; insects that shall be nameless disported
+themselves upon the dubious-looking blanket which formed the only
+covering of the bed; cockroaches of incredible size used the wash-basin
+as a public swimming-pool.</p>
+
+<p>The other cabin passengers were all three Anglo-Saxons&mdash;a young
+Englishman and an American missionary and his wife. These last, I
+found, were convoying a flock of noisy Siamese youngsters, pupils at an
+American school in Bangkok, to a small bathing resort at the mouth of
+the Menam, where, it was alleged, the mercury had been known to drop as
+low as 90 on cold days. Because of its invigorating climate it is a
+favorite hot weather resort for the well-to-do Siamese. Here, in a
+bungalow that had been placed at their disposal by the King, the
+missionary and his charges proposed to spend a glorious fortnight away
+from the city's heat. Now do not draw a mental picture of a
+sanctimonious person with a Prince Albert coat, a white bow tie and a
+prominent Adam's apple. He was not that sort of a missionary at all. On
+the contrary, he was a very human, high-spirited, likeable fellow of
+the type that at home would be a Scout Master or in France would have
+made good as a welfare worker with the A. E. F. Once, when a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>particularly obstreperous youngster drew an over-draft on his stock of
+patience, he endorsed his disapproval with an extremely vigorous
+"<i>Damn!</i>" I took to him from that moment.</p>
+
+<p>When, their energy temporarily exhausted, his charges had fallen asleep
+upon the deck and pandemonium had given place to peace, he told me
+something of his story. For four years he had labored in the Vineyard
+of the Lord in Chile, but, feeling that he "was having too good a
+time," as he expressed it, he applied to the Board of Missions for
+transfer to a more strenuous post. He obtained what he asked for, with
+something over for good measure, for he was ordered to a post in the
+northeastern corner of Siam, on the Annam frontier. If there is a more
+remote or inaccessible spot on the map it would be hard to find it.
+Here he and his wife spent ten years preaching the Word to the "black
+bellied Laos," as the tattooed savages of that region are known. Then
+he was transferred to Bangkok. There are no roads in Siam, so he and
+his wife and their five small children made the long journey by river,
+in a native dugout of less than two feet beam, in which they traveled
+and ate and slept for upwards of two weeks.</p>
+
+<p>I asked him if he wasn't becoming weaned of Bangkok, which, as a place
+of residence, leaves much to be desired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've had about enough of it," he admitted. "I'm anxious to get
+away."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>"Back to the Big Town?" I suggested. "To God's Country?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; not back to the States," he hastened to assure me. "I haven't
+finished my job out here. I want to get back to my people in the
+interior again."</p>
+
+<p>Whether you approve of foreign missions or not, it is impossible to
+withhold your respect and admiration from such men as that. Though at
+home they are too often the butts of ignorant criticisms and cheap
+witticisms, they are carrying civilization, no less than Christianity,
+into the world's dark places. They are the real pioneers. You might
+remember this the next time an appeal is made in your church for
+foreign missions.</p>
+
+<p>The young Englishman was likewise an outpost of progress, though in a
+different fashion. For seven years he had worn the uniform of an
+officer in the Royal Navy. At the close of the war, seeing small
+prospect of promotion, he had entered the employ of a British company
+which held a vast timber concession in the teak forests of northern
+Siam, far up, near the Chinese border. He was, he explained, a
+"girdler," which meant that his duties consisted in riding through the
+forest area allotted to him, selecting and girdling those trees which,
+three years later, would be cut down. To girdle a tree, as everyone
+knows, is to kill it, which is what is wanted, there being no market
+for green teak, which warps. He remained in the forest for four weeks
+at a stretch, he told me, without seeing a white man's face, his only
+companions his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>coolies and his Chinese cook. His domain comprised a
+thousand square miles of forest through which he moved constantly on
+horseback, followed by elephants bearing his camp equipage and
+supplies. Once each month he spent three days in the village where the
+company maintains its field headquarters. Here he played tennis and
+bridge with other girdlers&mdash;young Englishmen like himself who had come
+in from their respective districts to make their monthly reports&mdash;and
+in gleaning from the eight-weeks-old newspapers the news of that great
+outside world from which he was a voluntary exile. One would have
+supposed that, after seven years spent in the jovial atmosphere of a
+warship's wardroom, his solitary life in the great forests would
+quickly have become intolerable, and I expressed myself to this effect.
+But he said no, that he was neither lonely nor unhappy in his new life,
+and that his fellow foresters, all of whom had seen service in the
+Army, the Navy or the Royal Air Force, were equally contented with
+their lot. I could understand, though. The wilderness holds no terrors
+for anyone who went through the hell of the Great War.</p>
+
+<p>We dropped anchor at midnight off Chantaboun, where a launch was
+waiting to take him ashore. He was going up-country, he told me, to
+inspect a timber concession recently acquired by the company that
+employed him. Yes, he would be the only white man, but he would not be
+lonely. Besides, he would only be in the interior a couple of months,
+he said. He followed the coolies bearing his luggage down the gangway
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>dropped lightly into the tossing launch, then looked up to wave me
+a farewell.</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck," he called cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck to <i>you</i>!" said I.</p>
+
+<p>That is the worst of this gadding up and down the earth&mdash;it is
+always&mdash;"How d'ye do?" and "Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>Three days out of Bangkok the anchor of the <i>Chutututch</i> rumbled down
+off Kep, on the coast of Cambodia. Kep consists of a ramshackle wooden
+pier that reaches seaward like a lean brown finger, an equally decrepit
+custom house, a tin-roofed bungalow which the French Government
+maintains for the use of those fever-stricken officials who need the
+tonic of sea air, a cluster of bamboo huts thatched with nipa&mdash;nothing
+more. You will not find the place on any map; it is too small.</p>
+
+<p>It is in the neighborhood of three hundred kilometers from Kep to
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and for nearly the entire distance
+the highway has been hewn through the most savage jungle you can
+imagine. There was only one motor car in Kep and this I hired for the
+journey. I say hired, but bought would be nearer the truth. It was an
+aged and decrepit Renault, held together with string and wire, and
+suffering so badly from asthma and rheumatism that more than once I
+feared it would die on my hands before I reached my destination. It had
+as nurses two Annamites, who took unwarranted liberties with the truth
+by describing themselves as <i>mechaniciens</i>. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>Accompanying them were two
+sullen-faced Chinese. All four of them, I found, proposed to accompany
+me to Pnom-Penh. At this I protested vigorously, on the ground that, as
+the lessee of the machine, I had the right to choose my traveling
+companions, but my objections were overruled by the <i>Chef des Douanes</i>,
+the only French functionary in Kep, who assured me that if the car went
+the quartette must go, too. One of the Annamites, he explained, was the
+chauffeur, the other was the cranker, for in Indo-China automobiles are
+not equipped with self-starters and the chauffeurs firmly refuse to
+crank their own cars. They thus "save their face," which is a very
+important consideration in the estimation of Orientals, and they also
+provide easy and pleasant jobs for their friends. It is an idea which
+some of the labor unions in America might adopt to advantage. I make no
+charge for the suggestion. The two Chinese, it appeared, were the joint
+owners of the machine, and both insisted on going along because neither
+would trust the other with the hire-money. Thus it will be seen, we
+made quite a cozy little party.</p>
+
+<p>The road to Pnom-Penh, as I have already remarked, leads through a
+peculiarly lonely and savage region. And it is very narrow, bordered on
+either side by walls of almost impenetrable jungle. A place better
+adapted for a hold-up could hardly be devised. And of the reputations
+or antecedents of my four self-imposed companions, I knew nothing. Nor
+was there anything in their faces to lend me confidence in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>honesty
+of their intentions. As we were about to start a native gendarme
+beckoned me to one side.</p>
+
+<p>"Beaucoup des pirats sur la route, M'sieu," he warned me in execrable
+French.</p>
+
+<p>"Brigands, you mean?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oui, M'sieu."</p>
+
+<p>That was reassuring.</p>
+
+<p>"How about these men?" I inquired, indicating the motley crew who were
+to accompany me. "Are they to be trusted?"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders non-commitally. It was evident that he did
+not hold of them a high opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Producing my .45 caliber service automatic, I slipped a clip into the
+magazine and ostentatiously laid it beside me on the seat. It is the
+most formidable weapon carried by any civilized people. True, the
+German L&uuml;ger is larger....</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them," I said to the policeman, "that this gun will shoot through
+twenty millimeters of pine. Tell them that they had better dispose of
+their property and burn a few joss-sticks before they start to argue
+with it. And tell them that, no matter what happens, the car is to keep
+going."</p>
+
+<p>But I was by no means as confident as I sounded, for the road was
+notoriously unsafe, nor did I put much trust in my companions. I
+confess that I felt much happier when that portion of my journey was
+over.</p>
+
+<p>As the road to Pnom-Penh is quite uninteresting&mdash;just a narrow yellow
+highway chopped through a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>dense tangle of tropic vegetation&mdash;suppose I
+take advantage of the opportunity to tell you something of this
+little-known land in which we find ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>French Indo-China occupies perhaps two-thirds of that great
+bay-window-shaped peninsula which protrudes from the southeastern
+corner of Asia. In area it is, as I have already remarked, somewhat
+larger than Texas; its population is about equal to that of New York
+and Pennsylvania combined. It consists of five states: the colony of
+Cochin-China, the protectorates of Cambodia, Annam and Tongking, and
+the unorganized territory of Laos, to which might be added the narrow
+strip of borderland, known as Kwang Chau Wan, leased from China. In
+1902 the capital of French Indo-China was transferred from Saigon, in
+Cochin-China, to Hanoi, in Tongking.</p>
+
+<p>By far the most interesting of these political divisions is Cambodia,
+which, for centuries an independent kingdom, was forced in 1862 to
+accept the protection of France. An apple-shaped country, about the
+size of England, with a few score miles of seacoast and without railway
+or regular sea communications, it lies tucked away in the heart of the
+peninsula, its southern borders marching with those of Cochin-China,
+its frontier on the north co-terminous with that of Siam. Though the
+octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, a stable of
+elephants, upwards of two-hundred dancing-girls, and one of the most
+ornate palaces in Asia, he is permitted only a shadow of power, the
+real ruler of Cambodia being the French <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>Resident-Superior, who governs
+the country from the great white Residency on the banks of the Mekong.</p>
+
+<p>I know of no region of like size and so comparatively easy of access
+(the great liners of the <i>Messageries Maritimes</i> touch at Saigon,
+whence the Cambodian capital can be reached by river-steamer in two
+days) which offers so many attractions to the hunter of big game.
+Unlike British East Africa, where, as a result of the commercialization
+of sport, the cost of going on <i>safari</i> has steadily mounted until now
+it is a form of recreation to be afforded only by war profiteers,
+Cambodia remains unexploited and unspoiled. It is in many respects the
+richest, as it is almost the last, of the world's great
+hunting-grounds. It is, indeed, a vast zoological garden, where such
+formalities as hunting licenses are still unknown. In its jungles roam
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards, panthers, bear, deer, and
+the savage jungle buffalo, known in Malaya as the seladang and in
+Indo-China as the gaur&mdash;considered by many hunters the most dangerous
+of all big game.</p>
+
+<p>Nailed to the wall of the Government rest-house at Kep was the skin of
+a leopard which had been shot from the veranda the day before my
+arrival, while raiding the pig-pen. The day that I left Kampot an
+elephant herd, estimated by the native trackers at one hundred and
+twenty head, was reported within seven miles of the town. Twice during
+the journey to Pnom-Penh I saw tracks of elephant herds on the road&mdash;it
+looked as though a fleet of whippet tanks had passed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>Nevertheless, I should have put mental question-marks after some of the
+big game stories I heard while I was in Indo-China had I not been
+convinced of the credibility of those who told them. Only a few days
+before our arrival at Saigon, for example, an American engaged in
+business in that city set out one morning before daybreak, in a small
+car, for the paddy-fields, where there is excellent bird-shooting in
+the early dawn. The car, which, owing to the intense heat, had no
+wind-shield, was driven by the Annamite chauffeur, the American, a
+double-barrel loaded with bird-shot across his knees, sitting beside
+him on the front seat. Rounding a turn in the jungle road at thirty
+miles an hour, the twin beams of light from the lamps fell on a tiger,
+which, dazzled and bewildered by the on-coming glare, crouched snarling
+in the middle of the highway. There was no time to stop the car, and,
+as the jungle came to the very edge of the narrow road, there was no
+way to avoid the animal, which, just as the car was upon it, gathered
+itself and sprang. It landed on the hood with all four feet, its
+snarling face so close to the men that they could feel its breath. The
+American, thrusting the muzzle of his weapon into the furry neck of the
+great cat, let go with both barrels, blowing away the beast's throat
+and jugular vein and killing it instantly. With the aid of his badly
+frightened driver, he bundled the great striped carcass into the
+tonneau of the car and imperturbably continued on his bird-shooting
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>expedition. Some people seem to have a monopoly of luck.</p>
+
+<p>Though Saigon and Pnom-Penh do not possess the facilities for equipping
+shooting expeditions afforded by Mombasa or Nairobi, and though in
+Indo-China there are no professional European guides, such as the late
+Major Cunninghame; the elaborate and costly outfits customary in East
+Africa, with their mile-long trains of bearers, are as unnecessary as
+they are unknown. The arrangements for a tiger hunt in Indo-China are
+scarcely more elaborate and certainly no more expensive, than for a
+moose hunt in Maine. A dependable native <i>shikari</i> who knows the
+country, a cook, half-a-dozen coolies, a sturdy riding-pony, two or
+three pack-animals, a tent and food, that is all you need. With such an
+outfit, particularly in a region so thick with game as, say, the Dalat
+Plateau, in Annam, the hunter should get a shot at a tiger before he
+has been forty-eight hours in the bush. In a clearing in a jungle known
+to be frequented by tigers, the carcass of a bullock, or, if that is
+unavailable, of a pig, is fastened securely to a stake and left there
+until it smells to high heaven. When its odor is of sufficient potency
+to reach the nostrils of the tiger, the hunter takes up his position in
+the edge of the clearing, or on a platform built in a tree if he
+believes in Safety First. For investigating the kill the tiger usually
+chooses the dimness of the early dawn or the semi-darkness which
+precedes nightfall. With no warning save a faint rustle in the
+undergrowth a lean and tawny form slithers on padded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>feet across the
+open&mdash;and the man behind the rifle has his chance. I have found,
+however, that even in tiger lands, tigers are by no means as plentiful
+as one's imagination paints them at home. It is easy to be a big-game
+hunter on the hearth-rug.</p>
+
+<p>Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, stands on the west bank of the
+mighty Mekong, one hundred and seventy miles from the sea. Pnom,
+meaning "mountain," refers to the hill, or mound, ninety feet high, in
+the heart of the city; Penh was the name of a celebrated Cambodian
+queen. Until twenty years ago Pnom-Penh was a filthy and unsanitary
+native town, its streets ankle-deep with dust during the dry season and
+ankle-deep with mud during the rains. But with the coming of the French
+the flimsy, vermin-infested houses were torn down, the hog-wallows
+which served as thoroughfares were transformed into broad and
+well-paved avenues shaded by double rows of handsome trees, and the
+city was provided with lighting and water systems. The old-fashioned
+open water sewers still remain, however, lending to the place, a rich,
+ripe odor. Pnom-Penh possesses a spacious and well ventilated
+motion-picture house, where Charlie Chaplin known to the French as
+"Charlot" and Fatty Arbuckle convulse the simple children of the jungle
+just as they convulse more sophisticated assemblages on the other side
+of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>But all that is most worth seeing in Pnom-Penh is cloistered within the
+mysterious walls of vivid pink which surround the Royal Palace. Here is
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>residence of His Majesty Prea Bat Samdach Prea Sisowath, King of
+Cambodia; here dwell the twelve score dancing-girls of the famous royal
+ballet and the hundreds of concubines and attendants comprising the
+royal harem; here are the stables of the royal elephants and the sacred
+zebus; here a congeries of palaces, pavilions, throne halls, dance
+halls, temples, shrines, kiosks, monuments, courtyards, and gardens the
+like of which is not to be found outside the covers of <i>The Thousand
+and One Nights</i>. It is an architectural extravaganza, a bacchanalia of
+color and design, as fantastic and unreal as the city of a dream. The
+steep-pitched, curiously shaped roofs are covered with tiles of every
+color&mdash;peacock blue, vermilion, turquoise, emerald green, burnt orange;
+no inch of exposed woodwork has escaped the carver's cunning chisel;
+everywhere gold has been laid on with a spendthrift hand. And in this
+marvelous setting strut or stroll figures that might have stepped
+straight from the stage of <i>Sumurun</i>&mdash;fantastically garbed
+functionaries of the Household, shaven-headed priests in yellow robes,
+pompous mandarins in sweeping silken garments, bejeweled and bepainted
+dancing-girls. It is not real, you feel. It is too gorgeous, too
+bizarre. It is the work of stage-carpenters and scene-painters and
+costumers, and you are quite certain that the curtain will descend
+presently and that you will have to put on your hat and go home.</p>
+
+<p>From the center of the great central court rises the famous Silver
+Pagoda. It takes its name from its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>floor, thirty-six feet wide and one
+hundred and twenty long, which is covered with pure silver. When the
+sun's rays seep through the interstices of the carving it leaps into a
+brilliancy that is blinding. On the high walls of the room are depicted
+in startling colors, scenes from the life of Buddha and realistic
+glimpses of hell, for your Cambodian artist is at his best in
+portraying scenes of horror. The mural decorations of the Silver Pagoda
+would win the unqualified approval of an oldtime fire-and-brimstone
+preacher. Rearing itself roofward from the center of the room is an
+enormous pyramidal altar, littered with a heterogeneous collection of
+offerings from the devout. At its apex is a so-called Emerald
+Buddha&mdash;probably, like its fellow in Bangkok, of translucent
+jade&mdash;which is the guardian spirit of the place. But at one side of the
+altar stands the chief treasure of the temple&mdash;a great golden Buddha
+set with diamonds. The value of the gold alone is estimated at not far
+from three-quarters of a million dollars; at the value of the jewels
+one can only guess. It was made by the order of King Norodom, the
+brother and predecessor of the present ruler, the whole amazing
+edifice, indeed, being a monument into which that monarch poured his
+wealth and ambition. Ranged about the altar are glass cases containing
+the royal treasures&mdash;rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds of a size
+and in a profusion which makes it difficult to realize that they are
+genuine. It is a veritable cave of Al-ed-Din. The covers of these cases
+are sealed with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>strips of paper bearing the royal cypher&mdash;nothing
+more. They have never been locked nor guarded, yet nothing has ever
+been stolen, for King Sisowath is to his subjects something more than a
+ruler; he is venerated as the representative of God on earth. For a
+Cambodian to steal from him would be as unthinkable a sacrilege as for
+a Roman Catholic to burglarize the apartments of the Pope. And should
+their religious scruples show signs of yielding to temptation, why,
+there are the paintings on the walls to warn them of the torments
+awaiting them in the hereafter. It struck me, however, that the Silver
+Pagoda offers a golden, not to say a jeweled opportunity to an
+enterprising American burglar.</p>
+
+<p>On the south side of the courtyard containing the Silver Pagoda is a
+relic far more precious in the eyes of the natives, however, than all
+the royal treasures put together&mdash;a footprint of Buddha. It was left,
+so the priests who guard it night and day reverently explain, by the
+founder of their faith when he paid a flying visit to Cambodia. Over
+the footprint has been erected a shrine with a floor of solid gold.
+Buddha did not do as well by Cambodia as by Ceylon, however, for
+whereas at Pnom-Penh he left the imprint of his foot, at Kandy he left
+a tooth. I know, for I have seen it.</p>
+
+<p>In an adjacent courtyard is the Throne Hall, a fine example of
+Cambodian architecture, the gorgeous throne of the monarch standing on
+a dais in the center of a lofty apartment decorated in gold and green.
+Close by is the Salle des F&ecirc;tes, or Dance Hall, a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>modern French
+structure, where the royal ballet gives its performances. Ever since
+there have been kings in Cambodia each monarch has chosen from the
+daughters of the upper classes two hundred and forty showgirls and has
+had them trained for dancing. These girls, many of whom are brought to
+the palace by their parents when small children and offered to the
+King, eventually enter the monarch's harem as concubines. Admission to
+the royal ballet is to a Cambodian maiden what a position in the
+Ziegfeld Follies is to a Broadway chorus girl. It is the blue ribbon of
+female pulchritude. Unlike Mr. Ziegfeld's carefully selected beauties,
+however, who frequently find the stage a stepping-stone to independence
+and a limousine, the Cambodian show-girl, once she enters the service
+of the King, becomes to all intents and purposes a prisoner. And
+Sisowath, for all his eighty-odd years, is a jealous master. Never
+again can she stroll with her lover in the fragrant twilight on the
+palm-fringed banks of the Mekong. Never again can she leave the
+precincts of the palace, save to accompany the King. The bars behind
+which she dwells are of gold, it is true, but they are bars just the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>When I broached to the French Resident-Superior, who is the real ruler
+of Cambodia, the subject of taking motion-pictures within the royal
+enclosure, he was anything but encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it's quite impossible," he told me. "The King is at his
+summer palace at Kampot, where he will remain for several weeks.
+Without his permission <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>nothing can be done. Moreover, the royal
+ballet, which is the most interesting sight in Cambodia, is never under
+any circumstances permitted to dance during his Majesty's absence."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not telegraph the King?" I suggested, though with waning hope.
+"Or get him on the telephone. Tell him how much the pictures would do
+to acquaint the American public with the attractions of his country;
+explain to him that they would bring here hundreds of visitors who
+otherwise would never know that there is such a place as Pnom-Penh.
+More than that," I added diplomatically, "they would undoubtedly wake
+up American capitalists to a realization of Cambodia's natural
+resources. That's what you particularly want here, isn't it&mdash;foreign
+capital?"</p>
+
+<p>That argument seemed to impress the shrewd and far-seeing Frenchman.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps something can be done, after all," he told me. "I will send
+for the Minister of the Royal Household and ask him if he can
+communicate with the King. As soon as I learn something definite, you
+will hear from me."</p>
+
+<p>The second day following I received a call from the chief of the
+political bureau.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything has been arranged as you desired," was the cheering news
+with which he greeted me. "The <i>d&eacute;fil&eacute;</i> will take place in the grounds
+of the palace tomorrow morning. Already the necessary orders have been
+issued. Thirty elephants with their state housings; eighty ceremonial
+cars drawn by sacred bullocks; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>the royal body-guard in full uniform; a
+delegation of mandarins in court-dress; a hundred Buddhist priests
+attached to the royal temple; and, moreover, his Majesty has granted
+special permission an unheard-of thing, let me tell you!&mdash;for the royal
+ballet to give a performance expressly for you to-morrow afternoon on
+the terrace of the throne-hall. It will be a marvelous spectacle."</p>
+
+<p>"Bully!" I exclaimed. "Won't you have a drink?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing I forgot to mention," the official remarked
+hesitatingly, as he sipped the gin sling which is the favorite drink of
+the tropics. "There will be a small charge for expenses&mdash;tips, you
+know, for the palace officials."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's all right," I replied lightly. "How much will the tips
+amount to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only about two hundred piastres," was the somewhat startling answer,
+for, at the then current rate of exchange a piastre was worth about
+$1.50 gold. "The resident will pay half of it, however, as he believes
+that the pictures will prove of great value to the country."</p>
+
+<p>Yet most people think that tipping has reached its apogee in the United
+States!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="pageant" id="pageant"></a>
+<img src="images/266.jpg" width="600" height="420" alt="elephants leading a pageant" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="capleft"><i>Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="caption">The head of the pageant approaching the camera in the
+palace at Pnom-Penh</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>When we entered the gate of the palace the next morning, I felt as
+though I had been translated to the days of Haroun-al-Raschid, for the
+vast courtyard, flanked on all sides by marble buildings with tiled
+roofs of cobalt blue, of emerald green, of red, of brilliant yellow,
+was literally crowded with elephants, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>bullocks, horses, chariots,
+palanquins, soldiers, priests, and officials all the pomp and panoply
+of an Asiatic court, in short. Though close examination revealed the
+gold as gilt and the jewels as colored glass, the general effect was
+undeniably gorgeous. In spite of the brilliance of the scene, Hawkinson
+was as blas&eacute; as ever. He issued orders to the Minister of the Household
+as though he were directing a Pullman porter.</p>
+
+<p>"Have those elephants come on in double file," he commanded. "Then
+follow 'em with the bullock-carts and the palanquins. I'll shoot the
+priests and the mandarins later."</p>
+
+<p>"But the priests must be taken at once," the minister protested. "They
+have been waiting a long time, and they are already late for the
+morning service in the royal temple."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they'll have to wait still longer," was the unruffled answer.
+"Tell them not to get impatient. I'll get round to them as soon as I
+finish with the animals. Think what it will mean to them to have their
+pictures shown on the same screen with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas
+Fairbanks and Mary Pickford! I know lots of people who would be willing
+to wait a year for such a chance."</p>
+
+<p>Just then there approached across the courtyard a trio of youths in
+white uniforms and gold-laced k&eacute;pis, their breasts ablaze with
+decorations. At sight of them the minister doubled himself in the
+middle like a jack-knife. They were, it appeared, some of the royal
+princes&mdash;sons of the King.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>There ensued a brief colloquy between the minister and the eldest of
+the princes, the conversation evidently relating, as I gathered from
+the gestures, to the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow, who at the
+moment were delightedly engaged in feeding candies to a baby elephant.</p>
+
+<p>"His Highness wishes to know," the minister interpreted, "when the
+ladies of your company are to appear. His Highness is a great admirer
+of American actresses; he saw your most famous one, Mademoiselle Theda
+Bara, at a cinema in Singapore."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a thousand pities to destroy the prince's delusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell his Highness," I said, "that the ladies will not act in this
+picture. They only play comedy parts."</p>
+
+<p>The princes received the news with open disappointment. If the Lovely
+Lady and the Winsome Widow had only consented to appear on the back of
+an elephant, or even in a palanquin, I imagine that they might have
+received a mark of the royal favor in the form of a Cambodian
+decoration. It is a gorgeous affair and is called, with great
+appropriateness, the "Order of a Million Elephants and Parasols."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="dancers" id="dancers"></a>
+<img src="images/268.jpg" width="600" height="422" alt="dancing girls" />
+<div class="cap" style="width: 600px;">
+<p class="capleft"><i>Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="caption">Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the King
+of Cambodia</p>
+<p class="captionblockquot">The dancers ranged in age from twelve to fifteen. The costumes were
+wonderful creations of cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That afternoon, on the broad marble terrace of the throne-hall, which
+had been covered with a scarlet carpet for the occasion, the royal
+ballet gave a special performance for our benefit. The dancers were
+much younger than I had anticipated, ranging in age from twelve to
+fifteen. Dancing has ever been a great institution in Cambodia, the
+dances, which have behind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>them traditions of two thousand years, being
+illustrative of incidents in the poem of the R&acirc;m&acirc;yana and adhering
+faithfully to the classical examples which are depicted on the walls of
+the great temple at Angkor, such as the dancing of the goddess Apsaras,
+her gestures, and her dress. The costumes worn by the dancing-girls
+were the most gorgeous that we saw in Asia: wonderful creations of
+cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels. Most of the dancers wore
+towering, pointed head-dresses, similar to the historic crowns of the
+Cambodian kings, though a few of them wore masks, one representing the
+head of a fox, another a fish, a third a lion, which could be raised or
+lowered, like the visors of medieval helmets. The faces of all of the
+dancers were so heavily coated with powder and enamel that they would
+have been cracked by a smile. It was a performance which would have
+astonished and delighted the most blas&eacute; audience on Broadway, but there
+in the heart of Cambodia, with the terrace of a throne-hall for a
+stage, with palaces, temples, and pagodas for a setting, with a blazing
+tropic sun for a spot-light, and with actors and audience clad in
+costumes as curious and colorful as those worn at the court of the
+Queen of Sheba, it provided a spectacle which we who were privileged to
+see it will remember always. What a pity that Cap'n Bryant was not
+alive so that I might sit on the steps of his Mattapoisett cottage and
+tell him all about it.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII<br />
+<small>EXILES OF THE OUTLANDS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p>From Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to Saigon, the capital of
+Cochin-China, is in the neighborhood of two hundred miles and two
+routes are open to the traveler. The most comfortable and considerably
+the cheapest is by the bi-weekly steamer down the Mekong. The
+alternative route, which is far more interesting, consists in
+descending the river to Banam, a village some twenty miles below
+Pnom-Penh, on the opposite bank of the Mekong, where, if a car has been
+arranged for, it is possible to motor across the fertile plains of
+Cochin-China to Saigon in a single day. That was the way that we went.</p>
+
+<p>Though separated only by the Mekong, that mighty waterway which, rising
+in the mountains of Tibet, bisects the whole peninsula, Cochin-China is
+as dissimilar from Cambodia as the ordered farmlands of Ohio are from
+the Florida Everglades. In Cambodia, stretches of sand covered with
+low, scraggy, discouraged-looking scrub alternate with tangled and
+impenetrable jungles. It is a savage, untamed land. Cochin-China, on
+the other hand, is one great sweep of plain, green with growing rice
+and dotted with the bamboo poles of well-sweeps, for water can be found
+everywhere at thirty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>to forty feet. These striking contrasts in
+contiguous states are due in some measure, no doubt, to differences in
+their soils and climates and to the industry of their inhabitants, but
+more largely, I imagine, to the fact that while the Frenchman has been
+at work in Cochin-China for upwards of sixty years, Cambodia is still
+on the frontier of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>The roads which the French have built in Indo-China deserve a paragraph
+of mention, for, barring the rivers and the three short unconnected
+sections of railway on the East coast of the peninsula, they form the
+country's only means of communication. The national highways consist of
+two great systems. The Route Coloniale, which was the one I followed,
+has its beginning at Kep, on the Gulf of Siam, runs north-eastward
+through the jungles of Cambodia to Pnom-Penh, and, recommencing at
+Banam, swings southward across the Cochin-China plain to Saigon. The
+Route Mandarine, beginning at Saigon, hugs the shores of the China Sea
+and, after traversing twelve hundred miles of jungle, forest and
+mountain land in Annam and Tongking, comes to an end at Hanoi, the
+capital of Indo-China. The entire length of the Route Mandarine may now
+be traversed by auto-bus&mdash;an excellent way to see the country provided
+you are inured to fatigue, do not mind the heat, and are not
+over-particular as to your fellow passengers. A motor car is, of
+course, more comfortable and more expensive; a small one can be rented
+for ninety dollars a day.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere has the colonizing white man encountered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>greater obstacles
+than those which have confronted the French road-builders in
+Indo-China; nowhere has Nature turned toward him a sterner and more
+forbidding face. But, though their coolies have died by the thousands
+from cholera and fever, though their laboriously constructed bridges
+have been swept away in a night by rivers swollen from the torrential
+rains, though the fast-growing jungle persistently encroaches on the
+hard-won right-of-way, though they have had to combat savage beasts and
+still more savage men, they have prosecuted with indomitable courage
+and tenacity the task of building a road "to Tomorrow from the Land of
+Yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>Saigon, the capital of Cochin-China and the most important place in
+France's Asiatic possessions, is a European city set down on the edge
+of Asia. So far as its appearance goes, it might be on the Seine
+instead of the Saigon. The original town was burned by the French
+during the fighting by which they obtained possession of the place and
+they rebuilt it on European lines, with boulevards, shops, caf&eacute;s, a
+H&ocirc;tel de Ville, a Th&eacute;&acirc;tre Municipal, a Mus&eacute;e, a Jardin Botanique, all
+complete. The general plan of the city, with its regular streets and
+intersecting boulevards, has evidently been modeled on that of the
+French capital and the Saigonnese proudly speak of it as "the Paris of
+the East." In certain respects this is taking a considerable liberty
+with the truth, but they are very lonely and homesick and one does not
+blame them. Most of the streets, which are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>paved after a fashion, are
+lined with tamarinds, thus providing the shade so imperatively
+necessary where the mercury hovers between 90 and 110, winter and
+summer, day and night. At almost every street intersection stands a
+statue of some one who bore a hand in the conquest of the country, from
+the cassocked figure of Pigneau de Behaine, Bishop of Adran, the first
+French missionary to Indo-China, to the effigy of the dashing Admiral
+Rigault de Genouilly, flanked by charging marines, who took Saigon for
+France.</p>
+
+<p>The most characteristic feature of Saigon is its caf&eacute; life. During the
+heat of the day the Europeans keep within doors, but toward nightfall
+they all come out and, gathering about the little tables which crowd
+the sidewalks before the caf&eacute;s in the Boulevard Bonnard and the Rue
+Catinat, they gossip and sip their absinthes and smoke numberless
+cigarettes and mop their florid faces and argue noisily and with much
+gesticulation over the news in the <i>Courrier de Saigon</i> or the
+six-weeks-old <i>Figaro</i> and <i>Le Temps</i> which arrive fortnightly by the
+mail-boat from France. They wear stiffly starched white linen&mdash;though
+the jackets are all too often left unfastened at the neck&mdash;and enormous
+mushroom-shaped top&eacute;es which come down almost to their shoulders and
+are many sizes too large for them, and they consume vast quantities of
+drink, the evening usually ending in a series of violent altercations.
+When the disputants take to backing up their arguments with blows from
+canes and bottles, the caf&eacute; proprietor unceremoniously bundles them
+into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span><i>pousse-pousses</i>, as rickshaws are called in Saigon, and sends
+them home.</p>
+
+<p>Along the Rue Catinat in the evenings saunters a picturesque and
+colorful procession&mdash;haggard, slovenly officers of the <i>troupes
+coloniales</i> and of the Foreign Legion, the rows of parti-colored
+ribbons on their breasts telling of service in little wars in the
+world's forgotten corners; dreary, white-faced Government employees,
+their cheeks gaunt from fever, their eyes bloodshot from heavy
+drinking; sun-bronzed, swaggering, loud-voiced rubber planters in
+riding breeches and double Terais, down from their plantations in the
+far interior for a periodic spree; women gowned in the height of Paris
+fashion, but with too pink cheeks and too red lips and too ready smiles
+for strangers, equally at home on the Bund of Shanghai or the
+boulevards of Paris; shaven-headed Hindu money-lenders from British
+India, the lengths of cotton sheeting which form their only garments
+revealing bodies as hairy and repulsive as those of apes; barefooted
+Annamite tirailleurs in uniforms of faded khaki, their great round hats
+of woven straw tipped with brass spikes like those on German helmets;
+slender Chinese women, tripping by on tiny, thick-soled shoes in
+pajama-like coats and trousers of clinging, sleazy silk; naked
+<i>pousse-pousse</i> coolies, streaming with sweat, graceful as the bronzes
+in a museum; friars of the religious orders in shovel-hats and linen
+robes; sailors of the fleet and of the merchant vessels in the harbor,
+swaggering along with the roll of the sea in their gait; Armenian
+peddlers with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>piles of rugs and embroideries slung across their
+shoulders; Arabs, Indians, Malays, Cambodians, Laos, Siamese, Burmese,
+Chinese, world without end, Amen.</p>
+
+<p>But, beneath it all, a paralysis is on everything&mdash;the paralysis of the
+excessive administration with which the French have ruined Indo-China.
+There are too many people in front of the caf&eacute;s and too few in the
+offices and shops. There is too much drinking and too little work. The
+officials are alternately melancholy and overbearing; the natives
+cringing and sullen. It is not a wholesome atmosphere. Corruption, if
+not universal, is appallingly common. Foreigners engaged in business in
+Saigon told me that it is necessary to "grease the palms" of everyone
+who holds a Government position. As a result of this practise,
+officials who are poor men when they arrive in the colony retire after
+four or five years' service with comfortable fortunes&mdash;and France does
+not pay her public servants highly either. And there are other vices.
+The manager of a great American corporation doing business in Saigon
+told me that ninety per cent of the city's European population are
+confirmed users of opium. And, judging from their unhealthy pallor and
+lacklustre eyes, I can well believe it. But what else could you expect
+in a country where the drug is sold to anyone who has money to pay for
+it; where it is one of the Government's chief sources of revenue?</p>
+
+<p>On the native population the hand of the French lies heavily. In 1916
+there was an attempted jail delivery of political prisoners in Saigon,
+but the plot was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>discovered before it could be put into execution, the
+ring-leaders arrested, and thirty-eight of them condemned to death.
+They were executed in batches of four, kneeling, blind-folded, lashed
+to stakes. The firing party consisted of a platoon of Annamite
+tirailleurs. Behind them, with machine guns trained, was drawn up a
+battalion of French infantry. The occasion was celebrated in Saigon as
+a public holiday, hundreds of Frenchmen, accompanied by their wives and
+children, driving out to see the sight. The next day picture postcards
+of the execution were hawked about the streets. But the authorities in
+Paris evidently disapproved of the proceeding, for the governor of the
+colony and the commander of the military forces were promptly recalled
+in disgrace. The terrible object-lesson doubtless had the desired
+effect, for the natives cringe like whipped dogs when a Frenchman
+speaks to them. But there is that in their manner which bodes ill for
+their masters if a crisis ever arises in Indo-China. I should not like
+to see our own brown wards, the Filipinos, look at Americans with the
+murderous hate with which the Annamites regard the French. In Africa,
+by moderation and tolerance and justice, France has built up a mighty
+colonial empire whose inhabitants are as loyal and contented as though
+they had been born under the Tricolor. But in far-off Indo-China French
+administration seems, even to as staunch a friend of France as myself,
+to be very far from an unqualified success.</p>
+
+<p>During the ten days that I spent in Saigon I stayed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>at the H&ocirc;tel
+Continental. I shall remember it as the place where they charged a
+dollar and a half for a highball and fifty cents for a lemonade. It was
+insufferably hot. I can sympathize now with the recalcitrant convict
+who is punished by being sent to the sweat-box. Battalions of ferocious
+mosquitoes launched their assaults against my unprotected person with
+the persistence that the Germans displayed at Verdun. In the next room
+the tenor of the itinerant grand opera company that was giving a series
+of performances at the Th&eacute;&acirc;tre Municipal squabbled unceasingly with his
+woman companion. Both were generally much the worse for drink. One
+particularly sultry afternoon, when the whole world seemed like the
+steam room of a Turkish bath, their voices rose to an unprecedented
+pitch of violence. Through the thin panels of the door came the sound
+of scuffling feet. Some heavy article of furniture went over with a
+crash. Then came the thud of a falling body.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou accurst one!" I heard the tenor groan. Then "Help me!... I'm
+dying!"</p>
+
+<p>"She's done it now!" I exclaimed, springing from my bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you stifling with blood?" the woman hissed, fierce exultation in
+her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Help me!... I'm dying!" moaned the man. "And done to death by a
+woman!"</p>
+
+<p>It was murder&mdash;no doubt about that. Clad only in my pajamas though I
+was, I prepared to throw myself against the door.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>"Die, thou accurst one! Perish!" shrieked the woman.</p>
+
+<p>I was on the point of bursting into the room when I was arrested by the
+sound of the tenor's voice speaking in normal tones. There followed a
+woman's laugh. I paused to listen. It was well that I did so. They were
+rehearsing for the evening's performance the murder scene from <i>La
+Tosca</i>!</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion, long after midnight, I was aroused from sleep by a
+terrific racket which suddenly burst forth in the streets below. I
+heard the crash of splintering bottles followed by the steps of the
+native gendarmes beating a hasty retreat. Then, from throats that spoke
+my own tongue, rose the rollicking words of a long-familiar chorus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I was drunk last night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I was drunk the night before,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll get drunk tomorrow night<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If I never get drunk any more;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For when I'm drunk<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'm as happy as can be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For I am a member of the Souse Fam-i-lee!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Leaning from my casement, I hailed a passing Frenchman.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are they?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"Les touristes Americains sont arriv&eacute;s, M'sieu," he answered dryly.</p>
+
+<p>By the light of the street-lamps as he turned away I could see him
+shrug his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking it over, it struck me that I had been overharsh in my judgment
+of the homesick exiles who in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>this far corner of the earth are
+clinching the rivets of France's colonial empire.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning I set sail from Saigon for China. Leaving the mouth of
+the river in our wake, we rounded the mighty promontory of Cap St.
+Jacques and headed for the open sea. The palm-fringed shore line of
+Cochin-China dropped away; the blue mountains of Annam turned pale and
+ghostly in the evening mists. A sun-scorched, pestilential land.... I
+was glad to leave it. But already I am longing to return. I want once
+more to sit at a caf&eacute; table beneath the awnings of the Rue Catinat,
+before me a tall glass with ice tinkling in it. I want to hear the
+<i>pousse-pousse</i> coolies padding softly by in the gathering twilight. I
+want to see the little Annamite women in their sleazy silken garments
+and the boisterous, swaggering <i>legionnaires</i> in their white helmets. I
+want to stroll once more beneath the tamarinds beside the Mekong, to
+smell the odors of the hot lands, to hear again the throbbing of the
+tom-toms and the soft music of the wind-blown temple bells. For</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"When you've 'eard the East a-callin'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You won't never 'eed naught else."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="tnote">
+<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p>
+
+<p>Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (blind-folded,
+blindfolded; body-guard, bodyguard; coast-guard, coastguard;
+co-operation, cooperation; co-terminous, coterminous; cock-fighting,
+cockfighting; harbour-master, harbourmaster; head-dresses, headdresses;
+light-houses, lighthouses; net-work, network; off-shore, offshore;
+old-time, oldtime; three-score, threescore; to-day, today; to-morrow,
+tomorrow; water-front, waterfront; white-washed, whitewashed;
+wide-spread, widespread)</p>
+
+<p>Table of Contents, heading for Chapter IX says "<span class="smcap">Prospect Rulers and
+Comic Opera Courts</span>" while the chapter heading in the main text says
+"<span class="smcap">Puppet Rulers and Comic Opera Courts</span>". "<span class="smcap">Puppet</span>" is more likely to have
+been the word intended by the author but the original words have been
+preserved in both cases.</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 73, opening double quote mark at beginning of paragraph removed as
+text here does not appear to be quoted speech and there is no closing
+quote at the end. (There is held each year)</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 79, "Portgual" changed to "Portugal". (King of Portugal, had
+shifted)</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 148, "ampitheatre" is more commonly spelled "amphitheatre".
+Author's original text preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 209, "Turquoise Mosque in Samarland". "Samarland" is more likely to
+be "Samarkand" but the author's original text is preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 221, "Chulalungkorn" is spelled elsewhere in the text
+"Chulalongkorn". Author's original text preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 237, inserted closing double quote mark. (know how to make it.")</p>
+
+<p>Pg. 265, inserted opening double quote mark. (he greeted me. "The)</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by 
+E. Alexander Powell
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7709 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by E. Alexander Powell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Where the Strange Trails Go Down
+       Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits
+       Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam,
+       Cochin-China
+
+Author: E. Alexander Powell
+
+Release Date: December 4, 2008 [EBook #27404]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  _BY E. ALEXANDER POWELL_
+
+    WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+    THE NEW FRONTIERS OF FREEDOM
+
+    THE ARMY BEHIND THE ARMY
+
+    THE LAST FRONTIER
+
+    GENTLEMEN ROVERS
+
+    THE END OF THE TRAIL
+
+    FIGHTING IN FLANDERS
+
+    THE ROAD TO GLORY
+
+    VIVE LA FRANCE!
+
+    ITALY AT WAR
+
+  _CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS_
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+
+[Illustration: A _real_ wild man of Borneo
+
+A Dyak head-hunter using the _sumpitan_, or blow-gun, in the jungle of
+Central Borneo]
+
+
+
+
+  WHERE
+  THE STRANGE TRAILS
+  GO DOWN
+
+  SULU, BORNEO, CELEBES, BALI, JAVA,
+  SUMATRA, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,
+  MALAY STATES, SIAM, CAMBODIA,
+  ANNAM, COCHIN-CHINA
+
+
+  BY
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL
+
+
+  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
+
+
+  NEW YORK
+  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+  1921
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
+  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+  Published October, 1921
+
+
+  PRINTED AT
+  THE SCRIBNER PRESS
+  NEW YORK, U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+  To
+
+  THE WINSOME WIDOW
+  MARGARET CAMPBELL McCUTCHEN
+  WHO, DESPITE COUNTLESS DISCOMFORTS,
+  ALWAYS KEPT SMILING
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+It is a curious thing, when you stop to think about it, that, though of
+late the public has been deluged with books on the South Seas, though
+the shelves of the public libraries sag beneath the volumes devoted to
+China, Japan, Korea, next to nothing has been written, save by a
+handful of scientifically-minded explorers, about those far-flung,
+gorgeous lands, stretching from the southern marches of China to the
+edges of Polynesia, which the ethnologists call Malaysia. Siam,
+Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China, the Malay States, the Straits
+Settlements, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Celebes, Borneo, Sulu ... their very
+names are synonymous with romance; the sound of them makes restless the
+feet of all who love adventure. Sultans and rajahs ... pirates and
+head-hunters ... sun-bronzed pioneers and white-helmeted _legionnaires_
+... blow-guns with poisoned darts and curly-bladed krises ... elephants
+with gilded howdahs ... tigers, crocodiles, orang-utans ... pagodas and
+palaces ... shaven-headed priests in yellow robes ... flaming
+fire-trees ... the fragrance of frangipani ... green jungle and
+steaming tropic rivers ... white moonlight on the long white beaches
+... the throb of war-drums and the tinkle of wind-blown
+temple-bells....
+
+But it is not for all of us to go down the strange trails which lead
+to these magic places. The world's work must be done. So, for those who
+are condemned by circumstance to the prosaic existence of the office,
+the factory, and the home, I have written this book. I would have them
+feel the hot breath of the South. I would convey to them something of
+the spell of the tropics, the mystery of the jungle, the lure of the
+little, palm-fringed islands which rise from peacock-colored seas. I
+would introduce to them those picturesque and hardy figures planters,
+constabulary officers, consuls, missionaries, colonial administrators
+who are carrying civilization into these dark and distant corners of
+the earth. I would have them know the fascination of leaning through
+those "magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery
+lands forlorn."
+
+I had planned, therefore, that this should be a light-hearted,
+care-free, casual narrative. And so, in parts, it is. But more serious
+things have crept, almost imperceptibly, into its pages. The
+achievements of the Dutch empire-builders in the Insulinde, the
+conditions which prevail under the rule of the chartered company in
+Borneo, the opening-up of Indo-China and the Malay Peninsula, the
+regeneration of Siam, the epic struggle between civilization and
+savagery which is in progress in all these lands--these are phases of
+Malaysian life which, if this book is to have any serious value, I
+cannot ignore. That is why it is a melange of the frivolous and the
+serious, the picturesque and the prosaic, the superficial and the
+significant. If, when you lay it down, you have gained a better
+understanding of the dangers and difficulties which beset the
+colonizing white man in the lands of the Malay, if you realize that
+life in the eastern tropics consists of something more than sapphire
+seas and bamboo huts beneath the slanting palm trees and native maidens
+with hibiscus blossoms in their dusky hair, if, in short, you have been
+instructed as well as entertained, then I shall feel that I have been
+justified in writing this book.
+
+
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL.
+
+
+  York Harbor, Maine,
+  October first, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+
+For the courtesies they showed me, and the assistance they afforded me
+during the long journey which is chronicled in this book, I am deeply
+indebted to many persons in many lands. I welcome this opportunity of
+expressing my gratitude to the Hon. Francis Burton Harrison, former
+Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, and to the Hon. Manuel
+Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate, for placing at my disposal
+the coastguard cutter _Negros_, on which I cruised upward of six
+thousand miles, as well as for countless other courtesies.
+Brigadier-General Ralph W. Jones, Warren H. Latimer, Esq., and Major
+Edwin C. Bopp shamefully neglected their personal affairs in order to
+make my journey comfortable and interesting. Dr. Edward C. Ernst, of
+the United States Quarantine Service at Manila, who served as volunteer
+surgeon of the expedition; John L. Hawkinson, Esq., the man behind the
+camera; James Rockwell, Esq., and Captain A. B. Galvez, commander of
+the _Negros_, by their unfailing tactfulness and good nature, did much
+to add to the success of the enterprise. I am likewise under the
+deepest obligations to Colonel Ole Waloe, commanding the Philippine
+Constabulary in Zamboanga; to the Hon. P. W. Rogers, Governor of Jolo;
+to Captain R. C. d'Oyley-John, formerly Chief Police Officer of
+Sandakan, British North Borneo; to M. de Haan, Resident at Samarinda,
+Dutch Borneo; and to his colleagues at Makassar, Singaradja,
+Kloeng-Kloeng, Surabaya, Djokjakarta, and Surakarta; to the Hon. John
+F. Jewell, American Consul-General at Batavia; to the Hon. Edwin N.
+Gunsaulus, American Consul-General at Singapore; to J. D. C. Rodgers,
+Esq., American Charge d'Affaires at Bangkok; to his late Royal Highness
+the Crown Prince of Siam; to his Serene Highness Prince Traidos
+Prabandh, Siamese Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; to his
+Serene Highness Colonel Prince Amoradhat, Chief of Intelligence of the
+Siamese Army, who constituted himself my guide and cicerone during our
+stay in his country; to the French Resident-Superior at Pnom-Penh; and
+to the other French officials who aided me during my travels in
+Indo-China. His Excellency J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador at
+Washington and his Excellency Phya Prabha Karavongse, Siamese Minister
+at Washington, provided me with letters which obtained for me many
+facilities in French Indo-China and in Siam. Nor am I unappreciative of
+the many kindnesses shown me by James R. Bray, Esq., of New York City;
+by Austin Day Brixey, Esq., of Greenwich, Conn.; and by Dr. Eldon R.
+James, General Adviser to the Siamese Government. I also wish to
+acknowledge my indebtedness to A. Cabaton, Esq., from whose extremely
+valuable study of Netherlands India I have drawn freely in describing
+the Dutch system of administration in the Insulinde. I have also
+obtained much valuable data from "_Java and Her Neighbors_" by A. C.
+Walcott, Esq., and from "_The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe_" by Ernest
+Young, Esq.
