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+Project Gutenberg's Through the Malay Archipelago, by Emily Richings
+
+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: Through the Malay Archipelago
+
+Author: Emily Richings
+
+Release Date: December 5, 2008 [EBook #27422]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Through the
+  Malay Archipelago.
+
+
+  BY
+  EMILY RICHINGS.
+
+  Author of
+  "Sir Walter's Wife," "In Chaucer's Maytime," &c.
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  HENRY J. DRANE, LIMITED,
+  DANEGELD HOUSE, 82A, FARRINGDON STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+    O hundred shores of happy climes!
+      How swiftly streamed ye by the bark!
+    At times the whole sea burned--at times
+      With wakes of fire we tore the dark.
+
+    New stars all night above the brim
+      Of waters lightened into view;
+    They climbed as quickly, for the rim
+      Changed every moment as we flew.
+
+    We came to warmer waves, and deep
+      Across the boundless East we drove,
+    Where those long swells of breaker sweep
+      The nutmeg rocks, and isles of clove.
+
+    For one fair Vision ever fled
+      Down the waste waters day and night,
+    And still we followed where she led,
+      In hope to gain upon her flight.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS.
+
+
+  Prologue.
+
+
+  JAVA.
+
+    Batavia and Weltevreden--Buitenzorg--Soekaboemi
+    and Sindanglaya--Garoet and her Volcano--
+    Djokjacarta--Boro-Boedoer--Brambanam--
+    Sourakarta--Sourabaya and the Tengger.
+
+
+  CELEBES.
+
+    Makassar and Western Celebes--The Minahasa--
+    Gorontalo and the Eastern Coast.
+
+
+  A Glimpse of Borneo.
+
+
+  THE MOLUCCAS.
+
+    Ternate, Batjan, and Boeroe.
+
+    Ambon.
+
+    Banda.
+
+
+  The Solo-Bessir Isles.
+
+
+  SUMATRA.
+
+    The Western Coast and the Highlands.
+
+
+  A View of Krakatau.
+
+
+  PENANG.
+
+
+  Epilogue.
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE.
+
+
+The traveller who reaches those enchanted gates of the Far East which
+swing open at the palm-girt shores of Ceylon, enters upon a new range
+of thought and feeling. The first sight of tropical scenery generally
+awakens a passionate desire for further experiences of the vast
+Archipelago in the Southern Seas which girdles the Equator with an
+emerald zone. Lured onward by the scented breeze in that eternal search
+for perfection destined to remain unsatisfied where every step marks a
+higher ideal than the one already attained, the pilgrim pursues his
+endless quest, for human aspiration has never yet touched the goal of
+desires and dreams. The cocoanut woods of Ceylon and her equatorial
+vegetation lead fancy further afield, for the glassy straits of Malacca
+beckon the wanderer down their watery highways to mysterious Java,
+where vast forests of waving palms, blue chains of volcanic mountains,
+and mighty ruins of a vanished civilisation, loom before the
+imagination and invest the tropical paradise with ideal attractions.
+The island, seven hundred miles long, and described by Marianne North
+as "one magnificent garden of tropical luxuriance," has not yet become
+a popular resort of the average tourist, but though lacking some of
+those comforts and luxuries found under the British flag, it offers
+many compensations in the wealth of beauty and interest afforded by
+scenery, architecture, and people. The two days' passage from Singapore
+lies through a green chain of countless islets, once the refuge of
+those pirates who thronged the Southern seas until suppressed by
+European power. The cliffs of Banka, honeycombed with tin quarries, and
+the flat green shores of Eastern Sumatra, stretching away to the purple
+mountains of the interior, flank the silvery straits, populous with
+native _proas_, coasting steamers, _sampans_, and the hollowed log or
+"dug-out" which serves as the Malayan canoe. Patched sails of scarlet
+and yellow, shaped like bats' wings, suggest gigantic butterflies
+afloat upon the tranquil sea. The red roofs of whitewashed towns, and
+the tall shafts of white lighthouses emphasise the rich verdure between
+the silvery azure of sky and water. The little voyage ends at Tandjon
+Priok, nine miles from Batavia, for a volcanic eruption of Mount Salak
+in 1699 filled up the ancient harbour, and necessitated the removal of
+shipping to a deep bay, as the old city was landed high and dry through
+the mass of mud, lava, and volcanic sand, which dammed up the lower
+reaches of the Tjiligong river, and destroyed connection with the sea.