+
+
+  E. ALEXANDER POWELL.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+     I.  MAGIC ISLES AND FAIRY SEAS                          1
+
+    II.  OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE                                 25
+
+   III.  "WHERE THERE AIN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS"            50
+
+    IV.  THE EMERALDS OF WILHELMINA                         74
+
+     V.  MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS                        99
+
+    VI.  IN BUGI LAND                                      126
+
+   VII.  DOWN TO AN ISLAND EDEN                            143
+
+  VIII.  THE GARDEN THAT IS JAVA                           163
+
+    IX.  PROSPECT RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS            189
+
+     X.  THROUGH THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE TO ELEPHANT LAND    208
+
+    XI.  To PNOM-PENH BY THE JUNGLE TRAIL                  246
+
+   XII.  EXILES OF THE OUTLANDS                            270
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  A _real_ wild man of Borneo                   _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                   FACING PAGE
+
+  Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+    rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon                  10
+
+  Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+    coast of Bali                                           10
+
+  The bull-fight at Parang                                  22
+
+  Dusun women                                               60
+
+  Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo                         60
+
+  The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan                                  70
+
+  A patron of a Sandakan opium farm                         70
+
+  Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river        112
+
+  Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+    steps at Tenggaroeng                                   124
+
+  State procession in the Kraton of the
+    Sultan of Djokjakarta                                  124
+
+  Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina                130
+
+  The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption          170
+
+  A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo                 200
+
+  A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo                         200
+
+  The captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+    Universe"                                              200
+
+  A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta   200
+
+  An elephant hunt in Siam                                 228
+
+  King Sisowath of Cambodia                                234
+
+  Rama VI, King of Siam                                    234
+
+  Colorful ceremonies of Old Siam                          238
+
+  Transportation in the Siamese jungle                     248
+
+  The head of the pageant approaching the camera in
+  the palace at Pnom-Penh                                  266
+
+  Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the
+  King of Cambodia                                         268
+
+
+  MAP
+
+  Malaysia                                                  28
+
+
+
+
+WHERE THE STRANGE TRAILS GO DOWN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MAGIC ISLES AND FAIRY SEAS
+
+
+When I was a small boy I spent my summers at the quaint old
+fishing-village of Mattapoisett, on Buzzard's Bay. Next door to the
+house we occupied stood a low-roofed, unpretentious dwelling, white as
+an old-time clipper ship, with bright green blinds. I can still catch
+the fragrance of the lilacs by the gate. The fine old doorway,
+brass-knockered, arched by a spray of crimson rambler, was flanked on
+one hand by a great conch-shell, on the other by an enormous specimen
+of branch-coral, thus subtly intimating to passers-by that the owner of
+the house had been in "foreign parts." A distinctly nautical atmosphere
+was lent to the broad, deck-like verandah by a ship's barometer, a
+chart of Cape Cod, and a highly polished brass telescope mounted on a
+tripod so as to command the entire expanse of the bay. Here Cap'n
+Bryant, a retired New Bedford whaling captain, was wont to spend the
+sunny days in his big cane-seated rocking-chair, puffing meditatively
+at his pipe and for my boyish edification spinning yarns of adventure
+in far-distant seas and on islands with magic names--Tawi Tawi,
+Makassar Straits, the Dingdings, the Little Paternosters, the Gulf of
+Boni, Thursday Island, Java Head. Of cannibal feasts in New Guinea, of
+head-hunters in Borneo, of strange dances by dusky temple-girls in
+Bali, of up-country expeditions with the White Rajah of Sarawak, of
+desperate encounters with Dyak pirates in the Sulu Sea, he discoursed
+at length and in fascinating detail, while I, sprawled on the verandah
+steps, my knees clasped in my hands, listened raptly and, when the
+veteran's flow of reminiscence showed signs of slackening, clamored
+insistently for more.
+
+Then and there I determined that some day I would myself sail those
+adventurous seas in a vessel of my own, that I would poke the nose of
+my craft up steaming tropic rivers, that I would drop anchor off towns
+whose names could not be found on ordinary maps, and that I would go
+ashore in white linen and pipe-clayed shoes and a sun-hat to take
+tiffin with sultans and rajahs, and to barter beads and brass wire for
+curios--a curly-bladed Malay kris, carved cocoanuts, a shark's-tooth
+necklace, a blow-gun with its poisoned darts, a stuffed bird of
+paradise, and, of course, a huge conch-shell and an enormous piece of
+branch-coral--which I would bring home and display to admiring
+relatives and friends as convincing proofs of where I had been.
+
+But school and college had to be gotten through with, and after them
+came wars in various parts of the world and adventurings in many
+lands, so that thirty years slipped by before an opportunity presented
+itself to realize the dream of my boyhood. But when at last I set sail
+for those far-distant seas it was on an enterprise which would have
+gladdened the old sailor's soul--an expedition whose object it was to
+seek out the unusual, the curious, and the picturesque, and to capture
+them on the ten miles of celluloid film which we took with us, so that
+those who are condemned by circumstance to the humdrum life of the
+farm, the office, or the mill might themselves go adventuring o'nights,
+from the safety and comfort of red-plush seats, through the magic of
+the motion-picture screen. When I set out on my long journey the old
+whaling captain whose tales had kindled my youthful imagination had
+been sleeping for a quarter of a century in the Mattapoisett graveyard,
+but when our anchor rumbled down off Tawi Tawi, when, steaming across
+Makassar Straits, we picked up the Little Paternosters, when our tiny
+vessel poked her bowsprit up the steaming Koetei into the heart of the
+Borneo jungle, I knew that, though invisible to human eyes, he was
+standing beside me on the bridge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Until I met the young-old man to whom those magazines which devote
+themselves to the gossip of the film world admiringly refer as "the
+Napoleon of the movies," it had never occurred to me that adventure has
+a definite market value. At least I had never realized that there are
+people who stand ready to buy it by the foot, as one buys real estate
+or rope. I had always supposed that the only way adventure could be
+capitalized was as material for magazine articles and books and for
+dinner-table stories.
+
+"What we are after" the film magnate began abruptly, motioning me to a
+capacious leather chair and pushing a box of cigars within my reach,
+"is something new in travel pictures. Like most of the big producers,
+we furnish our exhibitors with complete programmes--a feature, a
+comedy, a topical review, and a travel or educational picture. We make
+the features and the comedies in our own studios; the weeklies we buy
+from companies which specialize in that sort of thing. But heretofore
+we have had to pick up our travel stuff--where we could get it from
+free lances mostly--and there is never enough really good travel
+material to meet the demand. For quite ordinary travel or educational
+films we have to pay a minimum of two dollars a foot, while really
+unusual pictures will bring almost any price that is asked for them.
+The supply is so uncertain, however, and the price is so high that we
+have decided to try the experiment of taking our own. That is what I
+wanted to talk to you about."
+
+"Before the war," he continued, "there was almost no demand in the
+United States for travel pictures. In fact, when a manager wanted to
+clear his house for the next show, he would put a travel picture on the
+screen. But since the boys have been coming back from France and
+Germany and Siberia and Russia the public has begun to call for travel
+films again. They've heard their sons and brothers and sweethearts tell
+about the strange places they've been, and the strange things they've
+seen, and I suppose it makes them want to learn more about those parts
+of the world that lie east of Battery Place and west of the Golden
+Gate. But we don't want the old bromide stuff, mind
+you--mountain-climbing in Switzerland, cutting sugar-cane in Cuba,
+picking cocoanuts in Ceylon. That sort of thing goes well enough on the
+Chautauqua circuits, but it's as dead as the corner saloon so far as
+the big cities are concerned. What we are looking for are unusual
+pictures--tigers, elephants, pirates, brigands, cannibals, Oriental
+temples and palaces, war-dances, weird ceremonies, curious customs,
+natives with rings in their noses and feathers in their hair, scenes
+that are spectacular and exciting--in short, what the magazine editors
+call 'adventure stuff.' We want pictures that will make 'em sit up in
+their seats and exclaim, 'Well, what d'ye know about that?' and that
+will send them away to tell their friends about them."
+
+"Like the publisher," I suggested, "who remarked that his idea of a
+good newspaper was one that would cause its readers to exclaim when
+they opened it, 'My God!'?"
+
+"That's the idea," he agreed. "And if the pictures are from places that
+most people have never heard of before, so much the better. I'm told
+that you've spent your life looking for queer places to write about. So
+why can't you suggest some to take pictures of?"
+
+"But I've had no practical experience in taking motion-pictures," I
+protested. "The only time I ever touched a motion-picture camera was
+when I turned the crank of Donald Thompson's for a few minutes during
+the entry of the Germans into Antwerp in 1914."
+
+"Were the pictures a success?" the Napoleon of the Movies queried
+interestedly. "I don't recall having seen them."
+
+"No, you wouldn't," I hastened to explain. "You see, it wasn't until
+the show was all over that Thompson discovered that he had forgotten to
+take the cap off the lens."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," he assured me. "We'll take care of the
+technical end. We'll provide you with the best camera man to be had and
+the best equipment. All you will have to do is to show him what to
+photograph, arrange the action, decide on the settings, obtain the
+permission of the authorities, the good-will of the officials, the
+co-operation of the military, engage interpreters and guides, reserve
+hotel accommodations, arrange for motor-cars and boats and horses and
+special trains, and keep everyone jollied up and feeling good
+generally. Aside from that, there won't be anything for you to do
+except to enjoy yourself."
+
+"It certainly sounds alluring," I admitted. "The trouble is that you
+are looking for something that can't always be found. You don't find
+adventure the way you find four-leaf clovers; it just happens to you,
+like the measles or a blow-out. Still, if one has the time and money
+to go after them, there are a lot of curious things that might pass for
+adventure when they are shown on the screen."
+
+"Where are they?" the film magnate asked eagerly, spreading upon his
+mahogany desk a map of the world.
+
+It was a little disconcerting, this request to point out those regions
+where adventure could be found, very much as a visitor from the
+provinces might ask a New York hotel clerk to tell him where he could
+see the Bohemian life of which he had read in the Sunday supplements.
+
+"There's Russian Central Asia, of course," I suggested tentatively.
+"Samarkand and Bokhara and Tashkent, you know. But I'm afraid they're
+out of the question on account of the Bolsheviki. Besides, I'm not
+looking for the sort of adventure that ends between a stone wall and a
+firing-party. Then there are some queer emirates along the southern
+edge of the Sahara: Sokoto and Kanem and Bornu and Wadai. But it would
+take at least six months to obtain the necessary permission from the
+French and British colonial offices and to arrange the other details of
+the expedition."
+
+"But that doesn't exhaust the possibilities by any means," I continued
+hastily, for nothing was farther from my wish than to discourage so
+fascinating a plan. "There ought to be some splendid picture material
+among the Dyaks of Borneo--they're head-hunters, you know. From there
+we could jump across to the Celebes and possibly to New Guinea. And I
+understand that they have some queer customs on the island of Bali,
+over beyond Java; in fact, I've been told that, in spite of all the
+efforts of the Dutch to stop it, the Balinese still practise _suttee_.
+A picture of a widow being burned on her husband's funeral pyre would
+be a bit out of the ordinary, wouldn't it? That reminds me that I read
+somewhere the other day that next spring there is to be a big royal
+wedding in Djokjakarta, in middle Java, with all sorts of gorgeous
+festivities. At Batavia we would have no difficulty in getting a
+steamer for Singapore, and from there we could go overland by the new
+Federated Malay States Railway, through Johore and Malacca and Kuala
+Lumpur, to Siam, where the cats and the twins and the white elephants
+come from. From Bangkok we might take a short-cut through the Cambodian
+jungle, by elephant, to Pnom-Penh and----"
+
+"Hold on!" the Movie King protested. "That's plenty. Let me come up for
+air. Those names you've been reeling off mean as much to me as the
+dishes on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. But that's what we're
+after. We want the people who see the pictures to say: 'Where the
+dickens _is_ that place? I never heard of it before.' They get to
+arguing about it, and when they get home they look it up in the family
+atlas, and when they find how far away it is, they feel that they've
+had their money's worth. How soon can you be ready to start?"
+
+"How soon," I countered, "can you have a letter of credit ready?"
+
+Owing to the urgent requirements of the European governments, vessels
+of every description were, as I discovered upon our arrival at Manila,
+few and far between in Eastern seas; so, in spite of the assurance that
+I was not to permit the question of expense to curtail my itinerary, it
+is perfectly certain that we could not have visited the remote and
+inaccessible places which we did had it not been for the lively
+interest taken in our enterprise by the Honorable Francis Burton
+Harrison, Governor-General of the Philippines, and by the Honorable
+Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Senate. When
+Governor-General Harrison learned that I wished to take pictures in the
+Sulu Archipelago, he kindly offered, in order to facilitate our
+movements from island to island, to place at my disposal a coast-guard
+cutter, just as a friend might offer one the use of his motor-car.
+There was at first some question as to whether the Governor-General had
+the authority to send a government vessel outside of territorial
+waters, but Mr. Quezon, who, so far as influence goes, is a Henry Cabot
+Lodge and a Boies Penrose combined, unearthed a law which permitted him
+to utilize the vessels of the coast-guard service for the purpose of
+entertaining visitors to the islands in such ways as the Government of
+the Philippines saw fit. And, in a manner of speaking, Mr. Quezon is
+the Government of the Philippines. Thus it came about that on the last
+day of February, 1920, the coast-guard cutter _Negros_, 150 tons and
+150 feet over all--with a crew of sixty men, Captain A. B. Galvez
+commanding, and having on board the Lovely Lady, who accompanies me on
+all my travels; the Winsome Widow, who joined us in Seattle; the
+Doctor, who is an officer of the United States Health Service stationed
+at Manila; John L. Hawkinson, the efficient and imperturbable man
+behind the camera; three friends of the Governor-General, who went
+along for the ride; and myself--steamed out of Manila Bay into the
+crimson glory of a tropic sunset, and, when past Cavite and Corregidor,
+laid her course due south toward those magic isles and fairy seas which
+are so full of mystery and romance, so packed with possibilities of
+high adventure.
+
+[Illustration: Hawkinson taking motion-pictures while descending the
+rapids of the Pagsanjan River in Luzon
+
+His camera is set up astride of two native dugouts lashed together]
+
+[Illustration: Members of Major Powell's party landing on the south
+coast of Bali
+
+Mrs. Powell being carried ashore by sailors. The _Negros_ in the
+distance]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Governor-General Harrison believed, by methods that are legitimate, in
+adding to the American public's knowledge of the Philippines, and it
+was owing to his broad-minded point of view and to the many cablegrams
+which he sent ahead of us, that at each port in the islands at which we
+touched we found the local officials waiting on the pier-head to bid us
+welcome and to assist us. At Jolo, which is the capital of the Moro
+country, two lean, sun-tanned, youthful-looking men came aboard to
+greet us: one was the Honorable P. W. Rogers, Governor of the
+Department of Sulu; the other was Captain Link, a former officer of
+constabulary who is now the Provincial Treasurer. In the first five
+minutes of our conversation I discovered that they knew exactly the
+sort of picture material that I wanted and that they would help me to
+the limit of their ability to get it. For that matter, they themselves
+personify adventure in its most exciting form.
+
+Rogers, who was originally a soldier, went to the Philippines as
+orderly for General Pershing long before the days when "Black Jack" was
+to win undying fame on battlefields half the world away. The young
+soldier showed such marked ability that, thanks to Pershing's
+assistance, he obtained a post as stenographer under the civil
+government, thence rising by rapid steps to the difficult post of
+Governor of Sulu. A better selection could hardly have been made, for
+there is no white man in the islands whom the Moros more heartily
+respect and fear than their boyish-looking governor. Mrs. Rogers is the
+daughter of a German trader who lived in Jolo and died there with his
+boots on. A year or so prior to her marriage she was sitting with her
+parents at tiffin when a Moro, with whom her father had had a trifling
+business disagreement, knocked at the door and asked for a moment's
+conversation. Telling the native that he would talk with him after he
+had finished his meal, the trader returned to the table. Scarcely had
+he seated himself when the Moro, who had slipped unobserved into the
+dining room, sprang like a panther, his broad-bladed _barong_
+describing a glistening arc, and the trader's head rolled among the
+dishes. Another sweep of the terrible weapon and the mother's hand was
+severed at the wrist, while the future Mrs. Rogers owes her life to the
+fact that she fainted and slipped under the table. I relate this
+incident in order to give you some idea of the local atmosphere.
+
+A few weeks before our arrival at Jolo, Governor Rogers, in compliance
+with instructions from Manila, had ordered a census of the inhabitants.
+But the Moros are a highly suspicious folk, so, when some one started
+the rumor that the government was planning to brand them, as it brands
+its mules and horses, it promptly gained wide credence. By tactful
+explanations the suspicions of most of the natives were allayed, but
+one Moro, notorious as a bad man, barricaded himself, together with
+five of his friends, three women and a boy, in his house--a nipa hut
+raised above the ground on stilts--and defied the Governor to enumerate
+_them_. Now, if the Governor had permitted such open defiance to pass
+unnoticed, the entire population of Jolo, always ready for trouble,
+promptly would have gotten out of hand. So, accompanied by five
+troopers of the constabulary, he rode out to the outlaw's house and
+attempted to reason with him. The man obstinately refused to show
+himself, however, even turning a deaf ear to the appeals of the village
+_imam_. Thereupon Rogers ordered the constabulary to open fire, their
+shots being answered by a fusillade from the Moros barricaded in the
+house. In twenty minutes the flimsy structure looked more like a sieve
+than a dwelling. When the firing ceased a six-year-old boy descended
+the ladder and, approaching the Governor, remarked unconcernedly: "You
+can go in now. They're all dead." Then Rogers called up the
+census-taker and told him to go ahead with his enumeration.
+
+The provincial treasurer, Captain Link, is a lean, lithe South
+Carolinian who has spent fifteen years in Moroland. He is what is known
+in the cattle country as a "go-gitter." It is told of him that he once
+nearly lost his commission, while in the constabulary, by sending to
+the Governor, as a Christmas present, a package which, upon being
+opened, was found to contain the head of a much-wanted outlaw.
+
+"I knew he wanted that fellow's head more than anything else in the
+world," Captain Link said naively, in telling me the story, "so it
+struck me it would be just the thing to send him for a Christmas
+present. I spent a lot of time and trouble getting it too, for the
+fellow sure was a bad hombre. It would have gotten by all right, but
+the Governor's wife, thinking it was a present for herself, had to go
+and open the package. She went into hysterics when she saw what was
+inside and the Governor was so mad he nearly fired me. Some people have
+no sense of humor."
+
+Atop of the bookcase in Captain Link's study--the bookcase, by the way,
+contains Burton's _Thousand and One Nights_, the _Discourses_ of
+Epictetus, and President Eliot's tabloid classics--is the skull in
+question, surmounted by a Moro fez. Across the front of the fez is
+printed this significant legend:
+
+        THIS IS JOHN HENRY
+  JOHN HENRY DISOBEYED CAPTAIN LINK
+    _Sic Transit Gloria Mundi_
+
+While we are on the subject, let me tell you about another of these
+advance-guards of civilization who, single-handed, transformed a
+worthless island in the Sulu Sea into a veritable Garden of the Lord
+and its inhabitants from warlike savages into peaceful and prosperous
+farmers. In 1914 a short, bespectacled Michigander named Warner was
+sent by the Philippine Bureau of Education to Siassi, one of the
+islands of the Sulu group, to teach its Moro inhabitants the rudiments
+of American civilization. Warner's sole equipment for the job
+consisted, as he candidly admitted, of a medical education. He took
+with him a number of Filipino assistants, but as they did not get along
+with the Moros, he shipped them back to Manila and sent for an Airedale
+dog. He also sent for all the works on agriculture and gardening that
+were to be had in the bookshops of the capital. For five years he
+remained on Siassi, the only white man. As even the little inter-island
+steamers rarely find their way there, months sometimes passed without
+his hearing from the outside world. But he was too busy to be lonely.
+His jurisdiction extended over two islands, separated by a narrow
+channel, but this he never crossed at night and in the daytime only
+when he was compelled to, as the narrow channel was the home of giant
+crocodiles which not infrequently attacked and capsized the frail
+native _vintas_, killing their occupants as they struggled in the
+water.
+
+Warner, who had spent four years among the Visayans before going to
+Siassi, and who was, therefore, eminently qualified to compare the
+northern islanders with the Moros, told me that the latter possess a
+much higher type of intelligence than the Filipinos and assimilate new
+ideas far more quickly. He added that they have a highly developed
+sense of humor; that they are quick to appreciate subtle stories, which
+the Tagalogs and Visayans are not; and that they are much more ready to
+accept advice on agricultural and economic matters than the Christian
+Filipinos, who have a life-sized opinion of their own ability. When the
+day's work was over, he said, he would seat himself in the doorway of
+his hut, surrounded by a group of Moros, and discuss crops and weather
+prospects, swap jokes and tell stories, just as he might have done with
+lighter skinned sons of toil around the cracker-barrel of a cross-roads
+store in New England. He added that he was sadly in need of some new
+stories to tell his Moro proteges, as, after six years on the island,
+his own fund was about exhausted. But he was growing weary of life on
+Siassi, he told me; he wanted action and excitement; so he was
+preparing to move, with his Airedale, to Bohol, in the Visayas, where,
+he had heard it rumored, there was another white man.
+
+Still another of the picturesque characters with whom I foregathered
+nightly on the after-deck of the _Negros_ during our stay at Jolo was a
+former soldier, John Jennings by name. He was an operative of the
+Philippine Secret Service, being engaged at the time in breaking up the
+running of opium from Borneo across the Sulu Sea to the Moro islands.
+Jennings is a short, thickset, powerfully-built man, all nerve and no
+nerves. Adventure is his middle name. He has lived more stories than I
+could invent. Shortly before our arrival at Jolo Jennings had learned
+from a native in his pay that a son of the Flowery Kingdom, the
+proprietor of a notorious gambling resort situated on the
+quarter-mile-long ramshackle wharf known as the Chinese pier, was
+driving a roaring trade in the forbidden drug. So one afternoon
+Jennings, his hands in his pockets and in each pocket a service
+automatic, sauntered carelessly along the pier and upon reaching the
+reputed opium den, knocked briskly on the door. The Chinese proprietor
+evidently suspected the purpose of his visit, however, for he was
+unable to gain admittance. So that night, wearing the huge straw
+sun-hat and flapping garments of blue cotton of a coolie, he tried
+again. This time in response to his knock the heavy door swung open.
+Within all was black and silent as the tomb. The lintel was low and
+Jennings was compelled to stoop in order to enter. As he cautiously set
+foot across the threshold there was a sudden swish of steel in the
+darkness and the blade of a _barong_ whistled past his face, slicing
+off the front of his hat and missing his head by the width of an
+eyelash. As he sprang back the door slammed in his face and he heard
+the bolts shot home, followed by the sound of a weapon clattering on
+the floor and the patter of naked feet. Realizing that the men he was
+after were making their escape by another exit, Jennings hurled
+himself against the door, an automatic in either hand. It gave way
+before his assault and he was precipitated headlong into the inky
+blackness of the room. Taking no chances this time, he raked it with a
+stream of lead from end to end. Then, there being no further sound, he
+swept the place with a beam from his electric torch. Stretched on the
+floor were three dead Chinamen and beside them was enough opium to have
+drugged everyone on the island. That little episode, as Jennings
+remarked dryly, put quite a crimp in the opium traffic in Jolo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cockfighting, which is as popular throughout the Philippines as
+baseball is in the United States, finds its most enthusiastic devotees
+among the Moros, every community in the Sulu islands having its cockpit
+and its fighting birds, on whose prowess the natives gamble with
+reckless abandon. Gambling is, indeed, the _raison d'etre_ of
+cockfighting in Moroland, for, as the birds are armed with four-inch
+spurs of razor sharpness, and as one or both birds are usually killed
+within a few minutes after they are tossed into the pit, very little
+sport attaches to the contest. The villagers are inordinately proud of
+their local fighting-cocks, boasting of their prowess as a Bostonian
+boasts of the Braves or a New Yorker of the Giants, and are always
+ready to back them to the limit of their means.
+
+Some years ago, according to a story that was told me in the
+islands--for the truth of which I do not vouch--an American destroyer
+dropped anchor off Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines.
+That night a shore party of bluejackets, wandering about the town in
+quest of amusement, dropped in at a cockpit where a main was in
+progress. Noting the large wagers laid by the excited natives on their
+favorite birds, the sailors offered to back a "chicken" which they had
+aboard the destroyer against all the cocks in Cebu. The natives,
+smiling in their sleeves at the prospect of taking money so easily from
+the Americanos, promptly accepted the challenge and some hundreds of
+pesos were laid against the unknown bird. At the hour set for the fight
+the grinning sailors appeared at the cockpit with their "chicken," the
+mascot of the destroyer--a large American eagle! Ensued, of course, a
+torrent of protest and remonstrance, but the money was already up and
+the bluejackets demanded action. So the eagle was anchored by a chain
+in the center of the pit, where it sat motionless and apathetic, head
+on one side, eyelids drooping, apparently half asleep--until a cock was
+tossed into the pit. Then there was a lightning-like flash of the
+mighty talons and all that was left of the Cebuan champion was a heap
+of bloodied feathers. The "match" was quickly over and the triumphant
+sailors, collecting their bets, departed for their ship. Ever since
+then there has been a proverb in Cebu--"Never match your cock against
+an American chicken."
+
+Governor Rogers informed me that, in compliance with a cablegram from
+the Governor-General, he had arranged a "show" for us at a village
+called Parang, on the other side of the island. The "show," I gathered,
+was to consist of a stag-hunt, shark-fishing, war-dances, and pony
+races, and was to conclude with a native bull-fight. One of the
+favorite sports of the Moros is hunting the small native stag on
+horseback, tiring it out, and killing it with spears. As it developed,
+however, that there was no certainty of being able so to stage-manage
+the affair that either the hunters or the hunted would come within the
+range of the camera, we regretfully decided to dispense with that
+number of the programme.
+
+When we arrived at Parang it looked as though the entire population of
+the island had assembled for the occasion. The native police were
+keeping clear a circle in which the dances were to take place, while
+the slanting trunks of the cocoanut-palms provided reserved seats for
+scores of tan and chocolate and coffee-colored youngsters. We were
+greeted by the Panglima of Parang, the overlord of the district, who
+explained, through Governor Rogers, that he had had prepared a little
+repast of which he hoped that we would deign to partake. Now, after you
+know some of the secrets of Moro cooking and have had a glimpse into a
+Moro kitchen, even the most robust appetite is usually dampened. But
+the Governor whispered "The old man has gone to a lot of trouble to
+arrange this show and if you refuse to eat his food he'll be mortally
+offended," so, purely in the interests of amity, we seated ourselves at
+the table, which had been set under the palms in the open. I don't know
+what we ate and I don't care to know--though I admit that I had some
+uneasy suspicions--but, with the uncompromising eye of the old Panglima
+fixed sternly upon us, we did our best to convince him that we
+appreciated his cuisine.
+
+But the dancing which followed made us forget what we had eaten. During
+the ensuing months we were to see dances in many lands--in Borneo and
+Bali and Java and Siam and Cambodia--but they were all characterized by
+a certain monotony and sameness. These Moro dancers, however, were in a
+class by themselves. If they could be brought across the ocean and
+would dance before an audience on Broadway with the same savage abandon
+with which they danced before the camera under the palm-trees of
+Parang, there would be a line a block long in front of the box-office.
+One of the dances was symbolical of a cock-fight, the cocks being
+personified by a young woman and a boy. It was sheer barbarism, of
+course, but it was fascinating. And the curious thing about it was that
+the hundreds of Moros who stood and squatted in a great circle, and who
+had doubtless seen the same thing scores of times before, were so
+engrossed in the movements of the dance, each of which had its subtle
+shade of meaning, that they became utterly oblivious to our presence or
+to Hawkinson's steady grinding of the camera. In the war-dance the
+participants, who were Moro fighting men, and were armed with spears,
+shields, and the vicious, broad-bladed knives known as _barongs_, gave
+a highly realistic representation of pinning an enemy to the earth with
+a spear, and with the _barong_ decapitating him. The first part of the
+dance, before the passions of the savages became aroused, was, however,
+monotonous and uninteresting.
+
+"Can't you stir 'em up a little?" called Hawkinson, who, like all
+camera men, demands constant action. "Tell 'em that this film costs
+money and that we didn't come here to take pictures of Loie Fuller
+stuff."
+
+"I think it might be as well to let them take their time about it,"
+remarked Captain Link. "These Moros always get very much worked up in
+their war-dances, and occasionally they forget that it is all
+make-believe and send a spear into a spectator. It's safer to leave
+them alone. They're very temperamental."
+
+"That would make a corking picture," said Hawkinson enthusiastically,
+"if I only knew which fellow was going to be speared so that I could
+get the camera focussed on him."
+
+"The only trouble is," I remarked dryly, "that they might possibly pick
+out _you_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Spanish bull-fights, after the banderillos and picadores have
+tormented the bull until it is exhausted, the matador flaunts a scarlet
+cloak in front of the beast until it is bewildered and then despatches
+it with a sword. In Moroland, however, the bulls, which are bred and
+trained for the purpose, do their best to kill each other, thus making
+the fight a much more sporting proposition. The bull-fight which was
+arranged for our benefit at Parang was staged in a field of about two
+acres just outside the town, the spectators being kept at a safe
+distance by a troop of Moro horsemen under the direction of the old
+Panglima. After Hawkinson had set up his camera on the edge of this
+extemporized arena the bulls were brought in: medium-sized but
+exceptionally powerful beasts, the muscles rippling under their sleek
+brown coats, their short horns filed to the sharpness of lance-tips.
+Each animal was led by its owner, who was able to control it to a
+limited degree during the fight by means of a cord attached to the ring
+in its nose. When the signal was given for the fight to begin, the
+bulls approached each other cautiously, snorting and pawing the ground.
+They reminded me of two strange dogs who cannot decide whether they
+wish to fight or be friends. For ten minutes, regardless of the jeers
+of the spectators and the proddings of their handlers, the great brown
+beasts rubbed heads as amicably as a yoke of oxen. Then, just as we had
+made up our minds that it was a fiasco and that there would be no
+bull-fight pictures, there was a sudden angry bellow, the two great
+heads came together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was
+on. The next twenty minutes Hawkinson and I spent in alternately
+setting up his camera within range of the panting, straining animals
+and in picking it up and running for our lives, in order to avoid being
+trampled by the maddened beasts in their furious and unexpected
+onslaughts. The men at the ends of the nose-ropes were as helpless to
+control their infuriated charges as a trout fisherman who has hooked a
+shark. With horns interlocked and with blood and sweat dripping from
+their massive necks and shoulders, they fought each other, step by
+step, across the width of the arena, across a cultivated field which
+lay beyond, burst through a thorn hedge surrounding a native's patch of
+garden, trampled the garden into mire, and narrowly escaped bringing
+down on top of them the owner's dwelling, which, like most Moro houses,
+was raised above the ground on stilts. It looked for a time as though
+the fight would continue over a considerable portion of the island, but
+it was brought to an abrupt conclusion when one of the bulls,
+withdrawing a few yards, to gain momentum, charged like a tank
+attacking the Hindenburg Line, driving one of its horns deep into its
+adversary's eye-socket, whereupon the wounded animal, half-blinded and
+mad with pain, turned precipitately, jerked the nose-rope from its
+owner's grasp, and stampeding the spectators in its mad flight,
+disappeared in the depths of the jungle.
+
+[Illustration: The bull-fight at Parang
+
+There was a sudden bellow, the two great heads came
+together with a thud like a pile-driver, and the fight was on
+
+The spectators were kept at a distance by Moro horsemen
+under the Panglima]
+
+"That," announced the Governor, "concludes the morning performance.
+This afternoon we will present for your approval a programme consisting
+of pony races, a carabao fight, a shark-fishing expedition, and, if
+time permits, a visit to the pearl-fisheries to see the divers at work.
+This evening we will call on the Princess Fatimah, the daughter of the
+Sultan, and tomorrow I have arranged to take you to Tapul Island to
+shoot wild carabao. After that----"
+
+"After that," I interrupted, "we go away from here. If we stayed on in
+this quiet little island of yours much longer, we shouldn't have any
+film left for the other places."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE
+
+
+We sailed at sunset out of Jolo and all through the breathless tropic
+night the _Negros_ forged ahead at half-speed, her sharp prow cleaving
+the still bosom of the Sulu Sea as silently as a gondola stealing down
+the Canale Grande. So oppressive was the night that sleep was out of
+the question, and I leaned upon the rail of the bridge, the hot land
+breeze, laden with the mysterious odors of the tropics, beating softly
+in my face, and listlessly watched the phosphorescent ostrich feathers
+curling from our bows. Behind me, in the darkened chart-room, the
+Filipino quartermaster gently swung the wheel from time to time in
+response to the direction of the needle on the illuminated
+compass-dial. So lifeless was the sea that our foremast barely swayed
+against the stars. The smoke from our funnel trailed across the purple
+canopy of the sky as though smeared with an inky brush.
+
+How long I stood there, lost in reverie, I have no idea: hours no
+doubt. I must have fallen into a doze, for I was awakened by the brisk,
+incisive strokes of the ship's bell, echoed, a moment later, by eight
+fainter strokes coming from the deck below. Then the soft patter of
+bare feet which meant the changing of the watch. Though the velvety
+darkness into which we were steadily ploughing had not perceptibly
+decreased, it was now cut sharply across, from right to left, by what
+looked like a tightly stretched wire of glowing silver. Even as I
+looked this slender fissure of illumination widened, almost
+imperceptibly at first, then faster, faster, until at one burst came
+the dawn. The sombre hangings of the night were swept aside by an
+invisible hand as are drawn back the curtains at a window. As you have
+seen from a hill the winking lights of a city disappear at daybreak,
+so, one by one, the stars went out. Masses of angry clouds reared
+themselves in ominous, fantastic forms against a sullen sky. The hot
+land breeze changed to a cold wind which made me shiver. Suddenly the
+mounting rampart of clouds, which seemed about to burst in a tempest,
+was pierced by a hundred flaming lances coming from beyond the
+horizon's rim. Before their onslaught the threatening cloud-wall
+crumbled, faded, and abruptly dropped away to reveal the sun advancing
+in all that brazen effrontery which it assumes in those lawless
+latitudes along the Line. Now the sky was become a huge inverted bowl
+of flawless azure porcelain, the surface of the Sulu Sea sparkled as
+though strewn with a million diamonds, and, not a league off our bows,
+rose the jungle-clothed shores of Borneo.
+
+Scattered along the fringes of the world are certain places whose names
+ring in the ears of youth like trumpet-calls. They are passwords to
+romance and high adventure. Their very mention makes the feet of the
+young men restless. They mark the places where the strange trails go
+down. Of them all, the one that most completely captivated my boyish
+imagination was Borneo. To me, as to millions of other youngsters, its
+name had been made familiar by that purveyor of entertainment to
+American boyhood, Phineas T. Barnum, as the reputed home of the wild
+man. In its jungles, through the magic of Marryat's breathless pages, I
+fought the head-hunter and pursued the boa-constrictor and the
+orang-utan. It was then, a boyhood dream come true when I stood at
+daybreak on the bridge of the _Negros_ and through my glasses watched
+the mysterious island, which I had so often pictured in my imagination,
+rise with tantalizing slowness from the sapphire sea.
+
+We forged ahead cautiously, for our charts were none too recent or
+reliable and we lacked the "Malay Archipelago" volume of _The Sailing
+Directions_--the "Sailor's Bible," as the big, orange-covered book,
+full of comforting detail, is known. As the morning mists dissolved
+before the sun I could make out a pale ivory beach, and back of the
+beach a band of green which I knew for jungle, and back of that, in
+turn, a range of purple mountains which culminated in a majestic,
+cloud-wreathed peak. An off-shore breeze brought to my nostrils the
+strange, sweet odors of the hot lands. A Malay _vinta_ with widespread
+bamboo outriggers and twin sails of orange flitted by an enormous
+butterfly skimming the surface of the water. I was actually within
+sight of that grim island whose name has ever been a synonym for
+savagery. For never think that piracy, head-hunting, poisoned darts
+shot from blow-guns are horrors extinct in Borneo today, for they are
+not. Ask the mariners who sail these waters; ask the keepers of the
+lonely lighthouses, the officers who command the constabulary outposts
+in the bush. They know Borneo, and not favorably.
+
+You will picture Borneo, if you please, as a vast, squat island the
+third largest in the world, in fact--half again as large as France,
+bordered by a sandy littoral, moated by swamps reeking with putrid
+miasmata and pernicious vapors, covered with dense forests and
+impenetrable jungles, ridged by mile-high mountain ranges, seamed by
+mighty rivers, inhabited by the most savage beasts and the most bestial
+savages known to man. Lying squarely athwart the Line, the sun beats
+down upon it like the blast from an open furnace-door. The story is
+told in Borneo of a dissolute planter who died from sunstroke. The day
+after the funeral a spirit message reached the widow of the dear
+departed. "Please send down my blankets" it said. But it is the
+terrible humidity which makes the climate dangerous; a humidity due to
+the innumerable swamps, the source of pestilence and fever, and to the
+incredible rainfall, which _averages over six and a half feet a year_.
+No wonder that in the Indies Borneo is known as "The White Man's
+Graveyard."
+
+[Map: Malaysia]
+
+Imbedded in the northern coast of the island, like a row of
+semi-precious stones set in a barbaric brooch, are the states of
+British North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak. Their back-doors open on the
+wilderness of mountain, forest and jungle which marks the northern
+boundary of Dutch Borneo; their front windows look out upon the Sulu
+and the China Seas. Of these three territories, the first is under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, a private
+corporation, which administers it under the terms of a royal charter.
+The second is ruled by the Sultan of Brunei, whose once vast dominions
+have steadily dwindled through cession and conquest until they are now
+no larger than Connecticut. On the throne of the last sits one of the
+most romantic and picturesque figures in the world, His Highness James
+Vyner Brooke, a descendant of that Sir James Brooke who, in the middle
+years of the last century, made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak,
+and who might well have been the original of _The Man Who Would Be
+King_. Though all three governments are permitted virtually a free hand
+so far as their domestic affairs are concerned, they are under the
+protection of Great Britain and their foreign affairs are controlled
+from Westminster. The remaining three-quarters of Borneo, which
+contains the richest mines, the finest forests, the largest rivers,
+and, most important of all, the great oil-fields of Balik-Papan, forms
+one of the Outer Possessions, or Outposts, of Holland's East Indian
+Empire.
+
+Long before the yellow ribbon of the coast, with its fringe of palms,
+became visible we could make out the towering outline of Kina Balu, the
+sacred mountain, fourteen thousand feet high, which, seen from the
+north, bears a rather striking resemblance in its general contour to
+Gibraltar. The natives regard Kina Balu with awe and veneration as the
+home of departed spirits, believing that it exercises a powerful
+influence on their lives. When a man is dying they speak of him as
+ascending Kina Balu and in times of drought they formerly practised a
+curious and horrible custom, known as _sumunguping_, which the
+authorities have now suppressed. When the crops showed signs of failing
+the natives decided to despatch a messenger direct to the spirits of
+their relatives and friends in the other world entreating them to
+implore relief from the gods who control the rains. The person chosen
+to convey the message was usually a slave or an enemy captured in
+battle. Binding their victim to a post, the warriors of the tribe
+advanced, one by one, and drove their spears into his body, shouting
+with each thrust the messages which they wished conveyed to the spirits
+on the mountain.
+
+With the coming of day we pushed ahead at full speed. Soon we could
+make out the precipitous sandstone cliffs of Balhalla, the island which
+screens the entrance to Sandakan harbor. But long before we came
+abreast of the town signs of human habitation became increasingly
+apparent: little clusters of nipa-thatched huts built on stilts over
+the water; others hidden away in the jungle and betraying themselves
+only by spirals of smoke rising lazily above the feathery tops of the
+palms. Sandakan itself straggles up a steep wooded hill, the Chinese
+and native quarters at its base wallowing amid a network of
+foul-smelling and incredibly filthy sewers and canals or built on
+rickety wooden platforms which extend for half a mile or more along the
+harbor's edge. A little higher up, fronting on a parade ground which
+looks from the distance like a huge green rug spread in the sun to air,
+are the government offices, low structures of frame and plaster,
+designed so as to admit a maximum of air and a minimum of heat; the
+long, low building of the Planters Club, encircled by deep, cool
+verandahs; a Chinese joss-house, its facade enlivened by grotesque and
+brilliantly colored carvings; and a down-at-heels hotel. Close by are
+the churches erected and maintained by the Protestant and Roman
+Catholic missions--the former the only stone building in the
+protectorate. At the summit of the hill, reached by a steeply winding
+carriage road, are the bungalows of the Europeans, their white walls,
+smothered in crimson masses of bougainvillaea and shaded by stately
+palms and blazing fire-trees, peeping out from a wilderness of tropic
+vegetation. Viewed from the harbor, Sandakan is one of the most
+enchanting places that I have ever seen. It looks like a setting on a
+stage and you have the feeling that at any moment the curtain may
+descend and destroy the illusion. It is not until you go ashore and
+wander in the native quarter, where vice in every form stalks naked
+and unashamed, that you realize that the town is like a beautiful
+harlot, whose loveliness of face and figure belie the evil in her
+heart. Even after I came to understand that the place is a sink of
+iniquity, I never ceased to marvel at its beauty. It reminded me of the
+exclamation of a young English girl, the wife of a German merchant, as
+their steamer approached Hong Kong and the superb panorama which
+culminates in The Peak slowly unrolled.
+
+"Look, Otto! Look!" she cried. "You must say that it is beautiful even
+if it _is_ English."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of those lands which have not yet submitted to the bit and bridle of
+civilization--and they can be numbered on the fingers of one's two
+hands--Borneo is the most intractable. Of all the regions which the
+predatory European has claimed for his own, it is the least submissive,
+the least civilized, the least exploited and the least known. Its
+interior remains as untamed as before the first white man set foot on
+its shores four hundred years ago. The exploits of those bold and hardy
+spirits--explorers, soldiers, missionaries, administrators--who have
+attempted to carry to the natives of Borneo the Gospel of the Clean
+Shirt and the Square Deal form one of the epics of colonization. They
+have died with their boots on from fever, plague and snake-bite, from
+poisoned dart and Dyak spear. Though their lives would yield material
+for a hundred books of adventure, their story, which is the story of
+the white man's war for civilization throughout Malaysia, is epitomized
+in the few lines graven on the modest marble monument which stands at
+the edge of Sandakan's sun-scorched parade ground:
+
+                        In
+                      Memory
+                        of
+               Francis Xavier Witti
+           Killed near the Sibuco River
+                    May, 1882
+                        of
+                   Frank Hatton
+           Accidentally shot at Segamah
+                   March, 1883
+                        of
+               Dr. D. Manson Fraser
+                       and
+                Jemadhar Asa Singh
+    the two latter mortally wounded at Kopang
+                    May, 1883
+                      and of
+              Alfred Jones, Adjutant
+      Shere Singh, Regimental Sergeant-Major
+     of the British North Borneo Constabulary
+             Killed at Ranau 1897-98
+                      and of
+               George Graham Warder
+          District Officer, Tindang Batu
+             Murdered at Marak Parak
+                  28th July 1903
+  This Monument Is Erected as a Mark of Respect
+            by their Brother Officers
+
+Though Sandakan is the chief port of British North Borneo, with a
+population of perhaps fifteen thousand, it has barely a hundred
+European inhabitants, of whom only a dozen are women. Girls marry
+almost as fast as they arrive, and the incoming boats are eagerly
+scanned by the bachelor population, much in the same spirit as that in
+which a ticket-holder scans the lists of winning numbers in a lottery,
+wondering when his turn will come to draw something. If the bulk of the
+men are confirmed misogynists and confine themselves to the club bar
+and card-room it is only because there are not enough women to go
+round. The sacrifice of the women who, in order to be near their
+husbands, consent to sicken and fade and grow old before their time in
+such a spot, is very great. With their children at school in England,
+they pass their lonely lives in palm-thatched bungalows, raised high
+above the ground on piles as a protection against insects, snakes and
+floods, without amusements save such as they can provide themselves,
+and in a climate so humid that mushrooms will grow on one's boots in a
+single night during the rains. They are as truly empire-builders as the
+men and, though the parts they play are less conspicuous, perhaps, they
+are as truly deserving of honors and rewards.
+
+There is no servant problem in Borneo. Cooks jostle one another to cook
+for you. They will even go to the length of poisoning each other in
+order to step into a lucrative position, with a really big master and a
+memsahib who does not give too much trouble. But there are other
+features of domestic life for which the plenitude of servants does not
+compensate. Because existence is made almost unendurable by mosquitoes
+and other insects, within each sleeping room is constructed a
+rectangular framework, covered with mosquito-netting and just large
+enough to contain a bed, a dressing-table and an arm-chair. In these
+insect-proof cells the Europeans spend all of their sleeping and many
+of their waking hours. So aggressive are the mosquitoes, particularly
+during the rains, that, when one invites people in for dinner or
+bridge, the servants hand the guests long sacks of netting which are
+drawn over the feet and legs, the top being tied about the waist with a
+draw-string. Were it not for these mosquito-bags there would be neither
+bridge nor table conversation. Everyone would be too busy scratching.
+
+The houses, as I have already mentioned, are raised above the ground on
+brick piles or wooden stilts. Though this arrangement serves the
+purpose of keeping things which creep and crawl out of the house
+itself, the custom of utilizing the open space beneath the house as a
+hen-roost offers a standing invitation to the reptiles with which
+Borneo abounds. While we were in Sandakan a python invaded the
+chicken-house beneath the dwelling of the local magistrate one night
+and devoured half a dozen of the judge's imported Leghorns. Gorged to
+repletion, the great reptile fell asleep, being discovered by the
+servants the next morning. The magistrate put an end to its predatory
+career with a shot-gun. It measured slightly over twenty feet from nose
+to tail and in circumference was considerably larger than an inflated
+fire-hose. Imagine finding such a thing coiled up at the foot of your
+cellar-stairs after you had been indulging in home-brew!
+
+One evening a party of us were seated on the verandah of the Planters
+Club in Sandakan. The conversation, which had pretty much covered the
+world, eventually turned to snakes.
+
+"That reminds me," remarked a constabulary officer who had spent many
+years in Malaysia, "of a queer thing that happened in a place where I
+was stationed once in the Straits Settlements. It was one of those
+deadly dull places--only a handful of white women, no cinema, no race
+course, nothing. But the Devil, you know, always finds mischief for
+idle hands to do. One day a youngster--a subaltern in the battalion
+that was stationed there--returned from a leave spent in England. He
+brought back with him a young English girl whom he had married while he
+was at home. A slender, willowy thing she was, with great masses of
+coppery-red hair and the loveliest pink-and-white complexion. She
+quickly adapted herself to the disagreeable features of life in the
+tropics--with one exception. The exception was that she could never
+overcome her inherent and unreasoning fear of snakes. The mere sight of
+one would send her into hysterics.
+
+"One afternoon, while she was out at tea with some friends, the Malay
+gardener brought to the house the carcass of a hamadryad which he had
+killed in the garden. The hamadryad, as you probably know, is perhaps
+the deadliest of all Eastern reptiles. Its bite usually causes death in
+a few minutes. Moreover, it is one of the few snakes that will attack
+human beings without provocation. The husband, with two other chaps,
+both officers in his battalion, was sitting on the verandah when the
+snake was brought in.
+
+"'I say,' suggested one of the officers, 'here's a chance to break
+Madge of her fear of snakes. Why not curl this fellow up on her bed?
+She'll get a jolly good fright, of course, but when she discovers that
+he's dead and that she's been panicky about nothing, she'll get over
+her silly fear of the beggars. What say, old chap?'
+
+"To this insane suggestion, in spite of the protests of the other
+officer, the husband assented. Probably he had been having too many
+brandies and sodas. I don't know. But in any event, they put the
+witless idea into execution. Toward nightfall the young wife returned.
+She had on a frock of some thin, slinky stuff and a droopy garden hat
+with flowers on it and carried a sunshade. She was awfully pretty. She
+hadn't been out there long enough to lose her English coloring, you
+see.
+
+"'Oh, I say, Madge,' called her husband, 'There's a surprise for you in
+your bedroom.'
+
+"With a little cry of delighted anticipation she hurried into the
+house. She thought her husband had bought her a gift, I suppose. A
+moment later the trio waiting on the verandah heard a piercing shriek.
+The first shriek was followed by another and then another. Pretty soon,
+though, the screams died down to a whimper--a sort of sobbing moan.
+Then silence. After a few minutes, as there was no further sound from
+the bedroom and his wife did not reappear, the husband became uneasy.
+He rose to enter the house, but the chap who had suggested the scheme
+pulled him back.
+
+"'She's all right,' he assured him. 'She sees it's a joke and she's
+keeping quiet so as to frighten you. If you go in there now the laugh
+will be on you. She'll be out directly.'
+
+"But as the minutes passed and she did not reappear all three of the
+men became increasingly uneasy.
+
+"'We'd better have a look,' the one who had demurred suggested after a
+quarter of an hour had passed, during which no further sound had come
+from the bedroom. 'Madge is very high-strung. She may have fainted from
+the shock. I told you fellows that it was an idiotic thing to do.'
+
+"When they opened the door they thought that she had fainted, for she
+lay in an inert heap on the floor at the foot of the bed. But a hasty
+examination showed them, to their horror, that the girl was dead--heart
+failure, presumably. But when they raised her from the floor they
+discovered the real cause of her death, for a _second hamadryad_, which
+had been concealed by her skirts, darted noiselessly under the bed. It
+was the mate of the one that had been killed--for hamadryads always
+travel in pairs, you know--and had evidently entered the room in quest
+of its companion."
+
+"What happened to the husband and to the man who suggested the plan?"
+I asked. "Were they punished?"
+
+"They were punished right enough," the constabulary officer said dryly.
+"The chap who suggested the scheme tried to forget it in drink, was
+cashiered from the army and died of delirium tremens. As for the
+husband, he is still living--in a madhouse."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Even in so far-distant a corner of the Empire as Borneo, ten thousand
+miles from the lights of the restaurants in Piccadilly, the men
+religiously observe the English ritual of dressing for dinner, for when
+the mercury climbs to 110, though the temptation is to go about in
+pajamas, one's drenched body and drooping spirits need to be bolstered
+up with a stiff shirt and a white mess jacket. That the stiffest
+shirt-front is wilted in an hour makes no difference: it reminds them
+that they are still Englishmen. Nor, in view of the appalling
+loneliness of the life, is it to be wondered at that the Chinese
+bartenders at the club are kept busy until far into the night, and that
+every month or so the entire male white population goes on a terrific
+spree. The government doctor in Sandakan assured me very earnestly
+that, in order to stand the climate, it is necessary to keep one's
+liver afloat--in alcohol. He had contributed to thus preserving the
+livers and lives of his fellow exiles by the invention of two drinks,
+of which he was inordinately proud. One he had dubbed "Tarantula
+Juice;" the other he called "Whisper of Death." He told me that the
+amateur who took three drinks of the latter would have no further need
+for his services; the only person whose services he would require would
+be the undertaker.