+The present model harbour, erected at tremendous cost, permits ships of
+heavy burden to discharge passengers and cargo with comfort and safety
+at a long wharf, without that unpleasant interlude of rocking _sampans_
+and reckless boatmen common to Eastern travel. A background of blue
+peaks and clustering palms rises beyond the long line of quays and
+breakwaters flanked by the railway, and a wealth of tropical scenery
+covers a marshy plain with riotous luxuriance. No Europeans live either
+in Tandjon Priok or Old Batavia, and the locality was known for two
+centuries as "the European graveyard." Flourishing Arab and Chinese
+_campongs_ or settlements appear immune from the terrible Java fever
+which haunts the morasses of the coast, and the industrial Celestial
+who absorbs so much of Oriental commerce, possesses an almost
+superhuman imperviousness to climatic dangers.
+
+In the re-adjustment of power after the Fall of Napoleon, Java, invaded
+by England in 1811, after a five years' interval of British rule under
+the enlightened policy of Sir Stamford Raffles, was restored to the
+Throne of Holland. The supremacy of the Dutch East India Company, who,
+after a prolonged struggle, acquired authority in Java as residuary
+legatee of the Mohammedan Emperor, ended at the close of the eighteenth
+century. Perpetual warfare and rebellion, which broke out in Central
+Java after the return of the island to the Dutch, taxed the resources
+of Holland for five years. Immense difficulties arrested and delayed
+the development of the fertile territory, until the "culture system" of
+forced labour within a certain area relieved the financial pressure.
+One-fifth of village acreage was compulsorily planted with sugar-cane,
+and one day's work every week was demanded by the Dutch Government from
+the native population. The system was extended to tea and coffee; and
+indigo was grown on waste land not needed for the rice, which
+constitutes Java's staff of life. Spices and cinchona were also
+diligently cultivated under official supervision, and the lives of many
+explorers were lost in search of the precious Kina-tree, until Java,
+after years of strenuous toil, now produces one-half of that quinine
+supply which proves the indispensable safeguard of European existence
+on tropic soil. The ruddy bark and scarlet branches of the cinchona
+groves glow with autumnal brightness amid the evergreen verdure of the
+Javanese hills, and the "culture system," as a financial experiment,
+proved, in spite of cavillers, a source of incalculable benefit to the
+natives as well as to the colonists of Java. As we travel through the
+length and breadth of an island cultivated even to the mountain tops
+with the perfection of detail common to the Dutch, as the first
+horticulturists of the world, we realise the far-reaching wisdom,
+which in a few decades transformed the face of the island, clearing
+vast tracks of jungle, and pruning that riot of tropical nature which
+destroys as rapidly as it creates. A lengthened survey of Java's
+political economy and past history would be out of place in a slight
+volume, written as a "compagnon de voyage" to the wanderer who adds a
+cruise in the Archipelago to his Eastern itinerary, but the colonial
+features of Dutch rule which have produced many beneficial results
+demand recognition, for the varied characteristics of national genius
+and racial expansion suggest the myriad aspects of that creative power
+bestowed on humanity made in the Divine Image, and fulfilling the great
+destiny inspired by Heavenly Wisdom.
+
+
+
+
+JAVA.
+
+
+
+
+BATAVIA AND WELTEVREDEN.
+
+
+From the railway station at Batavia the comfortless "dos-a-dos,"
+colloquially known as the _sado_, a vehicle resembling an elementary
+Irish car, and drawn by a rat-like Timor pony transports us to the
+fashionable suburb of Weltevreden, away from the steamy port and
+fever-haunted commercial capital. The march of modern improvement
+scarcely affects old-world Java, where jolting _sado_ and ponderous
+_milord_ remain unchanged since the early days of colonisation, for
+time is a negligeable quantity in this lotus-eating land, too apathetic
+even to adopt those alleviations of tropical heat common to British
+India. The Java of the ancient world was considered "The Jewel of the
+East," and possesses many claims to her immemorial title, but the
+stolid Dutchman of to-day contents himself with the domestic
+arrangements which sufficed for his sturdy forefathers, scorning the
+mitigations of swinging punkah or electric fan. The word Batavia
+signifies "fair meadows," and these swampy fields of rank vegetation,
+exhaling a deadly miasma, were considered such an adequate defence
+against hostile attack, that forts were deemed unnecessary in a
+locality where 87,000 soldiers and sailors died in the Government
+Hospital during the space of twenty years. Batavia proper is a
+commonplace city of featureless streets, brick-walled canals, and
+ramshackle public buildings, but the residential town of Weltevreden,
+suggesting a glorified Holland, combines the quaint charm of the mother
+country with the Oriental grace and splendour of the tropics. The broad
+canals bordered by colossal cabbage-palms, the white bridges gay with
+the many coloured garb of the Malay population, the red-tiled roofs
+embowered in a wealth of verdure, and the pillared verandahs veiled
+with gorgeous creepers, tumbling in sheets of purple and scarlet from
+cornice to floor, compose a characteristic picture, wherein Dutch
+individuality triumphs over incongruous environment. Waving palms clash
+their fronds in the sea-breeze; avenues of feathery tamarind and
+bending waringen trees surround Weltevreden with depths of green
+shadow; the scarlet hybiscus flames amid tangled foliage, where the
+orange chalices of the flowering Amherstia glisten from sombre
+branches, and hang like fairy goblets from the interwoven roofs of
+tropical tunnels, pierced by broad red roads. On this Sunday afternoon
+of the waning year which introduces us to Weltevreden, family groups
+are gathered round tea tables canopied with flowers and palms, in the
+white porticos of the Dutch villas, and the startling deshabille
+adopted by Holland in the Netherlands India almost defies description.
+The ladies, with stockingless feet thrust into heelless slippers, and
+attired in the Malay _sarong_ (two yards of painted cotton cloth),
+supplemented by a white dressing-jacket, display themselves in
+verandah, carriage, or street, in a garb only fit for the bath-room;
+while the men, lounging about in pyjamas, go barefoot with the utmost
+_sangfroid_. The _sarong_, as worn by the slender and graceful Malay,
+appears a modest and appropriate garb, but the grotesque effect of
+native attire on the broad-built Dutchwoman affords conclusive proof
+that neither personal vanity nor a sense of humour pertain to her
+stolid personality. Dutch Puritanism certainly undergoes startling
+transformations under the tropical skies, and the Netherlands India
+produces a modification of European ideas concerning what have been
+called "the minor moralities of life," unequalled in colonial
+experience. An identical exhibition fills the open corridors of the
+Hotel Nederlanden, built round a central court, and the general resort
+of the guests during the hot hours of the January days. Evening dress
+is reserved for State occasions, and though _sarong_ and _kabaja_ be
+discarded at the nine o'clock dinner, the blouse and skirt of morning
+wear in England suffices even at this late hour for the fair Hollander,
+who also concedes so far to the amenities of civilisation as sometimes
+to put on her stockings. So much of life in Java is spent in eating,
+sleeping, and bathing, that but a small residuum can be spared for
+those outside interests which easily drop away from the European when
+exiled to a colony beyond the beaten track of travel, and destitute of
+that external friction which counteracts the enervating influence of
+the tropics. Comfort is at a discount according to English ideas, but
+the arrangements of the Hotel Nederlanden, under a kindly and capable
+proprietor, render it an exception to the prevailing rule. Each guest
+is apportioned a little suite, consisting of bedroom, sitting-room, and
+a section of the verandah, fitted up with cane lounge, table, and