+
+There is something of the pathetic in the eagerness with which the
+white men who dwell in exile along these forgotten seaboards long for
+news from Home. After dinner they would cluster about me on the club
+verandah and clamor for those odds-and-ends of English gossip which are
+not important enough for inclusion in the laconic cable despatches
+posted daily on the club bulletin-board and which the two-months-old
+newspapers seldom mention. They insisted that I repeat the jokes which
+were being cracked by the comedians at the Criterion and the
+Shaftesbury. They wanted to know if toppers and tailcoats were again
+being worn in The Row. They pleaded for the gossip of the clubs in Pall
+Mall and Piccadilly. They begged me to tell them about the latest books
+and plays and songs. But after a time I persuaded them to do the
+talking, while I lounged in a deep cane chair, a tall, thin glass, with
+ice tinkling in it, at my elbow, and listened spellbound to strange
+dramas of "the Islands" recited by men who had themselves played the
+leading roles. At first they were shy, as well-bred English often are,
+but after much urging an officer of constabulary, the glow from his
+cigar lighting up his sun-bronzed face and the rows of campaign ribbons
+on his white jacket, was persuaded into telling how he had trailed a
+marauding band of head-hunters right across Borneo, from coast to
+coast, his only companions a handful of Dyak police, themselves but a
+degree removed in savagery from those they were pursuing. A
+bespectacled, studious-looking man, whom I had taken for a scientist or
+a college professor, but who, I learned, had made a fortune buying
+bird-of-paradise plumes for the European market, described the strange
+and revolting customs practised by the cannibals of New Guinea. Then a
+broad-shouldered, bearded Dutchman, a very Hercules of a man, with a
+voice like a bass drum, told, between meditative puffs at his pipe, of
+hair-raising adventures in capturing wild animals, so that those smug
+and sheltered folk at home who visit the zoological gardens of a Sunday
+afternoon might see for themselves the crocodile and the
+boa-constrictor, the orang-utan and the clouded tiger. When, after the
+last tale had been told and the last glass had been drained, we
+strolled out into the fragrant tropic night, with the Cross swinging
+low to the morn, I felt as though, in the space of a single evening, I
+had lived through a whole library of adventure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I once wrote--in _The Last Frontier_, if I remember rightly--that when
+the English occupy a country the first thing they build is a
+custom-house; the first thing the Germans build is a barracks; the
+first thing the French build is a railway. As a result of my
+observations in Malaysia, however, I am inclined to amend this by
+saying that the first thing the English build is a race course. Lord
+Cromer was fond of telling how, when he visited Perim, a miserable
+little island at the foot of the Red Sea, inhabited by a few Arabs and
+many snakes, his guide took him to the top of a hill and pointed out
+the race course.
+
+"But what do you want with a race course?" demanded the great
+proconsul. "I didn't suppose that there was a four-footed animal on the
+island."
+
+The guide reluctantly admitted that, though they had no horses on the
+island at the moment, if some were to come, why, there was the race
+course ready for them. Though I don't recall having seen more than a
+dozen horses in Borneo, the British have been true to their traditions
+by building two race courses: one at Sandakan and one at Jesselton. On
+the latter is run annually the North Borneo Derby. It is the most
+brilliant sporting and social event of the year, the Europeans flocking
+into Jesselton from the little trading stations along the coast and
+from the lonely plantations in the interior just as their friends back
+in England flock to Goodwood and Newmarket and Epsom. The Derby is
+always followed by the Hunt Ball. In spite of the fact that there are
+at least twenty men to every woman this is always a tremendous success.
+It usually ends in everyone getting gloriously drunk.
+
+Almost the only other form of entertainment is provided by a company of
+Malay players which makes periodical visits to Sandakan and Jesselton.
+Though the actors speak only Malay, this does not deter them from
+including a number of Shakesperian plays in their repertoire (imagine
+Macbeth being played by a company of piratical-looking Malays in a nipa
+hut on the shores of the Sulu Sea!) but they attain their greatest
+heights in _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_. There are no programmes,
+but, in order that the audience may not be left in doubt as to the
+identity of the players, the manager introduces the members of his
+company one by one. "This is Ali Baba," he announces, leading a fat and
+greasy Oriental to the footlights. "This is Fatimah." "These are the
+Forty Thieves." When the latter announcement is made four actors stalk
+ten times across the stage in naive simulation of the specified number.
+After the thieves have concealed themselves behind pasteboard
+silhouettes of jars, Ali Baba's wife waddles on the stage bearing a
+Standard Oil tin on her shoulder and with a dipper proceeds to ladle a
+few drops of cocoanut oil on the head of each of the robbers. While she
+is being introduced one of the thieves seizes the opportunity to take a
+few whiffs from a cigarette, the smoke being plainly visible to the
+audience. Another, wearying of his cramped position, incautiously shows
+his head, whereupon Mrs. Ali Baba raps it sharply with her dipper,
+eliciting from the actor an exclamation not in his lines. During the
+intermissions the clown who accompanies the troupe convulses the
+audience with side-splitting imitations of the pompous and frigid
+Governor, who, as someone unkindly remarked, "must have been born in an
+ice-chest," and of the bemoustached and bemonocled officer who commands
+the constabulary, locally referred to as the Galloping Major. Compared
+with the antics of these Malay comedians, the efforts of our own
+professional laugh-makers seem dull and forced. Until you have seen
+them you have never really laughed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His Highness Haji Mohamed Jamalulhiram, Sultan of Sulu, was temporarily
+sojourning in Sandakan when we were there, having come across from his
+capital of Jolo for the purpose of collecting the monthly subsidy of
+five hundred pesos paid him by the British North Borneo Company for
+certain territorial concessions. The company would have sent the money
+to Jolo, of course, but the Sultan preferred to come to Sandakan to
+collect it; there are better facilities for gambling there.
+
+Because I was curious to see the picturesque personage around whom
+George Ade wrote his famous opera, _The Sultan of Sulu_, and because
+the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow had read in a Sunday supplement
+that he made it a practise to present those American women whom he met
+with pearls of great price, upon our arrival at Sandakan I invited the
+Sultan to dinner aboard the _Negros_. When I called on him at his hotel
+to extend the invitation, I found him clad in a very soiled pink
+kimono, a pair of red velvet slippers, and a smile made somewhat gory
+by the betel-nut he had been chewing, but when he came aboard the
+_Negros_ that evening he wore a red fez and irreproachable dinner
+clothes of white linen. As the crew of the cutter was entirely composed
+of Tagalogs and Visayans, from the northern Philippines, who, being
+Christians, regard the Mohammedan Moro with contempt, not unmixed with
+fear, when I called for side-boys to line the starboard rail when his
+Highness came aboard, there were distinctly mutinous mutterings.
+Captain Galvez tactfully settled the matter, however, by explaining to
+the crew that the Sultan was, after all, an American subject, which
+seemed to mollify, even if it did not entirely satisfy them. The
+armament of the _Negros_ had been removed after the armistice, so that
+we were without anything in the nature of a saluting cannon, but, as we
+wished to observe all the formalities of naval etiquette, the Doctor
+and Hawkinson volunteered to fire a royal salute with their automatic
+pistols as the Sultan came over the side. That, in their enthusiasm,
+they lost count and gave him about double the number of "guns"
+prescribed for the President of the United States caused Haji Mohamed
+no embarrassment; on the contrary, it seemed to please him immensely.
+(Donald Thompson, who was my photographer in Belgium during the early
+days of the war, always made it a point to address every officer he met
+as "General." He explained that it never did any harm and that it
+always put the officer in good humor.)
+
+When the cocktails were served the Sultan gravely explained through the
+interpreter that, being a devout Mohammedan and a Haji, he never
+permitted alcohol to pass his lips, an assertion which he promptly
+proceeded to prove by taking four Martinis in rapid succession. Now
+the chef of the _Negros_ possessed the faculty of camouflaging his
+dishes so successfully that neither by taste, looks nor smell could one
+tell with certainty what one was eating. So, when the meat, smothered
+in thick brown gravy, was passed to the Sultan, his Highness, who, like
+all True Believers, abhors pork, regarded it dubiously. "Pig?" he
+demanded of the steward. "No, sare," was the frightened answer. "Cow."
+
+Over the coffee and cigarettes the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+tactfully led the conversation around to the subject of pearls,
+whereupon the Sultan thrust his hand into his pocket and produced a
+round pink box, evidently originally intended for pills. Removing the
+lid, he displayed, imbedded in cotton, half a dozen pearls of a size
+and quality such as one seldom sees outside the window of a Fifth
+Avenue jeweler. I could see that the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow
+were mentally debating as to whether they would have them set in
+brooches or rings. But when they had been passed from hand to hand,
+accompanied by the customary exclamations of envy and admiration, back
+they went into the royal pocket again. "And to think," one of the party
+remarked afterward, "that we wasted two bottles of perfectly good gin
+and a bottle of vermouth on him!"
+
+It was after midnight when our guest took his departure, the ship's
+orchestra playing him over the side with a selection from _The Sultan
+of Sulu_, which, in view of my ignorance as to whether Sulu possessed
+a national anthem, seemed highly appropriate to the occasion. As the
+launch bearing the Sultan shot shoreward Hawkinson set off a couple of
+magnesium flares, which he had brought along for the purpose of taking
+pictures at night, making the whole harbor of Sandakan as bright as
+day. I heard afterward that the Sultan remarked that we were the only
+visitors since the Taft party who really appreciated his importance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two hours steam off the towering promontory which guards the entrance
+to Sandakan harbor lies Baguian, a sandy islet covered with
+cocoanut-palms, which is so small that it is not shown on ordinary
+maps. Though the island is, for some unexplained reason, under the
+jurisdiction of the British North Borneo Company, it is a part of the
+Sulu Archipelago and belongs to the United States. Baguian is famed
+throughout those seas as a rookery for the giant tortoise--_testudo
+elephantopus_. Toward nightfall the mammoth chelonians--some of them
+weigh upward of half a ton--come ashore in great numbers to lay their
+eggs in nests made in the edge of the jungle which fringes the beach,
+the old Chinaman and his two assistants, who are the only inhabitants
+of the island, frequently collecting as many as four thousand eggs in a
+single morning. The eggs, which in size and color exactly resemble
+ping-pong balls and are almost as unbreakable, are collected once a
+fortnight by a junk which takes them to China, where they are
+considered great delicacies and command high prices. As we had brought
+with us a supply of magnesium flares for night photography, we decided
+to take the camera ashore and attempt to obtain pictures of the turtles
+on their nests.
+
+As we were going ashore in the gig we caught sight of a huge bull, as
+large as a hogshead, which was floating on the surface. Ordering the
+sailors to row quietly, we succeeded in getting within a hundred yards
+before I let go with my .405, the soft-nosed bullet tearing a great
+hole in the turtle's neck and dyeing the water scarlet. Almost before
+the sound of the shot had died away one of the Filipino boat's crew
+went overboard with a rope, which he attempted to attach to the monster
+before it could sink to the bottom, but the turtle, though desperately
+wounded, was still very much alive, giving the sailor a blow on his
+head with its flapper which all but knocked him senseless. By the time
+we had hauled the man into the boat the turtle had disappeared into the
+depths.
+
+Waiting until darkness had fallen, we sent parties of sailors, armed
+with electric torches, along the beach in both directions with orders
+to follow the tracks made by the turtles in crossing the sand, and to
+notify us by firing a revolver when they located one. We did not have
+long to wait before we heard the signal agreed upon, and, picking up
+the heavy camera, we plunged across the sands to where the sailors were
+awaiting us in the edge of the bush. While the bluejackets cut off the
+retreat of the hissing, snapping monster, Hawkinson set up his camera
+and, when all was ready, some one touched off a flare, illuminating
+the beach and jungle as though the search-light of a warship had been
+turned upon them. In this manner we obtained a series of
+motion-pictures which are, I believe, from the zoological standpoint,
+unique. Before leaving the island we killed two tortoises for food for
+the crew--enough to keep them in turtle soup for a month. The larger,
+which I shot with a revolver, weighed slightly over five hundred pounds
+and lived for several days with three .45 caliber bullets in its
+brain-pan. Everything considered, it was a very interesting expedition.
+The only person who did not enjoy it was the old Chinese who held the
+concession for collecting the turtle-eggs. Instead of recognizing the
+great value of the service we were rendering to science, he acted as
+though we were robbing his hen-roost. He had a sordid mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"WHERE THERE AIN'T NO TEN COMMANDMENTS"
+
+
+Until I went to British North Borneo I had considered the British the
+best colonial administrators in the world. And, generally speaking, I
+hold to that opinion. But what I saw and heard in that remote and
+neglected corner of the Empire disclosed a state of affairs which I had
+not dreamed could exist in any land over which flies the British flag.
+It was not the iniquitous character of the administration which
+surprised me, for I had seen the effects of bad colonial administration
+in other distant lands--in Mozambique, for example, and in Germany's
+former African possessions--but rather that such an administration
+should be carried on by Englishmen, by Anglo-Saxons. Were you to read
+in your morning paper that an ignorant alien had been arrested for
+brutally mistreating one of his children you would not be particularly
+surprised, because that is the sort of thing that might be expected
+from such a man. But were you to read that a neighbor, a man who went
+to the same church and belonged to the same clubs, whom you had known
+and respected all your life, had been arrested for mistreating one of
+_his_ children, you would be shocked and horrified.
+
+Save on the charge of indifference and neglect, neither the British
+people nor the British government can be held responsible for the
+conditions existing in North Borneo, for strictly speaking, the country
+is not a British colony, but merely a British protectorate, being owned
+and administered by a private trading corporation, the British North
+Borneo Company, which operates under a royal charter. But the idea of
+turning over a great block of territory, with its inhabitants, to a
+corporation whose sole aim is to earn dividends for its absentee
+stockholders, is in itself abhorrent to most Americans. What would we
+say, I ask you, if Porto Rico, which is only one-tenth the size of
+North Borneo, were to be handed over, lock, stock and barrel, to the
+Standard Oil Company, with full authorization for that company to make
+its own laws, establish its own courts, appoint its own officials,
+maintain its own army, and to wield the power of life and death over
+the natives? And, conceiving such a condition, what would we say if the
+Standard Oil Company, in order to swell its revenues, not only
+permitted but officially encouraged opium smoking and gambling; if, in
+order to obtain labor for its plantations, it imported large numbers of
+ignorant blacks from Haiti and permitted the planters to hold those
+laborers, through indenture and indebtedness, in a form of servitude
+not far removed from slavery; if it authorized the punishment of
+recalcitrant laborers by flogging with the cat-o'nine-tails; if it
+denied to the natives as well as to the imported laborers a system of
+public education or a public health service or trial by jury; and
+finally, if, in the event of insurrection, it permitted its soldiery,
+largely recruited from savage tribes, to decapitate their prisoners and
+to bring their ghastly trophies into the capital and pile them in a
+pyramid in the principal plaza? Yet that would be a fairly close
+parallel to what the chartered company is doing in British North
+Borneo. As I have already remarked, North Borneo is a British
+protectorate. And it is in more urgent need of protection from those
+who are exploiting it than any country I know. But the voices of the
+natives are very weak and Westminster is far away.
+
+With the exception of Rhodesia, and of certain territories in
+Portuguese Africa, North Borneo is the sole remaining region in the
+world which is owned and administered by that political anachronism, a
+chartered company. It was in the age of Elizabeth that the chartered
+company, in the modern sense of the term, had its rise. The discovery
+of the New World and the opening out of fresh trading routes to the
+Indies gave a tremendous impetus to shipping, commercial and industrial
+enterprises throughout western Europe and it was in order to encourage
+these enterprises that the British, Dutch and French governments
+granted charters to various trading associations. It was the Russia
+Company, for example, which received its first charter in 1554, which
+first brought England into intercourse with an empire then unknown. The
+Turkey Company--later known as the Levant Company--long maintained
+British prestige in the Ottoman Empire and even paid the expenses of
+the embassies sent out by the British Government to the Sublime Porte.
+The Hudson's Bay Company, which still exists as a purely commercial
+concern, was for nearly two centuries the undisputed ruler of western
+Canada. The extraordinary and picturesque career of the East India
+Company is too well known to require comment here. In fact, most of the
+thirteen British colonies in North America were in their inception
+chartered companies very much in the modern acceptation of the term.
+But, though these companies contributed in no small degree to the
+commercial progress of the states from which they held their charters,
+though they gave colonies to the mother countries and an impetus to the
+development of their fleets, they were all too often characterized by
+misgovernment, incompetence, injustice and cruelty in their dealings
+with the natives. Moreover, they were monopolies, and therefore,
+obnoxious, and almost without exception the colonies they founded
+became prosperous and well-governed only when they had escaped from
+their yoke. The existence of such companies today is justified--if at
+all--only by certain political and economic reasons. It may be
+desirable for a government to occupy a certain territory, but political
+exigencies at home may not permit it to incur the expense, or
+international relations may make such an adventure inexpedient at the
+time. In such circumstances, the formation of a chartered company to
+take over the desired territory may be the easiest way out of the
+difficulty. But it has been demonstrated again and again that a
+chartered company can never be anything but a transition stage of
+colonization and that sooner or later the home government must take
+over its powers and privileges.
+
+The story of the rise of the British North Borneo Company provides an
+illuminating insight into the methods by which that Empire On Which the
+Sun Never Sets has acquired many of its far-flung possessions. Though
+the British had established trading posts in northern Borneo as early
+as 1759, and had obtained the cession of the whole northeastern
+promontory from the Sultan of Sulu, who was its suzerain, the hostility
+of the natives, who resented their transfer to alien rule, was so
+pronounced that the treaty soon became virtually a dead letter and by
+the end of the century British influence in Borneo was to all intents
+and purposes at an end. Nor was it resumed until 1838, when an
+adventurous Englishman, James Brooke, landed at Kuching and eventually
+made himself the "White Rajah" of Sarawak. In 1848 the island of
+Labuan, off the northwestern coast of Borneo, was occupied by the
+British as a crown colony and some years later the Labuan Trading
+Company established a trading post at Sandakan. In an attempt to open
+up the country and to start plantations the company imported a
+considerable number of Chinese laborers, but it did not prosper and its
+financial affairs steadily went from bad to worse. As long as the
+company kept its representative in Sandakan supplied with funds he
+managed to maintain a certain authority among the natives. But one day
+he received a letter bearing the London postmark from the company's
+chairman. It read:
+
+    "Sir: We are sorry to inform you that we cannot send you further
+    funds, but you should not let this prevent you from keeping up
+    your dignity."
+
+To which the agent replied:
+
+    "Sir: I have on a pair of trousers and a flannel shirt--all I
+    possess in the world. I think my dignity is about played out."
+
+Another syndicate for the exploitation of North Borneo was formed in
+England in 1878, however, to which the Sultan of Sulu was induced to
+transfer all his rights in that region, of which he had been from time
+immemorial the overlord. Four years later this syndicate, now known as
+the British North Borneo Company, took over all the sovereign and
+diplomatic rights ceded by the original grants and proceeded to
+organize and administer the territory. In 1886 North Borneo was made a
+British protectorate, but its administration remained entirely in the
+hands of the company, the Crown reserving only control of its foreign
+relations, though it was also agreed that governors appointed by the
+company should receive the formal sanction of the British Colonial
+Secretary. To quote the chairman of the board of directors: "We are not
+a trading company. We are a government, an administration. The
+Colonial Office leaves us alone as long as we behave ourselves."
+
+The government is vested primarily in a board of directors who sit in
+London and few of whom have ever set foot in the country which they
+rule. The supreme authority in Borneo is the governor, under whom are
+the residents of the three chief districts, who occupy positions
+analogous to that of collector or magistrate. The six less important
+districts are administered by district magistrates, who also collect
+the taxes. Though there is a council, upon which the principal heads of
+departments and one unofficial member have seats, it meets irregularly
+and its functions are largely ornamental, the governor exercising
+virtually autocratic power. Unfortunately, there is no imperial
+official, as in Rhodesia, to supervise the company's activities. As was
+the case with the East India Company, the minor posts in the North
+Borneo service are filled by cadets nominated by the board of
+directors, a system which provides a considerable number of positions
+for younger sons, poor relations and titled ne'er-do-wells. Most of the
+officials go out to Borneo as cadets, serve a long and arduous
+apprenticeship in one of the most trying climates in the world, are
+miserably paid (I knew one official who held five posts at the same
+time, including those of assistant magistrate and assistant protector
+of labor and who received for his services the equivalent of $100. a
+month), and eventually retire, broken in health, on a pension which
+permits them to live in a Bloomsbury lodging-house, to ride on a
+tuppenny bus, and to occasionally visit the cinema.
+
+There is no trial by jury in North Borneo, all cases being decided by
+the magistrates, who are appointed by the company and who must be
+qualified barristers. Nor are there mixed courts, as in Egypt and other
+Oriental countries, though in the more important cases five or six
+assessors, either native or Chinese, according to the nationality of
+those involved, are permitted to listen to the evidence and to submit
+recommendations, which the magistrate may follow or not, as he sees
+fit. Neither is there a court of appeal, the only recourse from the
+decision of a magistrate being an appeal to the governor, whose
+decision is final.
+
+The country is policed by a force of constabulary numbering some six
+hundred men, comprising Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mohammedans, Malays,
+and Dyaks, officered by a handful of Europeans. Curiously enough, the
+tall, dignified, deeply religious Sikhs and the little, nervous,
+high-strung Dyak pagans get on very well together, eating, sleeping and
+drilling in perfect harmony. Though the Dyak members of the
+constabulary are recruited from the wild tribes of the interior, most
+of them having indulged in the national pastime of head-hunting until
+they donned the company's uniform, they make excellent soldiers,
+courageous, untiring, and remarkably loyal. Upon King Edward's
+accession to the throne a small contingent of Dyak police was sent to
+England to march in the coronation procession. When, owing to the
+serious illness of the king, the coronation was indefinitely postponed
+and it was proposed to send the Dyaks home, the little brown fighters
+stubbornly refused to go, asserting that they would not dare to show
+their faces in Borneo without having seen the king. They did not wish
+to put the company to any expense, they explained, so they would give
+up their uniforms and live in the woods on what they could pick up if
+they were permitted to remain until they could see their ruler.
+
+Though the Dyaks make excellent soldiers, as I have said, they are
+always savages at heart. In fact, when they are used in operations
+against rebellious natives, their officers permit and sometimes
+actively encourage their relapse into the barbarous custom of taking
+heads. An official who was stationed in Sandakan during the
+insurrection of 1908 told me that for days the police came swaggering
+into town with dripping heads hanging from their belts and that they
+piled these grisly trophies in a pyramid eight feet high on the parade
+ground in front of the government buildings. Imagine, if you please,
+the storm of indignation and disgust which would have swept the United
+States had American officers permitted the Maccabebe Scouts, who served
+with our troops against the insurgents in the Aguinaldo insurrection,
+to decapitate their Filipino prisoners and to bring the heads into
+Manila and pile them in a pyramid on the Luneta!
+
+Though the term Dyak is often carelessly applied to all the natives of
+North Borneo, as a matter of fact the Dyaks form only a small minority
+of the population, the bulk of the inhabitants being Bajows, Dusuns and
+Muruts. The Bajows, who are Mohammedans and first cousins of the Moros
+of the southern Philippines, are found mainly along the east coast of
+Borneo. They are a dark-skinned, wild, sea-gipsy race, rovers,
+smugglers and river thieves. Though, thanks to the stern measures
+adopted by the British and the Americans, they no longer indulge in
+piracy, which was long their favorite occupation, they still find
+profit and excitement in running arms and opium across the Sulu Sea to
+the Moro Islands, in attacking lonely light-houses, or in looting
+stranded merchantmen. It is the last coast in the world that I would
+choose to be shipwrecked on.
+
+The Dusuns and the Muruts, who are generally found in widely scattered
+villages in the jungles of the interior, represent a very low stage of
+civilization, being unspeakably filthy in their habits and frequently
+becoming disgustingly intoxicated on a liquor of their own
+manufacture--the Bornean equivalent of home brew. A Murut or Dusun
+village usually consists of a single long hut divided into a great
+number of small rooms, one for each family--a jungle apartment house,
+as it were. These rooms open out into a common gallery or verandah
+along which the heads taken by the warriors of the tribe are festooned.
+It is as though the tenants of a New York apartment house had the heads
+of the landlord and the rent-collector and the janitor swinging over
+the front entrance. I should add, perhaps, that the practise of
+head-hunting of which I shall speak at greater length when we reach
+Dutch Borneo is fostered and encouraged by the unmarried women, for
+every self-respecting Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall
+establish his social position in the tribe by acquiring a respectable
+number of heads, just as an American girl insists that the man she
+marries must provide her with a solitaire, a flat and a flivver.
+
+Though the chartered company has ruled in North Borneo for more than
+forty years, it has only nibbled at the edges of the country. The
+interior is still uncivilized and largely unexplored, the home of
+savage animals and still more savage men. Though a railway has been
+pushed up-country from Jesselton for something over a hundred miles,
+both road and rolling-stock leave much to be desired, the little
+tin-pot locomotives not infrequently leaving the rails altogether and
+landing in the river. Some years ago an attempt was made to build a
+highway across the protectorate, from coast to coast, but after sixty
+miles had been completed the project was abandoned. It was known as the
+Sketchley Road and ran through a rank and miasmatic jungle, it being
+said that every hundred yards of construction cost the life of a
+Chinese laborer and that those who were left died at the end. Today it
+is only a memory, having long since been swallowed up by the
+fast-growing vegetation.
+
+[Illustration: Dusun women
+
+The Dusuns, who are found in the jungles of the interior. represent a
+very low state of civilization]
+
+[Illustration: Dyak head-hunters of North Borneo
+
+Every Bornean girl demands that her suitor shall establish his social
+position by acquiring a few heads]
+
+The company has taken no steps toward establishing a system of public
+schools, as we have done in the Philippines, for it holds to the
+outworn theory that, so far as the natives are concerned, a little
+learning is a dangerous thing. Perhaps the company is right. Were the
+natives to acquire a little learning it might prove dangerous--for the
+company. There are a few schools in North Borneo, but they are
+maintained by the Protestant and Roman Catholic missions and are
+attended mainly by Chinese. Whether they have proved as potent an
+influence in the propagation of the Christian faith as their founders
+anticipated is open to doubt. When I was in Sandakan I made some
+purchases in the bazaars from a Chinese lad who addressed me quite
+fluently in my own tongue.
+
+"How does it happen that you speak such good English?" I asked him.
+
+"Go to school," he grunted, none too amiably.
+
+"Where? To a public school?"
+
+"No public school. Church school."
+
+"So you're a good Christian now, I suppose?" I remarked.
+
+"To hell with Clistianity," he retorted. "Me go to school to learn
+English."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The chartered company maintains no public health service, nor, so far
+as I was able to discover, has it adopted the most rudimentary sanitary
+or quarantine precautions. It is, indeed, so notoriously lax in this
+respect that when we touched at ports in Dutch Borneo, the Celebes, and
+Java, the mere fact that we had come from British North Borneo caused
+the health officers to view us with grave suspicion. When we were in
+Sandakan the town was undergoing a periodic visitation of that
+deadliest and most terrifying of all Oriental diseases, bubonic plague.
+As it is transmitted by the fleas on plague-infested rats, we took the
+precaution, when we went ashore, of wearing boots and breeches or of
+tying the bottoms of our trousers about our ankles with string, so as
+to prevent the fleas from biting us. It being necessary to go alongside
+the coal-wharves in order to replenish the bunkers of the _Negros_,
+orders were given that rat-guards--circular pieces of tin about the
+size of a barrel-top--should be fixed to our hawsers, thus making it
+difficult, if not impossible, for rats to invade the ship by that
+route, while sailors armed with clubs were posted along the landward
+rail to despatch any rodents that might succeed in gaining the deck. As
+the native and Chinese laborers had fled in terror from the wharves,
+where the dreaded disease had first manifested itself through the
+deaths of several stevedores, the authorities offered their freedom to
+those prisoners in the local jail who would volunteer for the hazardous
+work of cleaning up the wharves and warehouses and sprinkling them with
+petroleum. Six prisoners volunteered, but they might better have served
+out their terms, for the next day four of them were dead. Though the
+stout Cockney, harbormaster, known as "Pinkie" because of his rosy
+complexion, was pallid with fear, the other European residents of
+Sandakan seemed utterly indifferent to the danger to which they were
+exposed. But life in a land like Borneo breeds fatalism. As an
+official remarked, with a shrug of his shoulders, "After you have spent
+a few years out here you don't much care how you die, or how soon.
+Plague is as convenient a way of going out as any other."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The greatest obstacle to the successful development of Borneo's
+enormous natural resources is the labor problem. The truth of the
+matter is that life in these tropical islands is too easy for the
+natives' own good. In a land where a man has no need for clothing,
+being, indeed, more comfortable without it; where he can pick his food
+from the trees or catch it with small effort in the sea; and where
+bamboos and nipa are all the materials required for a perfectly
+satisfactory dwelling, there is no incentive for work. It being
+impossible, therefore, to depend on native labor, the company has been
+forced to import large numbers of coolies from China. These coolies,
+whom the labor agents attract with promises of high wages, a delightful
+climate, unlimited opium, and other things dear to the Chinese heart,
+are employed under an indenture system, the duration of their contracts
+being limited by law to three hundred days. That sounds, on the face of
+it, like a safeguard against peonage. The trouble is, however, that it
+is easily circumvented. Here is the way it works in practise. Shortly
+after the laborer reaches the plantation where he is to be employed he
+is given an advance on his pay, frequently amounting to thirty
+Singapore dollars, which he is encouraged to dissipate in the opium
+dens and gambling houses maintained on the plantation. Any one who has
+any knowledge of the Chinese coolie will realize how temperamentally
+incapable he is of resistance where opium and gambling are concerned.
+This pernicious system of advances has the effect, as it is intended to
+have, of chaining the laborer to the plantation by debt. For the first
+advance is usually followed by a second, and sometimes by a third, and
+to this debit column are added the charges made for food, for medical
+attendance, for opium, and for purchases made at the plantation store,
+so that, upon the expiration of his three-hundred-day contract, the
+laborer almost invariably owes his employer a debt which he is quite
+unable to pay. As he cannot obtain employment elsewhere in the colony
+under these conditions, he is faced with the alternative of being
+shipped back to China a pauper or of signing another contract. There is
+no breaking of the law by the planter, you see: the laborer is
+perfectly free to leave when his contract has expired--as free as any
+man can be who is absolutely penniless.
+
+Let me quote from a letter from the former Assistant Protector of Labor
+of British North Borneo. From the very nature of his duties he knows
+whereof he speaks:
+
+"One sees a large number of healthy, able-bodied Chinese coming into
+the country as laborers and, at the end of a year or two, instead of
+going back to their homes with money in their pockets and healthy with
+outdoor work, they go back as broken beggars, pitifully saturated with
+disease or confirmed drug fiends. It is really sad to see some of them
+return home after a struggle of four or five years to save money--a
+struggle not only against themselves and their acquired opium habit,
+but against the numerous parasites which always fatten on laborers."
+
+During the term of his indenture the laborer is to all intents and
+purposes a prisoner, his only appeal against any injustices practised
+on the plantation being to the Protector of Labor, who is supposed to
+visit each estate once a month. In theory this system is admirable, but
+in practise it does not afford the laborer the protection which the law
+intends, for it frequently happens that laborers who have been brutally
+mistreated have been coerced into silence by the plantation managers by
+threats of what will happen to them if they dare to lay a complaint
+before the inspecting official. Moreover, many of the plantations are
+so remotely situated, so far removed from civilization, that a manager
+can treat his laborers as he pleases with little fear of detection or
+punishment. If negroes are held in peonage, flogged, and even murdered
+on plantations in our own South, within rifle-shot of courthouses and
+sheriffs' offices and churches, is it to be wondered at that similar
+conditions can and do exist in the world-distant jungles of Borneo.
+Mind you, I do not say that such conditions exist on all or most of the
+estates in British North Borneo, but I have the best of reasons for
+believing that they exist on some of them.
+
+One of the most serious defects in the labor laws of North Borneo is
+that trivial actions or omissions on the part of ignorant coolies, such
+as misconduct, neglect of work, or absence from the estate without
+leave, are punishable by imprisonment. As a result, the illiterate and
+incoherent coolie does not know where he stands. He can never be sure
+that some trivial action on his part, no matter how innocent his
+intent, will not bring him within reach of the criminal law. He is,
+moreover, denied the right of trial by jury, his case usually being
+decided off-hand by a bored and unsympathetic magistrate who has no
+knowledge of the defendant's tongue. Moreover, the company's laws
+permit the punishment of unruly laborers by flogging, with a maximum of
+twelve lashes. In view of the remoteness of most of the estates, it is
+scarcely necessary for me to point out that this is a form of
+punishment open to the gravest abuse.
+
+Although, as I have shown, the British North Borneo Company permits the
+existence of a system not far removed from slavery, a far more serious
+indictment of the company's administration lies in its systematic
+debauchery of its laborers by encouraging them to indulge in opium
+smoking and gambling for the purpose of swelling its revenues. Nor does
+its heartless exploitation of the laborer end there, for when a coolie
+has dissipated all his earnings in the opium dens and gaming houses,
+which are run under government concessions, he can usually realize a
+little more money for the same purpose by pawning his few poor
+belongings at one of the pawnshops controlled by the company. In other
+words, from the day a laborer sets foot in Borneo until the day he
+departs, he is systematically separated from his earnings, which are
+diverted, through the channels provided by the opium dens, the gambling
+houses and the pawn shops, into a stream which eventually empties into
+the company's coffers. For, mark you, the chartered company did not go
+to North Borneo from any altruistic motives. It is animated by no
+desire to ameliorate the condition of the natives or to increase the
+well-being and happiness of its imported laborers. It is there with one
+object in view, and one alone--to pay dividends to its stockholders. As
+the chairman of the company said at a recent North Borneo dinner in
+London: "They have acted the parts of Empire makers and yet they are
+filling their own pockets, for the golden rain is beginning to fall."
+
+Let me show you where this "golden rain" comes from. The two principal
+sources of revenue of the British North Borneo Company are opium and
+gambling. Suppose that you come with me for a stroll down the Jalan
+Tiga in Sandakan and see the gaming houses and the opium dens for
+yourself. Jalan Tiga (literally "Number Two Street") is a moderately
+broad thoroughfare, perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, which is
+solidly lined on both sides with gambling houses, or, as they are
+called in Borneo, gambling farms, the term being due to the fact that
+the gambling privileges are farmed out by the government. There may be
+wickeder streets somewhere in the East than the Jalan Tiga, but I do
+not recall having seen them. It, and the thoroughfares immediately
+adjoining, in which are situated the opium dens and the houses of
+prostitution, form a district which represents the very quintessence of
+Oriental vice. Over virtually every door are signs in Chinese, Malay
+and English announcing that games of chance are played within. Such
+resorts are not camouflaged in Borneo. They are as open as a railway
+station or a public library in the United States. From afternoon until
+sunrise these resorts are crowded to the doors with half-naked,
+perspiring humanity, brown skins and yellow being in about equal
+proportions, for the Malay is as inveterate a gambler as the Chinese.
+The downstairs rooms, which are frequented by the lower classes, are
+thickly sprinkled with low tables covered with mats divided into four
+sections, each of which bears a number. A dice under a square brass cup
+is shaken on the table and the cup slowly raised. Those players who
+have been lucky enough to place their bets on the square whose number
+corresponds to the number uppermost on the dice have their money
+doubled, the others see their earnings swept into the lap of the
+croupier, a fat and greasy Chinaman, usually stripped to the waist. In
+this system the chances against the player are enormous. The play is
+very rapid, the dice being shaken, the cup raised, the winners paid
+and the wagers of the losers raked in too quickly for the untrained eye
+to follow. The players seldom quit as long as they have any money left
+to wager, but as soon as one drops out there is another ready to take
+his place. The upstairs rooms, which are usually handsomely decorated
+and luxuriously furnished, are reserved for the wealthier patrons, it
+being by no means uncommon for a player to lose several thousand
+dollars in a single night. Here cards are generally used instead of
+dice to separate the players from their money, fan-tan being the
+favorite game. I was told that the monthly subsidy paid by the British
+North Borneo Company to the Sultan of Sulu, who comes over from Jolo
+with great regularity to collect it, never leaves the country, as he
+invariably loses it over a Sandakan gaming-table. Gambling is a
+government monopoly in Borneo, the company farming out the privilege
+each year to the highest bidder. In 1919 the gambling rights for the
+entire protectorate were sold for approximately $144,000.
+
+Crossing the Jalan Tiga at right angles and running from the heart of
+the town down to the edge of the harbor is the street of the
+prostitutes. It is easy to recognize the houses of ill-fame by their
+scarlet blinds and by the scarlet numbers over their doors. Should you
+stroll down the street during the day you will find the sullen-eyed
+inmates seated in the doorways, brushing their long and lustrous
+blue-black hair or painting their faces in white and vermillion
+preparatory to the evening's entertainment. Probably four-fifths of
+the _filles de joie_ in Sandakan are Chinese, the others are products
+of Nippon--quaint, dainty, doll-like little women with faces so heavily
+enameled that they would be cracked by a smile. When a Chinese merchant
+wants a wife he usually visits a house of prostitution, selects one of
+the inmates, drives a hard bargain with the hard-eyed mistress of the
+establishment, and, the transaction concluded, brusquely tells the girl
+to pack her belongings and accompany him to his home. I might add that
+the girls thus chosen invariably make good wives and remain faithful to
+their husbands.
+
+[Illustration: The Jalan Tiga, Sandakan
+
+A moderately broad thoroughfare, lined on both sides with
+gambling-houses]
+
+[Illustration: A patron of a Sandakan opium farm
+
+Each smoker is provided with a lamp for heating his "pill" and a wooden
+head-rest]
+
+Running parallel to the Jalan Tiga is another street--I do not recall
+its name--in which are the opium farms. Far from being veiled in
+secrecy, they are operated as openly as American soda fountains. A
+typical opium farm consists of a two-story wooden house, one of a long
+row of similar buildings, containing a number of small, ill-lighted
+rooms which reek with the sickly sweet fumes of the drug. The furniture
+consists of a number of so-called beds, which in reality are wooden
+platforms or tables, their tops, which are raised about three feet
+above the floor, providing space on which two smokers can recline. Each
+smoker is provided with a block of wood which serves as a pillow and a
+small lamp for heating his "pill." The number of patrons who may be
+accommodated at one time is prescribed by law and rigidly enforced,
+signs denoting the authorized capacity of the house being posted at the
+door, like the signs in elevators and on ferry-boats in America. For
+example, the door of one farm that I visited bore the notice "Only
+fifteen beds. Room for thirty persons." Over-crowding is forbidden by
+the authorities, not, as in the case of elevators and ferry-boats, for
+reasons of safety, but for financial reasons. The more opium farms
+there are, you see, the greater the company's profits.
+
+The opium is purchased by the chartered company from the Government of
+the Straits Settlements for $1.20 a tael (about one-tenth of a pound
+troy) and, after being adulterated with various substances, is sold to
+the opium farmers, nearly all of whom are Chinese, for $8.50 a tael,
+the company thus making a very comfortable margin of profit on the
+transaction. The opium farmers either keep opium dens themselves or
+sell the drug to anyone wishing to buy it, just as a tobacconist sells
+cigars and cigarettes. The sale of the opium privilege in Sandakan
+alone nets the government, so I was informed, something over $500,000
+annually.
+
+Now, iniquitous and deplorable as such a traffic is, the British North
+Borneo administration is not the only government engaged in the sale of
+opium. But it is the only government, so far as I am aware, which
+virtually forces the drug on its people by insisting that it shall be
+purchasable in localities which might otherwise escape its malign
+influence. A planter who, actuated either by moral scruples or by a
+desire to maintain the efficiency of his laborers, opposes the opening
+of an opium farm on his estate, might as well sell out and leave
+Borneo, for the company will promptly retaliate for such interference
+with its revenues by cutting off his supply of labor. It will defend
+its action by naively asserting that, as the coolies would contrive to
+obtain the drug any way, the planter, in refusing to permit the opening
+of an opium farm on his property, is guilty of conniving at the illegal
+use of the drug!
+
+The British North Borneo Company professes to find justification for
+engaging in the opium traffic by insisting that, as the Chinese will
+certainly obtain opium clandestinely if they cannot obtain it openly,
+it is better for everyone concerned that its sale and use should be
+kept under government control. The fact remains, however, that China,
+decadent though she may be and desperately in need of increased
+revenues, has succeeded, in spite of the powerful opposition of the
+British-owned Opium Ring, in putting an end to the traffic within her
+borders, while Siam, likewise under Oriental rule, is about to do the
+same. It is a curious commentary on European civilization that this
+vice, which the so-called "backward" races are vigorously attempting to
+stamp out, should be not only permitted but encouraged in a country
+over which flies the flag of England. Its effects on the population are
+summed up in this sentence from a letter written me by a former high
+official of the chartered company: "Fifty per cent of the thefts and
+robberies committed during the period that I was magistrate in that
+territory can be directly traced to opium and gambling."
+
+There is held each year, at one of the great London hotels, the North
+Borneo Dinner. It is one of the most brilliant affairs of the season.
+At the head of the long table, banked with flowers and gleaming with
+glass and silver, sits the chairman of the chartered company, flanked
+by cabinet ministers, archbishops, ambassadors, admirals, field
+marshals. The speakers work the audience into a fervor of patriotic
+pride by their sonorous word-pictures of England's services to humanity
+in bearing the white man's burden, and of the spread of enlightenment
+and progress under the Union Jack. But the heartiest applause
+invariably greets the announcement that the North Borneo Company has
+declared a dividend. Whence the money to pay the dividend was derived
+is tactfully left unsaid. The dinner always concludes with the singing
+of the anthem _Land of Hope and Glory_. Yet they say that the English
+have no sense of humor!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE EMERALDS OF WILHELMINA
+
+
+In Singapore stands one of the most significant statues in the world.
+From the centre of its sun-scorched Esplanade rises the bronze figure
+of a youthful, slender, clean-cut, keen-eyed man, clad in the
+high-collared coat and knee-breeches of a century ago, who, from his
+lofty pedestal, peers southward, beyond the shipping in the busy
+harbor, beyond the palm-fringed straits, toward those mysterious,
+alluring islands which ring the Java Sea. Though his name, Thomas
+Stamford Raffles, doubtless holds for you but scanty meaning, and
+though he died when only forty-five, his last years shadowed by the
+ingratitude of the country whose commercial supremacy in the East he
+had secured and to which he had offered a vast, new field for colonial
+expansion, he was one of the greatest architects of empire that ever
+lived. He combined the vision and administrative genius of Clive and
+Hastings with the audacity and energy of Hawkins and Drake. It was his
+dream, to use his own words, "to make Java the center of an Eastern
+insular empire" ruled "not only without fear but without reproach"; an
+empire to consist of that great archipelago--Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the
+Celebes, New Guinea, and the lesser islands--which sweeps southward
+and eastward from the Asian mainland to the edges of Australasia.
+Though this splendid colonial structure was erected according to the
+plans that Raffles drew, by curious circumstance the flag that flies
+over it today is not his flag, not the flag of England, for, instead of
+being governed from Westminster, as he had dreamed, it is governed from
+The Hague, the ruler of its fifty million brown inhabitants being the
+stout, rosy-cheeked young woman who dwells in the Palace of Het Loo.
+
+Though in area Queen Wilhelmina's colonial possessions are exceeded by
+those of Britain and France, she is the sovereign of the second largest
+colonial empire, in point of population, in the world. But, because it
+lies beyond the beaten paths of tourist travel, because it has been so
+little advertised by plagues and famines and rebellions, and because it
+has been so admirably and unobtrusively governed, it has largely
+escaped public attention--a fact, I imagine, with which the Dutch are
+not ill-pleased. Did _you_ realize, I wonder, that the Insulinde, as
+Netherlands India is sometimes called, is as large, or very nearly as
+large, as all that portion of the United States lying east of the
+Mississippi? Did you know that in the third largest island of the
+archipelago, Sumatra, the State of California could be set down and
+still leave a comfortable margin all around? Or that the fugitive from
+justice who turns the prow of his canoe westward from New Guinea must
+sail as far as from Vancouver to Yokohama before he finds himself
+beyond the shadow of the Dutch flag and the arm of Dutch law?
+
+Until the closing years of the sixteenth century, European trade with
+the Far East was an absolute monopoly in the hands of Spain and
+Portugal. Incredible as it may seem, the two Iberian nations alone
+possessed the secret of the routes to the East, which they guarded with
+jealous care. In 1492, Columbus, bearing a letter from the King of
+Spain to the Khan of Tartary, whose power and wealth had become
+legendary in Europe through the tales of Marco Polo and other overland
+travelers, sailed westward from Cadiz in search of Asia, discovering
+the islands which came to be known as the West Indies. Five years later
+a Portuguese sea-adventurer, Vasco da Gama, turned the prow of his
+caravel south from the mouth of the Tagus, skirted the coast of Africa,
+rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and dropped
+his anchor in the harbor of Calicut--the first European to reach the
+beckoning East by sea. For a quarter of a century the Portuguese were
+the only people in Europe who knew the way to the East, and their
+secret gave them a monopoly of the Eastern trade. Lisbon became the
+richest port of Europe. Portugal was mistress of the seas. But in 1519
+another Portuguese seafarer, Hernando de Maghallanes--we call him
+Ferdinand Magellan--who, resenting his treatment by the King of
+Portugal, had shifted his allegiance to Spain, sailed southwestward
+across the Atlantic, rounded the southern extremity of America by the
+straits which bear his name, crossed the unknown Pacific, and raised
+the flag of Spain over the islands which came in time to be called the
+Philippines. Spain had reached the Indies by sailing west, as Portugal
+had reached them by sailing east.
+
+Though the fabulous wealth of the lands thus discovered was discussed
+around every council table and camp-fire in Europe, the routes by which
+that wealth might be attained were guarded by Portugal and Spain as
+secrets of state. The charts showing the routes were not intrusted to
+the captains of vessels in the Eastern trade until the moment of
+departure, and they were taken up immediately upon their return; the
+silence of officers and crews was insured by every oath that the church
+could frame and every penalty that the state could devise. For more
+than three-quarters of a century, indeed, the two Iberian nations
+succeeded in keeping the secret of the sea roads to the East, its
+betrayal being punishable by death. In 1580, however, the English
+freebooter, Francis Drake, nicknamed "The Master Thief of the Unknown
+World," duplicated the voyage of Magellan's expedition of threescore
+years before, thus discovering the route to the Indies used by Spain.
+
+At this period the Dutch, "the waggoners of the sea," possessed, as
+middlemen, a large interest in the spice trade, for the Portuguese,
+having no direct access to the markets of northern Europe, had made a
+practise of sending their Eastern merchandise to the Netherlands in
+Dutch bottoms for distribution by way of the Rhine and the Scheldt. As
+a result, the enormous carrying trade of Holland was wholly dependent
+upon Lisbon. But when Spain unceremoniously annexed Portugal in 1580,
+the first act of Philip, upon becoming master of Lisbon, was to close
+the Tagus to the Dutch, his one-time subjects, who had revolted eight
+years before. As a result of the revenge thus taken by the Spanish
+tyrant, the Dutch were faced by the necessity of themselves going in
+quest of the Indies if their flag was not to disappear from the seas.
+Their opportunity came a dozen years later when a venturesome
+Hollander, Cornelius Houtman, who was risking imprisonment and even
+death by trading surreptitiously in the forbidden city on the Tagus,
+succeeded in obtaining through bribery a copy of one of the secret
+charts. The Spanish authorities scarcely could have been aware that he
+had learned a secret of such immense importance, or his silence would
+have been insured by the headsman. As it was, he was thrown into prison
+for illegal trading, where he was held for heavy ransom. But he managed
+to get word to Amsterdam of the priceless information which had come
+into his possession, whereupon the merchants of that city promptly
+formed a syndicate, subscribed the money for his ransom, and obtained
+his release. Thus it came about that shortly after his return to
+Holland there was organized the Company of Distant Lands, a title as
+vague, grandiose and alluring as the plans of those who founded it. In
+1595, then, nearly a century after da Gama had shown the way, four
+caravels under the command of Houtman, the banner of the Netherlands
+flaunting from their towering sterns, sailed grandly out of the Texel,
+slipped past the white chalk cliffs of Dover, sped southward before the
+trades, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and laid their course across the
+Indian Ocean for the Spice Islands. When the adventurers returned, two
+years later, they brought back tales of islands richer than anything of
+which the Dutch burghers had ever dreamed, and produced cargoes of
+Eastern merchandise to back their stories up.
+
+The return of Houtman's expedition was the signal for a great outburst
+of commercial enterprise in the Low Countries, seekers after fortune or
+adventure flocking to the Indies as, centuries later, other
+fortune-seekers, other adventurers, flocked to the gold-diggings of the
+Sierras, the Yukon, and the Rand. On those distant seas, however, the
+adventurers were beyond the reach of any law, the same lawless
+conditions prevailing in the Indies at the beginning of the seventeenth
+century which characterized Californian life in the days of '49. The
+Dutch warred on the natives and on the Portuguese, and, when there was
+no one else to offer them resistance, they fought among themselves. By
+1602 conditions had become so intolerable that the government of
+Holland, in order to tranquillize the Indies, and to stabilize the
+spice market at home, decided to amalgamate the various trading
+enterprises into one great corporation, the Dutch East India Company,
+which was authorized to exercise the functions of government in those
+remote seas and to prosecute the war against Spain. When Philip shut
+the Dutch out of Lisbon, he made a formidable enemy for himself, for,
+though the burghers went to the East primarily in order to save their
+commerce from extinction, they were animated in a scarcely less degree
+by a determination to even their score with Spain.
+
+The history of the Dutch East India Company is not a savory one. It was
+a powerful instrument for extracting the wealth of the Indies, and, so
+long as the wealth was forthcoming, the stockholders at home in Holland
+did not inquire too closely as to how the instrument was used. The
+story of the company from its formation in 1602 until its dissolution
+nearly two centuries later is a record of intrigue, cruelty and
+oppression. It exercised virtually sovereign powers. It made and
+enforced its own laws, it maintained its own fleet and army, it
+negotiated treaties with Japan and China, it dethroned sultans and
+rajahs, it established trading-posts and factories at the Cape of Good
+Hope, in the Persian Gulf, on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, and
+in Bengal; it waged war against the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the
+English in turn. When at the summit of its power, in 1669, the company
+possessed forty warships and one hundred and fifty merchantmen,
+maintained an army of ten thousand men, and paid a forty per cent
+dividend.
+
+Meanwhile a formidable rival to the Dutch company, the English East
+India Company, had arisen, but the accession of a Dutchman, William,
+Prince of Orange, to the throne of England in 1688 turned the rivals
+into allies, the trade of the eastern seas being divided between them.
+But toward the close of the eighteenth century there came another
+change in the _status quo_, for the Dutch, by allying themselves with
+the French, became the enemies of England. By this time Great Britain
+had become the greatest sea power in the world, so that within a few
+months after the outbreak of hostilities in 1795 the British flag had
+replaced that of the Netherlands over Ceylon, Malacca, and other
+stations on the highway to the Insulinde. When the Netherlands were
+annexed to the French Empire by Napoleon in 1810 the British seized the
+excuse thus provided to occupy Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles, the
+brilliant young Englishman who was then the agent of the British East
+India Company at Malacca, in the Malay States, being sent to Java as
+lieutenant-governor. Urgent as were his appeals that Java should be
+retained by Britain as a jewel in her crown of empire, the readjustment
+of the territories of the great European powers which was effected at
+the Congress of Vienna, in 1816, after the fall of Napoleon, resulted
+in the restoration to the Dutch of those islands of the Insulinde,
+including Java, which the British had seized. But, though Raffles ruled
+in Java for barely four and a half years, his spirit goes marching on,
+the system of colonial government which he instituted having been
+continued by the Dutch, in its main outlines, to this day. He won the
+confidence and friendship of the powerful native princes,
+revolutionized the entire legal system, revived the system of village
+or communal government, reformed the land-tenure, abolished the
+abominable system of forcing the natives to deliver all their crops,
+and gave to the Javanese a rule of honesty, justice and wisdom with
+which, up to that time, they had not had even a bowing acquaintance. As
+a result of the lessons learned from Stamford Raffles, the Dutch
+possessions in the East are today more wisely and justly administered
+than those of any other European nation.