+rocking-chair. The bathrooms, with porcelain tank and tiles, leave
+nothing to be desired, and the "dipper-bath," infinitely cooler than
+the familiar tub, becomes an unfailing delight. Ominous prophecies have
+emphasised the rashness of coming to Java in the rainy season, but it
+has expended its force before January arrives, and though daily showers
+cool the air, and the sky is often overcast, no inconvenience is
+experienced. Lizards and mosquitoes are few, and in the marble-floored
+dining hall of cathedral proportions the absence of a punkah is
+generally unfelt, though the fact of a tropical climate is realised at
+the slightest exertion. The day begins at 6 a.m. with a cup of the Java
+coffee, which, at first unpalatable, reveals by degrees the hidden
+excellence of the beverage, brought cold in a stoppered cruet, the
+potent essence requiring a liberal admixture of boiling water. At 9
+a.m. a solid but monotonous breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, and
+cheese is customary, with the accompaniment of iced water, though tea
+and coffee are provided for the foreign traveller, unused to the cold
+comfort which commends itself to Dutch taste. The mid-day _riz-tavel_
+from beginning to end of a stay in Java, remains the terror of the
+English visitor. Each plate is heaped with a mound of rice, on which
+scraps of innumerable ingredients are placed--meat, fish, fowl, duck,
+prawns, curry, fried bananas, and nameless vegetables, together with
+chilis and chutneys, sembals, spices, and grated cocoanut, in
+bewildering profusion. The Dutch digestion triumphantly survives this
+severe test at the outset of the meal, and courageously proceeds to the
+complementary courses of beefsteak, fritters and cheese. Fortunately
+for those of less vigorous appetite, mine host of the Nederlanden, far
+in advance of his Javanese fraternity, kindly provides a simple
+"tiffin" as an alternative to this Gargantuan repast. Afternoon tea is
+served in the verandah, and at eight o'clock the Dutch contingent,
+having slept off the effects of the rice table, prepares with renewed
+energies to attack a heavy dinner. New Year's Eve is celebrated by a
+very bombardment of fireworks from the Chinese _campong_, and crowds
+hasten to the fine Roman Catholic church for Benediction, Te Deum, and
+an eloquent, though to me incomprehensible, Dutch sermon. Crisp muslins
+and uncovered heads for the women, and white linen garb for the men,
+are the rule in church, for the slatternly undress of _sarong_ and
+pyjamas is happily inadmissible within the walls of the sanctuary,
+where the fair fresh faces and neat array compose a pleasing picture
+which imagination would fail to evolve from the burlesque ugliness of
+the slovenly deshabille wherewith the Dutch colonist disguises every
+claim to beauty or grace. On alluding to the shock experienced by this
+grotesque travesty of native garb, a Dutch officer asserts that there
+are in reality but few Dutch ladies in Java of pure racial stock, for
+one unhappy result of remoteness from European influence is shown by
+the gradual merging of the Dutch colonists into the Malay race by
+intermarriage. Exile to Java was made financially easy and attractive
+by the Dutch Government, but it was for the most part a permanent
+separation from the mother country, and a long term of years
+necessarily elapsed before the colonial planter could even return for a
+short visit to his native land. The overwhelming force of public
+opinion against mixed marriages, and the consequent degeneration of
+type, from a union which lowers one of the contracting parties without
+raising the other, beats but faintly against these remote shores, cut
+off from associations which mould and modify the crudities of
+individual thought in regions swept by the full tide of contemporary
+life. The idea of welding European and Asiatic elements into one race,
+as a defence against external aggression, possesses a superficial
+plausibility, but ages of historical experiment only confirm the
+unalterable truth of the poetic dictum that
+
+    East is East, and West is West,
+      And never the two shall meet.
+    Until they stand on either hand,
+      At God's great Judgment Seat!
+
+The sudden rise of an Oriental race to the position of a great
+world-power, and the apprehensions of coming struggles for supremacy in
+Eastern waters, present many future complications concerning Java, even
+if not weakened by the assimilation of her European colonists to an
+inferior race.
+
+Neither landlord nor secretary of the Hotel Nederlanden spare time or
+trouble in arranging the programme of sight-seeing, and but for their
+kindly help, only a partial success would be possible, owing to the
+difficulties presented by the two unknown tongues of Dutch and Malay.