+
+The Dutch had not seen the last of Raffles, however, for in 1817 he
+returned from England, where he had been knighted by the Prince Regent,
+to take the post of lieutenant-governor of Sumatra, to which the
+British did not finally relinquish their claims until half a century
+later. His administration of that great island was characterized by the
+same breadth of vision, tact, and energy which had marked his rule in
+Java. It was during this period that Raffles rendered his greatest
+service to the empire. The Dutch, upon regaining Java, attempted to
+obtain complete control of all the islands of the archipelago, which
+would have resulted in seriously hampering, if not actually ending,
+British trade east of Malacca. But Raffles, recognizing the menace to
+British interests, defeated the Dutch scheme in January, 1819, by a
+sudden _coup d'etat_, when he seized the little island at the tip of
+the Malay Peninsula which commands the Malacca Straits and the entrance
+to the China seas, and founded Singapore, thereby giving Britain
+control of the gateway to the Farther East and ending forever the
+Dutch dream of making of those waters a _mare clausum_--a Dutch lake.
+
+The thousands of islands, islets, and atolls which comprise Netherlands
+India--the proper etymological name of the archipelago is
+Austronesia--are scattered over forty-six degrees of longitude, on both
+sides of the equator. Although in point of area Java holds only fifth
+place, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea and the Celebes being much larger,
+it nevertheless contains three-fourths of the population and yields
+four-fifths of the produce of the entire archipelago. Though scarcely
+larger than Cuba, it has more inhabitants than all the Atlantic Coast
+States, from Maine to Florida, combined. This, added to the strategic
+importance of its situation, the richness of its soil, the variety of
+its products, the intelligence, activity and civilization of its
+inhabitants, and the fact that it is the seat of the colonial
+government, makes Java by far the most important unit of the Insulinde.
+Because of its overwhelming importance in the matters of position,
+products and population, it is administered as a distinct political
+entity, the other portions of the Dutch Indies being officially
+designated as the Outposts or the Outer Possessions.
+
+Westernmost and by far the most important of the Outposts is Sumatra,
+an island four-fifths the size of France, as potentially rich in
+mineral and agricultural wealth as Java, but with a sparse and
+intractable population, certain of the tribes, notably the Achinese,
+who inhabit the northern districts, still defying Dutch rule in spite
+of the long and costly series of wars which have resulted from
+Holland's attempt to subjugate them. The unmapped interior of Sumatra
+affords an almost virgin field for the explorer, the sportsman and the
+scientist. It has ninety volcanoes, twelve of which are active (the
+world has not forgotten the eruption, in 1883, of Krakatu, an island
+volcano off the Sumatran coast, which resulted in the loss of forty
+thousand human lives); the jungles of the interior are roamed by
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, panthers and occasional orang-utans,
+while in the scattered villages, with their straw-thatched, highly
+decorated houses, dwell barbarous brown men practising customs so
+incredibly eerie and fantastic that a sober narration of them is more
+likely than not to be greeted with a shrug of amused disbelief. One who
+has no first-hand knowledge of the Sumatran tribes finds it difficult
+to accept at their face value the accounts of the customs practised by
+the Bataks of Tapanuli, for example, who, when their relatives become
+too old and infirm to be of further use, give them a pious interment by
+eating them. When the local Doctor Oslers have decided that a man has
+reached the age when his place at the family table is preferable to his
+company, the aged victim climbs a lemon-tree, beneath which his
+relatives stand in a circle, wailing the deathsong, the weird,
+monotonous chant being continued until the condemned one summons the
+courage to throw himself to the ground, whereupon the members of his
+family promptly despatch him with clubs, cut up his body, roast the
+meat, and eat it. Thus every stomach in the tribe becomes, in effect, a
+sort of family burial-plot. I was unable to ascertain why the victim is
+compelled to throw himself from a lemon-tree. It struck me that some
+taller tree, like a palm, would better accomplish the desired result. A
+matter of custom, doubtless. Perhaps that explains why we dub persons
+who are passe "lemons." Then there are the Achinese, whose women
+frequently marry when eight years old, and are considered as well along
+in life when they reach their teens; and the Niassais, who are in
+deadly fear of albino children and who kill all twins as soon as they
+are born. Or the Menangkabaus, whose tribal government is a matriarchy:
+lands, houses, crops and children belonging solely to the wife, who
+may, and sometimes does, sell her husband as a slave in order to pay
+her debts.
+
+Trailing from the eastern end of Java in a twelve-hundred-mile-long
+chain, like the wisps of paper which form the tail of a kite, and
+separated by straits so narrow that artillery can fire across them, are
+the Lesser Sundas--Bali, noted for its superb scenery and its alluring
+women; Lombok, the northernmost island whose flora and fauna are
+Australian; Sumbawa, where the sandalwood comes from; Flores, whose
+inhabitants consider the earth so holy that they will not desecrate it
+by digging wells or cultivation; Timor, the northeastern half of which,
+together with Goa in India and Macao in China, forms the last remnant
+of Portugal's once enormous Eastern empire; Rotti, Kei, and Aroo, the
+great chain thus formed linking New Guinea, the largest island in the
+world, barring Australia, with the mainland of Asia. Of the last-named
+island, the entire western half belongs to Holland, the remaining half
+being about equally divided between British Papua, in the southeast,
+and in the northeast the former German colony of Kaiser Wilhelm Land,
+now administered by Australia under a mandate from the League of
+Nations.
+
+The population of Dutch New Guinea is estimated at a quarter of a
+million, but the predilection of its puff-ball-headed inhabitants for
+human flesh has discouraged the Dutch census-takers from making an
+accurate enumeration, as the Papuan cannibal does not hesitate to
+sacrifice the needs of science to those of the cooking-pot. Though New
+Guinea is believed to be enormously rich in natural resources, and has
+many excellent harbors, the secrets of its mysterious interior can only
+be conjectured. The natives are as degraded as any in the world; their
+principal vocation is hunting birds of paradise, whose plumes command
+high prices in the European markets; their chief avocation in recent
+years has been staging imitation cannibal feasts for the benefit of
+motion-picture expeditions. But, unknown and unproductive as it is at
+present, I would stake my life that New Guinea will be a great colony
+some day.
+
+To the west of New Guinea and to the south of the Philippines lie the
+Moluccas--Ceram, Amboin, Ternate, Halmahera, and the rest--the Spice
+Islands of the old-time voyagers, the scented tropic isles of which
+Camoens sang. Amboin, owing to the fact that Europeans have been
+established there for centuries on account of its trade in spices, is
+characterized by a much higher degree of civilization than the rest of
+the Moluccas, a considerable proportion of its inhabitants professing
+to be Christians. The flower of the colonial army is recruited from the
+Amboinese, who regard themselves not as vassals of the Dutch but as
+their allies and equals, a distinction which they emphasize by wearing
+shoes, all other native troops going barefoot. Beyond the Moluccas,
+across the Banda Sea, sprawls the Celebes,[1] familiar from our
+school-days because of its fantastic outline, the plural form of its
+name being due to the supposition of the early explorers that it was a
+group of islands instead of one. And finally, crossing Makassar
+Straits, we come to Borneo, the habitat of the head-hunter and the
+orang-utan. Though Borneo is a treasure-house for the naturalist, the
+botanist, and the ethnologist, the Dutch, as in New Guinea, have merely
+scratched its surface, almost no attempt having thus far been made to
+exploit its enormous natural resources. Thus I have arrayed for your
+cursory inspection the congeries of curious and colorful islands which
+constitute Netherlands India in order that you may comprehend the
+problems of civilization and administration which Holland has had to
+solve in those distant seas, and that you may be better qualified to
+judge the results she has achieved.
+
+    [Footnote 1: Pronounced as though it were spelled Cel-lay-bees,
+    with the accent on the second syllable.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Insulinde has eight times the population and sixty times the area
+of the mother country, from which it is separated by ten thousand miles
+of sea, yet the sovereignty of Queen Wilhelmina is upheld among the
+cannibals of New Guinea, the head-hunters of Borneo, and the savages of
+Achin, no less than among the docile millions of Java, by less than ten
+thousand European soldiers. That a territory so vast and with so
+enormous a population, should be so admirably administered, everything
+considered, by so small a number of white men, is in itself proof of
+the Dutch genius for ruling subject races.
+
+From the day when Holland determined to organize her colonial empire
+for the benefit of the natives themselves, instead of exploiting it for
+the benefit of a handful of Dutch traders and settlers, as she had
+previously done, she has employed in her colonial service only
+thoroughly trained officials of proved ability and irreproachable
+character. The Dutch officials whom I met in Java and the Outposts
+impressed me, indeed, as being men of altogether exceptional capacity
+and attainments, better educated and qualified, as a whole, than those
+whom I have encountered in the British and French colonial possessions.
+Since the war, owing to the difficulty of obtaining men of sufficient
+caliber and experience to fill the minor posts, which are not
+particularly well paid, Holland has given employment in her colonial
+service to a considerable number of Germans, most of whom had been
+trained in colonial administration in Germany's African and Pacific
+possessions, but they are appointed, of course, only to posts of
+relative unimportance.
+
+Every year the Minister of the Colonies ascertains the number of
+vacancies in the East Indian service, and every year the Grand
+Examination of Officials is held simultaneously in The Hague and
+Batavia, the results of this examination determining the eligibility of
+candidates for admission to the colonial service and the fitness of
+officials already in the service for promotion. With the exception of
+the Governor-General and two or three other high officials, who are
+appointed by the crown, no official can evade this examination, to pass
+which requires not only an intimate knowledge of East Indian languages,
+politics and customs, but real scholarship as well. The names of those
+candidates who pass this examination are certified to the Minister of
+the Colonies, who thereupon directs them to report to the
+Governor-General at Batavia and provides them with funds for the
+voyage. Upon their arrival in the Indies the Governor-General appoints
+them to the grade of _controleur_ and tests their capacity by sending
+them to difficult and trying posts in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, or
+New Guinea, where they must conclusively prove their ability before
+they can hope for promotion to the grades of assistant resident and
+resident, and the relative comfort of official life in Java. In the
+Outposts they at once come face to face with innumerable difficulties
+and responsibilities, for the _controleur_ is responsible, though
+within narrower limits than the resident, for everything: justice,
+police, agriculture, education, public works, the protection of the
+natives, and the requirements of the settlers in such matters as labor
+and irrigation. He is, in short, an administrator, a police official, a
+judge, a diplomatist, and an adviser on almost every subject connected
+with the government of tropical dependencies. The officials in the
+Outposts are given more authority and greater latitude of action than
+their colleagues in Java, for they have greater difficulties to cope
+with, while the intractability, if not the open hostility of the
+natives whom they are called upon to rule demands greater tact and
+diplomacy than are required in Java, where the officials are inclined
+to become spoiled by their easy-going life and the semi-royal state
+which they maintain.
+
+Though Holland demands much of those who uphold her authority in the
+Indies, she is generous in her rewards. The Governor-General draws a
+salary of seventy thousand dollars together with liberal allowances for
+entertaining, and is provided with palaces at Batavia and Buitenzorg,
+while at Tjipanas, on one of the spurs of the Gedei, nearly six
+thousand feet above the sea, he has a country house set in a great
+English park. Wherever he is in residence he maintains a degree of
+state scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign herself. The residents
+are paid from five thousand dollars to nine thousand dollars according
+to their grades, the assistant residents from three thousand five
+hundred dollars to five thousand dollars, and the _controleurs_ from
+one thousand eight hundred dollars to two thousand four hundred
+dollars. Though officials are permitted leaves of absence only once in
+ten years, those who complete twenty-five years' service in the
+Insulinde may retire on half-pay. Even at such salaries, however, and
+in a land where living is cheap as compared with Europe, it is almost
+impossible for the officials to save money, for they are expected to
+entertain lavishly and to live in a fashion which will impress the
+natives, who would be quick to seize on any evidence of economy as a
+sign of weakness.
+
+Netherlands India is ruled by a dual system of administration--European
+and native. By miracles of patience, tact, and diplomacy, the Dutch
+have succeeded in building up in the Indies a gigantic colonial empire,
+which, however, they could not hope to hold by force were there to be a
+concerted rising of the natives. Realizing this, Holland--instead of
+attempting to overawe the natives by a display of military strength, as
+England has done in Egypt and India, and France in Algeria and
+Morocco--has succeeded, by keeping the native princes on their thrones
+and according them a shadowy suzerainty, in hoodwinking the ignorant
+brown mass of the people into the belief that they are still governed
+by their own rulers. Though at first the princes, as was to be
+expected, bitterly resented the curtailment of their prerogatives and
+powers, they decided that they might better remain on their thrones,
+even though the powers remaining to them were merely nominal, and
+accept the titles, honors and generous pensions which the Dutch offered
+them, than to resist and be ruthlessly crushed. In pursuance of this
+shrewd policy, every province in the Indies has as its nominal head a
+native puppet ruler, known as a regent, usually a member of the house
+which reigned in that particular territory before the white man came.
+Though the regents are appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the
+government, and though they are obliged to accept the advice and obey
+the orders of the Dutch residents, they remain the highest personages
+in the native world and the intermediaries through whom Holland
+transmits her wishes and orders to the native population.
+
+In order to lend color to the fiction that the natives are still ruled
+by their own princes, the regents are provided with the means to keep
+up a considerable degree of ceremony and pomp; they have their
+opera-bouffe courts, their gorgeously uniformed body-guards, their
+gilded carriages and golden parasols, and some of the more important
+ones maintain enormous households. But, though they preside at
+assemblies, sign decrees, and possess all the other external attributes
+of power, in reality they only go through the motions of governing, for
+always behind their gorgeous thrones sits a shrewd and silent Dutchman
+who pulls the strings. Though this system of dual government has the
+obvious disadvantage of being both cumbersome and expensive, it is,
+everything considered, perhaps the best that could have been devised to
+meet the existing conditions, for nothing is more certain than that,
+should the Dutch attempt to do away with the native princes, there
+would be a revolt which would shake the Insulinde to its foundations
+and would gravely imperil Dutch domination in the islands.
+
+The most interesting examples of this system of dual administration are
+found in the _Vorstenlanden_, or "Lands of the Princes," of Surakarta
+and Djokjakarta, in Middle Java. These two principalities, which once
+comprised the great empire of Mataram, are nominally independent, being
+ostensibly ruled by their own princes: the Susuhunan of Surakarta and
+the Sultan of Djokjakarta, who are, however, despite their
+high-sounding titles and their dazzling courts, but mouthpieces for the
+Dutch residents. The series of episodes which culminated in the Dutch
+acquiring complete political ascendency in the _Vorstenlanden_ form one
+of the most picturesque and significant chapters in the history of
+Dutch rule in the East. Until the last century these territories were
+undivided, forming the kingdom of the Susuhunan of Surakarta, who,
+being threatened by a revolt of the Chinese who had settled in his
+dominions, called in the Dutch to aid him in suppressing it. They came
+promptly, helped to crush the rebellion, and so completely won the
+confidence of the Susuhunan that he begged their arbitration in a
+dispute with one of his brothers, who had launched an insurrection in
+an attempt to place himself on the throne. Certain historians assert,
+and probably with truth, that this insurrection was instigated and
+encouraged by the Dutch themselves, who foresaw that it would be easier
+to subjugate two weak states than a single strong one. In pursuance of
+this policy, they suggested that, in order to avoid a fratricidal and
+bloody war, the kingdom be divided, two-thirds of it, with Surakarta as
+the capital, to remain under the rule of the Susuhunan; the remaining
+third to be handed over to the pretender, who would assume the title of
+Sultan and establish his court at Djokjakarta. This settlement was
+reluctantly accepted by the Susuhunan because he realized that he could
+hope for nothing better and by his brother because he recognized that
+he might do much worse.
+
+In principle, at least, the Sultan remained the vassal of the
+Susuhunan, in token of which he paid him public homage once each year
+at Ngawen, near Djokjakarta, where, in the presence of an immense
+concourse of natives, he was obliged to prostrate himself before the
+Susuhunan's throne as a public acknowledgment of his vassalage. But as
+the years passed the breach thus created between the Susuhunan and the
+Sultan showed signs of healing, which was the last thing desired by the
+Dutch, who believed in the maxim _Divide ut imperes_. So, before the
+next ceremony of homage came around, they sent for the Sultan, pointed
+out to him the humiliation which he incurred in kneeling before the
+Susuhunan, and offered to provide him with a means of escaping this
+abasement. Their offer was as simple as it was ingenious--permission
+to wear the uniform of a Dutch official. This was by no means as empty
+an honor as it seemed, as the Sultan was quick to recognize, for one of
+the tenets of Holland's rule in the Indies is that no one who wears the
+Dutch uniform, whether European or native, shall impair the prestige of
+that uniform by kneeling in homage. The Sultan, needless to say,
+eagerly seized the opportunity thus offered, and, when the date for the
+next ceremony fell due he arrived at Ngawen arrayed in the blue and
+gold panoply of a Dutch official, but, instead of prostrating himself
+before the Susuhunan in the grovelling _dodok_, he coolly remained
+seated, as befitted a Dutch official and an independent prince.
+
+The animosity thus ingeniously revived between the princely houses
+lasted for many years, which was exactly what the Dutch had foreseen.
+But, though the Susuhunan and the Sultan had been goaded into hating
+each other with true Oriental fervor, they hated the Dutch even more.
+In order to divert this hostility toward themselves into safer
+channels, the Dutch evolved still another scheme, which consisted in
+installing at the court of the Susuhunan, as at that of the Sultan, a
+counter-irritant in the person of a rival prince, who, though
+theoretically a vassal, was in reality as independent as the titular
+ruler. And, as a final touch, the Dutch decreed that the cost of
+maintaining the elaborate establishments of these hated rivals must be
+defrayed from the privy purses of the Susuhunan and the Sultan. The
+"independent" prince at Surakarta is known as the Pangeran Adipati
+Mangku Negoro; the one at Djokjakarta as the Pangeran Adipati Paku
+Alam. Both of these princes have received military educations in
+Holland, hold honorary commissions in the Dutch army, and wear the
+Dutch uniform; their handsome palaces stand in close proximity to those
+of the Susuhunan and the Sultan, and both are permitted to maintain
+small but well-drilled private armies, armed with modern weapons and
+organized on European lines. The "army" of Mangku Negoro consists of
+about a thousand men, and is a far more efficient fighting force than
+the fantastically uniformed rabble maintained by his suzerain, the
+Susuhunan. In certain respects this arrangement resembles the plan
+which is followed at West Point and Annapolis, where, if the appointee
+fails to meet the entrance requirements, the appointment goes to an
+alternate, who has been designated with just such a contingency in
+view. Both the Susuhunan and the Sultan are perfectly aware that the
+first sign of disloyalty to the Dutch on their part would result in
+their being promptly dethroned and the "independent" princes being
+appointed in their stead. So, as they like their jobs, which are well
+paid and by no means onerous--the Susuhunan receives an annual pension
+from the Dutch Government of some three hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars and has in addition one million dollars worth of revenues to
+squander each year--their conduct is marked by exemplary obedience and
+circumspection.
+
+Ever since the Dipo Negoro rebellion of 1825, which was caused by the
+insulting behavior of an incompetent and tactless resident toward a
+native prince, to suppress which cost Holland five years of warfare and
+the lives of fifteen thousand soldiers, the Dutch Government has come
+more and more to realize that most of the disaffection and revolts in
+their Eastern possessions have been directly traceable to tactlessness
+on the part of Dutch officials, who either ignored or were indifferent
+to the customs, traditions, and susceptibilities of the natives. It is
+the recognition and application of this principle that has been
+primarily responsible for the peace, progress, and prosperity which, in
+recent years, have characterized the rule of Holland in the Indies.
+When a nation with a quarter the area of New York State, and less than
+two-thirds its population, with a small army and no navy worthy of the
+name, can successfully rule fifty million people of alien race and
+religion, half the world away, and keep them loyal and contented, that
+nation has, it seems to me, a positive genius for colonial
+administration.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some one has described the Dutch East Indies as a necklace of emeralds
+strung on the equator. To those who are familiar only with colder, less
+gorgeous lands, that simile may sound unduly fanciful, but to those who
+have seen these great, rich islands, festooned across four thousand
+miles of sea, green and scintillating under the tropic sun, the
+description will not appear as far-fetched as it seems. A necklace of
+emeralds! The more I ponder over that description the better I like it.
+Indeed, I think that that is what I will call this chapter--The
+Emeralds of Wilhelmina.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MAN-EATERS AND HEAD-HUNTERS
+
+
+There is no name between the covers of the atlas which so smacks of
+romance and adventure as Borneo. Show me the red-blooded boy who, when
+he sees that magic name over the wild man's cage in the circus sideshow
+or over the orang-utan's cage in the zoo, does not secretly long to go
+adventuring in the jungles of its mysterious interior. So, because
+there is still in me a good deal of the boy, thank Heaven, I ordered
+the course of the _Negros_ laid for Samarinda, which, if the charts
+were to be believed, was the principal gateway to the hinterland of
+Eastern Borneo. There are no roads in Borneo, you understand, only
+narrow foot-trails through the steaming jungle, so that the only
+practicable means of penetrating the interior is by ascending one of
+the great rivers. The Koetei, which has its nativity somewhere in the
+mysterious Kapuas Mountains, winds its way across four hundred miles of
+unmapped wilderness, and, a score of miles below Samarinda, empties
+into Makassar Straits, answered my requirements admirably, providing a
+highroad to the country of my boyish dreams. Though I told the others
+that I was going up the Koetei in order to see the strange tribes who
+dwell along its upper reaches, I admitted to myself that I had one
+object in view and one alone--to see the Wild Man.
+
+Viewed from the deck of the _Negros_, Samarinda, which is the capital
+of the Residency of Koetei, was entirely satisfying. It corresponded in
+every respect to the mental picture which I had drawn of a Bornean
+town. It straggles for two miles or more along a dusty road shaded by a
+double row of flaming fire-trees. Facing on the road are a few-score
+miserable shops kept by Chinese and Arabs and the somewhat more
+pretentious buildings which house the offices of the European trading
+companies. Further out, at the edge of the town, are the dwellings of
+the Dutch officials and traders--comfortable-looking, one-story,
+whitewashed houses with deep verandahs, peering coyly out from the
+midst of fragrant, blazing gardens. The Residency, the Custom House,
+the Police Barracks and the Koetei Club can readily be distinguished by
+the Dutch flags that droop above them. The river-bank itself is one
+interminable street. Here dwells the brown-skinned population--Malays,
+Bugis, Makassars, and a sprinkling of Sea Dyaks. Sometimes the flimsy,
+cane-walled, leaf-thatched huts, perched aloft on bamboo stilts, stand,
+like flocks of storks, in clusters. Again they stray a little apart,
+seeking protection from the pitiless sun beneath clumps of palms.
+Malays in short, tight jackets and long, tight breeches of
+kaleidoscopic colors were sauntering along the yellow road, oblivious
+of the sun. On the shelving beach naked brown men were mending their
+nets or pottering about their dwellings. Now and then I caught a
+glimpse of a European, cool and comfortable in topee and white linen.
+It was all exactly as I had expected. It was, indeed, almost too
+story-booky to be true. Here, at last, was a green and lovely land,
+unspoiled by noisy, prying tourists, where one could lounge the lazy
+days away beneath the palm-trees or stroll with dusky beauties on a
+beach silvered by the tropic moon. I was impatient to go ashore.
+
+Changing from pajamas to whites, I ordered the launch to the gangway
+and went ashore to pay my respects to the Resident. To leave your card
+on the local representative of Queen Wilhelmina is the first rule of
+etiquette to be observed by the foreigner traveling in the Outer
+Possessions. In Java, which is more highly civilized, it is not so
+necessary. Unlike the Latin races, the Dutch are not by nature a
+suspicious people, but political unrest is prevalent throughout the
+East, and with Bolshevists, Chinese agitators and other fomenters of
+disaffection surreptitiously at work among the natives, it is the part
+of prudence to establish your respectability at the start. To gain a
+friendly footing with the authorities is to save yourself from possible
+annoyance later on.
+
+As I approached the shore the glamor lent by distance disappeared. The
+river-bank, which had looked so alluring from the cutter's deck, proved
+on closer inspection to be as squalid as the back-yard of a Neapolitan
+tenement. It was littered with dead cats and fowls and fish and
+castaway vegetables and rotten fruit and tin cans and greasy ashes and
+refuse from fishing nets and decaying cocoanuts by the million and
+sodden rags. This stewing garbage was strewn ankle-deep upon the sand
+or was floating on the surface of the river, not drifting seaward, as
+one would expect, but languidly following the tide up and down, forever
+lolling along the bank. Above this putrefying feast swarmed myriads of
+flies, their buzzing combining in a drone like that of an electric fan.
+The sun struck viciously down upon the yellow foreshore, its glare
+reflected by the hard-packed sands as by a sheet of brass; the
+heat-waves danced and flickered. Sending the launch back to the cutter,
+I picked my way across this noisome place to the shelter of the trees
+along the road. But the shade that had appeared so inviting from the
+river proved as illusory as everything else. Grass? There was none. The
+earth was baked to the hardness of asphalt.
+
+To make matters worse, I found that I had landed too far down the
+beach. The building that I had assumed was the Residency proved to be
+the Custom House. The Harbor Master, whom I encountered there, seized
+the opportunity to present me with a bill for a hundred
+guilders--something over forty dollars--for port dues. It seemed a high
+price to pay for the privilege of lying in the stream, a quarter-mile
+off-shore. In all the Dutch ports at which we touched I noted this same
+disposition on the part of the authorities to charge all that the
+traffic would bear--and then some. Foreign vessels are rarely seen at
+Samarinda, and one would suppose that they would be welcomed
+accordingly, but the Dutch are a business people and do not permit
+sentiment to interfere with a chance to make a few honest guilders.
+
+The Residency, I found upon inquiry, was two miles away, in the
+outskirts of the town. And, as there are neither rickshaws nor
+carriages for hire in Samarinda, I was compelled to walk. It was really
+too hot to move. In five minutes my clothes were as wet as though I had
+fallen in the river. The green silk lining of my sun-hat crocked and
+ran down my face in emerald rivulets. When I had covered half the
+distance I paused beneath a waringin tree to rest. A breath of breeze
+from the river, sighing through the palms, brought to my streaming
+cheeks a hint of coolness and to my nostrils more than a hint of the
+garbage broiling on the beach. Anyone who could be romantic in Borneo
+_must_ be in love.
+
+The Assistant Resident, Monsieur de Haan, was as glad to see me as a
+banker away from home is to see a copy of _The Wall Street Journal_. I
+brought him a whiff of that great outside world from which he was an
+exile, with whose doings he kept in touch only through the meager
+despatches in the papers brought by the fortnightly mail-boat from
+Java, or through occasional travelers like myself. Dutch officials in
+the Indies can obtain leave only once in ten years and Monsieur de Haan
+had not visited the mother country for nearly a decade, so that when he
+learned I had recently been in Holland he was pathetically eager to
+hear the gossip of the homeland. For an hour I lounged in a Cantonese
+chair beneath the leisurely swinging punkah--the motive power for the
+punkah being provided by a native on the verandah outside, who
+mechanically pulled the cord even while he slept--and chatted of homely
+things: of a restaurant which we both knew on the Dam in Amsterdam, of
+bathing on the sands of Scheviningen, of band concerts on summer
+evenings in the Haagsche Bosch. Only when his long-pent curiosity as to
+happenings in Europe had been appeased did I find an opportunity to
+mention the reasons which had brought me to Samarinda. I wished to go
+up country, I explained. I wanted to see the real jungle and the
+strange tribes which dwell in it; particularly I wished to see the
+head-hunters. Now in this I was fully prepared for discouragement and
+dissuasion, for head-hunters are not assets to a country; to a visitor
+they are not displayed with pride. When, in the Philippines, I wished
+to see the head-hunting Igorots; when I asked the Japanese for
+permission to visit the head-hunters of Formosa, I met only with
+excuses and evasions. At my taste the officials pretended to be
+surprised and grieved. But Monsieur de Haan, doubtless because he had
+lived so long in the wilds that head-hunters were to him a commonplace,
+not only made no objection, he even offered to accompany me.
+
+"We can go up the Koetei on your cutter," he suggested. "It is
+navigable as far as Long Iram, two hundred miles up-country, which is
+the farthest point inland that one of our garrisons is stationed. Thus
+you will be able to see the Dyak country as comfortably as you could
+see Holland from the deck of a canal boat. On our way we might pay a
+visit to the Sultan of Koetei, who has a palace at Tenggaroeng. Though
+he has no real power to speak of, he exercises considerable influence
+among the wild tribes, of which he is the hereditary ruler. He's the
+very man to put you in touch with the head-hunters."
+
+The suggestion sounded fine. Moreover, in visiting savages as
+temperamental as the Dyaks, there would be a certain comfort in having
+the head of the government along. So, as Monsieur de Haan did not
+appear to be pressed with business, we arranged to start up-river the
+following morning.
+
+It was late afternoon when I returned to the _Negros_. I was completely
+wilted by the terrible humidity, and, as the river looked cool and
+inviting in the twilight, I decided to refresh my body and my spirits
+by a swim. But when I suggested to the Doctor that he join me he shook
+his head gloomily.
+
+"Nothing doing," he said. "I've been wanting to go in all day but the
+port surgeon tells me that I'd be committing suicide."
+
+"But why?" I demanded irritably, for I was ill-tempered from the heat.
+"It's perfectly clean out here in mid-stream and there is no danger
+from sharks here, as there was at Zamboanga and Jolo."
+
+By way of replying he pointed to a black object, which I took to be a
+log, that was floating on the surface of the river, perhaps fifty yards
+off the cutter's gangway.
+
+"That's why," he said dryly.
+
+As he spoke a dugout, driven by half-a-dozen paddles in the hands of
+lusty natives, came racing down stream. As the canoe drew abreast of
+us, the paddlers chanting a barbaric chorus, there was a sudden swirl
+in the water and the object which I had taken for a log abruptly
+dropped out of sight.
+
+"A crocodile!" I ejaculated, a little shiver chasing itself up and down
+my spine.
+
+The Doctor nodded.
+
+"The river is alive with them," he said. "Man-eaters, too. The port
+surgeon told me that they get a native or so every day."
+
+"I've changed my mind about wanting a swim," I remarked, heading for
+the ship's shower-bath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+(Dusk is settling on the great river and the palm fronds are gently
+stirring before the breeze that comes with nightfall on the Line. If
+you have nothing better to do, suppose you sit down beside me in a
+deck-chair and let me tell you something about these cruel and cunning
+monsters and the curious methods by which they are captured. _Boy! Pass
+the cheroots and bring us something cold to drink._)
+
+Though crocodiles are found everywhere in Malaysia, they attain their
+greatest size and ferocity in the rivers of Borneo, it being no
+uncommon thing for them to attack and capsize the frail native canoes,
+killing their occupants as they flounder in the water. I suppose that
+the crocodile of Borneo more nearly approaches the giant saurians of
+prehistoric times than anything alive to-day. Imagine, if you please, a
+creature as large as a ship's launch, with the swiftness and ferocity
+of a man-eating shark, the cunning of a snake, a body so heavily
+armored with scales that it is impervious to everything save the most
+high-powered bullets, a tail that is capable of knocking down an ox,
+and a pair of jaws that can cut a man in two at a single snap. How
+would you like to encounter that sort of thing when you were having a
+pleasant swim, I ask you? Compared to the crocodile of Malaysia, the
+Florida alligator is about as formidable as a lizard. One was captured
+while we were at Sandakan which measured slightly over twenty-eight
+feet from the end of his ugly snout to the tip of his vicious tail.
+Before you raise your eyebrows incredulously you might take a look at
+the accompanying photograph of this monster. Nor was this a record
+crocodile, for, shortly before our arrival at Samarinda, one was caught
+in the Koetei which measured ten metres, or within a few inches of
+thirty-three feet.
+
+The crocodile obtains its meals by the simple expedient of lying
+motionless just beneath the surface of a pool where the natives are
+accustomed to bathe or where they go for water. The unsuspecting brown
+girl trips jauntily down to the river-bank to fill her
+amphora--usually a battered Standard Oil tin. As she bends over the
+stream there comes without the slightest warning the lightning swish of
+a scaly tail, a scream, the crunch of monster jaws, a widening eddy, a
+scarlet stain overspreading the surface of the water--and there is one
+less inhabitant of Borneo. But instead of proceeding to devour its
+victim then and there, the crocodile carries the body up a convenient
+creek, where it has the self-control to leave it until it is
+sufficiently gamey to satisfy its palate. For the crocodile, like the
+hunter, does not like freshly killed meat. Hence, a crocodile swimming
+up-stream with a native in its mouth is by no means an uncommon sight
+on Borne an rivers.
+
+"But it is a quick death," as an Englishman whom I met in Borneo
+philosophically observed. "They don't play with you as a cat plays with
+a mouse--they just hold you under the water until you are drowned."
+
+Yet, in spite of the hundreds who fall victim to the terrible jaws each
+year, the natives seem incapable of observing the slightest
+precautions. For superstitious reasons they will not disturb the
+crocodile until it has shown itself to be a man-eater. If the crocodile
+will live at peace with him the native has no wish to start a quarrel.
+But the day usually comes when a native who has gone down to the river
+fails to return. In America, under such circumstances, the relatives of
+the missing man would send for grappling irons and an undertaker. But
+in Borneo they summon a professional crocodile hunter. The idea of this
+is not so much to obtain revenge as to recover the brass ornaments
+which the dear departed was wearing at the moment of his taking off,
+for, though human life is the cheapest thing there is in Borneo, brass
+is extremely dear.
+
+The professional crocodile hunters are usually Malays. One of the best
+known and most successful in Borneo is an old man who runs a ferry
+across the Barito at Bandjermasin. He has capitalized his skill and
+cunning by organizing himself into a sort of crocodile liability
+company, as it were. Anyone may secure a policy in this company by
+paying him a weekly premium of 2-1/2 Dutch cents. When one of his
+policy holders is overtaken by death in the form of a pair of four-foot
+jaws the old man turns the ferry over to one of his children and sets
+out to fulfill the terms of his contract by capturing the offending
+saurian, recovering from its stomach the weighty bracelets, anklets and
+earrings worn by the deceased, and restoring them to the next of kin.
+In order to make good he sometimes has to kill a number of crocodiles,
+but he keeps on until he gets the right one. This is not as difficult
+as it sounds, for the big man-eaters usually have their recognized
+haunts in certain deep pools in the rivers, many of them, indeed, being
+known to the natives by name. The old ferryman at Bandjermasin has been
+so successful in the conduct of his curious avocation that, so the
+Dutch Resident assured me, he has several hundred policy holders who
+pay him their premiums with punctilious regularity, thereby giving him
+a very comfortable income.
+
+The method pursued by the crocodile hunters of Borneo is as effective
+as it is ingenious. Their fishing tackle consists of a hook, which is a
+straight piece of hard wood, about the size of a twelve-inch ruler,
+sharpened at both ends; a ten-foot leader, woven from the tough,
+stringy bark of the baru tree; and a single length of rattan or cane,
+fifty feet or so in length, which serves as a line. One end of the
+leader is attached to a shallow notch cut in the piece of wood, the
+other end is fastened to the rattan. With a few turns of cotton one end
+of the stick is then lightly bound to the leader, thus bringing the two
+into a straight line. Then comes the bait, which must be chosen with
+discrimination. Though the body of a dog or pig will usually answer,
+the morsel that most infallibly tempts a crocodile is the carcass of a
+monkey. But it must not be a freshly killed monkey, mind you. A
+crocodile will only swallow meat that is in an advanced stage of
+decomposition, the more overpowering its stench the greater the
+likelihood of the bait being taken. The bait is securely lashed to the
+pointed stick, though anyone but a Malay would require a gas-mask to
+perform this part of the operation.
+
+Everything now being ready, the bait is suspended from the bough of a
+tree overhanging the pool which the crocodile is known to frequent,
+being so arranged that the carcass swings a foot or so above the
+surface of the stream at high water level, the end of the rattan being
+planted in the bank. Lured by the smell of the bait, which in that
+torrid climate quickly acquires a bouquet which can be detected a mile
+to leeward, the crocodile is certain sooner or later to thrust its long
+snout out of the water and snap at the odoriferous bundle dangling so
+temptingly overhead, the slack line offering no resistance until the
+bait has been swallowed and the brute starts to make off. Then the
+man-eater gets the surprise of its long and checkered life, for the
+planted end of the rattan holds sufficiently to snap the threads which
+bind the pointed stick to the leader. The stick, thus caused to resume
+its original position at right angles to the line, becomes jammed
+across the crocodile's belly, the pointed ends burying themselves in
+the tender abdominal lining.
+
+The next morning the hunter finds bait and tackle missing, but a brief
+search usually reveals the coils of rattan floating on the surface of
+some deep pool at no great distance from the spot where the bait was
+taken. At the bottom of the pool Mr. Crocodile is writhing in the
+throes of acute indigestion. Taking the end of the line ashore, the
+hunter summons assistance. A score of jubilant natives lay hold on the
+rattan. Then ensues a struggle that makes tarpon fishing as tame in
+comparison as catching shiners. At first the monster tries to resist
+the straining line, its tail flailing the water into foam. The great
+jaws close on the leader like a bear-trap, but the loosely braided
+strands of baru fiber slip between the pointed teeth. The leader holds.
+The natives haul at the line as sailors haul at a halliard. Soon there
+emerges from the churning waters a long and incredibly ugly snout,
+followed by a low, reptilian head, with venomous, heavy-lidded, scarlet
+eyes, a body as broad as a row-boat and armored with horny scales, and
+finally a tremendous tail, twice as long as an elephant's trunk and
+twice as powerful, that spells death for any human being that comes
+within its reach. Sometimes it happens that the hunters momentarily
+become the hunted, for the infuriated beast, catching sight of its
+enemies, may come at them with a rush and a bellow, but more often it
+has to be dragged to land, fighting every inch of the way.
+
+Now comes the most hazardous part of the whole proceeding--the securing
+of the monster. By means of a noose, deftly thrown, the great jaws are
+rendered harmless. Another noose encircles the lashing tail and binds
+it securely to a tree. The front legs are next lashed behind the back
+and the hind legs treated in the same fashion. Thus deprived of the
+support of its legs, the crocodile is helpless and it is safe to
+release its tail. A stout bamboo is then passed between the bound legs
+and a score of sweating natives bear the captive in triumph to the
+nearest government station, where the bounty is claimed. The crocodile
+is then killed, the stomach cut open and its contents examined, any
+brassware or other ornaments worn by its victim at the time of his
+demise being handed over to the heirs.
+
+[Illustration: Catching a man-eating crocodile in a Borneo river]
+
+The method of fishing pursued by the Dyaks of Borneo is quite as
+curious, in its way, as their manner of catching crocodiles. Instead of
+netting the fish, or catching them with hook and line, they asphyxiate
+them, using for the purpose a poison obtained from the tuba root, known
+to scientists as _Cocculus indicus_. When a Dyak village is in need of
+food the entire community, men, women and children, repairs to a stream
+in which fish are known to be plentiful. Across the stream a sort of
+picket fence is erected by planting bamboos close together. In the
+center of this fence is a narrow opening leading into an enclosure like
+a corral, the walls of which are made in the same fashion. When this
+part of the preparations has been completed a party of natives proceeds
+up-stream by canoe for a dozen, or more miles, taking with them a
+plentiful supply of tuba root. Early the next morning the canoes are
+filled with water, in which the tuba root is beaten until the water is
+as white and frothy as soapsuds. When a sufficient quantity of this
+highly toxic liquid has thus been obtained, it is emptied into the
+stream and, after a brief wait, the canoes are again launched and the
+fishermen drift slowly down the current in the wake of the poison. Many
+of the fish are stupefied by the tuba and, as they rise struggling to
+the surface, are speared by the Dyaks. Other, seeking to escape the
+poisonous wave, dart down-stream and, when halted by the barrier, pour
+through the opening into the corral, where they are captured by the
+thousands. I might add that the tuba does not affect the flesh of the
+fish, which can be eaten with safety. As a means of obtaining food in
+wholesale quantities fishing with tuba is perhaps justified. As a sport
+it is in the same class with shooting duck from airplanes with
+machine-guns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Monsieur de Haan, wearing the brass-buttoned white uniform and
+gold-laced conductor's cap which is the garb prescribed for Dutch
+colonial officials, came abroad the _Negros_ shortly after breakfast.
+The gangway was hoisted, Captain Galvez gave brisk orders from the
+bridge, there was a jangle of bells in the engine-room, and we were off
+up the Koetei, into the mysterious heart of Borneo. Above Samarinda the
+great river flows between solid walls of vegetation. The density of the
+Bornean jungle is indeed almost unbelievable. It is a savage tangle of
+bamboos, palms, banyans, mangroves, and countless varieties of shrubs
+and giant ferns, the whole laced together by trailers and creepers.
+Contrary to popular belief, there is little color to relieve the somber
+monotony of dark brown trunks and dark green foliage. It is as gloomy
+as the nave of a cathedral at twilight. Here and there may be seen some
+vine with scarlet berries and many orchids swing from the higher
+branches like incandescent globes of colored glass. But it is usually
+impossible for one on the ground to see the finest blooms, which turn
+their faces to the sunlight above the canopy of green. Gray apes
+chatter in the tree-tops; strange tropic birds of gorgeous plumage flit
+from bough to bough, monstrous reptiles slip silently through the
+undergrowth; insects buzz in swarms above the putrid swamps;
+occasionally the jungle crashes beneath the tread of some heavy
+animal--a rhinoceros, perhaps, or a wild bull, or an orang-utan. (I
+might mention, parenthetically, that _orang-utan_ means, in the Malay
+language, "man of the forest," while _orang-outang_, the name which we
+incorrectly apply to the great red-haired anthropoid, means "man in
+debt.") The Bornean jungle is a place of indescribable dismalness and
+dread, its gloom seldom dissipated by the sun, its awesome silence
+broken only by the stirrings of the unseen creatures which lurk
+underfoot and overhead and all around.
+
+The palace of the Sultan of Koetei stands in the edge of the jungle at
+a horseshoe bend in the river. You come on it with startling
+abruptness--miles and miles of primeval wilderness and then, quite
+unexpectedly, a bit of civilization. In no respect does its exterior
+come up to what you would expect the palace of an Oriental ruler to be.
+It is a great barn of a place, two stories in height, painted a bright
+pink, with the arms of Koetei emblazoned above the entrance. It
+reminded me of a Coney Island dance hall or one of the tabernacles
+built for Billy Sunday.
+
+A broad flight of white marble steps leads to a wide, covered terrace
+of the same incongruous material. This terrace opens directly into the
+great throne-hall, a lofty apartment of impressive proportions, though
+its furnishings are a bizarre mixture of Oriental taste and Occidental
+tawdriness. Its marble floor is strewn with splendid rugs and
+tiger-skins; hanging from the ceiling are enormous cut-glass
+chandeliers; set in the walls, on either side of the scarlet-and-gold
+throne, are life-size portraits of the present Sultan's father and
+grandfather done in glazed Delft tiles, which seem more appropriate for
+a bathroom than a throne-hall. From each end of the apartment
+scarlet-carpeted staircases, with gilt balustrades, lead to the second
+floor. Under one of these staircases is a sort of closet, with glass
+doors, which looks for all the world like a large edition of a
+telephone booth in an American hotel. The doors were sealed with strips
+of paper affixed by means of wax wafers, but, peering through the
+glass, I could made out a large table piled high with trays of precious
+stones, ingots of virgin gold and silver, vessels, utensils and images
+of the same precious metals. It was the state treasure of Koetei and
+was worth, so the Resident told me, upward of a million dollars.
+
+When I was at Tenggaroeng the young Sultan, an anaemic-looking youth in
+the early twenties, had not yet been permitted by the Dutch authorities
+to ascend the throne, the country being ruled by his uncle, the Regent,
+an elderly, affable gentleman who, in his white drill suit and round
+white cap, was the image of a Chinese cook employed by a Californian
+friend of mine. Upon the formal accession of the young Sultan the seals
+of the treasury would be broken, I was told, and the treasure would be
+his to spend as he saw fit. I rather imagine, however, that the Dutch
+_controleur_ attached to his court in the capacity of adviser will
+have something to say should the youthful monarch show a disposition to
+squander his inheritance.
+
+Up-stairs we were shown through a series of apartments filled to
+overflowing with the loot of European shops--ornate brass beds, inlaid
+bureaus and chiffoniers, toilet-sets of tortoise-shell and ivory,
+washbowls and pitchers of Sevres, Dresden and Limoges, garnish vases,
+statuettes, music-boxes, mechanical toys, models of all ships and
+engines, and a thousand other useless and inappropriate articles, for,
+when the late Sultan paid his periodic visits to Europe, the
+shopkeepers of Paris, Amsterdam and The Hague seized the opportunity to
+unload on him, at exorbitant prices, their costliest and most unsalable
+wares. Opening a marquetry wardrobe, the Regent displayed with great
+pride his collection of uniforms and ceremonial costumes, most of
+which, the Resident told me, had been copied from pictures which had
+caught his fancy in books and magazines. That wardrobe would have
+delighted the heart of a motion-picture company's property-man, for it
+contained everything from a Dutch court dress, complete with sword and
+feathered hat, to a state costume of sky-blue broadcloth edged with
+white fur and trimmed with diamond buttons. I expressed a desire to see
+the royal crown, for I had noticed that the pictures of former sultans,
+which I had seen in the throne-room, showed them wearing crowns of a
+peculiar design, strikingly similar to those worn by the Emperors of
+Abyssinia. My request resulted in a whispered colloquy between the
+Resident, the Controleur, the Regent and the young Sultan. After a
+brief discussion the Resident explained that the Controleur kept the
+crown locked up in his safe, but that he would get it if I wished to
+see it. To the obvious relief of everyone except the young Sultan I
+assured them that it did not matter. He seemed distinctly disappointed.
+I imagine that he would have liked to have gotten his hands on it.
+
+Outside the palace--just below its windows, in fact--is a long, low,
+dirt-floored, wooden-roofed shed, such as American farmers build to
+keep their wagons and farm machinery under. This was the royal
+cemetery. Beneath it the former rulers of Koetei lie buried, their
+resting-places being marked by a most curious assortment of
+fantastically carved tombs and headstones. Some of the tombs hold the
+ashes of men who sat on the throne of Koetei when it was one of the
+great kingdoms of the East, long before the coming of the white man.
+
+Lady luck was kind to me, for shortly after our arrival at Tenggaroeng
+a delegation of Dyaks from one of the tribes of the far interior
+appeared at the palace to lay some tribal dispute before the Regent for
+his adjudication. There were about a score of them, including a rather
+comely young woman, whose comeliness was somewhat marred, however,
+according to European standards at least, by the lobes of her ears
+being stretched until they touched her shoulders by the great weight of
+the brass earrings which depended from them. The warriors were the
+finest physical specimens of manhood that I saw in all Malaysia--tall,
+slim, muscular, magnificently developed fellows, with bright, rather
+intelligent faces. They had the broad shoulders and small hips of Roman
+athletes and when the sun struck on their oiled brown skins they looked
+like the bronzes in a museum. Unlike the natives we had seen along the
+coast, whose garments made a slight concession to the prejudices of
+civilization, these children of the wild "wore nothing much before and
+rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind." Several of them were armed with
+the sumpitan, or blow-gun, which is the national weapon of the Dyaks,
+and each of them carried at his waist a _parang-ilang_, the terrible
+long-bladed knife which the head-hunter uses to kill and decapitate his
+victims.
+
+Monsieur de Haan, as well as the other Dutch officials whom I
+questioned on the subject, attributed the prevalence of head-hunting in
+Borneo to the vanity of the Dyak women. He explained that, just as
+American girls expect candy and flowers from the young men who are
+attentive to them, so Dyak maidens expect freshly severed human heads.
+The warrior who refused to present his lady-love with such grisly
+evidences of his devotion would be rejected by her and ostracized by
+his tribe. Nor does head-hunting end with marriage, for the standing of
+both the man and his wife in the community depends upon the number of
+grinning skulls which swing from the ridgepole of their hut. Heads are
+to a Dyak what money is to a man in civilized countries--the more he
+has, the greater his importance. The Controleur at Tenggaroeng assured
+me very earnestly that his Dyak charges were by no means ferocious or
+bloodthirsty by nature and that they practised head-hunting less from
+pleasure than from force of custom. But I am compelled to accept such
+an estimate of the Dyak character with reservations. From all that I
+could learn, head-hunting is a sport, like fox-hunting in England. Nor
+does it, as a rule, involve any great risk to the hunters, for the
+head-hunting raids are usually mere butcheries of defenceless people,
+the Dyaks either stalking their victim in the bush and killing him from
+behind, or attacking a village when the warriors are absent and
+slaughtering everyone whom they find in it--old, men, women, and
+children. The head of an orang-utan, by the way, is as highly prized in
+many of the Dyak tribes as that of a human being. Nor is this
+surprising, for the warrior who single-handed can kill one of the
+mighty anthropoids is deserving of the trophy.
+
+During my stay in Borneo I heard many theories advanced in explanation
+of head-hunting. Some authorities claimed that it is the Dyak's way of
+establishing a reputation for prowess. Others asserted that he takes
+heads merely to gratify the vanity of his women. There are still others
+who hold the opinion that the Dyak believes that he inherits the
+courage and cunning of those he kills. In certain of the Dyak tribes
+the heads are treated with profound reverence, being wreathed with
+flowers, offered the choicest morsels of food, and sometimes being
+given a place at the table, while in other tribes they are hung from
+the ridgepole and displayed as trophies of the chase. My own opinion is
+that, though prestige and vanity and superstition all contribute to the
+prevalence of head-hunting, in the inherent savagery of the Dyak is
+found the true explanation of the custom.
+
+I have already made passing mention of that characteristic weapon of
+the Dyaks, the sumpitan, or, as it is called by foreigners, the
+blow-gun. The sumpitan is a piece of hard wood, from six to eight feet
+in length and in circumference slightly larger than the handle of a
+broom. Running through it lengthwise is a hole about the size of a
+lead-pencil. A broad spear-blade is usually lashed to one end of the
+sumpitan, like a bayonet, thus providing a weapon for use at close
+quarters. The dart is made from a sliver of bamboo, or from a
+palm-frond, scraped to the size of a steel knitting-needle. One end of
+the dart is imbedded in a cork-shaped piece of pith which fits the hole
+in the sumpitan as a cartridge fits the bore of a rifle; the other end,
+which is of needle-sharpness, is smeared with a paste made from the
+milky sap of the upas tree dissolved in a juice extracted from the root
+of the tuba. With the possible exception of curare, this is the
+deadliest poison known, the slightest scratch from a dart thus poisoned
+paralyzing the respiratory center and causing almost instant death. The
+dart is expelled from the sumpitan by a quick, sharp exhalation of the
+breath. In fact, M. de Haan told me that among certain of the Dyak
+tribes virtually all of the men suffer from rupture as a result of the
+constant use of the blow-gun. Though I have heard those who have never
+seen the sumpitan in use sneer at it as a toy, it is, at short
+distances, one of the most accurate weapons in existence and, when its
+darts are poisoned, one of the deadliest. In order to show me what
+could be done with the sumpitan, the Regent stuck in the earth a bamboo
+no larger than a woman's little finger, and a Dyak, taking up his
+position at a distance of thirty paces which I stepped off myself, hit
+the almost indistinguishable mark with his darts twelve times running.
+That, as the late Colonel Cody would have put it, "is some shooting."
+
+In Borneo the use of the blow-gun is not confined to the Dyaks. They
+are also used by fish! That is to say, by a certain species of fish.
+This fish, which is remarkable neither in size nor color, seldom being
+larger than our domestic goldfish, is known to the natives as _ikan
+sumpit_ (literally "fish with a sumpitan") and to science as _Toxodes
+jaculator_. But it is unique among the finny tribe in possessing the
+curious power, on corning to the surface, of being able to squirt from
+its mouth a tiny jet of water. This it uses with unerring aim against
+insects, such as flies, grasshoppers and spiders, resting on plants
+along the edge of the streams, causing them to fall into the water,
+where they become an easy prey to these Dyaks of the deep. It was lucky
+for us that the crocodiles were not armed with blow-guns!
+
+When Latins engage in a serious quarrel they are prone to decide it
+with the stiletto, or, if they belong to the class which subscribes to
+the code, they meet on the field of honor with rapiers or pistols;
+Anglo-Saxons are accustomed to settle their disputes in a court of law
+or with their fists; but when Dyaks become involved in a controversy
+which cannot be adjusted by the tribal council, they have recourse to
+the _s'lam ayer_, or trial by water. This curious method of deciding
+disputes is conducted with great formality, according to the rules of
+an established code. For example, should two husky young head-hunters
+become involved in a lovers' quarrel over a village belle--the lobes of
+whose ears are probably pulled down to her shoulders by the weight of
+her brass earrings--they adjourn, with their seconds and their friends,
+to what might appropriately be called the pool of honor. Almost any
+place where there are four or five feet of water will do. Into the
+bottom of the pool the seconds drive two stout bamboo poles, a few
+yards apart. The rivals then wade out into the water and take up their
+positions, each grasping a pole. At a signal from the chief who is
+acting as umpire they plunge beneath the water, each duelist keeping
+his nostrils closed with one hand while with the other he clings to the
+pole so as to keep his head below the surface. As both of them would
+drown themselves rather than acknowledge defeat by coming to the
+surface voluntarily, at the first sign either of the two gives of being
+asphyxiated, the seconds, who are watching their principals closely,
+drag the rivals from the water. They are then held up by the heels,
+head downward, in order to drain off the water they have swallowed, the
+one who first recovers consciousness being declared the victor and
+awarded the hand of the lady fair. It is a quaint custom.
+
+As I have no desire to strain your credulity to the breaking-point, I
+will touch on only one more Dyak custom--the disposal of the dead. It
+seems a fitting subject with which to bring this account of the wild
+men to a close. Certain of the Dyak tribes expose their dead in trees,
+some burn them, while still others bury them until the flesh has
+disappeared, when they exhume the skeletons, disarticulate them, and
+seal the bones in the huge jars of Chinese porcelain which are a Dyak's
+most prized possession. Sometimes these burial-jars are kept in the
+family dwelling--a rather gruesome article of furniture to the European
+mind--but more often they are deposited in a grave-house, a small,
+fantastically decorated hut or shed which serves as a family vault. But
+I doubt if any people on the face of the globe have so weird a custom
+of disposing of their dead as the Kapuas of Central Borneo, who hollow
+out the trunk of a growing tree and in the space thus prepared insert
+the corpse of the departed. The bark is carefully replaced over the
+opening and the tree continues to grow and flourish--literally a living
+tomb.
+
+[Illustration: Major Powell talking to the Regent of Koetei on the
+steps of the palace at Tenggaroeng
+
+From left to right: the regent, Major Powell, the prime minister, the
+Sultan of Koetei (who has since ascended the throne), and the Dutch
+resident, M. de Haan]
+
+[Illustration: State procession in the Kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta]
+
+Noticing that I was interested in the equipment of the Dyaks, the
+Regent of Koetei called up their chief and, without so much as a
+by-your-leave, presented me with his sumpitan and the quiver of
+poisoned darts, his wooden shield--a long, narrow buckler of some
+light wood, tastily trimmed with seventy-two tufts of human hair,
+mementoes of that number of enemies slain on head-hunting
+expeditions--a peculiar coat of mail, composed of overlapping pieces of
+bark, capable of turning an arrow, and his imposing head-dress, which
+consisted of a cap formed from a leopard's head, with a sort of visor
+made from the beak of a hornbill, the whole surmounted by a bunch of
+yard-long tail-feathers from some bright-plumaged bird. When the
+presentation was concluded all the chieftain had left was his
+breech-clout. He did not share in my enthusiasm. From the murderous
+glance which he shot at me when the Regent was not looking, I judged
+that if he ever met me alone in the jungle he would get his shield
+back, with another scalp to add to his collection. And I could guess
+whose head that scalp would come from.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN BUGI LAND
+
+
+The _Negros_ was not fast--thirteen knots was about the best she could
+do--so that it took us two days to cross from Samarinda, in Borneo, to
+Makassar, the capital of the Celebes. Our course took us within sight
+of "the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank," where, as
+you may remember, Sir Anthony Gloster, of Kipling's ballad of _The Mary
+Gloster_, was buried beside his wife. Before our hawsers had fairly
+been made fast to the wharf at Makassar it became evident that among
+the natives our arrival had created a distinct sensation. The wharf was
+crowded with Bugis, as the natives of the southern Celebes are known,
+who tried in vain to make themselves understood by our Filipino crew.
+Instead of the boisterous curiosity which had marked the attitude of
+the natives at the other ports, the Bugis appeared to be laboring under
+a suppressed but none the less evident excitement. When I went ashore
+to call on the American Consul they made way for me with a respect
+which verged on reverence. This curious attitude was explained by the
+Consul.
+
+"Your coming has revived among the natives a very curious and ancient
+legend," he told me. "When the Dutch established their rule in the
+Celebes, something over three centuries ago, the King of the Bugis
+mysteriously disappeared. Whether he fled or was killed in battle, no
+one knows. In any event, from his disappearance arose a tradition that
+he had founded another kingdom in some islands far to the north, but
+that, when the time was propitious, he would return to free his people
+from foreign domination. Thus he came in time to be regarded as a
+divinity, a sort of Messiah. Curiously enough, the natives refer to him
+by a name which, translated into English, means 'the King of Manila.'
+Some months ago it was reported in the Makassar papers that the
+Governor-General of the Philippines expected to visit the Celebes upon
+his way to Australia, whereupon the rumor spread among the Bugis like
+wild-fire that 'the King of Manila' was about to return to his ancient
+kingdom, but the excitement gradually subsided when the
+Governor-General failed to appear. But when the _Negros_ entered the
+harbor this morning, and it was reported that she was from Manila and
+had on board a white man who had some mysterious mission in the
+interior of the island, the excitement flamed up again. The natives,
+you see, who are as simple and credulous as children, believe that you
+are the Messiah of their legend and that you have come to liberate them
+from Dutch rule."[2]
+
+    [Footnote 2: Owing to my ignorance of Dutch and Buginese, I was
+    unable to obtain a dependable account of this curious legend,
+    but the several versions which I heard agreed in the main with
+    that given above.]
+
+"But look here," said I, annoyance in my tone, "this isn't as funny as
+it seems. Tying me up to this fool tradition may result in spoiling my
+plans for taking pictures in the Celebes. Of course the Dutch
+authorities know perfectly well that I haven't come here to start a
+revolution, but, on the other hand, they may not want a person whom the
+natives regard as a Messiah to go wandering about in the interior,
+where Dutch rule is none too firmly established anyway, for fear that
+my presence might be used as an excuse for an insurrection."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," the Consul reassured me. "I'll take you
+over now to call on the Governor. He's a good sort and he'll do
+everything he can to help you. Then I'll send the editors of the
+vernacular papers around to the _Negros_ this afternoon to call on you.
+You can explain that you're here to get motion-pictures to illustrate
+the progress and prosperity of the Celebes, and it might be a good idea
+to tell them that some of your ancestors were Dutch. That will help to
+make you solid with the authorities. The interview will appear in the
+papers tomorrow and in twenty-four hours the news will have spread
+among the Bugis that you're not their Messiah after all."
+
+"But I'm not Dutch," I protested. "All my people were Welsh and
+English. The only connection I have with Holland is that the house in
+which I was born is on a street that has a Dutch name."
+
+"Fine!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Born on Van Rensselaer street,
+you say? Be sure and tell 'em that. That's the next best thing to
+having been born in Holland."
+
+"I know now," I said, "how it feels to refuse a throne."
+
+At tiffin that noon on the _Negros_ I told the story to the others. "So
+you see," I concluded, "if I had been willing to take a chance, I might
+have been King of the Bugis."
+
+"They wouldn't have called you that at home," the Lovely Lady said
+unkindly. "There they would have called you the King of the Bugs."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nature must have created Celebes in a capricious moment, such a medley
+of bold promontories, jutting peninsulas, deep gulfs and curving bays
+does its outline present. Indeed, its coast line is so irregular and so
+deeply indented by the three great gulfs or bays of Tomini, Tolo, and
+Boni that it is small wonder that the first European explorers assumed
+it was a group of islands and gave it the name of plural form which
+still perpetuates the very natural mistake. Its length is roughly about
+five hundred miles but its width is so varying that while it is over a
+hundred miles across the northern part of the island at the middle it
+is a scant twenty miles from coast to coast.
+
+Though the census of 1905 gave the population of the island as less
+than nine hundred thousand, the latest official estimate places it at
+about three millions. The actual number of inhabitants is probably
+midway between these figures. But, to tell the truth, the temperament
+of the savages who inhabit the interior is not conducive to an accurate
+enumeration, the Dutch census-takers being greeted with about the same
+degree of cordiality that the moonshiners of the Kentucky mountains
+extend to United States revenue agents.
+
+The three most important peoples of Celebes are the Bugis, the
+Makassars, and the Mandars. The medley of more or less savage tribes
+dwelling in the island are known as Alfuros--literally "wild"--which is
+the term applied by the Malays to all the uncivilized non-Mohammedan
+peoples in the eastern part of the archipelago. For the Bugis to refer
+to the tribes of the interior as wild is like the pot calling the
+kettle black. The Bugis, a passionate, half-savage, extremely
+revengeful people, originally occupied only the kingdom of Boni, in the
+southwestern peninsula, but from this district they have spread over
+the whole of Celebes and have founded settlements on many of the
+adjacent islands. They are the seamen of the archipelago, the greatest
+navigators and the most enterprising tradesmen, and were, in times gone
+by, the greatest pirates as well. In fact, the harbor master at
+Makassar told us that the crews of many of the rakish looking sailing
+craft which were anchored in close proximity to the _Negros_ were
+reformed buccaneers. Certainly they looked it. They may have reformed,
+but that did not prevent Captain Galvez from doubling the deck-watch at
+night while we were in Celebes waters. He believed in safety first.
+
+[Illustration: Some strange subjects of Queen Wilhelmina
+
+Native women of the interior of Dutch Borneo]
+
+The Winsome Widow had been very enthusiastic about going to the Celebes
+because Makassar is the greatest market in the world for those
+ornaments so dear to the feminine heart--bird-of-paradise plumes. I
+explained to her that it was against the law to bring them into the
+United States, but no matter, she wanted to buy some. To visit Makassar
+without buying bird-of-paradise plumes, she said, would be like
+visiting Japan without buying a kimono. The bird is usually sold
+entire, the prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty dollars,
+according to size and condition, though, owing to the ruthless
+slaughter of the birds to meet the demands of the European market,
+prices are steadily advancing. The Winsome Widow bought four of the
+finest birds I have ever seen--gorgeous, flame-colored things with
+plumes nearly two feet long. How she proposed getting them into the
+United States she did not tell me, and I thought it as well not to ask
+her. She had them carefully packed in a wooden box made for the purpose
+which she did not open until nearly two months later, when we were
+steaming down the coast of Siam on a cargo boat, long after I had sent
+the _Negros_ back to Manila. Imagine her feelings when, upon opening
+the box to feast her eyes on her contraband treasures, she found it to
+contain nothing but waste paper! I suspect that the sweetheart of one
+of our Filipino cabin-boys is now wearing a hat fairly smothered in
+bird-of-paradise plumes.
+
+The Bugis' love of the sea has given them almost a monopoly of the
+trade around Celebes. Despite their fierce and warlike dispositions
+they are industrious and ingenious--qualities which usually do not go
+together; they practise agriculture more than the neighboring tribes
+and manufacture cotton cloth not only for their own use but for export.
+They also drive a thriving trade in such romantic commodities as gold
+dust, tortoise shell, pearls, nutmegs, camphor, and bird-of-paradise
+plumes. They dwell for the most part in walled enclosures known as
+_kampongs_, in flimsy houses built of bamboo and thatched with grass or
+leaves. But as diagonal struts are not used the walls soon lean over
+from the force of the wind, giving to the villages a curiously
+inebriated appearance. In several of the eight petty states which
+comprise the confederation of Boni the ruler is not infrequently a
+woman, the female line having precedence over the male line in
+succession to the throne. The women rulers of the Bugis have invariably
+shown themselves as astute, capable and warlike as the men, the
+princess who ruled in Boni during the middle of the last century having
+defeated three powerful military expeditions which the Dutch sent
+against her. Everything considered, the Bugis are perhaps the most
+interesting race in the entire archipelago.
+
+The Bugis are said to be more predisposed toward "running amok" than
+any other Malayan people. Having been warned of this unpleasant
+idiosyncrasy, I took the precaution, when among them, of carrying in
+the right-hand pocket of my jacket a service automatic, loaded and
+ready for instant action. For when a Bugi runs amok he will almost
+certainly get you unless you get him first. Running amok, I should
+explain, is the native term for the homicidal mania which attacks
+Malays. Without the slightest warning, and apparently without reason, a
+Malay, armed with a kris or other weapon, will rush into the street and
+slash at everybody, friends and strangers alike, until he is killed.
+These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity, but it
+is now believed that the typical _amok_ is the result of excitement due
+to circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which
+render the man desperate and weary of life. It is, in fact, the Malay
+equivalent of suicide. Though so intimately associated with the Malay,
+there are good grounds for believing the word to have an Indian origin.
+Certainly the act is far from unknown in Indian history. In Malabar,
+for example, it was long the custom for the zamorin or king of Calicut
+to cut his throat in public after he had reigned twelve years. But in
+the seventeenth century there was inaugurated a variation in this
+custom. After a great feast lasting for nearly a fortnight the ruler,
+surrounded by his bodyguard, had to take his seat at a national
+assembly, on which occasion it was lawful for anyone to attack him,
+and, if he succeeded in killing him the murderer himself assumed the
+crown. In the year 1600, it is recorded, thirty men who would be king
+were killed while thus attempting to gain the throne. These men were
+called _Amar-khan_, and it has been suggested that their action was
+"running amok" in the true sense of the term. From this it would appear
+that a king of Calicut was about as good an insurance risk as a
+president of Haiti.
+
+The act of running amok is probably due to causes over which the
+culprit has some measure of control, as the custom has now virtually
+died out in the Philippines and in the British possessions in Malaysia,
+owing to the drastic measures adopted by the authorities. Among the
+Mohammedans of the southern Philippines, where the custom is known as
+_juramentado_, it was discouraged by burying the carcass of a pig--an
+animal abhorred by all Moslems--in the grave with the body of the
+assassin. When I was in Jolo the governor told me of a novel and highly
+effective method which had been adopted by the officer commanding the
+American forces in that island for discouraging the custom. A number of
+American soldiers had been killed by Moros running amok. The American
+commander took up the matter with the local priests but they only
+shrugged their shoulders with true Oriental stoicism, saying that when
+a man went _juramentado_ it was the will of Allah and that nothing
+could be done. The next day an American soldier, a revolver in either
+hand, burst into a Moro village, notorious for its _juramentados_,
+firing at everyone whom he saw and yelling like a mad man. The
+terrified villagers took to the bush, where they remained in fear and
+trembling until the crazy Americano had taken his departure. That
+evening the village priests appeared at headquarters to complain to the
+American commander.
+
+"But Americans have just as much right to go _juramentado_ as the
+Moros," said the general. "I can do nothing. The man is not
+responsible. It is the will of Allah." That was the end of
+_juramentado_ in Jolo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wharves and godowns which line Makassar's water-front form an
+unattractive screen to a picturesque and charming town. Though, owing
+to its commercial importance as a half-way station on the road from
+Asia to Australia, Makassar promises to become a second Singapore, it
+has as yet neither an electric lighting, gas, nor water system. It is,
+however, very beautifully laid out, the streets, which are broad and
+well-kept, being lined by double rows of magnificent canarium trees or
+tamarinds, whose branches interlace high overhead in a canopy of green.
+The European life of Makassar centers in the great grass-covered
+_plein_, or common, where band concerts, reviews, horse races,
+festivals, and similar events are held. Facing on the _plein_ is the
+palace of the Governor of the Celebes, a one-story, porticoed building
+with white walls and green blinds, in the Dutch colonial style, a type
+of architecture which is admirably adapted to the tropics. Next to the
+palace is the Oranje Hotel, a well-kept and comfortable hostelry as
+hotels go in Malaysia. On its terrace the homesick Europeans gather
+toward twilight to sip _advocat_--a drink which is a first cousin to
+the egg-nogg of pre-Volstead days, very popular in the Indies--and to
+listen to the military band playing on the _plein_.
+
+Diagonally across the _plein_ rise the massive walls of Fort Rotterdam,
+erected by one of the native rulers, the King of Goa, with the
+assistance of the Portuguese, when the seventeenth century was still in
+its infancy and when the settlement on the lower end of Manhattan
+Island was still called Nieuw Amsterdam. The capture of the fort by the
+Dutch in 1667 signalized the passing of Portuguese power in Asia. Pass
+the slovenly native sentry at the outer gate, cross the creaking
+drawbridge, and, were it not for the tropical vegetation and the
+oppressive heat, you might think yourself in the Low Countries instead
+of a few degrees below the Line, for the crenelated ramparts, the
+shaded, gravelled paths, the ancient garrison church, the officers'
+quarters with their steep-pitched, red-tiled roofs, make the interior a
+veritable bit of Holland, transplanted to a tropic island half the
+world away.
+
+Makassar has a population of about fifty thousand, including something
+over a thousand Europeans and some five thousand Chinese, but as most
+of the natives live in their walled kampongs in the environs, the city
+appears much smaller than it really is. The retail trade is almost
+wholly in the hands of the Chinese, many of whom are men of great
+wealth and influence. There was also a small colony of Japanese, but,
+as a result of the boycott which the Chinese had instituted against
+them in reprisal for Japan's refusal to evacuate Shantung, they were
+unable to find markets for their wares or to obtain employment and,
+in consequence, were being forced to leave the island. The only
+American in the Celebes when we were there was the representative of
+the Standard Oil Company--a desperately homesick youngster from
+Missouri who had been a lieutenant of aviation. He introduced himself
+to us on the terrace of the Oranje Hotel, begged the privilege of
+buying the drinks, and pleaded with an eagerness that was almost
+pathetic for the latest news from God's Country. At almost every place
+of importance which we visited in Malaysia we found these agents of
+Standard Oil--alert and clean-cut young fellows, who, far from home and
+friends, are helping to build up a commercial empire for America
+oversea.
+
+The native soldiery, who form the bulk of the Makassar garrison, are
+quartered, with their families, in long, stone barracks--ten couples to
+a room. For every soldier of the colonial forces, whether European or
+native, is permitted to keep a woman in the barracks with him. If she
+is the soldier's wife, well and good, but the authorities do not frown
+if the couple have omitted the formality of standing up before a
+clergyman. The rooms in which the soldiers and their families live have
+no partitions, to each couple being assigned a space about eight feet
+square, which is chalk-marked on the floor. The only article of
+furniture in each of these "apartments" is a bed, which is really a
+broad, low platform covered with a grass-mat, for in a land where the
+mercury not infrequently climbs to 120 in the shade, there is no need
+for bedding. Here they eat and sleep and make their toilets, the women
+preparing the meals for their men and for themselves in ovens
+out-of-doors. At night the beds may be separated by drawing the
+flimsiest of cotton curtains--the only concession to privacy that I
+could discover. As Malays invariably have large families, the barrack
+room usually has the appearance of a day nursery, with naked brown
+youngsters crawling everywhere, but at night they are disposed of in
+fiber hammocks which are slung over the parents' heads. The colonel in
+command at Fort Rotterdam told me that in the new type of barracks
+which were being built in Java each family would be assigned a separate
+room, but he seemed to regard such provisions for privacy as wholly
+unnecessary and a shameful waste of money.
+
+The military authorities not only permit, but encourage the Dutch
+soldiers to contract alliances of a temporary character with native
+women during their term of service in the Insulinde, with the idea, no
+doubt, of making them more contented. During operations in the field
+the women and children, instead of remaining behind in barracks,
+accompany the troops almost to the firing-line, a custom which,
+apparently, does not interfere with efficiency or discipline. Indeed,
+there are few forces of equal size in the world which have seen as much
+active service as the army of Netherlands India, for in the extension
+of Dutch dominion throughout the archipelago the native rulers rarely
+have surrendered their authority without fighting. Though the
+newspapers seldom mention it, Holland is almost constantly engaged in
+some little war in some remote corner of her Indian empire, in certain
+districts of Sumatra, for example, fighting having been almost
+continuous these many years.
+
+Though the flag of Holland was first hoisted over the Celebes more than
+three centuries ago, Dutch commercial interests are still virtually
+confined to the four chief towns--Makassar, Menado, Gorontalo, and
+Tondano--and this in spite of the fact that the interior of the island
+is known to be immensely rich in natural resources. In the native
+states Dutch authority is little more than nominal, the repeated
+attempts which have been made to subjugate them invariably having met
+with discouragement and not infrequently with disaster. Hence the
+island is still without railways, though it is being slowly opened up
+by means of roads, some of which are practicable for motor-cars. Most
+of the roads in the Celebes were originally built by means of the
+Corvee, or forced labor, the natives being compelled to spend one month
+out of the twelve in road construction. But, though they were taken for
+this work at a season when they could best be spared from their fields,
+it was an enormous tax to impose upon an agricultural population,
+resulting in grave discontent and in seriously retarding the
+development of the island. For, ever since Marshal Daendels, "the Iron
+Marshal," who ruled the Indies under Napoleon, utilized forced labor to
+build the splendid eight-hundred-mile-long highway which runs from one
+end of Java to the other, the corvee has been a synonym for
+unspeakable cruelty and oppression throughout the Insulinde. Each
+_dessa_, or district, through which the great trans-Java highway runs
+was forced to construct, within an allotted period, a certain section
+of the road, the natives working without pay while their crops rotted
+in the fields and their families starved. As a final touch of tyranny,
+the grim old Marshal gave orders that if a _dessa_ did not complete its
+section of the road within the allotted time the chiefs of that
+district were to be taken out and hung.
+
+When the Dutch determined to open up Celebes by the construction of a
+highway system they realized the wisdom of obtaining the cooperation of
+the native rulers. But when they outlined their scheme to the King of
+Goa, the most powerful chieftain in the southern part of the island,
+they encountered, if not open opposition, at least profound
+indifference. This was scarcely a matter for surprise, however, for the
+King quite obviously had no use for roads, first, because when he had
+occasion to journey through his dominions he either rode on horseback
+or was carried in a palanquin along the narrow jungle trails; secondly,
+because he was perfectly well aware that by aiding in the construction
+of roads he would be undermining his own power, for roads would mean
+white men. To attempt to build a road across Goa in the face of the
+King's opposition, would, as the Dutch realized, probably precipitate a
+native uprising, for, without his cooperation, it would be necessary
+to make use of the corvee to obtain laborers.
+
+But the Governor of the Celebes had been trained in a different school
+from the Iron Marshal. He believed that with an ignorant and suspicious
+native, such as the King of Goa, tact could accomplish more than
+threats. So, instead of attempting to build the road by forced labor,
+he sent to Batavia for a fine European horse and a luxurious carriage,
+gaudily painted, which he presented to the King as a token of the
+government's esteem and friendship. Now the King of Goa, as the
+governor was perfectly aware, had about as much use for a wheeled
+vehicle in his roadless dominions as a Bedouin of the Sahara has for a
+sailboat. But the King did precisely what the governor anticipated that
+he would do: in order that he might display his new possession he
+promptly ordered his subjects to build him a carriage road from his
+capital to Makassar. Thus the government of the Celebes obtained a
+perfectly good highway for the price of a horse and carriage, and won
+the friendship of the most powerful of the native rulers into the
+bargain. After some years, however, the road began to fall into
+disrepair, but as by this time the novelty of the horse and carriage
+had worn off, the King took little interest in its improvement. So the
+governor again had recourse to diplomacy to gain his ends, this time
+presenting his Goanese Majesty with a motor-car, gorgeous with scarlet
+paint and polished brass. And, in order that the King might be brought
+to realize that the roads were not in a condition conducive to
+comfortable motoring, a young Dutch officer took him for his first
+motor ride. That ride evidently jolted the memory as well as the body
+of the dusky monarch, for the next day a royal edict was issued
+summoning hundreds of natives to put the road in good repair. And, as
+the King quickly acquired a taste for speeding, in good repair it has
+remained ever since.
+
+I have related this episode not because it is in itself of any great
+importance, but because it serves to illustrate the methods used by the
+Dutch officials in handling recalcitrant or stubborn natives. Though
+Holland rules her fifty million brown subjects with an iron hand, she
+has long since learned the wisdom of wearing over the iron a velvet
+glove.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DOWN TO AN ISLAND EDEN
+
+
+I went to Bali, which is an island two-thirds the size of Porto Rico,
+off the eastern extremity of Java, because I wished to see for myself
+if the accounts I had heard of the surpassing beauty of its women were
+really true. The Dutch officials whom I had met in Samarinda and
+Makassar had depicted the obscure little isle as a flaming, fragrant
+garden, overrun with flowers, a sort of unspoiled island Eden, where
+bronze-brown Eves with faces and figures of surpassing loveliness
+disported themselves on the long white beaches, or loitered the lazy
+days away beneath the palms. But I went there skeptical at heart, for,
+ever since I journeyed six thousand miles to see the women for whom
+Circassia has long been undeservedly famous, I have listened with doubt
+and distrust to the tales told by returned travelers of the nymphs whom
+they had found, leading an Arcadian existence, on distant tropic isles.
+
+Yet I must admit that, when the anchor of the _Negros_ splashed into
+the blue waters off Boeleleng, on the northern coast of the island, and
+a boat's crew of white-clad Filipinos rowed me ashore, I half expected
+to find a Balinese edition of the Ziegfeld Follies chorus waiting to
+greet me with demonstrations of welcome and garlands of flowers. What I
+did find on the wharf was a surly Dutch harbor-master, who, judging
+from his breath and disposition, had been on a prolonged carouse. Of
+the women whose beauty I had heard chanted in so many ports, or,
+indeed, of a native Balinese of any kind, there was no sign. Barring
+the harbor-master and a handful of Chinese, Boeleleng, which is a place
+of some size, appeared to be deserted. Yet, as I strolled along its
+waterfront, I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched by
+many pairs of unseen eyes.
+
+"Where has everyone gone?" I demanded of the impassive Chinese steward
+who served me liquid refreshment at the Concordia Club. (Every town in
+the Insulinde has its Concordia Club, just as every Swiss town has its
+Grand Hotel.)
+
+"Menjepee," he answered mystically, shrugging his shoulders. "Evlyone
+stay in house."
+
+"Menjepee, eh?" I repeated. "Never heard of it. Some sort of disease, I
+suppose, like cholera or plague. If that's why everyone has run away I
+think that I'd better be leaving."
+
+A ghost of a smile flitted across the Celestial's impassive
+countenance.
+
+"No clolra. No pleg," he assured me. "Menjepee make by pliest."
+
+Before I could elucidate this curious statement there entered the club
+a young Hollander immaculate in pipe-clayed topee and freshly starched
+white linen.
+
+"It's not a disease; it's a religious observance," he explained in
+perfect English, overhearing my last words. "They call it Menjepee,
+which, literally translated, means 'silence.' The Balinese are Hindus,
+you know--about the only ones left in the Islands--and they observe the
+Hindu festivals very strictly. Their priests raise the very devil with
+them if they don't. During Menjepee, which lasts twenty-four hours, no
+native is permitted to set foot outside the wall of his kampong except
+for the most urgent reasons, and even then he has to get permission
+from his priest. If he is caught outside his kampong without permission
+he is heavily fined, to say nothing of being given the cold shoulder by
+his neighbors."
+
+"I was told in Samarinda," I remarked carelessly, by way of introducing
+the topic in which I was most interested, "that some of the native
+girls here in Bali are remarkably good looking."
+
+"I thought you'd be asking about them," the Hollander commented dryly.
+"That's usually the first question asked by everyone who comes to Bali.
+But you won't find them on this side of the island. If you want to see
+them you'll have to cross over to the south side. The prettiest girls
+are to be found in the vicinity of Den Pasar and Kloeng Kloeng."
+
+"So I had heard," I told him. "I am going to cross the island by motor
+and have my boat pick me up on the other side. How far is it to Den
+Pasar?"
+
+"Only about sixty miles and you'll have a tolerably good mountain road
+all the way. But you can't go today."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Menjepee," was the laconic answer. "You won't be able to get anyone to
+take you. There are only four or five motor cars in Boeleleng and their
+drivers are all Hindus."
+
+I smothered an expletive of annoyance, for my time was limited and the
+_Negros_ had already sailed.
+
+"Surely you don't mean to tell me that there is no way in which I can
+get across the island today?" I demanded. "This Menjepee business is as
+infernal a nuisance as a taxicab strike in New York."
+
+"Perhaps the Resident might be able to do something for you," my
+acquaintance suggested after a moment's consideration. "He's a good
+sort and he's always glad to meet visitors. We don't have many of them
+here, heaven knows. Look here. I've a sado outside. Suppose you hop in
+and I'll drive you up to the Residency and you can ask the Resident to
+help you out."
+
+As we rattled in a sort of governess-cart, called sado, up the broad,
+palm-lined avenue which leads from Boeleleng to Singaradja, the seat of
+government, three miles away, I caught fleeting glimpses of natives
+peering at me furtively over the mud walls which surround their
+kampongs, but the instant they saw that they were observed they
+disappeared from view. The Resident I found to be a man of charm and
+culture who had twice crossed the United States on his way to and from
+Holland. At first he was dubious whether anything could be done for me,
+explaining that Menjepee is as devoutly observed by the Hindus of Bali
+as the fasting month of Ramadan is by the Mohammedans of Turkey, and
+that the Dutch officials make it a rule never to interfere with the
+religious observances of the natives. He finally consented, however, to
+send for the chief priest and see if he could persuade him, in view of
+my limited time, to grant a special dispensation to a native who could
+drive a car. I don't know what arguments he used, but they must have
+been effective, for within the hour we heard the honk of a motor-horn
+at the Residency gate.
+
+"We have no hotels in Bali," the Resident remarked as I was taking my
+departure, "but I'll telephone over to the Assistant Resident at Den
+Pasar to have a room ready for you at the passangrahan--that's the
+government rest-house, you know. And I'll also send word to the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng that you are coming and ask him to arrange
+some native dances for you. He's very keen about that sort of thing and
+knows where to get the best dancers in the island."
+
+"Tell me," I queried, as I was about to enter the car, "are these girls
+I've heard so much about really pretty?"
+
+The Resident smiled cynically.
+
+"Well," he replied, and I thought that I could detect a note of
+homesickness in his voice, "it depends upon the point of view. When you
+first arrive in Bali you swear that they are the prettiest
+brown-skinned women in the world. But after you have been here a year
+or so you get so tired of everything connected with the tropics that
+you don't give the best of them a second glance. For my part, give me a
+plain, wholesome-looking Dutch girl with a lusty figure and
+corn-colored hair and cheeks like apples in preference to all the
+cafe-au-lait beauties in Bali."
+
+"Au revoir," I called, as I signaled to the driver and the car leaped
+forward. "If I listen to you any longer I shall have no illusions
+left."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Save only its western end, which is covered with dense jungle inhabited
+by tigers and boa-constrictors, Bali is a vast garden, ablaze with the
+most gorgeous flowers that you can imagine and criss-crossed by a
+net-work of hard, white roads which alternately wind through huge
+cocoanut plantations or skirt interminable paddy fields. From the coast
+the ground rises steadily to a ridge formed by a central range of
+mountains, which culminate in the imposing, cloud-wreathed Peak of
+Bali, two miles high. Streams rushing down from the mountains have cut
+the rich brown loam of the lowlands into deep ravines, down which the
+brawling torrents make their way to the sea between high banks
+smothered in tropical vegetation. The most remarkable feature of the
+landscape, however, are the rice terraces, built by hand at an
+incredible cost of time and labor, which climb the slopes of the
+mountains, tier on tier, like the seats in a Roman ampitheatre,
+sometimes to a height of three thousand feet or more, constituting one
+of the engineering marvels of the world.
+
+The southern slope of the divide appeared to be much more thickly
+peopled than the northern, for, as we sped down the steep grades with
+brakes a-squeal, villages of mud-walled, straw-thatched huts became
+increasingly frequent, nor did the natives appear to be observing
+Menjepee as strictly as in the vicinity of Boeleleng, for they stood in
+the gateways of their kampongs and waved at us as we whirled past, and
+more than once we saw groups of them squatting in a circle beside the
+road, engaged in the national pastime of cock-fighting. Now we began to
+encounter the women whose beauty is famous throughout Malaysia:
+glorious, up-standing creatures with great masses of blue-black hair, a
+faint _couleur de rose_ diffusing itself through their skins of brown
+satin. They were taller than any other women I saw in Malaysia, lithe
+and supple as Ruth St. Denis, and bearing themselves with a quiet
+dignity and lissome grace. From waist to ankle they were tightly
+wrapped in _kains_ of brilliant batik, which defined, without
+revealing, every line and contour of their hips and lower limbs, but
+from the waist up they were entirely nude, barring the flame-colored
+flowers in their dusky hair.
+
+Unlike most Malays, the eyes of the Balinese, instead of being oblique,
+are set straight in the head. The nose, which frequently mars what
+would otherwise be well-nigh perfect features, is generally small and
+flat, with too-wide nostrils, though I saw a number of Balinese women
+with noses which were distinctly aquiline--the result of a strain of
+European blood, perhaps. The lips are thick, yet well formed; the teeth
+are naturally regular and white but are all too often stained scarlet
+with betel-nut, which is to the Balinese girl what chewing-gum is to
+her sister of Broadway. The complexion ranges from a deep but rosy
+brown to a _nuance_ no darker than that of a European brunette, but in
+the eyes of the Balinese themselves a golden-yellow complexion, the
+color of weak tea, is the perfection of female beauty. But the chief
+charm of these island Eves is found, after all, not in their faces but
+in their figures--slender, rounded, willowy, deep-bosomed, such as
+Botticelli loved to paint.
+
+Despite the alluring tales brought back by South Sea travelers of the
+radiant creatures who go about unclad as when they were born, I have
+myself found no spot, save only Equatorial Africa, where women dispense
+with clothing habitually and without shame. Indeed, I have seen girls
+far more scantily clad on the stage of the Ziegfeld Roof or the Winter
+Garden than I ever have in those distant lands which have not yet
+received the blessings of civilization. In most of the Polynesian
+islands the painter or photographer can usually bribe a native girl to
+disrobe for him, just as in Paris or New York he can find models who
+for a consideration will pose in the nude, but when the picture is
+completed she promptly resumes the shapeless and hideous garments of
+Mother Hubbard cut which the missionaries were guilty of introducing
+and whose all-enveloping folds, they naively believe, form a shield and
+a buckler against temptations of the flesh. But there are no
+missionaries in Bali, not one--though the Board of Foreign Missions may
+interest itself in the islanders after this book appears--and the women
+continue to dress as they should with such figures and in such a
+climate.
+
+Because of a flat tire, the driver stopped the car beside a little
+stream in which two extremely pretty girls were bathing. With the
+evening sun glinting on their brown bodies and their piquant, oval
+faces framed by the dusky torrents of their loosened hair, they looked
+like those bronze maidens which disport themselves in the fountain of
+the Piazza delle Terme in Rome, come to life. I felt certain that they
+would take to flight when Hawkinson unlimbered his motion-picture
+camera and trained it upon them, but they continued their joyous
+splashing without the slightest trace of self-consciousness or
+confusion. In fact, when a Balinese girl becomes embarrassed, she does
+not betray it by covering her body but by drawing over her face a veil
+which looks like a piece of black fishnet. Their bath completed, the
+maidens emerged from the water on to the farther bank, paused for a
+moment to arrange their hair, like wood nymphs of the Golden Age, then
+wound their gorgeous _kains_ about them and vanished amid the trees.
+From somewhere on the distant hillside came the sweet, shrill quaver of
+a reed instrument. The driver said it was a native flute, but I knew
+better. It was the pipes of Pan....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rather than that you should be scandalized when you visit Bali, let me
+make it quite clear that in matters of morality the Balinese women are
+as easy as an old shoe. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that
+they are unmoral rather than immoral. This is one of the conditions of
+life in the Insulinde which must be accepted by the traveler, just as
+he accepts as a matter of course the heat and the insects and the dirt.
+Though polygamy is practised, it is confined, because of the expense
+involved in maintaining a matrimonial stable, to the wealthier chiefs
+and other men of means. A Turkish pasha who maintained a large harem
+once told me that polygamy is as trying to the disposition as it is to
+the pocketbook, because of the incessant jealousies and bickerings
+among the wives. And I suppose the same conditions obtain in the
+seraglios of Bali. The former rajah of Kloeng Kloeng, now known as the
+Regent, a stout and jovial old gentleman arrayed in a cerise _kain_, a
+sky-blue head-cloth, and a white jacket with American twenty-dollar
+gold pieces for buttons, told me with a touch of pride that he had
+twenty-five wives in his harem. But his pride subsided like a pricked
+toy balloon when the Controleur, who had overheard the boast, mentioned
+that another regent, the ruler of a district at the western end of the
+island, possessed upward of three hundred wives--of the exact number he
+was not certain as it was constantly fluctuating. To my great regret I
+could not spare the time to pay a visit to this Balinese Brigham Young.
+There were a number of questions relative to domestic economy and
+household administration which I should have liked to have asked him.
+
+Until very recent years, the young Balinese girl who married an old
+husband incurred the risk of meeting an untimely and extremely
+unpleasant end, for the island was the last stronghold of that strange
+and dreadful Hindu custom, _suttee_--the burning of widows. The last
+public _suttee_ in Bali was held as recently as 1907, but, in spite of
+the stern prohibition of the practise by the Dutch, it is said that
+some women faithful to the old customs and to their dead husbands
+continue to join the latter on the funeral pyre. In fact, the
+Controleur at Kloeng Kloeng told me that, only a few weeks before my
+arrival, two women had begged him on their knees for permission to be
+burned with the body of the dear departed, whom they wished to share in
+death as in life.
+
+The Balinese, being devout Hindus, burn their dead, but the cremations
+are held only twice yearly, being observed as holidays, like
+Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. If a man dies shortly before the
+cremation season is due, his remains are kept in the house until they
+can be incinerated with befitting ceremony--though I imagine that, in
+view of the torrid climate, the members of his family perforce move
+elsewhere for the time being--but if he is so inconsiderate as to
+postpone his dying until after one of these semi-annual burnings, it
+becomes necessary to bury him. In a land where the thermometer
+frequently registers 100 and above, you couldn't keep a corpse around
+the house for several months, could you? When cremation day comes round
+again, however, he is dug up, taken to a temple and burned. There is no
+escaping the funeral-pyre in Bali. As we were leaving one of the
+cremation places I overheard the Doctor irreverently humming a
+paraphrase of a song which was very popular in the army during the war:
+
+    "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
+    If the grave don't get you the wood-pile must."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unlike the South Sea islanders, who are rapidly dying out as the result
+of diseases introduced by Europeans, the population of Bali--which is
+one of the most densely peopled regions in the world, with 325
+inhabitants to the square mile--is rapidly increasing, having more than
+doubled in the last fifteen years. This is due in some measure, no
+doubt, to the climate, which, though hot, is healthy save in certain
+low-lying coastal districts, but much more, I imagine, to the fact that
+there are scarcely a hundred Europeans on the island, and that, as
+there are no harbors worthy the name, European vessels rarely touch
+there. It is well for the Balinese that their enchanted island has no
+harbors, for harbors mean ships, and ships mean white men, and white
+men, particularly sailors, all too often leave undesirable mementoes
+of their visits behind them.
+
+The men of Bali are a fine, strong, dignified, rather haughty race, fit
+mates in physique for their women. They are considerably taller than
+any other Malays whom I saw and possess less Mongoloid and Negroid
+characteristics, these being subdued by some strong primeval alien
+strain which is undoubtedly Caucasian. Though now peaceable enough,
+every Balinese man carries in his sash a kris--the long, curly-bladed
+knife which is the national weapon of Malaysia. Most of the krises that
+I examined were more ornamental than serviceable, some of them having
+scabbards of solid gold and hilts set with precious stones. Moreover,
+they are worn against the middle of the back, where they must be
+difficult to reach in an emergency. I imagine that the kris, universal
+though it is, serves as a symbol of former militancy rather than as a
+fighting weapon, just as the buttons at the back of our tailcoats serve
+to remind us that their original purpose was to support a sword-belt.
+But, though the Balinese have made no serious trouble for their Dutch
+rulers for upward of a decade, they long resisted European domination,
+as evidenced by the four bloody uprisings in the last three-quarters of
+a century--the last was in 1908--which were suppressed only with
+difficulty and considerable loss of life. When the shells from the
+gunboats began to burst over their towns, the rajahs, recognizing that
+their cause was lost, nerved themselves with opium and committed the
+traditional _puputan_, or, with their wives, threw themselves on the
+Dutch bayonets. But, though the Balinese have bowed perforce to the
+authority of the stout young woman who dwells in The Hague, they have
+none of the cringing servility, that look of pathetic appeal such as
+you see in the eyes of dogs which have been mistreated, so
+characteristic of the Javanese.
+
+Though the three-quarters of a million natives in Bali have behind them
+the traditions of countless wars, the Dutch, who seem to possess an
+extraordinary talent for governing brown-skinned peoples, maintain
+their authority with a few companies of native soldiery officered by a
+handful of Europeans. The success of the Dutch in ruling Malays, who
+are notoriously turbulent and warlike, is largely due to the fact that,
+so long as the customs of the natives are not inimical to good
+government or to their own well-being, they studiously refrain from
+interfering with them. Nor is there the same social chasm separating
+Europeans and natives in the Insulinde which is found in Britain's
+Eastern possessions. Were a British official in India to marry a native
+woman he would be promptly recalled in disgrace; if a Dutch official
+marries a native woman she is accorded the same social recognition as
+her husband. Though in the old days probably ninety per cent of the
+Dutch officials and planters in the Insulinde lived with native women,
+these unions are constantly decreasing, today probably not more than
+ten per cent of the Europeans thus solving their domestic problems. It
+struck me, moreover, that the Dutch are more in sympathy with their
+native subjects, that they understand them better, than the British. It
+is a remarkable thing, when you stop to think of it, that a little
+nation like Holland, with a colonial army of less than thirty-five
+thousand men and no fleet worthy of the name, should be able to
+maintain its authority over fifty millions of natives, ten thousand
+miles away, with so little friction.
+
+We passed the night in the small rest-house at Den Pasar which the
+government maintains for the use of its officials. I have said that we
+_passed_ the night, mark you; I refuse to toy with the truth to the
+extent of saying that we slept. Why they call it a rest-house I cannot
+imagine. Never that I can recall, save only in a zoo, have I found
+myself on such intimate terms with so many forms of animal life as in
+that _passangrahan_. Cockroaches nearly as large as mice (before you
+raise your eyebrows at this statement talk with anyone who has traveled
+in Malaysia), spiders, centipedes, ants and beetles made my bedroom an
+entomologist's paradise. Some large winged animal, presumably a
+fruit-bat or a flying-fox, entered by the window and circled the room
+like an airplane; and, judging from the sounds which proceeded from
+beneath the bed, I gathered that the room also harbored a snake or a
+large rat, though which I was not certain as I saw no reason for
+investigating. A family of lizards disported themselves on the ceiling
+and when I menaced them with a stick they departed so hastily that one
+of them abandoned his tail, which dropped on the wash-stand. A
+squadron of mosquitoes--a sort of _escadrille de chasse_, as it
+were--kept me awake until daybreak, when they were relieved by a
+skirmishing party of _cimex lectulariae_, which are well known in
+America under a shorter and less polite name. Fishes only were absent,
+but I am convinced that their neglect of me was due to ignorance of my
+presence. Had they known of it I feel certain that the climbing fish,
+which is one of the curiosities of these waters, would have flopped on
+to my pillow.
+
+Upon our arrival at Kloeng Kloeng I found the Controleur, who had been
+notified by the Resident at Singaradja of our coming, had made
+arrangements for an elaborate series of native dances to be given that
+afternoon on the lawn of the residency. It is a simple matter to
+arrange a dance in Bali, for every village, no matter how small,
+supports a ballet, and usually a troupe of actors as well, just as an
+American community supports a baseball team. The money for the gorgeous
+costumes worn by the dancers is raised by local subscription and the
+ballet frequently visits the neighboring towns to give exhibitions or
+to engage in competitions, contingents of the dancers' townspeople
+usually going along to root for them.
+
+The Balinese dances require many years of arduous and constant
+training. A girl is scarcely out of the sling by which Balinese
+children are carried on the mother's back before, under the tutelage of
+her mother, who has herself perhaps been a dancing-girl in her time,
+she begins the severe course of gymnastics and muscle training which
+are the foundations of all Eastern dances. From infancy until, not yet
+in her teens, she becomes a member of the village ballet or enters the
+harem of a local rajah, she is as assiduously trained and groomed as a
+race-horse entered for the Derby. From morning until night, day after
+day, year after year, the muscles of her shoulders, her back, her hips,
+her legs, her abdomen are suppled and developed until they will respond
+to her wishes as readily as her slender, henna-stained fingers.
+
+The lawn on which the dances were held sloped down, like a great green
+rug, from the squat white residency to an ancient Hindu temple, whose
+walls, of red-brown sandstone, were transformed by the setting sun into
+rosy coral. The Bali temples are but open courtyards enclosed within
+high walls, their entrances flanked by towering gate-posts, grotesquely
+carved. Within the courtyards, which have arrangements for the
+cremation of the dead as well as for the refreshment of the living, are
+numerous roofed platforms and small, elevated shrines, reached by steep
+flights of narrow steps, every square inch being covered with intricate
+and fantastic carvings. These carvings are for the most part
+beautifully colored, so that, when illuminated by the sun, they look
+like those porcelain bas-reliefs which one buys in Florence, or, if the
+colors are undimmed by age, like Persian enamel. In some of the temples
+which I visited, the colorings had been ruthlessly obliterated by coats
+of whitewash, but in those communities where Hinduism is still a
+living force, the inhabitants frequently impoverish themselves in
+order to provide the gold-leaf with which the interiors of the shrines
+are covered, just as the congregations of American churches praise God
+with carven pulpits and windows of stained glass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stage setting for the dances consisted of a small, portable pagoda,
+heavily gilded and set with mirrors--nothing more, unless you include
+the backdrop provided by the Indian Ocean. On either side of the
+pagoda, which was set in the centre of the lawn, squatted a motionless
+native holding a long-handled parasol of gold, known as a _payong_. So
+far as I could discover, the purpose of these parasol holders was
+purely ornamental, like the palms that flank a concert stage, for they
+never stirred throughout the four hours that the dancing lasted. The
+dancers themselves were extremely young--barely in their teens, I
+should say--but I could only guess their ages as their faces were so
+heavily enameled that they might as well have been wearing masks. Their
+costumes, faithful reproductions of those depicted in the carvings on
+the walls of the temples, were of a gorgeousness which made the
+creations of Bakst seem colorless and tame: tightly-wound _kains_ of
+cloth-of-gold over which were draped silks in all the colors of the
+chromatic scale. Their necks and arms, which were stained a saffron
+yellow, were hung with jewels or near-jewels. On their heads were
+towering, indescribable affairs of feathers, flowers and tinsel,
+faintly reminiscent of those fantastic headdresses affected by the
+lamented Gaby. The music was furnished by a _gamelan_, or orchestra, of
+half-a-hundred musicians playing on drums, gongs and reeds, with a few
+xylophones thrown in for good measure. I am no judge of music, but it
+seemed to me that when the _gamelan_ was working at full speed it
+compared very favorably with an American jazz orchestra.
+
+All the dances illustrated episodes from the Ramayana or other Hindu
+mythologies localized, the story being recited in a monotonous,
+sing-song chant, in the old Kawi or sacred language, by a professional
+accompanist who sat, cross-legged, in the orchestra. As a result of
+constant drilling since babyhood, the Balinese dancers attain a
+perfection of technique unknown on the western stage, but the visitor
+who expects to see the verve and abandon of the Indian dances as
+portrayed by Ruth St. Denis is certain to be disappointed. To tell the
+truth, the dances of Bali, like those I saw in Java and Cambodia, are
+rather tedious performances, beautiful, it is true, but almost totally
+lacking in that fire and spirit which we associate with the East. It is
+probable, however, that I am not sufficiently educated in the art of
+Terpsichore to appreciate them. It was as though I had been given a
+selection from _Die Niebelungen Lied_ when I had looked for rag-time.
+But the natives are passionately fond of them, it being by no means
+uncommon, I was told, for a dance to begin in the late afternoon and
+continue without interruption until daybreak. The Controleur told me
+that he planned to utilize his next long leave in taking a native
+ballet to Europe, and, perhaps, to the United States. So, should you
+see the Bali dancers advertised to appear on Broadway, I strongly
+advise you not to miss them.