+Ignorance of the former involves separation from the world as revealed
+by newspapers, and though a smattering of "coolie Malay" is picked up
+with the aid of a handbook, and the "hundred words" mastered,
+sanguinely asserted to suffice for colloquial needs, there are many
+occasions when even the practice of this elementary language requires a
+more extensive vocabulary. At a New Year's fete given by the proprietor
+of the hotel to his numerous Malay employes, we make our first
+acquaintance with native music. Dancing girls, in mask and tinsel,
+gyrate to the weird strains of the _Gamelon_, an orchestra of tiny
+gongs, bamboo tubes, and metal pipes. Actors perform old-world dramas
+in dumb show, and conjurors in gaudy attire attract people of all ages
+to those time-honoured feats of legerdemain which once represented the
+sorcery of the mystic East. The simple Malay has not yet adopted the
+critical and unbelieving attitude which rubs the gilt off the
+gingerbread or the bloom off the plum, and his fervid faith in mythical
+heroes and necromantic exploits gives him the key to that kingdom of
+fancy often closed to a sadder if wiser world. The electric tram
+provides an excellent method of gaining a general idea of Batavia and
+Weltevreden; the winding route skirting canals and palm groves,
+_campongs_ of basket-work huts, and gay _passers_, the native markets,
+with their wealth of many-coloured fruit. Stacks of golden bananas,
+olive-tinted dukus, rambutans like green chestnut-shells with scarlet
+prickles, amber star-fruit, brown salak, the "forbidden apple,"
+bread-fruit, and durian offer an embarassing choice. Pineapples touch
+perfection on Java soil; cherimoya and mango, papaya and the various
+custard-fruits, the lovely but tasteless rose-apple, and the dark green
+equatorial orange of delicious flavour, afford a host of unfamiliar
+experiences. The winter months are the season of the peerless
+mangosteen, in beauty as well as in savour the queen of tropical
+fruits. The rose-lined purple globes, with the central ball of ivory
+whiteness in each fairy cup, suggest fugitive essences of strawberry
+and nectarine combined with orange to produce this equatorial marvel,
+also considered perfectly wholesome. The mangosteen, ripening just
+north or south of the Equator, according to the alternations of the wet
+and dry seasons, cannot be preserved long enough to reach the temperate
+zone, and though every year shows fresh varieties of tropical fruit
+successfully transported to European markets, the mangosteen remains
+unknown outside the narrow radius of the equatorial region to which the
+tree is indigenous. The flower markets blaze with many-coloured roses,
+tons of gardenias and a wealth of white heavy-scented flowers, such as
+tuberoses and Arabian jasmine. All the spices of the East, in fact,
+seem breathing from these mounds of blossom, as well as from gums and
+essences distilled from them in archaic fashion. Transparent sachets,
+filled with the scented petals of _ylang-ylang_, fill the air with
+intoxicating sweetness, and outside the busy _passer_, a
+frangipanni-tree, the native _sumboya_ or "flower of the dead," just
+opening a white crowd of golden-hearted blossoms to the sun, adds
+another wave of perfume to the floral incense, steaming from earth to
+sky with prodigal exuberance.
+
+Batavia possesses few objects of interest. The dismal green-shuttered
+Stadkirche, a relic of Dutch Calvinism; the earliest warehouse of the
+Netherlands Company, a commonplace lighthouse, and the gate of Peter
+Elberfeld's dwelling (now his tomb), with his spear-pierced skull above
+the lintel, as a reminder of the sentence pronounced on traitors to the
+Dutch Government, comprise the scanty catalogue. Antiquities and
+archaeological remains fill a white museum of classical architecture on
+the Koenig's Plein, a huge parade ground, flanked by the Palace of the
+Governor-General. Gold and silver ornaments, gifts from tributary
+princes, shield and helmet, dagger, and _kris_, of varied stages in
+Malay civilisation, abound in these spacious halls, where every
+Javanese industry may be studied. Buddhist and Hindu temples have
+yielded up a treasury of images, censers, and accessories of worship,
+the excavations of ruined cities in Central Java, long overgrown with
+impenetrable jungle, opening a mine of archaeological wealth in musical
+instruments, seals, coins, headgear, chairs and umbrellas of State.