+
+Instead of going to Palm Beach next winter, or to Havana, or to the
+Riviera, why don't you go out to Bali and see its lovely women, its
+curious customs, and its superb scenery for yourself? You can get there
+in about eight weeks, provided you make good connections at Singapore
+and Surabaya. With no railways, no street-cars, no hotels, no
+newspapers, no theatres, no movies, it is a very restful place. You can
+lounge the lazy days away in the cool depths of flower-smothered
+verandahs, with a brown house-boy pulling at the punkah-rope and
+another bringing you cool drinks in tall, thin glasses--for the
+Volstead Act does not run west of the 160th meridian--or you can stroll
+in the moonlight on the long white beaches with lithe brown beauties
+who wear passion-flowers in their raven hair. Or, should you weary of
+so _dolce far niente_ an existence, you can sail across to Java with
+the opium-runners in their fragile _prahaus_, or climb a two-mile-high
+volcano, or in the jungles at the western extremity of the island stalk
+the clouded tiger. And you can wear pajamas all day long without
+apologizing. Everything considered, Bali offers more inducements than
+any place I know to the tired business man or the absconding bank
+cashier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE GARDEN THAT IS JAVA
+
+
+I entered Java through the back door, as it were. That is to say,
+instead of landing at Batavia, which is the capital of Netherlands
+India, and presenting my letters of introduction to the
+Governor-General, Count van Limburg Stirum, I landed at Pasuruan, at
+the eastern extremity of the six-hundred-mile-long island. It was as
+though a foreigner visiting the United States were to land at Sag
+Harbor, on the far end of Long Island, instead of at New York. I
+learned afterward, from the American Consul-General at Batavia, that in
+doing this I committed a breach of etiquette. Though the Dutch make no
+official objections to foreigners landing where they please in their
+Eastern possessions, they much prefer to have them ring the front
+doorbell, hand in their cards, and give the authorities an opportunity
+to look them over. In these days, with Bolshevik emissaries stealthily
+at work throughout the archipelago, the Dutch feel that it behooves
+them to inspect strangers with some care before giving them the run of
+the islands.
+
+We landed at Pasuruan because it is the port nearest to Bromo, the most
+famous of the great volcanoes of Eastern Java, but as there is no
+harbor, only a shallow, unprotected roadstead, it was necessary for
+the _Negros_ to anchor nearly three miles offshore. So shallow is the
+water, indeed, that it is a common sight at low tide to see the native
+fishermen standing knee-deep in the sea a mile from land. Until quite
+recently debarkation at Pasuruan was an extremely uncomfortable and
+undignified proceeding, the passengers on the infrequent vessels which
+touch there being carried ashore astride of a rail borne on the
+shoulders of two natives. A coat of tar and feathers was all that was
+needed to make the passenger feel that he was a victim of the Ku Klux
+Klan. But a narrow channel has now been dredged through the sand-bar so
+that row-boats and launches of shallow draught can make their way up
+the squdgy creek to the custom house at high tide.
+
+Until half a century ago Pasuruan was counted as one of the four great
+cities of Java, but with the extension of the railway system throughout
+the island and the development of the harbor at Surabaya, forty miles
+away, its importance steadily diminished, though traces of its one-time
+prosperity are still visible in its fine streets and beautiful houses,
+most of which, however, are now occupied by Chinese. Perhaps the most
+interesting feature of the place today is found in the costumes of the
+native women, particularly the girls, who wear a kind of shirt and veil
+combining all the colors of the rainbow.
+
+From Pasuruan to Tosari, which is a celebrated hill-station and the
+gateway to the volcanoes of eastern Java, is about twenty-five miles,
+with an excellent motor road all the way. For the first ten miles the
+road, here a wide avenue shaded by tamarinds and djati trees, runs
+across a steaming plain, between fields of rice and cane, but after
+Pasrepan the ascent of the mountains begins. The highway now becomes
+extremely steep and narrow, with countless hairpin turns, though all
+danger of collision is eliminated by the regulations which permit no
+down-traffic in the morning and no up-traffic in the afternoon. During
+the final fifteen miles, in which is made an ascent of more than six
+thousand feet, one has the curious experience of passing, in a single
+hour, from the torrid to the temperate zone. In the earlier stages of
+the ascent the road zigzags upward through magnificent tropical
+forests, where troops of huge gray apes chatter in the upper branches
+and grass-green parrots flash from tree to tree. Palms of all
+varieties, orchids, tree-ferns, bamboos, bananas, mangoes, gradually
+give way to slender pines; the heavy odors of the tropics are replaced
+by a pleasant balsamic fragrance; the hillsides become clothed with
+familiar flowers--daisies, buttercups, heliotrope, roses, fuchsias,
+geraniums, cannas, camelias, Easter lilies, azaleas, morning glories,
+until the mountain-slopes look like a vast old-fashioned garden. In the
+fields, instead of rice and cane, strawberries, potatoes, cabbages,
+onions, and corn, are seen. As the road ascends the air becomes cold
+and very damp; rain-clouds gather on the mountains and there are
+frequent showers. At one point the mist became so thick that I could
+scarcely discern the figure of my chauffeur and we were compelled to
+advance with the utmost caution, for at many points the road, none too
+wide at best, falls sheer away in dizzy precipices. But as suddenly as
+it came, just as suddenly did the mist lift, revealing the great plain
+of Pasuruan, a mile below, stretching away, away, until its green was
+blended with the turquoise of the Java Sea. It is a veritable Road of a
+Thousand Wonders, but there are spots where those who do not relish
+great heights and narrow spaces will explain that they prefer to walk
+so that they may gather wild-flowers.
+
+Were it not for the wild appearance of its Tenngri mountaineers,
+Tosari, which is the best health resort in Java, might be readily
+mistaken for an Alpine village, for it has the same steep and
+straggling streets, the same weather-beaten chalets clinging
+precariously to the rocky hillsides, the same quaint shops, their
+windows filled with souvenirs and postcards, the same glorious view of
+green valleys and majestic peaks, the same crisp, cool air, as
+exhilarating as champagne. The Sanatarium Hotel, which is always filled
+with sallow-faced officials and planters from the plains, consists of a
+large main building built in the Swiss chalet style and numerous
+bungalows set amid a gorgeous garden of old-fashioned flowers. Every
+bedroom has a bath--but such a bath!--a damp, gloomy, cement-lined cell
+having in one corner a concrete cistern, filled with ice-cold mountain
+water. The only furniture is a tin dipper. And it takes real courage,
+let me tell you, to ladle that icy water over your shivering person in
+the chill of a mountain morning.
+
+The mountain slopes in the vicinity of Tosari are dotted with the
+wretched wooden huts of the native tribe called Tenggerese, the only
+race in Java which has remained faithful to Buddhism. There are only
+about five thousand of them and they keep to themselves in their own
+community, shut out from the rest of the world. They are shorter and
+darker than the natives of the plains and, like most savages, are lazy,
+ignorant and incredibly filthy. Because the air is cool and dry, and
+water rather scarce, they never bathe, preferring to remain dirty. As a
+result the aroma of their villages is a thing not soon forgotten. The
+doors of their huts, which have no windows, all face Mount Bromo, where
+their guardian deity, Dewa Soelan Iloe, is supposed to dwell. Once each
+year the Tenggerese hold a great feast at the foot of the volcano, and,
+until the Dutch authorities suppressed the custom, were accustomed to
+conclude these ceremonies by tossing a living child into the crater as
+a sacrifice to their god. Though an ancient tradition forbids the
+cultivation of rice by the Tenggerese, they earn a meager living by
+raising vegetables, which they carry on horseback to the markets on the
+plain, and by acting as guides and coolies. They are incredibly strong
+and tireless, the two men who carried Hawkinson's heavy motion-picture
+outfit to the summit of Bromo making the round trip of forty miles in a
+single day over some of the steepest trails I have ever seen.
+
+Growing on the mountainsides about Tosari are many bushes of thorn
+apple, called _Datara alba_, their white, funnel-shaped flowers being
+sometimes twelve inches long. From the seeds of the thorn apple the
+Tenggerese make a sort of flour which is strongly narcotic in its
+effect. Because of this quality, it is occasionally utilized by
+burglars, who blow it into a room which they propose to rob, through
+the key-hole, thereby drugging the occupants into insensibility and
+making it easy for the burglars to gain access to the room and help
+themselves to its contents. Which reminds me that in some parts of
+Malaysia native desperadoes are accustomed to pound the fronds of
+certain varieties of palm to the consistency of powdered glass. They
+carry a small quantity of this powder with them and when they meet
+anyone against whom they have a grudge they blow it into his face. The
+sharp particles, being inhaled, quickly affect the lungs and death
+usually results. A friend of mine, for many years an American consul in
+the East, once had the misfortune to be next to the victim of such an
+attack, and himself inhaled a small quantity of the deadly powder. The
+lung trouble which shortly developed hastened, if it did not actually
+cause, his death.
+
+That we might reach the Moengal Pass at daybreak in order to see the
+superb panorama of Bromo and the adjacent volcanoes as revealed by the
+rising sun, we started from Tosari at two o'clock in the morning. Our
+mounts were wiry mountain ponies, hardy as mustangs and sure-footed as
+goats. And it was well that they were, for the trail was the steepest
+and narrowest that I have ever seen negotiated by horses. The Bright
+Angel Trail, which leads from the rim of the Grand Canon down to the
+Colorado, is a Central Park bridle-path in comparison. In places the
+grade rose to fifty per cent and in many of the descents I had to lean
+back until my head literally touched the pony's tail. It recalled the
+days, long past, when, as a student at the Italian Cavalry School, I
+was called upon to ride down the celebrated precipice at Tor di Quinto.
+But there, if your mount slipped, a thick bed of sawdust was awaiting
+you to break the fall. Here there was nothing save jagged rocks. We
+started in pitch darkness and for three hours rode through a night so
+black that I could not see my pony's ears. The trail, which in places
+was barely a foot wide, ran for miles along a sort of hogback, the
+ground falling sheer away on either side. It was like riding
+blindfolded along the ridgepole of a church, and, had my pony slipped,
+the results would have been the same.
+
+But the trials of the ascent were forgotten in the overwhelming
+grandeur of the scene which burst upon us as, just at sunrise, we drew
+rein at the summit of the Moengal Pass. Never, not in the Rockies, nor
+the Himalayas, nor the Alps, have I seen anything more sublime. At our
+feet yawned a vast valley, or rather a depression, like an excavation
+for some titanic building, hemmed in by perpendicular cliffs a thousand
+feet in height. Wafted by the morning breeze a mighty river of clouds
+poured slowly down the valley, filling it with gray-white fleece from
+brim to brim. Slowly the clouds dissolved before the mounting sun until
+there lay revealed below us the floor of the depression, known as the
+Sand Sea, its yellow surface, smooth as the beach at Ormond, slashed
+across by the beds of dried-up streams and dotted with clumps of
+stunted vegetation. Like the Sahara it is boundless--a symbol of
+solitude and desolation. When, in the early morning or toward
+nightfall, the conical volcanoes cast their lengthening shadows upon
+this expanse of sand, it reminds one of the surface of the moon as seen
+through a telescope. But at midday, beneath the pitiless rays of the
+equatorial sun, it resembles an enormous pool of molten brass, the
+illusion being heightened by the heat-waves which flicker and dance
+above it. From the center of the Sand Sea rises the extinct crater of
+Batok, a sugar-loaf cone whose symmetrical slopes are so corrugated by
+hardened rivulets of lava that they look for all the world like folds
+of gray-brown cloth. Beyond Batok we could catch a glimpse of Bromo
+itself, belching skyward great clouds of billowing smoke and steam,
+while from its crater came a rumble as of distant thunder. And far in
+the distance, its purple bulk faintly discernible against the turquoise
+sky, rose Smeroe, the greatest volcano of them all.
+
+[Illustration: The volcano of Bromo, Eastern Java, in eruption]
+
+The descent from the Moengal Pass to the Sand Sea is so steep that it
+is necessary to make it on foot, even the nimble-footed ponies having
+all they can do to scramble down the precipitous and slippery trail. It
+is well to cross the Sand Sea as soon after daybreak as possible, for
+by mid-morning the heat is like a blast from an open furnace-door. It
+is a four mile ride across the Sand Sea to the lower slopes of Bromo,
+but the sand is firm and hard and we let the ponies break into a
+gallop--an exhilarating change from the tedious crawl necessary in the
+mountains. Then came a stiff climb of a mile or more over fantastically
+shaped hills of lava, the final ascent to the brink of the crater being
+accomplished by a flight of two hundred and fifty stone steps. The
+crater of Bromo is shaped like a huge funnel, seven hundred feet deep
+and nearly half a mile across. From it belch unceasingly dark gray
+clouds of smoke and sulphurous fumes, while now and then large rocks
+are spewed high in the air only to fall back again, rolling down the
+inside slope of the crater with a thunderous rumble, as though the god
+whom the Tenggerese believe dwells on the mountain was playing at
+ten-pins. Deep down at the bottom of the crater jets of greenish-yellow
+sulphur flicker in a cauldron of molten lava, from which a red flame
+now and then leaps upward, like an out-thrust serpent's tongue. No
+wonder that the ignorant mountaineers look on Bromo with fear and
+veneration, for it huddles there, in the midst of that awful solitude,
+like some monster in its death agony, gasping and groaning.
+
+The transition from the lofty solitudes of the Tengger Mountains to the
+steaming, teeming thoroughfares of Surabaya, the metropolis of eastern
+Java, is not a pleasant one. For Surabaya--there are no less than
+half-a-dozen ways of spelling its name--though the greatest trading
+port in Java, from the point of view of the visitor is not an
+attractive city. Neither is it a healthy place, for it has a hot,
+humid, sticky climate, it lacks good drinking water and enjoys no
+refreshing breeze; mosquitoes feed on one's body and red ants on one's
+belongings; malaria and typhoid are prevalent and even bubonic plague
+is not unknown, the combined effect of all these showing in the sallow
+and enervated faces of its inhabitants. Yet it is a bustling,
+up-and-doing city, as different from phlegmatic, conservative old
+Batavia as Los Angeles is from Boston.
+
+Unlike the houses of Batavia, which stand far back from the street in
+lovely gardens, the houses of Surabaya are built directly on the
+street, with their gardens at the back. Most of the houses of the
+better class are in the Dutch colonial style--low and white with green
+blinds and across the front a stately row of columns. Every house is
+marked with a huge signboard bearing the number and the owner's name,
+thus making it easy for the stranger to find the one for which he is
+looking. There are no sidewalks and, as a consequence, walking is
+anything but pleasant, the streets being deep in dust during the dry
+season and equally deep in mud during the rains. I do not recall ever
+having seen a city of its size with so much wheeled traffic. Indeed,
+the scene on the Simpang Road about three in the afternoon, when the
+merchants are returning to their offices after the midday siesta,
+resembles that on Fifth Avenue at the rush hour, the broad
+thoroughfare being literally packed from curb to curb with vehicles of
+every description: the ramshackle little victorias known as _mylords_,
+the high, two-wheeled dog-carts, with their seats back to back, called
+_sados_, the two-pony cabs termed _kosongs_, creaking bullock carts
+with wheels higher than a man, hand-cars and rickshaws hauled by
+dripping coolies, and other coolies staggering along beneath the weight
+of burdens swinging from the carrying-poles called _pikolans_, and
+every make and model of motor-cars from ostentatious, self-important
+Rolls-Royces to busybody Fords. Standing in the middle of the roadway,
+controlling and directing this roaring river of traffic with surprising
+efficiency are diminutive Javanese policemen wearing blue helmets many
+sizes too large for them and armed with revolvers, swords and clubs.
+
+The port of Surabaya, which is the busiest in the entire Insulinde, is
+four miles from the business section of the city, with which it is
+connected by a splendid asphalt highway lined by huge warehouses,
+factories, godowns and oil-tanks, many of them bearing familiar
+American names. In fact, one of the first things to attract my
+attention in Java was the great variety of American articles on sale
+and in use--motor cars, tires, typewriters, office supplies, cameras,
+phonographs, agricultural machinery of all descriptions.
+
+More than a tenth of Surabaya's population is Chinese and their
+commercial influence dominates the whole city. They have the finest
+residences, the most luxurious clubs, the largest shops, the
+handsomest motor cars. I was shown a row of warehouses extending along
+the canal for one long block which are the property of a single
+Chinese. Wherever I traveled in the Indies I was impressed by the
+business acumen and success of these impassive, industrious sons of the
+Flowery Kingdom. They are the Greeks of the Far East but without the
+Greek's unscrupulousness and lack of dependability. A Chinese will not
+hesitate to take advantage of you in a business deal, but if he once
+gives you his word he will always keep it, no matter at what cost to
+himself, and if you should leave your pocketbook in his shop he will
+come hurrying after you to restore it. The Chinese living in the Indies
+are uniformly prosperous--many of them are millionaires--they have
+their own clubs and chambers of commerce and charitable organizations;
+they not infrequently control the finances of the districts in which
+they live and, generally speaking, they make excellent citizens.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Java has almost exactly the same area--50,000 square miles--and the
+same population--34,000,000--as England. Agriculturally, it is the
+richest country of its size in the world. Because I wished to visit the
+great tea and coffee and indigo plantations of its interior and to see
+its palaces and temples and monuments, I decided to traverse the island
+from end to end by train and motor car. Accordingly we left the
+_Negros_ at Surabaya, directing Captain Galvez to pick us up a
+fortnight later at Batavia, at the other end of the island.
+
+There are at present more than three thousand miles of railways in
+operation in Java, about two-thirds of which are the property of the
+government. With a few exceptions, the lines are narrow gauge. The
+railway carriages are a curious combination of English, Swiss and
+American construction, being divided into compartments, which are
+separated by swinging half-doors, like those which used to be
+associated with saloons. The seats in the second-class compartments,
+which are covered with cane, are decidedly more comfortable than those
+of the first class, which are upholstered in leather. Owing to the
+excessive heat and humidity, the leather has the annoying habit of
+adhering to one's clothing, so that you frequently leave the train
+after a long journey with a section of the seat-covering sticking to
+your trousers or with a section of your trousers sticking to the seat.
+To avoid the discomfort of the midday heat, the long-distance express
+trains usually start at daybreak and reach their destinations at noon,
+which, though doubtless a sensible custom, necessitates the traveler
+arising when it is still dark. The express trains have dining cars, in
+which a meal of sorts can be had for two guilders (about eighty cents)
+and the first and second-class carriages are equipped with electric
+fans and screens. In spite of these conveniences, however, travel in
+Java is hot and dusty and generally disagreeable. After a railway
+journey one needs a bath, a shave, a haircut, a shampoo, a massage, and
+a complete outfit of fresh clothes before feeling respectable again.
+
+In many respects, motoring is more comfortable than railway travel. The
+roads throughout the island are excellent and have been carefully
+marked by the Java Motor Club, though fast driving is made dangerous by
+the bullock carts, pack trains and carabaos, which pay no attention to
+the rules of the road. Nor is motoring particularly expensive, for an
+excellent seven-passenger car of a well-known American make can be
+hired for forty dollars a day. Visitors to Java should bear in mind,
+however, that all their motoring and sight-seeing must be done in the
+morning, as, during the wet season, it invariably rains in torrents
+during the greater part of every afternoon.
+
+The hotels of Java, taking them by and large, are moderately good,
+while certain of them, such as the Oranje at Surabaya, the Grand at
+Djokjakarta, and the Indies at Batavia, are quite excellent in spots,
+with orchestras, iced drinks, electric fans, and well-cooked food.
+Though every room has a bath--a necessity in such a climate--tubs are
+quite unknown, their place being taken by showers, or, in the simpler
+hostleries, by barrels of water and dippers. The mattresses and pillows
+appeared to be filled with asphalt, though it should be remembered that
+a soft bed is unendurable in the tropics. Every bed is provided with a
+cylindrical bolster, six feet long and about fifteen inches in
+diameter, which serves to keep the sheet from touching the body. They
+are known as "Dutch widows."
+
+If you are fond of good coffee, I should strongly advise you to take
+your own with you when you go to Java. From my boyhood "Old Government
+Java" had been a synonym in our household for the finest coffee grown,
+so my astonishment and disappointment can be imagined when, at my first
+breakfast in Java, there was set before me a cup containing a dubious
+looking syrup, like those used at American soda-water fountains, the
+cup then being filled up with hot milk. The Germans never would have
+complained about their war-time coffee, made from chicory and acorns,
+had they once tasted the Java product. Yet I was assured that this was
+the choicest coffee grown in Java. I might add that, as a result of a
+blight which all but ruined the industry in the '70s, fifty-two per
+cent of the total acreage of coffee plantations in the island is now
+planted with the African species, called _Coffea robusta_, and thirteen
+per cent with another African species, _Coffea liberia_, and the rest
+with Japanese and other varieties. Though the term "Mocha and Java" is
+still used by the trade in the United States, few Americans of the
+present generation have ever tasted either, for virtually no Mocha
+coffee and very little Java have been imported into this country for
+many years.
+
+The lazy, leisurely, luxurious existence led by the great Dutch
+planters in Java is in many respects a counterpart of that led by the
+wealthy planters of our own South before the Civil War. Dwelling in
+stately mansions set in the midst of vast estates, waited upon by
+retinues of native servants, they exercise much the same arbitrary
+authority over the thousands of brown men who work their coffee, sugar
+and indigo plantations that the cotton-growers of the old South
+exercised over their slaves. Indeed, it was not until 1914 that a form
+of peonage which had long been authorized in Java was abolished by law,
+for up to that year private landowners had the right to enforce from
+all the laborers on their estates one day's gratuitous work out of
+seven.
+
+There are no shrewder or more capable business men to be found anywhere
+than the Dutch traders and merchants in Java. Many of the great trading
+houses of the Dutch Indies have remained the property of the same
+family for generations, their staffs being as carefully trained for the
+business as the Dutch officials are trained for the colonial service.
+The young men come out from Holland as cadets with the intention of
+spending the remainder of their lives in the Insulinde, studying the
+native languages and acquainting themselves with native prejudices,
+predilections and customs. They are usually blessed with a phlegmatic
+temperament, well suited to life in the tropics, take life easily, live
+in considerable luxury, play a little tennis, grow fat, spend their
+afternoons in pajamas and slippers, stroll down to the local Concordia
+Club in the evenings to sit at small tables on the terrace and drink
+enormous quantities of beer and listen to the band, not infrequently
+marry native women, and often amass great fortunes.
+
+Though the Javanese peasant is, from necessity, industrious, the upper
+classes, particularly the nobles, are effeminate, indolent, decadent,
+and servile. Their amusements are cock-fighting, dancing, shadow
+plays, and gambling, and they lead an utterly worthless existence which
+the Dutch do nothing to discourage. Their Mohammedanism is decadent and
+has none of the virility which distinguishes those followers of Islam
+who dwell in western lands. Though there is no denying that the natives
+are immeasurably more prosperous, on the whole, than before the white
+man came, the Dutch have done little if anything to improve their
+living conditions. True, their rule is a just and a not unkind one;
+they have built roads and railways, but this was done in order to open
+up the island; and they have established a number of industrial and
+technical schools, but there is no system of compulsory education, and
+no systematic attempt has been made to ameliorate the condition of the
+great brown mass of the people. I do not think that I am doing them an
+injustice when I assert that the Dutch are administrators rather than
+altruists, that they are more concerned in maintaining a just and
+stable government in their insular possessions, and in increasing their
+productivity, than they are in improving the moral, mental, and
+material condition of the natives.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lying squarely in the middle of Java are the _Vorstenlanden_, "the
+Lands of the Princes"--Soerakarta and Djokjakarta--the most curious, as
+they are the most picturesque, states in the entire Insulinde. But,
+because in their form of government and the lives and customs of their
+inhabitants they are so vastly different from the other portions of
+the island, I feel that they are deserving of a chapter to themselves
+and hence shall omit any account of them here.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bandoeng, the prosperous and extremely up-to-date capital of the
+Preanger Regencies, is the fifth largest city in Java, being exceeded
+in population only by Batavia, Surabaya, Surakarta and Samarang. The
+city, which is the healthiest and most modern in Java, stands in the
+middle of a great plain, 2300 feet above the sea, having, therefore, a
+delightful all-the-year-round climate. It has excellent electric
+lighting, water and sanitary systems, miles of well-paved and shaded
+streets, and many beautiful residences--the finest I saw in
+Malaysia--set in the midst of charming gardens. It is planned to remove
+the seat of government from Batavia to Bandoeng in the not far distant
+future and the handsome buildings which will eventually house the
+various departments are rapidly nearing completion. When they are
+completed Bandoeng will be one of the finest, if not the finest
+colonial capital in the world. But, attractive though the city is, it
+holds nothing of particular interest to the casual visitor unless it be
+the quinine factory. This company seems likely to succeed in cornering
+the supply of Javanese cinchona bark and is fast building up a world
+market for its product. The cinchona tree, from which the bark is
+obtained, was first introduced from South America in the middle of the
+last century and is now widely grown throughout the Preanger Regencies,
+both by the government and by private planters. After six or seven
+years the tree is sufficiently matured for the removal of its bark,
+which, after being carefully dried, sorted, and baled, is shipped to
+the factory in Bandoeng, where it is manufactured into the quinine of
+commerce. The process of manufacture is a secret one, which explains,
+though it does not excuse, the extreme discourtesy shown by the
+management toward foreigners desiring to visit the plant.
+
+It takes three and a half hours by express train from Bandoeng to
+Buitenzorg, the summer capital of the Indies, and the journey is one of
+the pleasantest in Java, the railway being bordered for miles by
+marvellously constructed rice terraces which climb the slopes of the
+Gedei, tier on tier, transforming the mountainsides into a series of
+hanging gardens. When the shallow, water-filled terraces are
+illuminated by the tropic sun, they look for all the world like a
+titanic stairway of silver ascending to the heavens. Take my word for
+it, the rice terraces of the Preangers are in themselves worth
+traveling the length of Java to see.
+
+Though Batavia is the official capital of Netherlands India, the
+hill-station of Buitenzorg, some twenty miles inland, is the actual
+seat of government and the residence of the Governor-General.
+Buitenzorg--the name means "free from care"--is to Java what Simla is
+to India, what Baguio is, in a lesser degree, to the Philippines. It
+has often been compared to Versailles, and, in its pleasant existence,
+in the enchanting effects which have been produced by its landscape
+gardeners, in its great white palace even, one can trace some slight
+resemblance to the famous home of le Roi Soleil. Buitenzorg is
+conspicuously different from other Javanese cities, partly because,
+being the seat of government, its European quarter is exceptionally
+extensive, but primarily because it boasts the famous Botanical
+Gardens, in many respects the finest in the world. Its avenues, shaded
+by splendid trees, are lined with charming, white-walled villas, the
+residences of the government officials and of retired officers and
+merchants, set far back in lovely, fragrant gardens. The palace of the
+Governor-General, a huge, white building of classic lines, faintly
+reminiscent of the White House in Washington, is superbly situated in
+the Botanic Gardens, the rear overlooking a charming lotos pond, its
+surface covered with the huge leaves of the water-plant known as
+_Victoria Regia_, amid which numbers of white swans drift gracefully;
+while the colonnaded front commands a magnificent view of a vast deer
+park which reminds one of the stately manor parks of England.
+
+When you arrive at the Hotel Bellevue in Buitenzorg, be sure and ask
+for one of the "mountain rooms." The view which is commanded by their
+balconies has few equals in all the world. Far in the distance rises
+the majestic, cloud-wreathed cone of Salak, its wooded slopes wrapped
+in a cloak of purple-gray. From its foot, cutting a way toward
+Buitenzorg through a sea of foliage, is a ribbon of brown--the Tjidani
+River. Its banks, lined by miles of waving palms, are crowded with the
+quaint, thatched dwellings of the natives, hundreds of whom--men, women
+and children--are bathing in its water. One of the most curious and
+amusing sights in Java is that of the native women bathing in the
+streams. They enter the river wearing their sarongs, gradually raise
+them as they go deeper into the stream, slip them over their heads when
+the water has reached their armpits, and, when they have completed
+their ablutions, reverse the process, thus achieving the feat of
+bathing in full view of hundreds of spectators without the slightest
+improper revelation. Hawkinson set up his camera on the bank of the
+Tjidani and spent several hundred feet of film in recording one of
+these performances. Even the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors will
+be unable to find any objection to _that_ bathing scene.
+
+Though the gardens of Buitenzorg are a veritable treasure-house for the
+botanist and the horticulturist--for the Dutch are the best gardeners
+in the world--from the standpoint of the casual visitor they cannot
+compare, to my way of thinking, with the Peradenya Gardens of Ceylon.
+It is beyond all doubt, however, the finest collection of tropical
+trees and plants in existence. Here, besides full-grown specimens of
+every known tree of the torrid zone, are culture gardens for sugar
+cane, coffee, tea, rubber, ilang-ilang; for all the spice, gum, and
+fruit trees; for bamboo, rattan, and the hard woods, such as mahogany
+and teak--in short, for every variety of tree or plant of commercial,
+ornamental, or utilitarian value. There are also gardens for all the
+gorgeous flowers of Java: the frangipani, the wax-white, gold-centered
+flower of the dead, the red and yellow lantanas, the scarlet poinsetta,
+the crimson bougainvillea, and others in bewildering variety. There are
+greenhouses to shelter the rarer and more sensitive plants--to shelter
+them not, as in our hothouses, from the cold, but, on the contrary,
+from the heat and the withering rays of the sun. Here too is one of the
+finest collections of orchids in existence, tended by an ancient
+Javanese gardener who is as proud of his curious blooms as a trainer is
+of his race horses or a collector of his porcelains. As for the palms,
+I had no idea that so many varieties existed until I visited
+Buitenzorg--emperor palms, Areca palms, Banka palms, cocoanut palms,
+fan palms, cabbage palms, sago palms, date palms, feather palms,
+travelers' palms, oil palms, Chuson palms, climbing palms over a
+hundred feet long--palms without end, Amen. Small wonder that the palm
+is regarded with affection wherever it can be grown, for what other
+tree can furnish food, shelter, clothing, timber, fuel, building
+materials, fiber, paper, starch, sugar, oil, wax, dyes and wine?
+
+But, when all is said and done, nothing in those splendid gardens, not
+the stately avenue of kanari trees whose interlacing branches form a
+nave as awe-inspiring as that of some great cathedral, not the rare and
+curious orchids which would arouse the envy of a millionaire, appealed
+to me so powerfully as a little Grecian temple of white marble, all but
+hidden by the encircling shrubbery, which marks the sleeping-place of
+Lady Raffles, wife of that Sir Stamford Raffles who once was the
+British lieutenant-governor of Java. It pleases me to think that it is
+toward this little, moss-grown temple that the bronze statue of the
+great empire-builder, which stands on the Esplanade in Singapore, is
+peering with wistful eyes, for on its base he carved these lines:
+
+    "Oh thou whom ne'er my constant heart
+      One moment hath forgot,
+    Tho' fate severe hath bid us part
+      Yet still--forget me not."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Batavia, the capital of the Indies, is built on both banks of the
+Jacatra River, in a swampy and unhealthy plain at the head of a
+capacious bay. Just as New York is divided into the boroughs of
+Manhattan and the Bronx, so the metropolis of Netherlands India is
+divided into the districts of Batavia and Weltevreden, the suburb of
+Meester Cornelis corresponding to Brooklyn. Batavia is the business
+quarter of the city; Weltevreden the residential. The former, which is
+built on the edge of the harbor, is very thickly populated and, because
+of its lowness, very unhealthy. Only natives, Malays, Chinese and Arabs
+live here and the great European houses which were once the homes of
+the Dutch officials and merchants have either fallen into decay or have
+been converted into warehouses and shops. The Europeans now live in
+Weltevreden, or Meester Cornelis, though they have their offices in the
+lower town. Both the upper and lower towns are traversed by the
+Jacatra--sometimes called the Tjiliwoeng--from which branch canals that
+spread through the city in all directions, thereby emphasizing its
+distinctly Dutch atmosphere. The streets are for the most part straight
+and regular, being paved, as in the mother-country, with cobblestones.
+Old Batavia contains very few relics of the early days, but it is
+quaint and delightfully picturesque and its canals, though anything but
+desirable from the standpoint of health, add much to its individuality
+and charm. The most characteristic feature of Batavia, that
+distinguishes it from all other colonial cities of the East, is that in
+all its construction, both public and private, permanency seems to be
+the dominant note. The Dutch do not come to Java, as the English go to
+India and the Americans to the Philippines, in order to amass fortunes
+in a few years and then go home; they come with the intention of
+remaining. When their children grow up they are sent back to Holland to
+be educated, but, once their schooling is completed, they almost
+invariably return to the East and devote their lives to the development
+of the land in which they were born.
+
+Batavia, which means literally 'Fair meadows,' was originally called
+Jacatra. The Dutch established a trading post here in 1610, the land
+being obtained from the natives by a trick similar to that associated
+by tradition with the acquisition of the lower end of Manhattan Island
+by the founders of Nieuw Amsterdam. The Javanese, it seems, were
+reluctant to sell to the Dutch a parcel of land sufficiently large for
+the erection of a fort and trading station, but after much discussion
+they finally consented to part with as much land as could be included
+within a single bullock's hide, which was their way of saying that
+their land was not for sale. This crafty stipulation did not worry the
+equally crafty Dutch, however, for they promptly obtained the largest
+hide available, cut it into narrow strips, and, placing these end to
+end, insisted on their right to the very considerable parcel of ground
+thus enclosed under the terms of the bargain.
+
+A relic illustrative of the barbarous punishments which were in vogue
+during the colony's earlier days is to be seen by driving a short
+distance up Jacatra Road, in the lower town. Close by the ancient
+Portuguese church you will find a short section of old wall. Atop the
+wall, transfixed by a spear-point, is an object which, despite its many
+coats of whitewash, is still recognizable as a human skull. Set in the
+wall is a tablet bearing this inscription:
+
+    "In detested memory of the traitor, Peter Erberveld, who was
+    executed. No one will be permitted to build, lay bricks or plant
+    on this spot, either now or in the future.
+
+                            Batavia, April 14, 1772."
+
+Erberveld was a half-caste agitator who had conspired with certain
+disaffected natives to launch a revolt, massacre all the Dutch in
+Batavia, and have himself proclaimed king. Fortunately for the Dutch,
+the plot was betrayed through the faithlessness of a native girl with
+whom Erberveld was infatuated. Because of the imperative need of
+safeguarding the little handful of white colonists against massacre by
+the natives, it was decided that the half-caste should be punished in
+a manner which would strike fear to the hearts of the Javanese, who
+have no particular dread of death in its ordinary forms. The judges did
+their best to achieve this object, for Erberveld was sentenced to be
+impaled alive, broken on the wheel, his hands and head cut off, and his
+body quartered. Why they omitted hanging and burning from the list I
+can not imagine. The sentence was carried out--the contemporary
+accounts record that he endured his fate with silent fortitude--and his
+head is on the wall to-day. But I think that, were I the
+Governor-General of the Indies, I should have that grisly reminder of
+the bad old days taken down. Many nations have family skeletons but
+they usually prefer to keep them out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS
+
+
+Hamangkoe Boewoenoe Senopati Sahadin Panoto Gomo Kalif Patelah Kandjeng
+VII, Ruler of the World, Spike of the Universe, and Sultan of
+Djokjakarta, is an old, old man, yet his brisk walk and upright
+carriage betrayed no trace of the worries which might be expected to
+beset one who is burdened with the responsibility of supporting three
+thousand wives and concubines. When one achieves a domestic
+establishment of such proportions, however, he doubtless shifts the
+responsibility for its administration, discipline and maintenance to
+subordinates, just as the commander of a division delegates his
+authority to the officers of his staff. The Sultan, who is now in his
+eighty-ninth year, is a worthy emulator of King Solomon, the lowest
+estimate which I heard crediting him with one hundred and eighty
+children. These are the official ones, as it were. How many unofficial
+ones he has, no one knows but himself. The youngest of his children,
+now five years old, was, I imagine, a good deal of a surprise, being
+sometimes referred to by disrespectful Europeans as "the Joke of
+Djokjakarta."
+
+Djokjakarta, or Djokja, as it is commonly called, is set in the middle
+of a broad and fertile plain, at the foot of the slumbering volcano of
+Merapi, whose occasional awakenings are marked by terrific earthquakes,
+which shake the city to its foundations and usually result in
+wide-spread destruction and loss of life. It is a city of broad,
+unpaved thoroughfares, shaded by rows of majestic waringins, and lined,
+in the European quarter, by handsome one-story houses, with white
+walls, green blinds and Doric porticos. There are two hotels in the
+city, one an excellently kept and comfortable establishment, as hotels
+go in Java; a score or so of large and moderately well-stocked European
+stores, and many small shops kept by Chinese; an imposing bank of stone
+and concrete; and one of the most beautiful race-courses that I have
+ever seen, the spring race meeting at Djokja being one of the most
+brilliant social events in Java. The busiest part of the city is the
+Chinese quarter, for, throughout the Insulinde, commerce, both retail
+and wholesale, is largely in the hands of these sober, shrewd,
+hard-working yellow men, of whom there are more than three hundred
+thousand in Java alone and double that number in the archipelago.
+Beyond the European and Chinese quarters, scattered among the palms
+which form a thick fringe about the town, are the _kampongs_ of the
+Javanese themselves--clusters of bamboo-built huts, thatched with
+leaves or grass, encircled by low mud walls. Standing well back from
+the street, and separated from it by a splendid sweep of velvety lawn,
+is the Dutch residency, a dignified building whose classic lines
+reminded me of the manor houses built by the Dutch _patroons_ along
+the Hudson. A few hundred yards away stands Fort Vredenburg, a moated,
+bastioned, four-square fortification, garrisoned by half a thousand
+Dutch artillerymen, whose guns frown menacingly upon the native town
+and the palace of the Sultan. Though its walls would crumble before
+modern artillery in half an hour, it stands as a visible symbol of
+Dutch authority and as a warning to the disloyal that that authority is
+backed up by cannon.
+
+Between Fort Vredenburg and the Sultan's palace stretches the broad
+_aloun-aloun_, its sandy, sun-baked expanse broken only by a splendid
+pair of waringin-trees, clipped to resemble royal _payongs_ or
+parasols. In the old days those desiring audience with the sovereign
+were compelled to wait under these trees, frequently for days and
+occasionally for weeks, until "the Spike of the Universe" graciously
+condescended to receive them. Here also was the place of public
+execution. In the days before the white men came, public executions on
+the _aloun-aloun_ provided pleasurable excitement for the inhabitants
+of Djokjakarta, who attended them in great numbers. The method employed
+was characteristic of Java: the condemned stood with his forehead
+against a wall, and the executioner drove the point of a kris between
+the vertebrae at the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord. But
+the gallows and the rope have superseded the wall and the kris in
+Djokjakarta, just as they have superseded the age-old custom of hurling
+criminals from the top of a high tower in Bokhara or of having the
+brains of the condemned stamped out by an elephant, a method of
+execution which was long in vogue in Burmah.
+
+But, though certain peculiarly barbarous customs which were practised
+under native rule have been abolished by the Dutch, I have no intention
+of suggesting that life in Djokjakarta has become colorless and tame.
+_Au contraire!_ If you will take the trouble to cross the _aloun-aloun_
+to the gates of the palace, your attention will be attracted by a row
+of iron-barred cages built against the kraton wall. Should you be so
+fortunate as to find yourself in Djokjakarta on the eve of a religious
+festival or other holiday, each of these cages will be found to contain
+a full-grown tiger. For tiger-baiting remains one of the favorite
+amusements of the native princes. Nowhere else, so far as I am aware,
+save only in East Africa, where the Masai warriors encircle a lion and
+kill it with their spears, can you witness a sport which is its equal
+for peril and excitement.
+
+On the day set for a tiger-baiting the _aloun-aloun_ is jammed with
+spectators, their gorgeous sarongs and head-kains of batik forming a
+sea of color, while from a pavilion erected for the purpose the Sultan,
+surrounded by his glittering household and a selection of his favorite
+wives, views the dangerous sport in safety. In a cleared space before
+the royal pavilion several hundred half-naked Javanese, armed only with
+spears, stand shoulder to shoulder in a great circle, perhaps ten-score
+yards across, their spears pointing inward so as to form a steel fringe
+to the human barricade. A cage containing a tiger, which has been
+trapped in the jungle for the occasion, is hauled forward to the
+circle's edge. At a signal from the Sultan the door of the cage is
+opened and the great striped cat, its yellow eyes glaring malevolently,
+its stiffened tail nervously sweeping the ground, slips forth on padded
+feet to crouch defiantly in the center of the extemporized arena.
+Occasionally, but very occasionally, the beast becomes intimidated at
+sight of the waiting spearmen and the breathless throng beyond them,
+but usually it is only a matter of seconds before things begin to
+happen. The long tail abruptly becomes rigid, the muscles bunch
+themselves like coiled springs beneath the tawny skin, the sullen
+snarling changes to a deep-throated roar, and the great beast launches
+itself against the levelled spears. Sometimes it tears its way through
+the ring of flesh and steel, leaving behind it a trail of dead or
+wounded spearmen, and creating consternation among the spectators, who
+scatter, panic-stricken, in every direction. But more often the
+spearmen drive it back, snarling and bleeding, whereupon, bewildered by
+the multitude of its enemies and maddened by the pain of its wounds, it
+hurls itself against another segment of the steel-fringed cordon. After
+a time, baffled in its attempts to escape, the tiger retreats to the
+center of the circle, where it crouches, snarling. Then, at another
+signal from the Sultan, the spearmen begin to close in. Smaller and
+smaller grows the circle, closer and closer come the remorseless
+spear-points ... then a hoarse roar of fury, a spring too rapid for the
+eye to follow, a wild riot of brown bodies glistening with sweat ...
+spear-hafts rising and falling above a sea of turbaned heads as the
+blades are driven home ... again ... again ... again ... yet again ...
+into the great black-and-yellow carcass, which now lies inanimate upon
+the sand in a rapidly widening pool of crimson.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Like the palaces of most Asiatic rulers, the kraton of the Sultan of
+Djokjakarta is really a royal city in the heart of his capital. It
+consists of a vast congeries of palaces, barracks, stables, pagodas,
+temples, offices, courtyards, corridors, alleys and bazaars, containing
+upward of fifteen thousand inhabitants, the whole encircled by a high
+wall four miles in length. Everything that the sovereign can require,
+every necessity and luxury of life, every adjunct of pleasure, is
+assembled within the kraton. As the Sultan's world is practically
+bounded by his palace walls, the kraton is to all intents and purposes
+a little kingdom in itself, for there dwell within it, besides the
+officials of the household and the women of the harem, soldiers,
+priests, gold and silversmiths, tailors, weavers, makers of batik,
+civil engineers, architects, carpenters, stonemasons, manufacturers of
+musical instruments, stage furniture, and puppets, all supported by the
+court. The Sultan rarely leaves the kraton save on occasions of
+ceremony, when he appears in state, a thin, aristocratic-looking old
+man, somewhat taller than the average of his subjects, wrapped in a
+sarong of cloth-of-gold, hung with jewels, shaded by a golden parasol,
+surrounded by an Arabian Nights court, and guarded--curious
+contrast!--by a squadron of exceedingly businesslike-looking Dutch
+cavalry in slouch hats and green denim uniforms.
+
+The first impression which one receives upon entering the inner
+precincts of the kraton is of tawdriness and dilapidation. Half-naked
+soldiers of the royal body-guard, armed with ten-foot pikes and clad
+only in baggy, scarlet breeches and brimless caps of black leather,
+shaped like inverted flower-pots, lounge beside the gateway giving
+access to the Sultan's quarters or snore blissfully while stretched
+beneath the trees. The "Ruler of the World" receives his visitors--who,
+if they are foreigners, must always be accompanied by the Dutch
+Resident or a member of his staff--in the _pringitan_, or hall of
+audience, an immense, marble-floored chamber, supported by many marble
+columns. The _pringitan_ is open on three sides, the fourth
+communicating with the royal apartments and the harem, to which
+Europeans are never admitted. At the rear of the _pringitan_ are a
+number of ornate state beds, hung with scarlet and heavily gilded,
+evidently placed there for purposes of display, for they showed no
+evidences of having been slept in. Close by is a large glass case
+containing specimens of the taxidermist's art, including a number of
+badly moth-eaten birds of paradise. On the walls I noticed a
+steel-engraving of Napoleon crossing the Alps, a number of English
+sporting prints depicting hunting and coaching scenes, and three
+villainous chromos of Queen Wilhelmina, Prince Henry of the
+Netherlands, and the Princess Juliana.
+
+Thanks to the courtesy of the Resident, who had notified the
+authorities of the royal household of our visit in advance, we found
+that a series of Javanese dances had been arranged in our honor. Now
+Javanese dancing is about as exciting as German grand opera, and, like
+opera, one has to understand it to appreciate it. Personally, I should
+have preferred to wander about the kraton, but court etiquette demanded
+that I should sit upon a hard and exceedingly uncomfortable chair
+throughout a long and humid morning, with the thermometer registering
+one hundred and four degrees in the shade, and watch a number of
+anaemic and dissipated-looking youths, who composed the royal ballet,
+go through an interminable series of posturings and gestures to the
+monotonous music of a native orchestra.
+
+Those who have gained their ideas of Javanese dancing from the
+performances of Ruth St. Denis and Florence O'Denishawn have
+disappointment in store for them when they go to Java. To tell the
+truth I found the dancers far less interesting than their audience,
+which consisted of several hundred women of the harem, clad in filmy,
+semi-transparent garments of the most beautiful colors, who watched the
+proceedings from the semi-obscurity of the _pringitan_. I cannot be
+certain, because the light was poor and their faces were in the
+shadow, but I think that there were several extremely good-looking
+girls among them. There was one in particular that I remember--a
+slender, willowy thing with an apricot-colored skin and an oval,
+piquant face framed by masses of blue-black hair. Her orange sarong was
+so tightly wound about her that she might as well have been wearing a
+wet silk bathing-suit, so far as concealing her figure was concerned.
+Whenever she caught my eye she smiled mischievously. I should have
+liked to have seen more of her, but an unamiable-looking sentry armed
+with a large scimitar prevented.
+
+By extraordinary good fortune we arrived in Djokjakarta on the eve of
+the celebration of a double royal wedding, two of the Sultan's
+grandsons marrying two of his granddaughters. Thanks to the cooperation
+of the Dutch Resident, Hawkinson was enabled to obtain a remarkable
+series of pictures of the highly spectacular marriage ceremonies, it
+being the first time, I believe, that a motion-picture camera had been
+permitted within the closely guarded precincts of the kraton.
+
+The festivities, which occupied several days, consisted of receptions,
+fireworks, reviews, games, dances, and religious ceremonies,
+culminating in a most impressive and colorful pageant, when the two
+bridegrooms proceeded to the palace in state to claim their brides.
+Nowhere outside the pages of _The Wizard of Oz_ could one find such
+amazing and fantastic costumes as those worn by the thousands of
+natives who took part in that procession. Every combination of colors
+was used, every period of European and Asiatic history was
+represented. Some of the costumes looked as though they owed their
+inspiration to Bakst's designs for the Russian ballet--or perhaps Bakst
+obtained his ideas in Djokjakarta; others were strongly reminiscent of
+Louis XIV's era, of the courts of the great Indian princes, of the
+Ziegfeld Follies.
+
+The procession was led by four peasant women bearing trays of
+vegetables and fruits, symbols of fecundity, I assumed. Behind them,
+sitting cross-legged in glass cages swung from poles, each borne by a
+score of sweating coolies in scarlet liveries, were the four chief
+messengers of the royal harem--former concubines of the Sultan who had
+once been noted for their influence and beauty. The cages--I can think
+of no better description--were of red lacquer, about four feet square,
+with glass sides, and, so far as I could see, entirely air-tight. They
+looked not unlike large goldfish aquariums. As they were passing us the
+procession halted for a few moments and the panting coolies lowered
+their burdens to the ground. Whereupon Hawkinson, who is no respecter
+of persons when the business of getting pictures is concerned, set up
+his camera within six feet of one of the cages and proceeded to take a
+"close-up" of the indignant but helpless occupant, who, unable to
+escape or even turn away, could only assume an indifference which she
+was evidently far from feeling.
+
+Following the harem attendants marched a company of the royal
+body-guard, in scarlet cutaway coats like those worn by the British
+grenadiers during the American Revolution, pipe-clayed cross-belts,
+white nankeen breeches, enormous cavalry boots, extending half-way up
+the thigh, and curious hats of black glazed leather, of a shape which
+was a cross between a fireman's helmet and the cap of a Norman
+man-at-arms. They were armed indiscriminately with long pikes and
+ancient flint-locks, and marched to the music of fife and drum. The
+leader of the band danced a sort of shimmy as he marched, at the same
+time tootling on a flute. He looked like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
+Perhaps the most curious feature of the procession was provided by the
+clowns, both men and women--an interesting survival of the
+court-jesters of the Middle Ages--powdered and painted like their
+fellows of the circus, and performing many of their stereotyped antics.
+One of them, wearing an enormous pair of black goggles, bestrode a sort
+of hobby-horse, made of papier-mache, and, when he saw that Hawkinson
+was taking his picture, cavorted and grimaced, to the huge delight of
+the onlookers. The female clowns, all of whom were burdened by
+excessive avoirdupois, wiggled their hips and shoulders as they marched
+in a sort of Oriental shimmy.
+
+[Illustration: A Dyak girl at Tenggaroeng, Dutch Borneo]
+
+[Illustration: A Dyak head-hunter, Dutch Borneo]
+
+[Illustration: The Captain of the body-guard of "The Spike of the
+Universe"]
+
+[Illustration: A clown in the royal wedding procession at Djokjakarta]
+
+Following a gorgeous cavalcade of mounted princes of the blood, in
+uniforms of all colors, periods, and descriptions, their kepis
+surmounted by towering ostrich plumes, came a long procession of the
+great dignitaries of the household--the royal betel-box bearer, the
+royal cuspidor-carrier, and others bearing on scarlet cushions the
+royal toothpicks, the royal toothbrush, the royal toilet set, and the
+royal mirror, all of gold set with jewels. The mothers of the brides,
+painted like courtesans and hung with jewels, were borne by in
+sedan-chairs, in which they sat cross-legged on silken cushions. Then,
+after a dramatic pause, their approach heralded by a burst of barbaric
+music, came the brides themselves, each reclining in an enormous
+scarlet litter borne by fifty coolies. Beside them sat attendants who
+sprinkled them with perfumes and cooled them with fans of
+peacock-feathers. In accordance with an ancient Javanese custom, the
+faces, necks, arms, and breasts of the brides were stained with saffron
+to a brilliant yellow; their cheeks were as stiff with enamel as their
+garments were with jewels. Immediately behind the palanquins bearing
+the brides--one of whom looked to be about thirteen, the other a few
+years older--rode the bridegrooms; one, a sullen-looking fellow who, I
+was told, already had five wives and plainly showed it, astride a
+magnificent gray Arab; the other, who was still a boy, on a showy bay
+stallion, both animals being decked with flowers and caparisoned in
+trappings of scarlet leather trimmed with silver. The bridegrooms,
+naked to the waist, were, like their brides, dyed a vivid yellow; their
+sarongs were of cloth-of-gold and they were loaded with jeweled
+necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. Royal grooms in scarlet liveries led
+their prancing horses and other attendants, walking at their stirrups,
+bore over their heads golden _payongs_, the Javanese symbol of
+royalty. Following them on foot was a great concourse of dignitaries
+and courtiers, clad in costumes of every color and description and
+walking under a forest of gorgeous parasols, the colors of which
+denoted the rank of those they shaded. The _payongs_ of the Sultan, the
+Dutch Resident, and the royal princes are of gold, those of the
+princesses of the royal family are yellow, of the great nobles white,
+of the ministers and the higher officials of the country, red; of the
+lesser dignitaries, dark gray, and so on. This sea of swaying parasols,
+the gorgeous costumes of the dignitaries, the fantastic uniforms of the
+soldiery, the richly caparisoned horses, the gilded litters, the
+burnished weapons, the jewels of the women, the flaunting banners, and
+the rainbow-tinted batiks worn by the tens of thousands of native
+spectators combined to form a scene bewildering in its variety,
+dazzling in its brilliancy and kaleidoscopic in its coloring. Mr.
+Ziegfeld never produced so fantastic and colorful a spectacle. It would
+have been the envy and the despair of that prince of showmen, the late
+Phineas T. Barnum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A dozen miles or so northwest of Djokjakarta, standing in the middle of
+a fertile plain which stretches away to the lower slopes of slumbering
+Merapi, are the ruins of Boro-Boedor, of all the Hindu temples of Java
+the largest and the most magnificent and one of the architectural
+marvels of the world. They can be reached from Djokjakarta by motor in
+an hour. The road, which skirts the foothills of a volcanic mountain
+range, runs through a number of archways roofed with red tiles which in
+the rainy season afford convenient refuges from the sudden tropical
+showers and in the dry season opportunities to escape from the blinding
+glare of the sun. Leaving the main highway at Kalangan, a quaint hamlet
+with a picturesque and interesting market, we turned into a side road
+and wound for a few miles through cocoanut plantations, then the road
+ascended and, rounding the shoulder of a little hill, we saw, through
+the trees, a squat, pyramidal mass of reddish stone, broken, irregular
+and unimposing. It was Tjandi Boro-Boedor (the name means "shrine of
+the many Buddhas") considered by many authorities the most interesting
+Buddhist remains in existence. Though in magnitude it cannot compare
+with such great Buddhist monuments as those at Ajunta in India, and
+Angkor in Cambodia, yet in its beautiful symmetry and its wealth of
+carving it is superior to them all.
+
+Strictly speaking, Boro-Boedor is not a temple but a hill, rising about
+one hundred and fifty feet above the plain, encased with terraces
+constructed of hewn lava-blocks and crowded with sculptures, which, if
+placed side by side, would extend for upwards of three miles. The
+lowest terrace now above ground forms a square, each side approximately
+five hundred feet long. About fifty feet higher there is another
+terrace of similar shape. Then follow four other terraces of more
+irregular contour, the structure being crowned by a dome or cupola,
+fifty feet in diameter, surrounded by sixteen smaller bell-shaped
+cupolas, known as _dagobas_. The subjects of the bas-reliefs lining the
+lowest terrace are of the most varied description, forming a picture
+gallery of landscapes, agricultural and household episodes and
+incidents of the chase, mingled with mythological and religious scenes.
+It would seem, indeed, as though it had been the architect's intention
+to gradually wean the pilgrims from the physical to the spiritual, for
+as they began to ascend from stage to stage of the temple-hill they
+were insensibly drawn from material, every-day things to the realities
+of religion, so that by the time the _dagoba_ at the top was reached
+they had passed through a course of religious instruction, as it were,
+and were ready, with enlightened eyes, to enter and behold the image of
+Buddha, symbolically left imperfect, as beyond the power of human art
+to realize or portray. From base to summit the whole hill is really a
+great picture-bible of the Buddhist creed.
+
+The building of Boro-Boedor was probably begun in the ninth century,
+when King Asoka was distributing the supposed remains of Buddha
+throughout all the countries of the East in an endeavor to spread the
+faith. A portion of the remains was brought to Boro-Boedor, which had
+been the center of Buddhist influence in Java ever since 603, when the
+Indian ruler, Guzerat, settled in Middle Java with five thousand of his
+followers. In the sixteenth century, when a wave of Mohammedanism swept
+the island from end to end, the Buddhist temples being destroyed by
+the fanatic followers of the Prophet and the priests slaughtered on
+their altars, the Buddhists, in order to save the famous shrine from
+desecration and destruction, buried it under many feet of earth. Thus
+the great monument remained, hidden and almost forgotten, for three
+hundred years, but during the brief period of British rule in Java, Sir
+Stamford Raffles ordered its excavation, the work being accomplished in
+less than two months. Since then the Dutch have taken further steps to
+restore and preserve it, though unfortunately the stone of which it is
+built was too soft to withstand the wear and tear of centuries, many of
+the bas-reliefs now being almost effaced. It remains, however, one of
+the greatest religious monuments of all time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Conditions at Surakarta--usually called Solo for short--are the exact
+counterpart of those in Djokjakarta: the same puppet ruler, who is
+called Susuhunan instead of Sultan, the same semi-barbaric court life,
+the same fantastic costumes, a Dutch resident, a Dutch fort, and a
+Dutch garrison. But the kraton of the Susuhunan is far better kept than
+that of his fellow ruler at Djokjakarta, and shows more evidences of
+Europeanization. The troopers of the royal body-guard are smart,
+soldierly-looking fellows in well-cut uniforms of European pattern, to
+which a distinctly Eastern touch is lent, however, by their steel
+helmets, their brass-embossed leather shields, their scimitars, and
+their shoulder-guards of chain mail. The royal stables, which contain
+several hundred fine Australian horses and a number of beautiful
+Sumbawan ponies, together with a score or more gilt carriages of state,
+are as immaculately kept as those of Buckingham Palace. In the palace
+garage I was shown a row of powerful Fiats, gleaming with fresh varnish
+and polished brass, and beside them, as among equals, a member of the
+well-known Ford family of Detroit, proudly bearing on its panels the
+ornate arms of the Susuhunan. I felt as though I had encountered an old
+friend who had married into royalty.
+
+As though we had not seen enough dancing at Djokjakarta, I found that
+they had arranged another performance for us in the kraton at
+Surakarta. This time, however, the dancers were girls, most of them
+only ten or twelve years old and none of them more than half-way
+through their teens. They wore sarongs of the most exquisite
+colors--purple, heliotrope, violet, rose, geranium, cerise, lemon,
+sky-blue, burnt-orange--and they floated over the marble floor of the
+great hall like enormous butterflies. As a special mark of the
+Susuhunan's favor, the performance concluded with a spear dance by four
+princes of the royal house--blase, decadent-looking youths, who spend
+their waking hours, so the Dutch official who acted as my cicerone told
+me, in dancing, opium-smoking, cock-fighting and gambling, virtually
+their only companions being the women of the harem. If the Dutch
+Government does not actively encourage dissipation and debauchery among
+the native princes, neither does it take any steps to discourage it,
+the idea being, I imagine, that Holland's administrative problems in
+the _Vorstenlanden_ would be greatly simplified were the reigning
+families to die out. The princes, who were armed with javelins and
+krises, performed for our benefit a Terpsichorean version of one of the
+tales of Javanese mythology. The dance was characterized by the utmost
+deliberation of movement, the dancers holding certain postures for
+several seconds at a time, reminding me, in their rigid
+self-consciousness, of the "living pictures" which were so popular in
+America twenty years ago.
+
+All of the dancers, as I have already remarked, were of the blood royal
+and one, I was told, was in the direct line of succession. Judging from
+the vacuity of his expression, the Dutch have no reason to anticipate
+any difficulty in maintaining their mastery in Soerakarta when he comes
+to the throne. But the Dutch officials take no chances with the
+intrigue-loving native princes; they keep them under close surveillance
+at all times. It is one of the disadvantages of Christian governments
+ruling peoples of alien race and religion that methods of revolt are
+not always visible to the naked eye, and even the Dutch Intelligence
+Service in the Indies, efficient as it is, has no means of knowing what
+is going on in the forbidden quarters of the kratons. In Java, as in
+other Moslem lands, more than one bloody uprising has been planned in
+the safety and secrecy of the harem. Potential disloyalty is
+neutralized, therefore, by a discreet display of force. Throughout the
+performance in the palace a Dutch trooper in field gray, bandoliers
+stuffed with cartridges festooned across his chest and a carbine tucked
+under his arm, paced slowly up and down--an ever-present symbol of
+Dutch power--watching the posturing princes with a sardonic eye. That
+is Holland's way of showing that, should disaffection show its head,
+she is ready to deal with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THROUGH THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE TO ELEPHANT LAND
+
+
+Since the world began the peacock's tail which we call the Malay
+Peninsula has swung down from Siam to sweep the Sumatran shore. A
+peacock's tail not merely in configuration but in its gorgeousness of
+color. Green jungle--a bewildering tangle of trees, shrubs, bushes,
+plants, and creepers, hung with ferns and mosses, bound together with
+rattans and trailing vines--clothes the mountains and the lowlands, its
+verdant riot checked only by the sea. Penetrating the deepest recesses
+of the jungle a network of little, dusky, winding rivers, green-blue
+because the sky that is reflected in them is filtered through the
+interlacing branches. Orchids--death-white, saffron, pink, violet,
+purple, crimson--festooned from the higher boughs like incandescent
+lights of colored glass. The gilded, cone-shaped towers of Buddhist
+temples rising above steep roofs tiled in orange, red, or blue, their
+eaves hung with hundreds of tiny bells which tinkle musically in every
+breeze. The scarlet splotches of spreading fire-trees against
+whitewashed walls. Shaven-headed priests in yellow robes offering
+flowers and food to stolid-faced images of brass and clay. Long files
+of elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath their hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn forest trails.
+Snowy, hump-backed bullocks, driven by naked brown men, splashing
+through the shallow water on the rice-fields harnessed to ploughs as
+primeval in design as those our Aryan ancestors used. Bronze-brown
+women, their lithe figures wrapped in gaily colored cottons, busying
+themselves about frail, leaf-thatched dwellings perched high on bamboo
+stilts above the river-banks. And, arching over all, a sky as
+flawlessly blue as the dome of the Turquoise Mosque in Samarland. Such
+is the land that the ancients called the Golden Chersonese but which is
+labeled in the geographies of today as Lower Siam and the Malay States.
+
+If you will look at the map you will see that Lower Siam extends
+half-way down the Malay Peninsula, running across it from coast to
+coast and thus forming a barrier between British Burmah and British
+Malaya, precisely as German East Africa formerly separated the British
+holdings in the northern and southern portions of the Dark Continent.
+And, were I to indulge in prophecy, I should say that the day would
+come when the fate of German East Africa will overtake Lower Siam.
+History has shown, again and again, that the nation, particularly if it
+is as small and feeble as Siam, which forms a barrier between two
+portions of a powerful and aggressive empire is in anything but an
+enviable position.
+
+Politically that portion of the Malay Peninsula which is within the
+British sphere is divided into three sections: the colony of the
+Straits Settlements, the four Federated Malay States, and the five
+non-federated states under British protection. The crown colony of the
+Straits Settlements consists of the twenty-seven-mile-long island of
+Singapore and the much larger island of Penang; the territory of
+Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite Penang; Malacca, a narrow
+coastal strip between Singapore and Penang; and, to the north of it,
+the tiny island and insignificant territory known as the Dingdings. By
+the acquisition of these small and scattered but strategically
+important territories, England obtained control of the Straits of
+Malacca, which form the gateway to the China Seas. In 1896, as the
+result of a treaty between the British Government and the rajahs of the
+native states of Perak, Selangor, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan, these
+four states were brought into a confederation under British protection.
+Though they are still under the nominal rule of their own rajahs--now
+known as sultans--each has a British adviser attached to his court, the
+Governor of the Straits Settlements being _ex officio_ the High
+Commissioner and administrative head of the confederation. The
+non-federated states consist of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Trengganu,
+the rights of suzerainty, protection, administration, and control of
+which were transferred by treaty from Siam to Great Britain in 1909,
+and the Sultanate of Johore, which occupies the extreme southern end of
+the peninsula, opposite Singapore. In the non-federated, as in the
+Federated Malay States, British advisers reside at the courts of the
+native sultans.
+
+Starting at Johore, which, some Biblical authorities assert, is
+identical with the Land of Ophir, and running through the heart of
+British Malaya from south to north, is the Federated Malay States
+Railway, which has recently been linked up with the Siamese State
+Railways, thus making it possible to travel by rail from Singapore to
+Bangkok in about four days. Aside from the heat (in the railway
+carriages the mercury occasionally climbs to 120), the insects, the
+dust, and the swarms of sweating natives who pile into every
+compartment regardless of the class designated on their tickets, the
+journey is a comfortable one.
+
+That section of the F. M. S. Railways which traverses the Sultanate of
+Johore runs through the greatest tiger country in all Asia. The tiger
+is to Johore what the elephant is to Siam and the kangaroo to
+Australia--a sort of national trademark. Even the postage stamps bear
+an engraving of the striped monarch of the jungle. There is no place in
+the world, so far as I am aware, save only a zoo, of course, where one
+can get a shot at a tiger so quickly and with such minimum of effort.
+In this connection I heard a story at the Singapore Club, the truth of
+which is vouched for by those with whom I was having tiffin. Shortly
+before the war, it seems, an American business man who had amassed a
+fortune in the export business, and who was noted even in down-town New
+York as a hustler, was returning from a business trip to China. In the
+smoking-room of the home ward bound liner, over the highballs and
+cigars, he listened to the stories of an Englishman who had been
+hunting big game in Asia. The conversation eventually turned to tigers.
+
+"Johore's the place for tigers," the Englishman remarked, pouring
+himself another peg of whiskey. "The beggars are as thick as foxes in
+Leicestershire. You're jolly well certain of bagging one the first day
+out."
+
+"I've always wanted a tiger skin for my smoking room," commented the
+American. "Could buy one at a fur shop on the Avenue, of course, but I
+want one that I shot myself. Think I'll run over to Johore while we're
+at Singapore and get one."
+
+"But I say, my dear fellow," expostulated the Briton, "you really can't
+do that, you know. We only stop at Singapore for half a day--get in at
+daybreak and leave again at noon. You can't get a tiger in that time."
+
+"There's no such word as 'can't' in my business. Business methods will
+bring results in tiger shooting as quickly as in anything else,"
+retorted the American, rising and heading for the wireless room.
+
+A few hours later the American's representative in Singapore, a
+youngster who had himself been educated in the school of American
+business, received a wireless message from the head of his house. It
+read: "Arriving Singapore daybreak Thursday. Leaving noon same day.
+Wish to shoot tiger in Johore. Make arrangements."
+
+Now the representative in Singapore knew perfectly well that his
+promotion, if not his job, depended upon his employer getting a tiger.
+And, as the steamer was due in four days, there was no time to spare.
+From the director of the Singapore zoo he purchased for considerably
+above the market price, a decrepit and somewhat moth-eaten tiger of
+advanced years, which he had transported across the straits to Johore,
+whence it was conveyed by bullock cart to a spot in the edge of the
+jungle, a dozen miles outside the town, where it was turned loose in an
+enclosure of wire and bamboo hastily constructed for the purpose.
+
+When the steamer bearing the American magnate dropped anchor in the
+harbor, the local representative went aboard with the quarantine
+officer. Ten minutes later, thanks to arrangements made in advance, a
+launch was bearing him and his chief to the shore, where a motor car
+was waiting. It is barely a dozen miles from the wharf at Singapore to
+Woodlands, the ferry station opposite Johore, and the driver had orders
+to shatter the speed laws. A waiting launch streaked across the two
+miles of channel which separates the island from the mainland and drew
+up alongside the quay at Johore, where another car was waiting. The
+roads are excellent in the sultanate, and thirty minutes of fast
+driving brought the two Americans to the zareba, within which the
+tiger, guarded by natives, was peacefully breakfasting on a goat.
+
+"He's a real man-eater," whispered the agent, handing his employer a
+loaded express rifle. "We only located him yesterday. Lured him with a
+goat, you know ... the smell of blood attracts 'em. You'd better put a
+bullet in him before he sees us. One just behind the shoulder will do
+the business."
+
+The magnate, trembling with excitement for the first time in his busy
+life, drew bead on the tawny stripe behind the tiger's shoulder. There
+was a shattering roar, the great beast pawed convulsively at the air,
+then rolled on its side and lay motionless.
+
+"Good work," the local man commented approvingly. "It's only an hour
+and forty minutes since we left the boat a record for tiger shooting, I
+fancy. We'll be back at Raffles' for breakfast by nine o'clock and
+after that I'll show you round the city. Don't worry about the skin,
+sir. The natives'll tend to the skinning and I'll have it on board
+before you sail."
+
+Now--so the story goes--after dinner in the magnate's New York home he
+takes his guests into the smoking room for cigars and coffee. Spread
+before the fireplace is a great orange and black pelt, a trifle faded
+it is true, but indubitably the skin of a tiger.
+
+"Yes," the host complacently in reply to his guests' admiring comments,
+"a real man-eater. Shot him myself in the Johore jungle. Easy enough to
+get a tiger if you use American business methods."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, upon reaching Singapore, the great seaport at the tip of the
+Malay Peninsula which is the gateway to the Malay States and to Siam, I
+learned that small but not uncomfortable steamers sail weekly for
+Bangkok--a four-day voyage if the monsoon is blowing in the right
+direction--or that, by crossing the narrow straits on the ferry to
+Johore, we could reach the capital of Siam in about the same time by
+the Federated Malay States and Siamese railways, there seemed no valid
+excuse for keeping the _Negros_ any longer. So, bidding good-by to
+Captain Galvez and his officers, I gave orders that the little vessel,
+on which we had cruised upward of six thousand miles, amid some of the
+least-known islands in the world, should return to Manila. To leave her
+was like breaking home ties, and I confess that when she steamed slowly
+out of the harbor, homeward bound, with her Filipino crew lining the
+rail and Captain Galvez waving to us from the bridge and the flag at
+her taffrail dipping in farewell, I suddenly felt lonely and deserted.
+
+When the people whom I met in Singapore learned that I was
+contemplating visiting Siam they attempted to dissuade me. I was warned
+that the train service up the peninsula was uncertain, that the
+steamers up the gulf were uncomfortable, that the hotel in Bangkok was
+impossible, the dirt incredible, the heat unendurable, the climate
+unhealthy. And when, desiring to learn whether these indictments were
+true, I attempted to obtain reliable information about the country to
+which I was going, I found that none was to be had. The latest volume
+on Siam which I could find in Singapore bookshops bore an 1886 imprint.
+The managers of the two leading hotels in Singapore knew, or professed
+to know, nothing about hotel accommodations in Bangkok. Though the
+administration of the Federal Malay States Railways generously offered
+me the use of a private car over their system, I could obtain no
+reliable information as to what connections I could make at the Siamese
+frontier or when I would reach Bangkok. And the only guide book on Siam
+which I could discover--quite an excellent little volume, by the
+way--was published by the Imperial Japanese Railways!
+
+The Siamese are by no means opposed to foreigners visiting their
+country, and they would welcome the development of its resources by
+foreign capital, but, owing to the insularity, indifference, timidity
+and pride which are inherent in the Siamese character, they have taken
+no steps to bring their country to the attention of the outside world.
+When one notes the energetic advertising campaigns which are being
+conducted by the governments of Japan, China, Java, and even
+Indo-China, where the visitor is confronted at every turn by
+advertisements urging him to "Spend the Week-End at Kamakura," "Go to
+the Great Wall," "Don't Miss Boroboedor and Djokjakarta," "Take
+Advantage of the Special Fares to the Ruins of Angkor," you wonder why
+Siam, which has so much that is novel and picturesque to offer, makes
+no effort to swell its revenues by encouraging the tourist industry.
+That the royal prince who is the Minister of Communications recently
+made a tour of the United States for the purpose of studying American
+railway methods suggests, however, that the Land of the White Elephant
+is planning to get its share of tourist travel in the future.
+
+I might as well admit frankly that my first impressions of the Siamese
+capital were extremely disappointing. I didn't expect to be conveyed to
+my hotel atop a white elephant, through streets lined with salaaming
+natives, but neither did I expect to make a wild dash through
+thoroughfares as crowded with traffic as Fifth Avenue, in a vehicle
+which unmistakably owed its paternity to Mr. Henry Ford, or to be
+bruskly halted at busy street crossings by the upraised hand of a
+helmeted and white-gloved traffic policeman. Nor, upon my arrival at
+the hotel--there is only one in Bangkok deserving of the name--did I
+expect to find on the breakfast table a breakfast food manufactured in
+Battle Creek, or beside my bed an electric fan made in New Britain,
+Connecticut, or behind the desk a very wide awake American youth--the
+son, I learned later, of one of the American advisers to the Siamese
+Government--who eagerly inquired whether I had brought any American
+newspapers with me and whether I thought the pennant would be won by
+the Giants or the White Sox.
+
+Bangkok, which, with its suburbs, has a population about equal to that
+of Boston, is built on the banks of the country's greatest river, the
+Menam, some forty miles from its mouth. Though the city has a number of
+fine thoroughfares, straight as though laid out with a pencil and
+ruler, between them lie labyrinths of dim and evil-smelling bazaars,
+their narrow, winding, cobble-paved streets lined on either side by
+stalls in which are displayed for sale all the products of the country.
+Because of the intense heat these stalls are open in front, so that the
+occupants work and eat and sleep in full view of everyone who passes.
+The barber shaves the heads of his customers while they squat in the
+edge of the roadway. In the licensed gambling houses groups of excited
+men and women crowd about gaming tables presided over by greasy,
+half-naked Chinese croupiers, and, when they have squandered their
+trifling earnings, hasten to the nearest pawnshop with any garment or
+article of furniture that is not absolutely indispensable to their
+existence in order to obtain a few more coins to hazard and eventually
+to lose. As a result of this passion for gambling, the city is full of
+pawnshops, some streets containing scarcely anything else. At the far
+end of one of the bazaar streets is the largest idol manufactory in
+Siam, for the temples whose graceful, tapering towers dot the landscape
+are filled with images of Buddha, in all sizes and of all materials
+from wood to gold set with jewels, most of them donated by the devout
+in order to "make merit" for themselves. As all Buddhists wish to
+accumulate as much merit for themselves as possible, in order to be
+assured at death of a through ticket to Nirvana, the idol-making
+industry is in a flourishing condition.
+
+Pushing their way through the crowded thoroughfares, their raucous
+cries rising above the clamor, go the ice cream and curry vendors,
+carrying the paraphernalia of their trade slung from bamboo poles
+borne upon the shoulders--perambulating cafeterias and soda fountains,
+as it were. For a satang--a coin equivalent to about a quarter of a
+cent--you can purchase a bowl of rice, while the expenditure of another
+satang will provide you with an assortment of savories or relishes,
+made from elderly meat, decayed fish, decomposed prawns and other
+toothsome ingredients, which you heap upon the rice, together with a
+greenish-yellow curry sauce which makes the concoction look as though
+it were suffering from a severe attack of jaundice. These relishes are
+cooked, or rather re-warmed, by the simple process of suspending them
+in a sort of sieve in a pot of boiling water, the same pot and the same
+water serving for all customers alike. By this arrangement, the man who
+takes his snack at the close of the day has the advantage of receiving
+not merely what he orders, but also flavors and even floating remnants
+from the dishes ordered by all those who have preceded him. The ice
+cream vendors drive a roaring trade in a concoction the basis of which
+is finely shaven ice, looking like half-frozen and very dirty slush,
+sweetened with sugar and flavored, according to the purchaser's taste
+from an array of metal-topped bottles such as barbers use for bay rum
+and hair oil. But, being cold and sweet, "Isa-kee," as the Chinese
+vendors call it, is as popular among the lower classes in Siam as ice
+cream cones are in the United States.
+
+Though the streets of Bangkok are crowded with vehicles of every
+description--ramshackle and disreputable rickshaws, the worst to be
+found in all the East, drawn by sweating coolies; the boxes of wood and
+glass on wheels, called gharries, drawn by decrepit ponies whose
+harness is pieced out with rope; creaking bullock carts driven by
+Tamils from Southern India; bicycles, ridden by natives whose European
+hats and coats are in striking contrast to their bare legs and
+brilliant _panungs_; clanging street cars, as crowded with humanity as
+those on Broadway; motors of every size and make, from jitneys to
+Rolls-Royces--the bulk of the city's traffic is borne on the great
+river and the countless canals which empty into it. Bangkok has been
+called, and not ineptly, the Venice of the East, for it is covered with
+a net-work of canals, or _klongs_, which spread out in every direction.
+In sampans, houseboats and other craft, moored to the banks of these
+canals, dwells the major portion of the city's inhabitants. The city's
+water population is complete in itself and perfectly independent of its
+neighbors on land, for it has its own shops and dwellings, its own
+markets and restaurants, its own theaters, and gambling establishments,
+its own priests and police. When you go to Bangkok, I strongly advise
+you to hire a sampan and visit the floating portion of the city after
+nightfall. The houseboats are open at both ends and you will see many
+things that the guidebooks fail to mention.
+
+The Oriental Hotel, the banks, the shipping offices, the business
+houses, and all the legations save only the American, are clustered on
+or near the river in a low-lying and unattractive quarter of the town.
+But follow the long, dingy, squalid highway known as the New Road, a
+thoroughfare lined with third-rate Chinese shops and thronged with
+rickshaws, carriages, bicycles, motors, street-cars, and Asiatics of
+every religion and complexion, and you will come at length into a
+portion of the city as different from the mercantile district as
+Riverside Drive is from the Bowery. Here you will find broad
+boulevards, shaded by rows of splendid tamarinds, lined by charming
+villas which peep coyly from the blazing gardens which surround them,
+and broken at frequent intervals by little parks in which are fountains
+and statuary. There is a great common, green with grass during the
+rainy season, known as the Premane Ground, where military reviews are
+held and where the royal cremations take place; a favorite spot in the
+spring for the kite-flying contests in which Siamese of all classes and
+all ages participate. Fronting on the Premane Ground are the not
+unimposing stuccoed buildings which house the Ministries of Justice,
+Agriculture and War. Not far away is the new Throne Hall, a huge,
+ornate structure of white marble, in the modern Italian style, its
+great dome faintly reminiscent of the Capitol at Washington. From the
+center of the spacious plaza rises a rather fine equestrian statue of
+the late king, Chulalungkorn, and, close by, the really charming Dusit
+Gardens, beautifully laid out with walks and lagoons and kiosks and a
+great variety of tropical flowers and shrubs and trees. But, most
+characteristic and colorful of all, a touch of that Oriental splendor
+which one looks for in Siam, is the congeries of palaces, offices,
+stables, courtyards, gardens, shrines and temples, the whole encircled
+by a crenelated, white-washed wall, which is the official residence of
+King Rama VI.
+
+There are said to be nearly four hundred Buddhist temples within a
+two-mile radius of the royal palace, of which by far the most
+interesting and magnificent is the famous Wat Phra Keo, or Temple of
+the Emerald Buddha, which is really a royal chapel, being within the
+outer circumference of the palace walls. I doubt if any space of
+similar size in all the world contains such a bewildering display of
+barbaric magnificence, such a riot of form and color, as the walled
+enclosure in which this remarkable edifice and its attendant structures
+stand. From the center of the marble-paved courtyard rises an enormous,
+cone-shaped _prachadee_, round at the bottom but tapering to a long and
+slender spire said to be covered with plates of gold. It certainly
+looks like a solid mass of that precious metal, and at daybreak and
+nightfall, when it catches the level rays of the sun, it can be seen
+from afar, shining and glittering above the gorgeously colored roofs of
+the temples and the many-tinted lesser spires which surround it. Close
+by the gilded _prachadee_ is the _bote_ or chapel used by the king,
+surmounted by a similar spire which is overlaid with sapphire-colored
+plates of glass and porcelain, while a little distance away stands the
+temple itself, its gilded walls set with mosaics of emerald green.
+Flanking the gateways of the temple courtyard are gigantic, grotesque
+figures, fully thirty feet in height, carved and colored like the
+creatures of a nightmare. They represent demons and are supposed to
+guard the approaches to the temple, being so placed that they glare
+down ferociously on all who enter the sacred enclosure. Other figures
+in marble, bronze, wood and stone, representing dolphins, storks, cows,
+camels, monkeys and the various fabulous monsters of the Hindu
+mythology, are scattered in apparent confusion about the temple
+courtyard, producing an effect as bizarre as it is bewildering. It is
+so unreal, so incredibly fantastic, that I felt that I was looking at
+the papier-mache setting for a motion picture spectacle, such as
+Griffith used to produce, and that the director and the cameraman would
+appear shortly and end the illusion.
+
+The interior of the main temple is extremely lofty. The walls and
+rafters are of teak and the floor is covered with a matting made of
+silver wire. At the far end of this imposing room an enormous,
+pyramidal shrine of gold rises almost to the roof, its dazzling
+brilliancy somewhat subdued by the semi-obscurity of the interior. Wat
+Phra Keo is unique amongst Siamese temples in containing objects of
+real value. Everything is genuine and costly, as becomes the gifts of a
+king, though it must be admitted that certain of the royal offerings
+which are ranged at the foot of the shrine, such as jeweled French
+clocks, figurines of Sevres and Dresden porcelain, and a large marble
+statue of a Roman goddess, are of doubtful appropriateness. Ranged on a
+table at the back of the altar are seven images of Buddha in pure gold,
+the right hand of each pointed upward. On the thumb and fingers of each
+hand glitters a king's ransom in rings of sapphires, emeralds and
+rubies, while from the center of each palm flashes a rosette of
+diamonds. High up toward the rafters, at the apex of the golden
+pyramid, in a sort of recess toward which the fingers of the seven
+images are pointing, sits an image of Buddha, perhaps twelve inches
+high, said to be cut from one enormous emerald--whence the temple's
+name. As a matter of fact, it is made of jade and is of incalculable
+value. Set in its forehead are three eyes, each an enormous diamond.
+The history of this extraordinary idol is lost in the mists of
+antiquity. Tradition has it that it fell from heaven into one of the
+Laos states, being captured by the Siamese in battle. Since then it has
+been repeatedly lost, captured or stolen. Its story, like that of so
+many famous jewels, might fittingly be written in blood.
+
+It is the custom in Siam for every man to spend a portion of his life
+in a monastery. This rule applies to everyone from the poorest peasant
+upward, the king and all the male members of the royal family having at
+some period worn the yellow robe of a monk. This curious custom is, no
+doubt, an imitation of the so-called Act of Renunciation of Gautama,
+the future Buddha, who, at the age of twenty-nine, moved by the
+sufferings of humanity, renounced his rights to his father's throne
+and, abandoning his wife and child, devoted the remainder of his life
+to religion. Just as every American boy is expected to go to school, so
+every Siamese youth is expected to enter a monastery, the stern
+discipline enforced during this period accounting, I have no doubt, for
+the docility which is so noticeable a part of the Siamese character.
+While I was in Siam I was the guest one day of the officers' mess of
+the crack regiment of the household cavalry. Though my hosts, with few
+exceptions, spoke fluent English, though several of them had been
+educated at English schools and universities, and though the
+conversation over the mess table was of polo and racing and big game
+shooting and bridge, I learned to my astonishment that every one of
+these debonair young officers, with their worldly manners and their
+beautifully cut uniforms, had at one time shaved his head, donned the
+yellow robe of a monk, and begged his food from door to door. In view
+of the universality of the custom, it is small wonder that Siam has ten
+thousand monasteries and that 300,000 of its inhabitants wear the
+ocher-colored robe.
+
+The periods of time which men devote to monastic life are not uniform.
+Some spend between a month and a year, others their entire lives. Some
+enter the monastery in their youth, others in middle age or when old
+men. But they all shave their heads and don the coarse yellow robe and
+lead practically the same existence. Each morning, carrying their
+"begging bowls," they beg their food at the doors of laymen. They come
+quietly and stand at the door, and, accepting the offerings, as quietly
+depart without expressing thanks for what is given them, the idea being
+that they are not begging for their own benefit but in order to evoke a
+spirit of charity in the giver. During the dry season it is the custom
+of the monks to make long pilgrimages for the purpose of visiting other
+monasteries. Each of these itinerant monks is accompanied by a youth
+known as a _yom_, who carries the simple requisites of the journey, the
+chief of which is a large umbrella. Traveling in the interior one
+frequently meets long files of these yellow-clad pilgrims, with their
+attendant _yoms_, moving in silence along a forest trail. When night
+comes the _yom_ opens the large umbrella which he carries, thrusts its
+long handle into the ground, and over it drapes a square of cloth, thus
+extemporizing a sort of tent under which his master sleeps.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To visit Siam without seeing the royal white elephants would be like
+visiting Niagara without seeing the falls. The elephant stables stand
+in the heart of the palace enclosure, sandwiched in between the palace
+gardens and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Each animal--there were
+only three in the royal stables at the time of my visit--has a separate
+building to itself, within which it stands on a sort of dais, one hind
+leg lashed with a rope to a tall, stout post painted scarlet and
+surmounted by a gilded crown. Much as I dislike to shatter cherished
+illusions, were I to assert that the elephants I saw in the royal
+stables were white, I should be convicting myself of color-blindness.
+The best that can be said of two of them, is that they were a dirty
+gray, about the color of a much-used wash-rag. The third, had it been a
+horse, might have been described as a roan, the whole body being a pale
+reddish-brown, with a sprinkling of real white hairs on the back. All
+three animals were, in reality, albinos, having the light-colored iris
+of the eye, the white toe-nails, and the pink skin at the end of the
+trunk which distinguish the albino everywhere. As a matter of fact,
+"white elephant" is not a correct translation of the Siamese _chang
+penak_, which really means "albino elephant." But most foreigners will
+continue, I have no doubt, to use the term made famous by Barnum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Though the albino elephants are never used nowadays save on occasions
+of great ceremony, being regarded by the educated Siamese with the same
+amused tolerance with which an Englishman regards the great gilt coach,
+drawn by eight cream-colored horses, in which the king goes to open
+Parliament, the ordinary elephant is of enormous economic value to the
+country, being a combination, as it were, of a motor truck, a portable
+derrick, and a freight car. Almost anywhere in the back country, where
+the only roads are trails through the jungle, one can see "elephants
+a-pilin' teak in the sludgy, squdgy creeks" or being loaded with
+merchandise for transport into the far interior. Indeed, the traveler
+who wishes to take a short cut from Siam to Burmah can hire an
+elephant for the journey almost as easily as he could hire a motor car
+in America. It is a novel means of travel, but a little of it goes a
+long way. A good working elephant is a valuable piece of property,
+being worth in the neighborhood of $2,500., but the prospective
+purchaser should remember that the possession of one of these giant
+pachyderms entails considerable overhead, or rather, internal expense.
+De Wolf Hopper was telling only the literal truth when he sang in
+_Wang_ of the tribulations of the peasant who had an elephant on his
+hands:
+
+    "The elephant ate all night,
+    The elephant ate all day;
+    Do what he would to furnish food,
+    The cry was 'Still more hay!'"
+
+[Illustration: An elephant hunt in Siam
+
+A large herd of wild elephants being driven across a
+river
+
+The elephants, herded by domesticated animals, are
+driven into the corral]
+
+Although, as I have already remarked, sophisticated Siamese regard the
+white elephant with amusement tinged with contempt, there is no doubt
+that among the bulk of the people the animals are considered as sacred
+and are treated with great veneration. Indeed, when Siam was forced to
+cede certain of her eastern provinces to France, the treaty contained a
+clause providing that any so-called white elephants which might be
+captured in the ceded territory should be considered the property of
+the King of Siam and delivered to him forthwith. A number of years ago,
+a traveling show known as Wilson's English Circus, gave a number of
+exhibitions in Bangkok, which were attended by the King, the nobility,
+and members of the European colony. When the proprietor saw that the
+popular interest in his exhibition was beginning to wear off, he
+distributed broadcast handbills announcing that at the next performance
+"a genuine white elephant" would take part in the exhibition. Public
+curiosity was reawakened and that evening the circus was crowded. After
+the usual bareback riding, in which the Siamese were treated to the
+sight of European women in pink tights and tulle skirts pirouetting on
+the backs of cantering Percherons, two clowns burst into the ring.
+
+"Hey, you!" bawled one of them, "Have you seen the white elephant?"
+
+"Sure, I have," was the response. "The King has a stable full of them."
+
+"Oh, no, he ain't," shouted the first fun-maker. "The King ain't got
+any _white_ elephants. His are all gray ones. I'll show you the only
+genuine white elephant in the world," whereupon a small elephant, as
+snowy as repeated coats of whitewash could make it, ambled into the
+ring. Though a suppressed titter ran through the more sophisticated
+portion of the audience when it was observed that the ridiculous
+looking animal left white marks on everything it touched, it was quite
+apparent that the bulk of the spectators resented fun being made of an
+animal which they had been taught to consider sacred, certain of the
+more devout asserting that the sacrilegious performance would call down
+the wrath of Buddha. Their prophecies proved to be well founded, for
+the "white" elephant died at sea a few days later--as the result, it
+was hinted, of poison put in its food by the Siamese priests and Wilson
+himself, who had been suffering from dysentery, died the day after he
+landed at Singapore.
+
+Being a young nation, so far as the adoption of Western methods are
+concerned, the Siamese are extremely sensitive, being almost
+pathetically eager to win the good opinion of the Occidental world.
+Thus, upon Siam's entry into the Great War (perhaps you were not aware
+that the little kingdom equipped and sent to France an expeditionary
+force composed of aviation, ambulance and motor units, thus being the
+only independent Asiatic nation whose troops served on European soil)
+the king abolished the white elephant upon a red ground which from time
+immemorial had been the national standard, substituting for it a
+nondescript affair of colored stripes which at first glance appears to
+be a compromise between the flags of China and Montenegro. In doing
+this, I think that the king made a mistake, for he deprived his country
+of a distinctive emblem which was associated with Siam the whole world
+over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fortune was kind to us in the Siamese capital, for we reached that city
+on the eve of a series of royal cremations, the attendant ceremonies
+providing enough action and color to satisfy even Hawkinson. It should
+be explained that instead of cremating a body immediately, as might be
+expected in so torrid a climate, the remains are placed in a large jar
+and kept in a temple or in the house of the deceased for a period
+determined by the rank of the dead man--the King for twelve months and
+so downward. If the relatives are too poor to afford the expenses
+incident to cremation, they bury the body, but exhume it for burning
+when their financial condition permits. On the day of the cremation,
+which is usually fixed by an astrologer, the remains are transferred
+from the jar to a wooden coffin and carried with much pomp to the
+_meru_, or place of cremation. When the deceased is of royal or noble
+blood the _meru_ is frequently a magnificent structure, sometimes
+costing many thousands of dollars, built for the purpose and torn down
+when that purpose has been served. The coffin is placed on the pyre,
+which is lighted by relatives, the occasion being considered one for
+rejoicing rather than mourning. The royal _meru_, which had been
+erected in a small park in the outskirts of the capital at a cost of
+one hundred thousand ticals, was a really beautiful structure of true
+Siamese architecture, elaborately decorated in scarlet and gold and
+draped with hangings of the same colors. Within the _meru_ were three
+pyres, concealed by gilt screens, on which were set the coffins
+containing the bodies. As there were a number of bodies to be burned,
+the ceremonies lasted upward of a week, King Rama going in state each
+afternoon to the _meru_, where he took his place on a throne in an
+elaborately decorated pavilion. After brief ceremonies by a large body
+of yellow-robed Buddhist priests, the King set fire to the end of a
+long fuse, which in turn ignited the three pyres simultaneously, the
+ascending clouds of smoke being greeted by the roll of drums and the
+crash of saluting cannon.
+
+When I first suggested to friends in Bangkok that I wished to obtain
+permission for Hawkinson to take pictures of the cremation, they told
+me that it was out of the question.
+
+"But why?" I demanded. "Motion-pictures were taken of the funerals of
+the Pope, and of King Edward, and of President Roosevelt, without
+anyone dreaming of protesting, so why should there be any objection
+here? Nothing in the least disrespectful is intended."
+
+"But this is Siam," my friends replied pessimistically, "and such
+things simply aren't done here. No one has ever taken a motion-picture
+of a royal cremation."
+
+"It's never too late to begin," I told them.
+
+So I took a rickshaw out to the American Legation and enlisted the
+cooperation of our charge d'affaires, Mr. Donald Rodgers, the very
+efficient young diplomatist who was representing American interests in
+Siam pending the arrival of the new minister.
+
+"I'll do my best to arrange it," Rodgers assured me, "but I'm not
+sanguine about meeting with success. The Siamese are fine people,
+kindly, hospitable and all that, but they're as conservative as
+Bostonians."
+
+Two days later, however, he sent me a letter, signed by the minister of
+the royal household, authorizing Hawkinson to take motion-pictures in
+the grounds of the _meru_ on the following day prior to the cremation.
+I didn't quite like the sound of the last four words, "prior to the
+cremation," but I felt that it was not an occasion for quibbling. So
+the next day, at the appointed hour--which was two hours ahead of the
+time set for the cremation--Hawkinson set out for the _meru_,
+accompanied by his interpreter. He did not return until dinner-time.
+
+"What happened?" I inquired, by way of greeting.
+
+"What didn't happen?" he retorted. "They turned me out just as the
+cremation was commencing. When we reached the _meru_ I was met by an
+official wearing bright-blue pants, who told me that he had been sent
+to assist me in taking the pictures. Well, I got a few shots of the
+_meru_ itself, and of the royal pavilion, and of some of the priests
+and soldiers, but there wasn't much doing because there wasn't any
+action. So I sat down to wait for things to happen. Pretty soon the
+troops began to arrive--lancers and a battery of artillery and a
+company of the royal body-guard in red coats--and after them came the
+guests: officials and dignitaries in all sorts of gorgeous uniforms
+covered with decorations. A few minutes later I heard someone say, 'The
+King is coming,' so I got the camera ready to begin cranking. Just then
+up comes my Siamese chaperone. 'You will have to leave now,' says he.
+'Leave? What for?' said I. 'Because the cremation is about to begin,'
+he tells me. 'But that's what I've come to take pictures of,' I told
+him. 'What did you think that I attended this party for?' 'Oh, no,'
+says he, very polite; 'your permission says that you can take pictures
+_prior to the cremation_.' So they showed me the gate."
+
+"Then you didn't get any pictures?" I queried, deep disappointment in
+my tone.
+
+"Sure, I got the pictures," was the answer. "Some of them, at any rate.
+That's what I went there for, wasn't it?"
+
+"But how did you work it?" I demanded.
+
+"Easy," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "I told the driver to back
+his car up against the iron fence which encircles the _meru_; then I
+set up the camera in the tonneau, so that it was above the heads of the
+crowd, screwed on the six-inch lens which I use for long-distance
+shots, and took the pictures."
+
+[Illustration: King Sisowath of Cambodia
+
+Though the octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, he is
+permitted only a shadow of power]
+
+[Illustration: Rama VI, King of Siam
+
+He is in most respects the antithesis of the popular conception of an
+Oriental monarch]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The present ruler of Siam, King Rama VI, is in most respects the
+antithesis of the popular conception of an Oriental monarch. Though
+polygamy has been practised among the upper classes in Siam from time
+beyond reckoning, he has neither wife nor concubines. Instead of riding
+atop a white elephant, in a gilded howdah, or being borne in a
+palanquin, as is always the custom of Oriental rulers in fiction, he
+shatters the speed laws in a big red Mercedes. For the flaming silks
+and flashing jewels which the movies have educated the American public
+to believe are habitually worn by Eastern potentates, King Rama
+substitutes the uniform of a Siamese general, or, for evening
+functions at the palace, the dress coat and knee-breeches of European
+courts. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and later graduated
+from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, being commissioned an
+honorary colonel in the British Army. He is the founder and chief of an
+organization patterned after the Boy Scouts and known as the Wild
+Tigers, which has hundreds of branches and carries on its rolls the
+name of nearly every youth in the kingdom. Each year the organization
+holds in Bangkok a grand rally, when thousands of youngsters, together
+with many adults from all walks of life, for membership in the corps is
+not confined to boys, are reviewed by the sovereign, who appears in the
+gorgeous and original uniform, designed by himself, of
+commander-in-chief of the Wild Tigers.
+
+In one respect, however, King Rama lives up to the popular conception
+of an Oriental ruler: like his father before him, he is generous to the
+point of prodigality. This trait was illustrated not long ago, when he
+sent eight thousand pounds to the widow of Mr. Westengaard, the
+American who was for many years general adviser to the Government of
+Siam, accompanied by a message that it was to be used for the education
+of her son. This recalls a characteristic little anecdote of the
+present ruler's father, the late King Chulalongkorn. The early youth of
+the late king and his brothers was spent under the tutelage of an
+English governess, who was affectionately addressed by the younger
+members of the royal family as "Mem." Upon her return to England she
+wrote a book entitled _An Englishwoman at the Siamese Court_, in which
+she depicted her employer, King Mongkut, the father of Chulalongkorn,
+in a none too favorable light. Some years later, upon the occasion of
+King Chulalongkorn's visit to England, his former governess, now become
+an old woman, called upon him.
+
+"Mem," he said, in a course of conversation, "how could you write such
+unkind things about my father? He was always very good to you."
+
+"That is true, Majesty," the former governess admitted in some
+confusion, "but the publishers wouldn't take the book unless I made it
+sensational. And I had to do it because I was in financial
+difficulties."
+
+When she had departed the King turned to one of his equerries. "Send
+the poor old lady a hundred pounds," he directed. "She meant no harm
+and she needs the money."
+
+The chief hobby of the present ruler is, curiously enough, amateur
+dramatics, of which his orthodox and conservative ministers do not
+wholly approve. In addition to having translated into Siamese a number
+of Shakesperian plays, he is the author of several original dramas,
+which have been produced at the palace under his personal direction and
+in several of which he has himself played the leading parts. As a
+result of this predilection for dramatics, he has accumulated an
+extensive theatrical wardrobe, to which he is constantly adding. When I
+was in Bangkok I had some clothes made by the English tailor who
+supplies the court--an excellent tailor, but expensive.
+
+"You'll excuse my taking the liberty, I hope, sir," he said during the
+course of a fitting, "but, being as you are an American, perhaps you
+could assist me with some information. I've received a very pressing
+order for a costume such as is worn by the cowboys in your country,
+sir, but, though I've found some pictures in the English illustrated
+weeklies, I don't rightly know how to make it."
+
+"A cowboy's costume?" I exclaimed. "In Siam? Who in the name of Heaven
+wants it?"
+
+"It's for his Majesty," was the surprising answer. "He's written a play
+in which he takes the part of an American cowboy and he's very
+particular, sir, that the costume should be quite correct. Seeing as
+you come from that country, I thought I'd make so bold, sir, as to ask
+if you could give me some suggestions."
+
+It was quite apparent that he believed that when I was at home I
+customarily went about in chaps, a flannel shirt and a sombrero, and,
+knowing the English mind, I realized that nothing was to be gained by
+attempting to disillusionize him.
+
+"Let's see what you've made," I suggested, whereupon he produced an
+outfit which appeared to be a compromise between the costume of an
+Italian bandit, the uniform of an Australian soldier, and the regalia
+of a Spanish bull-fighter. Suppressing my inclination to give way to
+laughter, I sketched for the grateful tailor the sort of garments to
+which cowpunchers--cowpunchers of the screen, at least--are addicted.
+If he followed my directions the King of Siam wore a costume which
+would make William S. Hart green with envy.
+
+King Rama's literary efforts have not been confined to playwriting,
+however, for his book on the wars of the Polish Succession is one of
+the standard authorities on the subject. If you go to Siam expecting to
+see an Oriental potentate such as you have read about in novels, His
+Majesty, Rama VI, is bound to prove very disappointing.
+
+[Illustration: Colorful ceremonies of old Siam
+
+Once each year the King visits the various temples in
+and near Bangkok, travelling in the royal barge, a gorgeously decorated
+affair rowed by threescore oarsmen
+
+The rice-planting ceremony. The Minister of Agriculture
+ploughs a few furrows in a field outside Bangkok, being fallowed by
+four young women of the court who scatter rice grains on the freshly
+opened soil]
+
+But, though the monarch and his court are as up-to-the-minute as the
+Twentieth Century Limited, many of the spectacular and colorful
+ceremonies of old Siam are still celebrated with all their ancient pomp
+and magnificence. For example, each year, at the close of the rainy
+season, the King devotes about a fortnight to visiting the various
+temples in and near Bangkok. On these occasions he goes in the royal
+barge, a gorgeously decorated affair, 150 feet in length, looking not
+unlike an enormous Venetian gondola, rowed by three-score oarsmen in
+scarlet-and-gold liveries. The King, surrounded by a glittering group
+of court officials, sits on a throne at the stern, while attendants
+hold over his head golden umbrellas. From the landing place to the
+temple he is borne in a sedan chair between rows of prostrate natives
+who bow their foreheads to the earth in adoration of this short, stout,
+olive-skinned, good-humored looking young man whom nearly ten millions
+of people implicitly believe to be the earthly representative of
+Buddha.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another picturesque observance, the Rice-Planting Ceremony, takes place
+early in May, when the Minister of Agriculture, as the deputy of the
+King, leads a long procession of officials and priests to a field in
+the outskirts of the capital, where a pair of white bullocks, yoked to
+a gilded plough, are waiting. Surrounded by a throng of functionaries
+glittering like Christmas trees, the Minister ploughs a few furrows in
+the field, being followed by four young women of the court who scatter
+rice grains on the freshly turned soil. Until quite recent years, the
+officials taking part in this procession claimed the privilege of
+appropriating any articles which caught their fancy in the shops along
+the route. But this quaint practise is no longer followed. It was not
+popular with the merchants. The Siamese, like all Orientals, place much
+reliance on omens, the position of the lower hem of the _panung_ worn
+by the Minister of Agriculture on this occasion indicating, it is
+confidently believed, the sort of weather to be expected during the
+ensuing year. If the edge of the _panung_ comes down to the ankles a
+dry season is anticipated, even a drought, perhaps. If, on the
+contrary, the garment is pulled up to the knees--a raining-in-London
+effect, as it were,--it is freely predicted that the country will
+suffer from floods. But if the folds of the silk reach to a point
+midway between knee and ankle, then the farmers look forward to a
+moderate rainfall and a prosperous season. It is as though the United
+States Weather Bureau were to base its forecasts on the height at which
+the Secretary of Agriculture wore his trousers.
+
+The _panung_--a strip of silk or cotton about three yards long is the
+national garment of Siam and among the poorer classes constitutes the
+only article of clothing. It is admirably adapted to the climate, being
+easy to wash and easy to put on: all that is necessary is to wind it
+about the waist, pass the ends between the legs, and tuck them into the
+girdle, thus producing the effect of a pair of knickerbockers. As both
+sexes wear the _panung_, and likewise wear their hair cut short, it is
+somewhat difficult to distinguish between men and women. Siamese women
+keep their hair about four or five inches long and brush it straight
+back, like American college students, without using any comb or other
+ornament, thus giving them a peculiarly boyish appearance. In
+explanation of this fashion of wearing the hair there is an interesting
+tradition. Once upon a time, it seems, a Siamese walled city was
+besieged by Cambodians while the men of the city were fighting
+elsewhere and only women and children remained behind. A successful
+defense was out of the question. In this emergency, a woman of militant
+character--the Sylvia Pankhurst of her time--proposed to her terrified
+sisters that they should cut their hair short and appear upon the walls
+in men's clothing on the chance of frightening away the Cambodians. The
+ruse succeeded, for, while the invaders were hesitating whether to
+carry the city by storm, the Siamese warriors returned and put the
+enemy to flight. The Siamese prince who told me the story, an officer
+who had spent much of his life in Europe, remarked that he understood
+that American women were also cutting off their hair.