+Golden pipes and betel-boxes show the perfection of the goldsmith's
+art, and metal statues vie with those of sculptured wood or stone. Here
+Captain Cook left his treasure trove from the Southern seas, and the
+Council Chamber of the Museum contains portraits and souvenirs of the
+great navigators who sailed into the uncharted ocean of geographical
+discovery, and in various stages of their adventurous careers anchored
+at Java, to display the wondrous trophies of unknown lands in the
+island then regarded as the farthest outpost of contemporary
+civilisation.
+
+The _toelatingskaart_, or Javanese passport, formerly indispensable for
+insular travel beyond the radius of forty miles from Batavia, though
+not yet obsolete, proves practically needless, and is never once
+demanded during a six weeks' stay. The small addition contributed to
+the rich revenue by this useless official "permit," appears the sole
+reason for retaining it, now that vexatious restrictions are withdrawn.
+In the intervals of arranging an up-country tour from monotonous
+Weltevreden, destitute of any attraction beyond the white colonnades
+and verdant groves flanking sleepy canals and quaint bridges, the local
+industry of _sarong_ stippling affords a curious interest. Every city
+in Java possesses a special type of this historic dress, represented on
+the walls of temples dating before the Christian era, and worn by the
+Malay races from time immemorial. This strip of cotton cloth, which
+forms the attire both of men and women, is twisted firmly round the
+body, and requires no girdle to secure it. Palm-fronds, birds, and
+animals, geometric patterns, religious emblems, fruits and flowers, are
+represented in bewildering confusion. The girls, with flower-decked
+hair and scanty garb, occupy a long, low shed, filled with rude frames
+for stretching the cloth, painted in soft-tinted dyes--brown, blue, and
+amber for the most part--with tapering funnels. These waxed cloths
+allow infinite scope for native imagination, only a small panel of
+formal design being obligatory, the remaining surface fancifully
+coloured at will in harmonious hues. No two _sarongs_ are alike, and
+the painted _battek_, notwithstanding the simplicity of the cotton
+background, represents an amount of labour and finish which makes the
+archaic garment a costly, though almost indestructible production. The
+graceful _slandang_, a crossed scarf of the same material, only serves
+as a shoulder-strap, wherein the brown Malay baby sits contentedly, for
+the ugly white jacket of the Dutchwoman is now compulsory on the
+native. Every variety of _battek_, basket-work, mats, and quaint silver
+or brass ware, is brought by native peddlers to the broad verandahs of
+the hotel, the patient and gentle people content to spend long hours on
+the marble steps, dozing between their scanty bargains, or crimsoning
+their months with the stimulating morsel of betel-nut, said to allay
+the hunger, thirst, and exhaustion of the steaming tropics. The
+conquered race, cowed by ages of tyranny under native princes,
+possesses those mild and effeminate characteristics fostered by a
+languid and enervating climate. That the salient angles of the sturdy
+Dutch character, which accomplished so many feats of endurance in the
+earlier days of the colony, should undergo rapid disintegration by
+intermarriage with the native stock, must arouse regret in all who
+realise the claims to respect possessed by the fighting forefathers of
+Holland's tropical dependencies.
+
+Educational matters were for centuries in abeyance, and until 1864 the
+Malays were forbidden to learn the language of their European rulers.
+Many dialects are found in Java's wide territory, but Low Malay has
+been declared the official tongue, and with the advance of public
+opinion, wider views prevail concerning the rights of the subject race.
+A good Roman Catholic priest, one of the most enlightened and liberal
+Dutchmen encountered in Java, asserts that in the schools of the
+Colonial Government, the Malay boy possesses a mathematical facility
+superior to that of the Dutch scholar, in spite of the advantage
+accruing from hereditary education.
+
+At the sunset hour, Batavian life awakens from the long slumbers of the
+tropical afternoon, and as the golden light filters through the waving
+palms, the long Schul-Weg, beside the central canal, fills with
+saunterers, enjoying the delights of that brief spell, when peace and
+coolness fall on the world before the sudden twilight drops veil after
+veil of deepening gloom, merging into the "darkness which may be felt,"
+for the twelve hours of the tropical night. Gathering clouds reveal but
+scanty glimpses of the moon in these January weeks, but through rifts
+in the sombre canopy, the Southern stars hang low in the dome of
+heaven, and shine like burning lamps, appearing almost within reach of
+an outstretched hand.