+
+"True enough," I admitted. "In the younger set bobbed hair is all the
+vogue. But they don't cut off their hair, as your women did, to
+frighten away the men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If you will take down the family atlas and turn to the map of Southern
+Asia you will see that Siam, with an area about equivalent to that of
+Spain, occupies the uncomfortable and precarious position of a fat
+walnut clinched firmly between the jaws of a nut-cracker, the jaws
+being formed by British Burmah and French Indo-China. And for the past
+thirty years those jaws have been slowly but remorselessly closing.
+Until 1893 the eastern frontier of Siam was separated from the China
+Sea by the narrow strip of Annam, at one point barely thirty miles in
+width, which was under French protection. Its western boundary was the
+Lu Kiang River, which likewise formed the eastern boundary of the
+British possessions in Burmah. On the south the kingdom reached down to
+the Grand Lac of Cambodia, while on the north its frontiers were
+coterminous with those of the great, rich Chinese province of Yunnan.
+Now here was a condition of affairs which was as annoying as it was
+intolerable to the land-hungry statesmen of Downing Street and the
+Quai d'Orsay. That a small and defenseless Oriental nation should be
+permitted to block the colonial expansion of two powerful and
+acquisitive European nations was unthinkable.
+
+The first step in the spoilation of the helpless little kingdom was
+taken by France in 1893, when, claiming that the Mekong--which the
+French were eager to acquire under the impression that it would provide
+them with a trade-route into Southern China--formed the true boundary
+between Siam and Annam, she demanded that the Siamese evacuate the
+great strip of territory to the east of that river. Greatly to the
+delight of the French imperialists, the Siamese refused to yield,
+whereupon, in accordance with the time-honored rules of the game of
+territory grabbing, French gunboats were dispatched to make a naval
+demonstration off Bangkok. The forts at the mouth of the Menam fired
+upon the gunboats, whereupon the French instituted a blockade of the
+Siamese capital and at the same time enormously increased their
+demands. England, which had long professed to be a disinterested friend
+of the Siamese, shrugged her shoulders whereupon they yielded to the
+threat of a French invasion and ceded to France the eastern marches of
+the kingdom. Meanwhile the frontier between Siam and the new British
+possessions in Burmah had been settled amicably, though, as might have
+been expected, in Britain's favor, Siam being shorn of a small strip of
+territory on the northwest. In 1904 the French again brought pressure
+to bear, their territorial booty on this occasion amounting to some
+eight thousand square miles, comprising the Luang Prabang district
+lying east of the Mekong and the provinces of Malupre and Barsak.
+Seeing that the process of filching territory from the Siamese was as
+safe and easy as taking candy from children, the French tried it again
+in 1907, this time obtaining the provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and
+Siem-Reap, constituting a total of some seven thousand square miles,
+thus bringing within French territory the whole of the Grand Lac and
+the wonderful ruins of Angkor. In 1909 it was England's turn again,
+but, disdaining the crude methods of the French, she informed the
+Siamese Government that she was prepared to relinquish her rights to
+maintain her own courts in Siam, the Siamese being expected to show
+their gratitude for this concession to their national pride by ceding
+to England the states of Kelantan, Trengganu and Kedah, in the Malay
+Peninsula, with a total area of about fifteen thousand square miles. It
+was a costly transaction for the Siamese, but they assented. What else
+was there for them to do? When a burly and determined person holds you
+up in a dark alley with a revolver and intimates that if you will hand
+over your pocketbook he will refrain from hitting you over the head
+with a billy, there is nothing to do but accede with the best grace
+possible to his demands. In a period of only sixteen years, therefore,
+France and England, by methods which, if used in business, would lead
+to an investigation by the Grand Jury, succeeded in stripping Siam of
+about a third of her territory. The history of Siam during that period
+provides a striking illustration of the methods by which European
+powers have obtained their colonial empires.
+
+It was the Great War which, by diverting the attention of France and
+England, probably saved Siam from complete dismemberment. Now, in
+robbing her, they would be robbing an ally and a friend, for in July,
+1917, Siam declared war on the Central Powers, despatched an
+expeditionary force to France, interned every enemy alien in the
+kingdom and confiscated their property, thus ridding France and England
+of the last vestige of Teutonic commercial rivalry in southeastern
+Asia. The Siamese, moreover, have had a national house-cleaning and
+have set their country in thorough order. Their national finances are
+now in admirable condition; they have accomplished far-reaching
+administrative reforms; they are opening up their territory by the
+construction of railway lines in all directions; and they have obtained
+the practical abolition of French and British jurisdiction over certain
+of their domestic affairs, while a treaty which provides that the
+United States shall likewise surrender its extra territorial rights and
+permit its citizens to be tried in Siamese courts has recently been
+signed.
+
+The future of Siam should be of interest to Americans if for no other
+reason than that it is the one remaining independent state of tropical
+Asia. Indeed, it is known to its own people as Muang-Thai--the
+"Kingdom of the Free." Whether it will remain so only the future can
+tell. I should be more sanguine about the continued independence of the
+Land of the White Elephant, however, were it not for the colonial
+records of its two nearest neighbors, which heretofore, in their
+dealings with Asiatic peoples, have usually followed
+
+    "The good old rule ... the simple plan,
+    That they should take who have the power,
+    And they should keep who can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TO PNOM-PENH BY THE JUNGLE TRAIL
+
+
+Indo-China is a great bay-window bulging from the southeastern corner
+of Asia, its casements opening on the China Sea and on the Gulf of
+Siam. Of all the countries of the Farther East it is the most
+mysterious; of them all it is the least known. Larger than the State of
+Texas, it is a land of vast forests and unexplored jungles in which
+roam the elephant, the tiger and the buffalo; a land of palaces and
+pagodas and gilded temples; of sun-bronzed pioneers and priests in
+yellow robes and bejeweled dancing girls. Lured by the tales I had
+heard of curious places and strange peoples to be seen in the interior
+of the peninsula, I refused to content myself with skirting its edges
+on a steamer. Instead, I determined to cross it from coast to coast.
+
+I had looked forward to covering the first stage of this journey, the
+four hundred-odd miles of jungle which separate Bangkok, in Siam, from
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on an elephant. Everyone with whom
+I had discussed the matter in Singapore had assured me that this was
+perfectly feasible. And as a means of transportation it appealed to me.
+It seemed to fit into the picture, as a wheel-chair accords with the
+spirit of Atlantic City, as a caleche is congruous to Quebec. To my
+friends at home I had planned to send pictures of myself reclining in a
+howdah, rajah-like, as my ponderous mount rocked and rolled along the
+jungle trails. To me the idea sounded fine. But it was not to be. For,
+in shaping my plans, I had been ignorant of the fact that during the
+dry season, which was then at hand, Asiatic elephants are seldom
+worked--that they become morose and irritable and are usually kept in
+idleness until their docility returns with the rains. I was greatly
+disappointed.
+
+The overland route thus proving impracticable, so far as the first part
+of the journey was concerned, the sea road alone remained. Of vessels
+plying between Bangkok and the ports of French Indo-China there were
+but two--the _Bonite_, a French packet slightly larger than a Hudson
+River tugboat, which twice monthly makes the round trip between the
+Siamese capital and Saigon; and a Danish tramp; the _Chutututch_, an
+unkempt vagrant of the seas which wanders at will along the Gulf Coast,
+touching at those obscure ports where cargo or passengers are likely to
+be found. The _Bonite_ swung at her moorings in the Menam, opposite my
+hotel windows, so, made cautious by previous experiences on other
+coastwise vessels, I went out in a sampan to make a preliminary survey.
+But I did not go aboard. The odors which assailed me as I drew near
+caused me to decide abruptly that I wished to make no voyage on _her_.
+The _Chutututch_, I reasoned, _must_ be better; it certainly could not
+be worse. And when I approached her owners they offered no objections
+to earning a few-score extra ticals by extending her itinerary so as to
+drop me at the tiny Cambodian port of Kep. The next day, then, saw me
+on the bridge of the _Chutututch_, smoking for politeness' sake one of
+the genial captain's villainous cigars, as we steamed slowly between
+the palm-fringed, temple-dotted banks of the Menam toward the Gulf.
+
+[Illustration: Transportation in the Siamese jungle
+
+Long files of elephants, bearing men and merchandise beneath the hooded
+howdahs, rocking and rolling down the dim and deep-worn jungle trails]
+
+On many kinds of vessels I have voyaged the Seven Seas. I once spent
+Christmas on a Russian steamer, jammed to her guards with lousy
+pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, in a tempest off the Syrian coast. On
+another memorable occasion I skirted the shores of Crete on a Greek
+schooner which was engaged in conveying from Canea to Candia a
+detachment of British recruits much the worse for rum. But that voyage
+on the _Chutututch_ will linger longest in my memory. From stem to
+stern she was packed with yellow, half-naked, perspiring
+humanity--Siamese, Laos, Burmans, Annamites, Cambodians, Malays,
+Chinese--journeying, God knows why, to ports whose very names I had
+never before heard. They lay so thick beneath the awnings that the
+sailors literally had to walk upon them in order to perform their work.
+From the glassy surface of the Gulf the heat rose in waves--blasts from
+an opened furnace door. The flaming ball of molten brass that was the
+sun beat down upon the crowded decks until they were as hot to the
+touch as a railway station stove at white heat. The odors of crude,
+sugar, copra, tobacco, engine oil, perspiration and fish frying in the
+galley mingled in a stench that rose to heaven. In the sweat-box which
+had been allotted to me, called by courtesy a cabin, a large gray
+ship's rat gnawed industriously at my suit-case in an endeavor to
+ascertain what it contained; insects that shall be nameless disported
+themselves upon the dubious-looking blanket which formed the only
+covering of the bed; cockroaches of incredible size used the wash-basin
+as a public swimming-pool.
+
+The other cabin passengers were all three Anglo-Saxons--a young
+Englishman and an American missionary and his wife. These last, I
+found, were convoying a flock of noisy Siamese youngsters, pupils at an
+American school in Bangkok, to a small bathing resort at the mouth of
+the Menam, where, it was alleged, the mercury had been known to drop as
+low as 90 on cold days. Because of its invigorating climate it is a
+favorite hot weather resort for the well-to-do Siamese. Here, in a
+bungalow that had been placed at their disposal by the King, the
+missionary and his charges proposed to spend a glorious fortnight away
+from the city's heat. Now do not draw a mental picture of a
+sanctimonious person with a Prince Albert coat, a white bow tie and a
+prominent Adam's apple. He was not that sort of a missionary at all. On
+the contrary, he was a very human, high-spirited, likeable fellow of
+the type that at home would be a Scout Master or in France would have
+made good as a welfare worker with the A. E. F. Once, when a
+particularly obstreperous youngster drew an over-draft on his stock of
+patience, he endorsed his disapproval with an extremely vigorous
+"_Damn!_" I took to him from that moment.
+
+When, their energy temporarily exhausted, his charges had fallen asleep
+upon the deck and pandemonium had given place to peace, he told me
+something of his story. For four years he had labored in the Vineyard
+of the Lord in Chile, but, feeling that he "was having too good a
+time," as he expressed it, he applied to the Board of Missions for
+transfer to a more strenuous post. He obtained what he asked for, with
+something over for good measure, for he was ordered to a post in the
+northeastern corner of Siam, on the Annam frontier. If there is a more
+remote or inaccessible spot on the map it would be hard to find it.
+Here he and his wife spent ten years preaching the Word to the "black
+bellied Laos," as the tattooed savages of that region are known. Then
+he was transferred to Bangkok. There are no roads in Siam, so he and
+his wife and their five small children made the long journey by river,
+in a native dugout of less than two feet beam, in which they traveled
+and ate and slept for upwards of two weeks.
+
+I asked him if he wasn't becoming weaned of Bangkok, which, as a place
+of residence, leaves much to be desired.
+
+"Yes, I've had about enough of it," he admitted. "I'm anxious to get
+away."
+
+"Back to the Big Town?" I suggested. "To God's Country?"
+
+"Oh, no; not back to the States," he hastened to assure me. "I haven't
+finished my job out here. I want to get back to my people in the
+interior again."
+
+Whether you approve of foreign missions or not, it is impossible to
+withhold your respect and admiration from such men as that. Though at
+home they are too often the butts of ignorant criticisms and cheap
+witticisms, they are carrying civilization, no less than Christianity,
+into the world's dark places. They are the real pioneers. You might
+remember this the next time an appeal is made in your church for
+foreign missions.
+
+The young Englishman was likewise an outpost of progress, though in a
+different fashion. For seven years he had worn the uniform of an
+officer in the Royal Navy. At the close of the war, seeing small
+prospect of promotion, he had entered the employ of a British company
+which held a vast timber concession in the teak forests of northern
+Siam, far up, near the Chinese border. He was, he explained, a
+"girdler," which meant that his duties consisted in riding through the
+forest area allotted to him, selecting and girdling those trees which,
+three years later, would be cut down. To girdle a tree, as everyone
+knows, is to kill it, which is what is wanted, there being no market
+for green teak, which warps. He remained in the forest for four weeks
+at a stretch, he told me, without seeing a white man's face, his only
+companions his coolies and his Chinese cook. His domain comprised a
+thousand square miles of forest through which he moved constantly on
+horseback, followed by elephants bearing his camp equipage and
+supplies. Once each month he spent three days in the village where the
+company maintains its field headquarters. Here he played tennis and
+bridge with other girdlers--young Englishmen like himself who had come
+in from their respective districts to make their monthly reports--and
+in gleaning from the eight-weeks-old newspapers the news of that great
+outside world from which he was a voluntary exile. One would have
+supposed that, after seven years spent in the jovial atmosphere of a
+warship's wardroom, his solitary life in the great forests would
+quickly have become intolerable, and I expressed myself to this effect.
+But he said no, that he was neither lonely nor unhappy in his new life,
+and that his fellow foresters, all of whom had seen service in the
+Army, the Navy or the Royal Air Force, were equally contented with
+their lot. I could understand, though. The wilderness holds no terrors
+for anyone who went through the hell of the Great War.
+
+We dropped anchor at midnight off Chantaboun, where a launch was
+waiting to take him ashore. He was going up-country, he told me, to
+inspect a timber concession recently acquired by the company that
+employed him. Yes, he would be the only white man, but he would not be
+lonely. Besides, he would only be in the interior a couple of months,
+he said. He followed the coolies bearing his luggage down the gangway
+and dropped lightly into the tossing launch, then looked up to wave me
+a farewell.
+
+"Good luck," he called cheerily.
+
+"Good luck to _you_!" said I.
+
+That is the worst of this gadding up and down the earth--it is
+always--"How d'ye do?" and "Good-by."
+
+Three days out of Bangkok the anchor of the _Chutututch_ rumbled down
+off Kep, on the coast of Cambodia. Kep consists of a ramshackle wooden
+pier that reaches seaward like a lean brown finger, an equally decrepit
+custom house, a tin-roofed bungalow which the French Government
+maintains for the use of those fever-stricken officials who need the
+tonic of sea air, a cluster of bamboo huts thatched with nipa--nothing
+more. You will not find the place on any map; it is too small.
+
+It is in the neighborhood of three hundred kilometers from Kep to
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and for nearly the entire distance
+the highway has been hewn through the most savage jungle you can
+imagine. There was only one motor car in Kep and this I hired for the
+journey. I say hired, but bought would be nearer the truth. It was an
+aged and decrepit Renault, held together with string and wire, and
+suffering so badly from asthma and rheumatism that more than once I
+feared it would die on my hands before I reached my destination. It had
+as nurses two Annamites, who took unwarranted liberties with the truth
+by describing themselves as _mechaniciens_. Accompanying them were two
+sullen-faced Chinese. All four of them, I found, proposed to accompany
+me to Pnom-Penh. At this I protested vigorously, on the ground that, as
+the lessee of the machine, I had the right to choose my traveling
+companions, but my objections were overruled by the _Chef des Douanes_,
+the only French functionary in Kep, who assured me that if the car went
+the quartette must go, too. One of the Annamites, he explained, was the
+chauffeur, the other was the cranker, for in Indo-China automobiles are
+not equipped with self-starters and the chauffeurs firmly refuse to
+crank their own cars. They thus "save their face," which is a very
+important consideration in the estimation of Orientals, and they also
+provide easy and pleasant jobs for their friends. It is an idea which
+some of the labor unions in America might adopt to advantage. I make no
+charge for the suggestion. The two Chinese, it appeared, were the joint
+owners of the machine, and both insisted on going along because neither
+would trust the other with the hire-money. Thus it will be seen, we
+made quite a cozy little party.
+
+The road to Pnom-Penh, as I have already remarked, leads through a
+peculiarly lonely and savage region. And it is very narrow, bordered on
+either side by walls of almost impenetrable jungle. A place better
+adapted for a hold-up could hardly be devised. And of the reputations
+or antecedents of my four self-imposed companions, I knew nothing. Nor
+was there anything in their faces to lend me confidence in the honesty
+of their intentions. As we were about to start a native gendarme
+beckoned me to one side.
+
+"Beaucoup des pirats sur la route, M'sieu," he warned me in execrable
+French.
+
+"Brigands, you mean?" I asked him.
+
+"Oui, M'sieu."
+
+That was reassuring.
+
+"How about these men?" I inquired, indicating the motley crew who were
+to accompany me. "Are they to be trusted?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders non-commitally. It was evident that he did
+not hold of them a high opinion.
+
+Producing my .45 caliber service automatic, I slipped a clip into the
+magazine and ostentatiously laid it beside me on the seat. It is the
+most formidable weapon carried by any civilized people. True, the
+German Lueger is larger....
+
+"Tell them," I said to the policeman, "that this gun will shoot through
+twenty millimeters of pine. Tell them that they had better dispose of
+their property and burn a few joss-sticks before they start to argue
+with it. And tell them that, no matter what happens, the car is to keep
+going."
+
+But I was by no means as confident as I sounded, for the road was
+notoriously unsafe, nor did I put much trust in my companions. I
+confess that I felt much happier when that portion of my journey was
+over.
+
+As the road to Pnom-Penh is quite uninteresting--just a narrow yellow
+highway chopped through a dense tangle of tropic vegetation--suppose I
+take advantage of the opportunity to tell you something of this
+little-known land in which we find ourselves.
+
+French Indo-China occupies perhaps two-thirds of that great
+bay-window-shaped peninsula which protrudes from the southeastern
+corner of Asia. In area it is, as I have already remarked, somewhat
+larger than Texas; its population is about equal to that of New York
+and Pennsylvania combined. It consists of five states: the colony of
+Cochin-China, the protectorates of Cambodia, Annam and Tongking, and
+the unorganized territory of Laos, to which might be added the narrow
+strip of borderland, known as Kwang Chau Wan, leased from China. In
+1902 the capital of French Indo-China was transferred from Saigon, in
+Cochin-China, to Hanoi, in Tongking.
+
+By far the most interesting of these political divisions is Cambodia,
+which, for centuries an independent kingdom, was forced in 1862 to
+accept the protection of France. An apple-shaped country, about the
+size of England, with a few score miles of seacoast and without railway
+or regular sea communications, it lies tucked away in the heart of the
+peninsula, its southern borders marching with those of Cochin-China,
+its frontier on the north co-terminous with that of Siam. Though the
+octogenarian King Sisowath maintains a gorgeous court, a stable of
+elephants, upwards of two-hundred dancing-girls, and one of the most
+ornate palaces in Asia, he is permitted only a shadow of power, the
+real ruler of Cambodia being the French Resident-Superior, who governs
+the country from the great white Residency on the banks of the Mekong.
+
+I know of no region of like size and so comparatively easy of access
+(the great liners of the _Messageries Maritimes_ touch at Saigon,
+whence the Cambodian capital can be reached by river-steamer in two
+days) which offers so many attractions to the hunter of big game.
+Unlike British East Africa, where, as a result of the commercialization
+of sport, the cost of going on _safari_ has steadily mounted until now
+it is a form of recreation to be afforded only by war profiteers,
+Cambodia remains unexploited and unspoiled. It is in many respects the
+richest, as it is almost the last, of the world's great
+hunting-grounds. It is, indeed, a vast zoological garden, where such
+formalities as hunting licenses are still unknown. In its jungles roam
+elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards, panthers, bear, deer, and
+the savage jungle buffalo, known in Malaya as the seladang and in
+Indo-China as the gaur--considered by many hunters the most dangerous
+of all big game.
+
+Nailed to the wall of the Government rest-house at Kep was the skin of
+a leopard which had been shot from the veranda the day before my
+arrival, while raiding the pig-pen. The day that I left Kampot an
+elephant herd, estimated by the native trackers at one hundred and
+twenty head, was reported within seven miles of the town. Twice during
+the journey to Pnom-Penh I saw tracks of elephant herds on the road--it
+looked as though a fleet of whippet tanks had passed.
+
+Nevertheless, I should have put mental question-marks after some of the
+big game stories I heard while I was in Indo-China had I not been
+convinced of the credibility of those who told them. Only a few days
+before our arrival at Saigon, for example, an American engaged in
+business in that city set out one morning before daybreak, in a small
+car, for the paddy-fields, where there is excellent bird-shooting in
+the early dawn. The car, which, owing to the intense heat, had no
+wind-shield, was driven by the Annamite chauffeur, the American, a
+double-barrel loaded with bird-shot across his knees, sitting beside
+him on the front seat. Rounding a turn in the jungle road at thirty
+miles an hour, the twin beams of light from the lamps fell on a tiger,
+which, dazzled and bewildered by the on-coming glare, crouched snarling
+in the middle of the highway. There was no time to stop the car, and,
+as the jungle came to the very edge of the narrow road, there was no
+way to avoid the animal, which, just as the car was upon it, gathered
+itself and sprang. It landed on the hood with all four feet, its
+snarling face so close to the men that they could feel its breath. The
+American, thrusting the muzzle of his weapon into the furry neck of the
+great cat, let go with both barrels, blowing away the beast's throat
+and jugular vein and killing it instantly. With the aid of his badly
+frightened driver, he bundled the great striped carcass into the
+tonneau of the car and imperturbably continued on his bird-shooting
+expedition. Some people seem to have a monopoly of luck.
+
+Though Saigon and Pnom-Penh do not possess the facilities for equipping
+shooting expeditions afforded by Mombasa or Nairobi, and though in
+Indo-China there are no professional European guides, such as the late
+Major Cunninghame; the elaborate and costly outfits customary in East
+Africa, with their mile-long trains of bearers, are as unnecessary as
+they are unknown. The arrangements for a tiger hunt in Indo-China are
+scarcely more elaborate and certainly no more expensive, than for a
+moose hunt in Maine. A dependable native _shikari_ who knows the
+country, a cook, half-a-dozen coolies, a sturdy riding-pony, two or
+three pack-animals, a tent and food, that is all you need. With such an
+outfit, particularly in a region so thick with game as, say, the Dalat
+Plateau, in Annam, the hunter should get a shot at a tiger before he
+has been forty-eight hours in the bush. In a clearing in a jungle known
+to be frequented by tigers, the carcass of a bullock, or, if that is
+unavailable, of a pig, is fastened securely to a stake and left there
+until it smells to high heaven. When its odor is of sufficient potency
+to reach the nostrils of the tiger, the hunter takes up his position in
+the edge of the clearing, or on a platform built in a tree if he
+believes in Safety First. For investigating the kill the tiger usually
+chooses the dimness of the early dawn or the semi-darkness which
+precedes nightfall. With no warning save a faint rustle in the
+undergrowth a lean and tawny form slithers on padded feet across the
+open--and the man behind the rifle has his chance. I have found,
+however, that even in tiger lands, tigers are by no means as plentiful
+as one's imagination paints them at home. It is easy to be a big-game
+hunter on the hearth-rug.
+
+Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, stands on the west bank of the
+mighty Mekong, one hundred and seventy miles from the sea. Pnom,
+meaning "mountain," refers to the hill, or mound, ninety feet high, in
+the heart of the city; Penh was the name of a celebrated Cambodian
+queen. Until twenty years ago Pnom-Penh was a filthy and unsanitary
+native town, its streets ankle-deep with dust during the dry season and
+ankle-deep with mud during the rains. But with the coming of the French
+the flimsy, vermin-infested houses were torn down, the hog-wallows
+which served as thoroughfares were transformed into broad and
+well-paved avenues shaded by double rows of handsome trees, and the
+city was provided with lighting and water systems. The old-fashioned
+open water sewers still remain, however, lending to the place, a rich,
+ripe odor. Pnom-Penh possesses a spacious and well ventilated
+motion-picture house, where Charlie Chaplin known to the French as
+"Charlot" and Fatty Arbuckle convulse the simple children of the jungle
+just as they convulse more sophisticated assemblages on the other side
+of the globe.
+
+But all that is most worth seeing in Pnom-Penh is cloistered within the
+mysterious walls of vivid pink which surround the Royal Palace. Here is
+the residence of His Majesty Prea Bat Samdach Prea Sisowath, King of
+Cambodia; here dwell the twelve score dancing-girls of the famous royal
+ballet and the hundreds of concubines and attendants comprising the
+royal harem; here are the stables of the royal elephants and the sacred
+zebus; here a congeries of palaces, pavilions, throne halls, dance
+halls, temples, shrines, kiosks, monuments, courtyards, and gardens the
+like of which is not to be found outside the covers of _The Thousand
+and One Nights_. It is an architectural extravaganza, a bacchanalia of
+color and design, as fantastic and unreal as the city of a dream. The
+steep-pitched, curiously shaped roofs are covered with tiles of every
+color--peacock blue, vermilion, turquoise, emerald green, burnt orange;
+no inch of exposed woodwork has escaped the carver's cunning chisel;
+everywhere gold has been laid on with a spendthrift hand. And in this
+marvelous setting strut or stroll figures that might have stepped
+straight from the stage of _Sumurun_--fantastically garbed
+functionaries of the Household, shaven-headed priests in yellow robes,
+pompous mandarins in sweeping silken garments, bejeweled and bepainted
+dancing-girls. It is not real, you feel. It is too gorgeous, too
+bizarre. It is the work of stage-carpenters and scene-painters and
+costumers, and you are quite certain that the curtain will descend
+presently and that you will have to put on your hat and go home.
+
+From the center of the great central court rises the famous Silver
+Pagoda. It takes its name from its floor, thirty-six feet wide and one
+hundred and twenty long, which is covered with pure silver. When the
+sun's rays seep through the interstices of the carving it leaps into a
+brilliancy that is blinding. On the high walls of the room are depicted
+in startling colors, scenes from the life of Buddha and realistic
+glimpses of hell, for your Cambodian artist is at his best in
+portraying scenes of horror. The mural decorations of the Silver Pagoda
+would win the unqualified approval of an oldtime fire-and-brimstone
+preacher. Rearing itself roofward from the center of the room is an
+enormous pyramidal altar, littered with a heterogeneous collection of
+offerings from the devout. At its apex is a so-called Emerald
+Buddha--probably, like its fellow in Bangkok, of translucent
+jade--which is the guardian spirit of the place. But at one side of the
+altar stands the chief treasure of the temple--a great golden Buddha
+set with diamonds. The value of the gold alone is estimated at not far
+from three-quarters of a million dollars; at the value of the jewels
+one can only guess. It was made by the order of King Norodom, the
+brother and predecessor of the present ruler, the whole amazing
+edifice, indeed, being a monument into which that monarch poured his
+wealth and ambition. Ranged about the altar are glass cases containing
+the royal treasures--rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds of a size
+and in a profusion which makes it difficult to realize that they are
+genuine. It is a veritable cave of Al-ed-Din. The covers of these cases
+are sealed with strips of paper bearing the royal cypher--nothing
+more. They have never been locked nor guarded, yet nothing has ever
+been stolen, for King Sisowath is to his subjects something more than a
+ruler; he is venerated as the representative of God on earth. For a
+Cambodian to steal from him would be as unthinkable a sacrilege as for
+a Roman Catholic to burglarize the apartments of the Pope. And should
+their religious scruples show signs of yielding to temptation, why,
+there are the paintings on the walls to warn them of the torments
+awaiting them in the hereafter. It struck me, however, that the Silver
+Pagoda offers a golden, not to say a jeweled opportunity to an
+enterprising American burglar.
+
+On the south side of the courtyard containing the Silver Pagoda is a
+relic far more precious in the eyes of the natives, however, than all
+the royal treasures put together--a footprint of Buddha. It was left,
+so the priests who guard it night and day reverently explain, by the
+founder of their faith when he paid a flying visit to Cambodia. Over
+the footprint has been erected a shrine with a floor of solid gold.
+Buddha did not do as well by Cambodia as by Ceylon, however, for
+whereas at Pnom-Penh he left the imprint of his foot, at Kandy he left
+a tooth. I know, for I have seen it.
+
+In an adjacent courtyard is the Throne Hall, a fine example of
+Cambodian architecture, the gorgeous throne of the monarch standing on
+a dais in the center of a lofty apartment decorated in gold and green.
+Close by is the Salle des Fetes, or Dance Hall, a modern French
+structure, where the royal ballet gives its performances. Ever since
+there have been kings in Cambodia each monarch has chosen from the
+daughters of the upper classes two hundred and forty showgirls and has
+had them trained for dancing. These girls, many of whom are brought to
+the palace by their parents when small children and offered to the
+King, eventually enter the monarch's harem as concubines. Admission to
+the royal ballet is to a Cambodian maiden what a position in the
+Ziegfeld Follies is to a Broadway chorus girl. It is the blue ribbon of
+female pulchritude. Unlike Mr. Ziegfeld's carefully selected beauties,
+however, who frequently find the stage a stepping-stone to independence
+and a limousine, the Cambodian show-girl, once she enters the service
+of the King, becomes to all intents and purposes a prisoner. And
+Sisowath, for all his eighty-odd years, is a jealous master. Never
+again can she stroll with her lover in the fragrant twilight on the
+palm-fringed banks of the Mekong. Never again can she leave the
+precincts of the palace, save to accompany the King. The bars behind
+which she dwells are of gold, it is true, but they are bars just the
+same.
+
+When I broached to the French Resident-Superior, who is the real ruler
+of Cambodia, the subject of taking motion-pictures within the royal
+enclosure, he was anything but encouraging.
+
+"I'm afraid it's quite impossible," he told me. "The King is at his
+summer palace at Kampot, where he will remain for several weeks.
+Without his permission nothing can be done. Moreover, the royal
+ballet, which is the most interesting sight in Cambodia, is never under
+any circumstances permitted to dance during his Majesty's absence."
+
+"But why not telegraph the King?" I suggested, though with waning hope.
+"Or get him on the telephone. Tell him how much the pictures would do
+to acquaint the American public with the attractions of his country;
+explain to him that they would bring here hundreds of visitors who
+otherwise would never know that there is such a place as Pnom-Penh.
+More than that," I added diplomatically, "they would undoubtedly wake
+up American capitalists to a realization of Cambodia's natural
+resources. That's what you particularly want here, isn't it--foreign
+capital?"
+
+That argument seemed to impress the shrewd and far-seeing Frenchman.
+
+"Perhaps something can be done, after all," he told me. "I will send
+for the Minister of the Royal Household and ask him if he can
+communicate with the King. As soon as I learn something definite, you
+will hear from me."
+
+The second day following I received a call from the chief of the
+political bureau.
+
+"Everything has been arranged as you desired," was the cheering news
+with which he greeted me. "The _defile_ will take place in the grounds
+of the palace tomorrow morning. Already the necessary orders have been
+issued. Thirty elephants with their state housings; eighty ceremonial
+cars drawn by sacred bullocks; the royal body-guard in full uniform; a
+delegation of mandarins in court-dress; a hundred Buddhist priests
+attached to the royal temple; and, moreover, his Majesty has granted
+special permission an unheard-of thing, let me tell you!--for the royal
+ballet to give a performance expressly for you to-morrow afternoon on
+the terrace of the throne-hall. It will be a marvelous spectacle."
+
+"Bully!" I exclaimed. "Won't you have a drink?"
+
+"There is one thing I forgot to mention," the official remarked
+hesitatingly, as he sipped the gin sling which is the favorite drink of
+the tropics. "There will be a small charge for expenses--tips, you
+know, for the palace officials."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," I replied lightly. "How much will the tips
+amount to?"
+
+"Only about two hundred piastres," was the somewhat startling answer,
+for, at the then current rate of exchange a piastre was worth about
+$1.50 gold. "The resident will pay half of it, however, as he believes
+that the pictures will prove of great value to the country."
+
+Yet most people think that tipping has reached its apogee in the United
+States!
+
+[Illustration: The head of the pageant approaching the camera in the
+palace at Pnom-Penh
+
+_Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition_]
+
+When we entered the gate of the palace the next morning, I felt as
+though I had been translated to the days of Haroun-al-Raschid, for the
+vast courtyard, flanked on all sides by marble buildings with tiled
+roofs of cobalt blue, of emerald green, of red, of brilliant yellow,
+was literally crowded with elephants, bullocks, horses, chariots,
+palanquins, soldiers, priests, and officials all the pomp and panoply
+of an Asiatic court, in short. Though close examination revealed the
+gold as gilt and the jewels as colored glass, the general effect was
+undeniably gorgeous. In spite of the brilliance of the scene, Hawkinson
+was as blase as ever. He issued orders to the Minister of the Household
+as though he were directing a Pullman porter.
+
+"Have those elephants come on in double file," he commanded. "Then
+follow 'em with the bullock-carts and the palanquins. I'll shoot the
+priests and the mandarins later."
+
+"But the priests must be taken at once," the minister protested. "They
+have been waiting a long time, and they are already late for the
+morning service in the royal temple."
+
+"Well, they'll have to wait still longer," was the unruffled answer.
+"Tell them not to get impatient. I'll get round to them as soon as I
+finish with the animals. Think what it will mean to them to have their
+pictures shown on the same screen with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas
+Fairbanks and Mary Pickford! I know lots of people who would be willing
+to wait a year for such a chance."
+
+Just then there approached across the courtyard a trio of youths in
+white uniforms and gold-laced kepis, their breasts ablaze with
+decorations. At sight of them the minister doubled himself in the
+middle like a jack-knife. They were, it appeared, some of the royal
+princes--sons of the King.
+
+There ensued a brief colloquy between the minister and the eldest of
+the princes, the conversation evidently relating, as I gathered from
+the gestures, to the Lovely Lady and the Winsome Widow, who at the
+moment were delightedly engaged in feeding candies to a baby elephant.
+
+"His Highness wishes to know," the minister interpreted, "when the
+ladies of your company are to appear. His Highness is a great admirer
+of American actresses; he saw your most famous one, Mademoiselle Theda
+Bara, at a cinema in Singapore."
+
+It seemed a thousand pities to destroy the prince's delusion.
+
+"Tell his Highness," I said, "that the ladies will not act in this
+picture. They only play comedy parts."
+
+The princes received the news with open disappointment. If the Lovely
+Lady and the Winsome Widow had only consented to appear on the back of
+an elephant, or even in a palanquin, I imagine that they might have
+received a mark of the royal favor in the form of a Cambodian
+decoration. It is a gorgeous affair and is called, with great
+appropriateness, the "Order of a Million Elephants and Parasols."
+
+[Illustration: Dancing girls belonging to the royal ballet of the King
+of Cambodia
+
+The dancers ranged in age from twelve to fifteen. The costumes were
+wonderful creations of cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels
+
+_Photo by the Goldwyn-Bray-Powell Malaysian Expedition_]
+
+That afternoon, on the broad marble terrace of the throne-hall, which
+had been covered with a scarlet carpet for the occasion, the royal
+ballet gave a special performance for our benefit. The dancers were
+much younger than I had anticipated, ranging in age from twelve to
+fifteen. Dancing has ever been a great institution in Cambodia, the
+dances, which have behind them traditions of two thousand years, being
+illustrative of incidents in the poem of the Ramayana and adhering
+faithfully to the classical examples which are depicted on the walls of
+the great temple at Angkor, such as the dancing of the goddess Apsaras,
+her gestures, and her dress. The costumes worn by the dancing-girls
+were the most gorgeous that we saw in Asia: wonderful creations of
+cloth-of-gold heavily embroidered with jewels. Most of the dancers wore
+towering, pointed head-dresses, similar to the historic crowns of the
+Cambodian kings, though a few of them wore masks, one representing the
+head of a fox, another a fish, a third a lion, which could be raised or
+lowered, like the visors of medieval helmets. The faces of all of the
+dancers were so heavily coated with powder and enamel that they would
+have been cracked by a smile. It was a performance which would have
+astonished and delighted the most blase audience on Broadway, but there
+in the heart of Cambodia, with the terrace of a throne-hall for a
+stage, with palaces, temples, and pagodas for a setting, with a blazing
+tropic sun for a spot-light, and with actors and audience clad in
+costumes as curious and colorful as those worn at the court of the
+Queen of Sheba, it provided a spectacle which we who were privileged to
+see it will remember always. What a pity that Cap'n Bryant was not
+alive so that I might sit on the steps of his Mattapoisett cottage and
+tell him all about it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EXILES OF THE OUTLANDS
+
+
+From Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to Saigon, the capital of
+Cochin-China, is in the neighborhood of two hundred miles and two
+routes are open to the traveler. The most comfortable and considerably
+the cheapest is by the bi-weekly steamer down the Mekong. The
+alternative route, which is far more interesting, consists in
+descending the river to Banam, a village some twenty miles below
+Pnom-Penh, on the opposite bank of the Mekong, where, if a car has been
+arranged for, it is possible to motor across the fertile plains of
+Cochin-China to Saigon in a single day. That was the way that we went.
+
+Though separated only by the Mekong, that mighty waterway which, rising
+in the mountains of Tibet, bisects the whole peninsula, Cochin-China is
+as dissimilar from Cambodia as the ordered farmlands of Ohio are from
+the Florida Everglades. In Cambodia, stretches of sand covered with
+low, scraggy, discouraged-looking scrub alternate with tangled and
+impenetrable jungles. It is a savage, untamed land. Cochin-China, on
+the other hand, is one great sweep of plain, green with growing rice
+and dotted with the bamboo poles of well-sweeps, for water can be found
+everywhere at thirty to forty feet. These striking contrasts in
+contiguous states are due in some measure, no doubt, to differences in
+their soils and climates and to the industry of their inhabitants, but
+more largely, I imagine, to the fact that while the Frenchman has been
+at work in Cochin-China for upwards of sixty years, Cambodia is still
+on the frontier of civilization.
+
+The roads which the French have built in Indo-China deserve a paragraph
+of mention, for, barring the rivers and the three short unconnected
+sections of railway on the East coast of the peninsula, they form the
+country's only means of communication. The national highways consist of
+two great systems. The Route Coloniale, which was the one I followed,
+has its beginning at Kep, on the Gulf of Siam, runs north-eastward
+through the jungles of Cambodia to Pnom-Penh, and, recommencing at
+Banam, swings southward across the Cochin-China plain to Saigon. The
+Route Mandarine, beginning at Saigon, hugs the shores of the China Sea
+and, after traversing twelve hundred miles of jungle, forest and
+mountain land in Annam and Tongking, comes to an end at Hanoi, the
+capital of Indo-China. The entire length of the Route Mandarine may now
+be traversed by auto-bus--an excellent way to see the country provided
+you are inured to fatigue, do not mind the heat, and are not
+over-particular as to your fellow passengers. A motor car is, of
+course, more comfortable and more expensive; a small one can be rented
+for ninety dollars a day.
+
+Nowhere has the colonizing white man encountered greater obstacles
+than those which have confronted the French road-builders in
+Indo-China; nowhere has Nature turned toward him a sterner and more
+forbidding face. But, though their coolies have died by the thousands
+from cholera and fever, though their laboriously constructed bridges
+have been swept away in a night by rivers swollen from the torrential
+rains, though the fast-growing jungle persistently encroaches on the
+hard-won right-of-way, though they have had to combat savage beasts and
+still more savage men, they have prosecuted with indomitable courage
+and tenacity the task of building a road "to Tomorrow from the Land of
+Yesterday."
+
+Saigon, the capital of Cochin-China and the most important place in
+France's Asiatic possessions, is a European city set down on the edge
+of Asia. So far as its appearance goes, it might be on the Seine
+instead of the Saigon. The original town was burned by the French
+during the fighting by which they obtained possession of the place and
+they rebuilt it on European lines, with boulevards, shops, cafes, a
+Hotel de Ville, a Theatre Municipal, a Musee, a Jardin Botanique, all
+complete. The general plan of the city, with its regular streets and
+intersecting boulevards, has evidently been modeled on that of the
+French capital and the Saigonnese proudly speak of it as "the Paris of
+the East." In certain respects this is taking a considerable liberty
+with the truth, but they are very lonely and homesick and one does not
+blame them. Most of the streets, which are paved after a fashion, are
+lined with tamarinds, thus providing the shade so imperatively
+necessary where the mercury hovers between 90 and 110, winter and
+summer, day and night. At almost every street intersection stands a
+statue of some one who bore a hand in the conquest of the country, from
+the cassocked figure of Pigneau de Behaine, Bishop of Adran, the first
+French missionary to Indo-China, to the effigy of the dashing Admiral
+Rigault de Genouilly, flanked by charging marines, who took Saigon for
+France.
+
+The most characteristic feature of Saigon is its cafe life. During the
+heat of the day the Europeans keep within doors, but toward nightfall
+they all come out and, gathering about the little tables which crowd
+the sidewalks before the cafes in the Boulevard Bonnard and the Rue
+Catinat, they gossip and sip their absinthes and smoke numberless
+cigarettes and mop their florid faces and argue noisily and with much
+gesticulation over the news in the _Courrier de Saigon_ or the
+six-weeks-old _Figaro_ and _Le Temps_ which arrive fortnightly by the
+mail-boat from France. They wear stiffly starched white linen--though
+the jackets are all too often left unfastened at the neck--and enormous
+mushroom-shaped topees which come down almost to their shoulders and
+are many sizes too large for them, and they consume vast quantities of
+drink, the evening usually ending in a series of violent altercations.
+When the disputants take to backing up their arguments with blows from
+canes and bottles, the cafe proprietor unceremoniously bundles them
+into _pousse-pousses_, as rickshaws are called in Saigon, and sends
+them home.
+
+Along the Rue Catinat in the evenings saunters a picturesque and
+colorful procession--haggard, slovenly officers of the _troupes
+coloniales_ and of the Foreign Legion, the rows of parti-colored
+ribbons on their breasts telling of service in little wars in the
+world's forgotten corners; dreary, white-faced Government employees,
+their cheeks gaunt from fever, their eyes bloodshot from heavy
+drinking; sun-bronzed, swaggering, loud-voiced rubber planters in
+riding breeches and double Terais, down from their plantations in the
+far interior for a periodic spree; women gowned in the height of Paris
+fashion, but with too pink cheeks and too red lips and too ready smiles
+for strangers, equally at home on the Bund of Shanghai or the
+boulevards of Paris; shaven-headed Hindu money-lenders from British
+India, the lengths of cotton sheeting which form their only garments
+revealing bodies as hairy and repulsive as those of apes; barefooted
+Annamite tirailleurs in uniforms of faded khaki, their great round hats
+of woven straw tipped with brass spikes like those on German helmets;
+slender Chinese women, tripping by on tiny, thick-soled shoes in
+pajama-like coats and trousers of clinging, sleazy silk; naked
+_pousse-pousse_ coolies, streaming with sweat, graceful as the bronzes
+in a museum; friars of the religious orders in shovel-hats and linen
+robes; sailors of the fleet and of the merchant vessels in the harbor,
+swaggering along with the roll of the sea in their gait; Armenian
+peddlers with piles of rugs and embroideries slung across their
+shoulders; Arabs, Indians, Malays, Cambodians, Laos, Siamese, Burmese,
+Chinese, world without end, Amen.
+
+But, beneath it all, a paralysis is on everything--the paralysis of the
+excessive administration with which the French have ruined Indo-China.
+There are too many people in front of the cafes and too few in the
+offices and shops. There is too much drinking and too little work. The
+officials are alternately melancholy and overbearing; the natives
+cringing and sullen. It is not a wholesome atmosphere. Corruption, if
+not universal, is appallingly common. Foreigners engaged in business in
+Saigon told me that it is necessary to "grease the palms" of everyone
+who holds a Government position. As a result of this practise,
+officials who are poor men when they arrive in the colony retire after
+four or five years' service with comfortable fortunes--and France does
+not pay her public servants highly either. And there are other vices.
+The manager of a great American corporation doing business in Saigon
+told me that ninety per cent of the city's European population are
+confirmed users of opium. And, judging from their unhealthy pallor and
+lacklustre eyes, I can well believe it. But what else could you expect
+in a country where the drug is sold to anyone who has money to pay for
+it; where it is one of the Government's chief sources of revenue?
+
+On the native population the hand of the French lies heavily. In 1916
+there was an attempted jail delivery of political prisoners in Saigon,
+but the plot was discovered before it could be put into execution, the
+ring-leaders arrested, and thirty-eight of them condemned to death.
+They were executed in batches of four, kneeling, blind-folded, lashed
+to stakes. The firing party consisted of a platoon of Annamite
+tirailleurs. Behind them, with machine guns trained, was drawn up a
+battalion of French infantry. The occasion was celebrated in Saigon as
+a public holiday, hundreds of Frenchmen, accompanied by their wives and
+children, driving out to see the sight. The next day picture postcards
+of the execution were hawked about the streets. But the authorities in
+Paris evidently disapproved of the proceeding, for the governor of the
+colony and the commander of the military forces were promptly recalled
+in disgrace. The terrible object-lesson doubtless had the desired
+effect, for the natives cringe like whipped dogs when a Frenchman
+speaks to them. But there is that in their manner which bodes ill for
+their masters if a crisis ever arises in Indo-China. I should not like
+to see our own brown wards, the Filipinos, look at Americans with the
+murderous hate with which the Annamites regard the French. In Africa,
+by moderation and tolerance and justice, France has built up a mighty
+colonial empire whose inhabitants are as loyal and contented as though
+they had been born under the Tricolor. But in far-off Indo-China French
+administration seems, even to as staunch a friend of France as myself,
+to be very far from an unqualified success.
+
+During the ten days that I spent in Saigon I stayed at the Hotel
+Continental. I shall remember it as the place where they charged a
+dollar and a half for a highball and fifty cents for a lemonade. It was
+insufferably hot. I can sympathize now with the recalcitrant convict
+who is punished by being sent to the sweat-box. Battalions of ferocious
+mosquitoes launched their assaults against my unprotected person with
+the persistence that the Germans displayed at Verdun. In the next room
+the tenor of the itinerant grand opera company that was giving a series
+of performances at the Theatre Municipal squabbled unceasingly with his
+woman companion. Both were generally much the worse for drink. One
+particularly sultry afternoon, when the whole world seemed like the
+steam room of a Turkish bath, their voices rose to an unprecedented
+pitch of violence. Through the thin panels of the door came the sound
+of scuffling feet. Some heavy article of furniture went over with a
+crash. Then came the thud of a falling body.
+
+"Thou accurst one!" I heard the tenor groan. Then "Help me!... I'm
+dying!"
+
+"She's done it now!" I exclaimed, springing from my bed.
+
+"Are you stifling with blood?" the woman hissed, fierce exultation in
+her tone.
+
+"Help me!... I'm dying!" moaned the man. "And done to death by a
+woman!"
+
+It was murder--no doubt about that. Clad only in my pajamas though I
+was, I prepared to throw myself against the door.
+
+"Die, thou accurst one! Perish!" shrieked the woman.
+
+I was on the point of bursting into the room when I was arrested by the
+sound of the tenor's voice speaking in normal tones. There followed a
+woman's laugh. I paused to listen. It was well that I did so. They were
+rehearsing for the evening's performance the murder scene from _La
+Tosca_!
+
+On another occasion, long after midnight, I was aroused from sleep by a
+terrific racket which suddenly burst forth in the streets below. I
+heard the crash of splintering bottles followed by the steps of the
+native gendarmes beating a hasty retreat. Then, from throats that spoke
+my own tongue, rose the rollicking words of a long-familiar chorus:
+
+    "I was drunk last night,
+    I was drunk the night before,
+    I'll get drunk tomorrow night
+    If I never get drunk any more;
+    For when I'm drunk
+    I'm as happy as can be,
+    For I am a member of the Souse Fam-i-lee!"
+
+Leaning from my casement, I hailed a passing Frenchman.
+
+"Who are they?" I asked him.
+
+"Les touristes Americains sont arrives, M'sieu," he answered dryly.
+
+By the light of the street-lamps as he turned away I could see him
+shrug his shoulders.
+
+Thinking it over, it struck me that I had been overharsh in my judgment
+of the homesick exiles who in this far corner of the earth are
+clinching the rivets of France's colonial empire.
+
+The next morning I set sail from Saigon for China. Leaving the mouth of
+the river in our wake, we rounded the mighty promontory of Cap St.
+Jacques and headed for the open sea. The palm-fringed shore line of
+Cochin-China dropped away; the blue mountains of Annam turned pale and
+ghostly in the evening mists. A sun-scorched, pestilential land.... I
+was glad to leave it. But already I am longing to return. I want once
+more to sit at a cafe table beneath the awnings of the Rue Catinat,
+before me a tall glass with ice tinkling in it. I want to hear the
+_pousse-pousse_ coolies padding softly by in the gathering twilight. I
+want to see the little Annamite women in their sleazy silken garments
+and the boisterous, swaggering _legionnaires_ in their white helmets. I
+want to stroll once more beneath the tamarinds beside the Mekong, to
+smell the odors of the hot lands, to hear again the throbbing of the
+tom-toms and the soft music of the wind-blown temple bells. For
+
+    "When you've 'eard the East a-callin'
+    You won't never 'eed naught else."
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (blind-folded,
+blindfolded; body-guard, bodyguard; coast-guard, coastguard;
+co-operation, cooperation; co-terminous, coterminous; cock-fighting,
+cockfighting; harbour-master, harbourmaster; head-dresses, headdresses;
+light-houses, lighthouses; net-work, network; off-shore, offshore;
+old-time, oldtime; three-score, threescore; to-day, today; to-morrow,
+tomorrow; water-front, waterfront; white-washed, whitewashed;
+wide-spread, widespread)
+
+Table of Contents, heading for Chapter IX says "PROSPECT RULERS AND
+COMIC OPERA COURTS" while the chapter heading in the main text says
+"PUPPET RULERS AND COMIC OPERA COURTS". "PUPPET" is more likely to have
+been the word intended by the author but the original words have been
+preserved in both cases.
+
+Pg. 73, opening double quote mark at beginning of paragraph removed as
+text here does not appear to be quoted speech and there is no closing
+quote at the end. (There is held each year)
+
+Pg. 79, "Portgual" changed to "Portugal". (King of Portugal, had
+shifted)
+
+Pg. 148, "ampitheatre" is more commonly spelled "amphitheatre".
+Author's original text preserved.
+
+Pg. 209, "Turquoise Mosque in Samarland". "Samarland" is more likely to
+be "Samarkand" but the author's original text is preserved.
+
+Pg. 221, "Chulalungkorn" is spelled elsewhere in the text
+"Chulalongkorn". Author's original text preserved.
+
+Pg. 237, inserted closing double quote mark. (know how to make it.")
+
+Pg. 265, inserted opening double quote mark. (he greeted me. "The)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where the Strange Trails Go Down, by
+E. Alexander Powell
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