+
+
+
+
+BUITENZORG.
+
+
+The first destination of the up-country traveller in Java is
+Buitenzorg, the Dutch "Sans Souci," containing the Governor-General's
+rural Palace, the houses of Court officials, and the superb Botanical
+Garden, which ranks first among the horticultural triumphs of the
+world. The two hours' journey by the railway, which now traverses the
+whole of Java, shows a succession of tropical landscapes, appearing
+unreal in their fantastic and dream-like beauty. The glowing green of
+rice-fields, the dense forests of swaying palms, the porphyry tints of
+the teeming soil, and the purple mountains, carved into the weird
+contours peculiar to volcanic ranges, frame myriad pictures of
+unfamiliar native life with dramatic effect. Villages of woven
+basket-work cluster beneath green curtains of banana and spreading
+canopies of palm, the central mosque surmounting the tiny huts with
+many-tiered roofs, and walls inlaid with gleaming tiles of white and
+blue. Brown figures, with gay _sarong_ and turbaned headgear, bring
+bamboo buckets to moss-grown wells, gray water-buffaloes crop marshy
+herbage, a little bronze-hued figure seated on each broad back, and
+busy workers stand knee-deep in slush, to transplant emerald blades of
+rice or to gather the yellow crops, for seedtime and harvest go on
+together in this fertile land. Our train halts at Depok, a Christian
+village unique in Java, for the religious history of the island shows
+little missionary enterprise among a race strangely indifferent to the
+claims of faith, and lightly casting away one creed after another, with
+a carelessness which has ever proved a formidable bar to spiritual
+progress. The Portuguese Jesuits were expelled by the Dutch, and
+English efforts at conversion were succeeded by a general exclusion of
+foreign missionaries. Public opinion eventually prevented the
+continuance of this despotic rule, and at the present day a certain
+number of Roman and Protestant clergy are supported by the Government,
+but Roman zeal outstrips the niggardly spiritual provision, and proves
+the appreciation in which it is held by full churches and devout
+worshippers. The Mohammedanism of the Malay lacks the fiery fervour
+common to Islam, and his slack hands are ever ready to forego all
+symbols of faith. From the region of rice and tapioca, maize and
+sugar-cane, we reach the great cacao plantations, hung with
+chocolate-coloured pods, and the ruddy kina-groves on the lower slopes
+of the mountain chain. The palms are everywhere, clashing their huge
+fronds, and undulating in waves of fiery green, the light and shadow of
+the golden evening reflected on the swaying foliage. Stately Palmyra,
+slender areca, graceful pandang with a length of scarlet crowning each
+smooth grey stem, the mighty royal palm, king of the forest, spreading
+cocoanuts, and a hundred unknown varieties, soaring among bread-fruit
+and teak, nutmeg and waringen, reveal the inexhaustible powers of
+tropical Nature. Buitenzorg occupies an ideal position between the blue
+and violet peaks of Gedeh and Salak, the guardian mountains of the
+fairy spot, perennially green with spring-like freshness, from the
+daily showers sweeping across the valley from one or other of the lofty
+crests, and possessing a delicious climate at an altitude of eight
+hundred feet. The Hotel Bellevue, where _back_ rooms should be secured
+on account of a superb prospect, comprising river, mountain and forest,
+stands near the great entrance of the world-famous Gardens, and our
+balcony commands a profound ravine, carved by a clear river, winding
+away between forests of palm to the dark cone of Mount Salak, the
+climax of the picture. The artist destined to interpret the soul of
+Java is yet unborn, or unable to grasp the character of her unique and
+distinctive scenery, but a village of plaited palm-leaves, accentuating
+this tropical Eden, brings it down to the human level, where soft Malay
+voices, glimpses of domestic life, and a canoe afloat on the brimming
+stream, remind us that we are still on _terra firma_, and not gazing
+at a dreamland Paradise beyond earthly ken. Sleeping accommodation in
+the hills suggests little comfort. A hard mattress beneath a sheet is
+the sole furniture of the huge four-poster, surrounded by thick muslin
+curtains to exclude air and creeping things; pillows are stuffed hard
+with cotton-down, and no coverings are provided--an unalterable custom
+possessing obvious disadvantages in a climate reeking with damp, where
+the walls of a room closed for a day or two become green with mould.
+Rheumatic stiffness on waking is a matter of course in humid Java, for
+the hour between darkness and dawn contains a concentrated essence of
+dew, mist, and malaria, which penetrates to the very marrow of
+unaccustomed bones, even when it lacks the frequent accompaniment of
+the violent cascade known as "a tropical shower." The glorious
+Botanical Garden is approached by a mighty avenue of colossal
+kanari-trees, over a hundred feet high, with yellow light filtering
+through the fretted roof of interlacing boughs, which suggests a vast
+aisle in some primeval forest. Stately columns and spreading roots
+garlanded with stag-horn ferns, waving moss, white and purple orchids,
+or broad-leaved creepers, falling in sheets and torrents of shining
+foliage and knitting tree to tree, attest the irrepressible growth of
+vegetation, which flings a many-coloured veil of blossom and leaf over
+root, branch, and stem. A fairy lake glows with the pink and crimson
+blossoms of the noble Victoria Regia, the huge leaves like green
+tea-trays floating on the water, where a central fountain adds
+prismatic radiance to the scenic effect of the splendid lilies.
+Climbing palms and massive creepers, splashed with orange, scarlet, and
+gold, tumble in masses from lofty branches, and the dazzling
+Bougainvillea flings curtains of roseate purple over wall and gateway.
+A dense thicket of frangipanni scents the air with the symbolic
+blossoms, shining like stars from grey-green boughs of sharp-cut
+leaves. A copse of splendid tree-ferns flanks the forest-like
+plantation known as "The Thousand Palms," and beneath dusky avenues of
+waringen (a variety of the banyan species, which strikes staff-like
+boughs into the earth and springs up again in caverns of foliage),
+herds of deer are wandering, snatching at drooping vines, or sheltering
+from the fierce sun in depths of impenetrable shade. Tufts of
+red-stemmed Banka palms cluster on the green islets of lake and river,
+vista after vista opens up, each mysterious aisle appearing more lovely
+than the last, and luring the wanderer to the climax formed by a
+terraced knoll, commanding a superb view of Gedeh and Salak, the twin
+summits of chiselled turquoise, gashed by the amethyst shadows of deep
+ravines, with Gedeh's curl of volcanic smoke staining the lustrous
+azure of the sky. Many-coloured tree carnations, gorgeous cannas and
+calladiums, copses of snowy gardenia, and flowering shrubs of rainbow
+hues, blaze with splendour, or exhale their wealth of perfume on the
+languid air, thronged with the invisible souls of the floral multitude.
+Graceful rattans shoot up in tall ladders of foliage-hidden cane,
+climbing to the topmost fronds of the loftiest palm, and, unless
+ruthlessly cut down, overthrowing the stately tree with their fatal
+embrace. Sausage and candle trees, with strange parodies of prosaic
+food and waxen tapers, climbing palms, sometimes extending for five
+hundred feet, and gigantic blossoms like crimson trumpets, or
+delicately-tinted shells of ocean, comprise but a tithe of Nature's
+wonders, crowned by the mighty "Rafflesia," the largest flower in the
+world, with each vast red chalice often measuring a circumference of
+six feet. A hundred native gardeners are employed in this park-like
+domain, and seventy men work in the adjacent culture-garden of forty
+acres, where experiments in grafting and acclimatizing are carried on,
+as well as in the supplementary garden of Tjibodas, beautifully
+situated on the lower slopes of Mount Salak. The white palace of the
+Governor-General faces the lake, fed by the lovely river Tjiligong,
+winding in silver loops round verdant lawn and palm-clad hill, or
+expanding into bamboo-fringed lakes, and bringing perennial freshness
+into the tropical Eden of sun-bathed Java.
+
+Beyond the fretted arches of the great kanari avenue, the white tomb
+of Lady Raffles, who died during her husband's term of office in the
+island, forms a pathetic link with the past. When the colony was
+restored to Holland, a clause in the treaty concerning it, made the
+perpetual care of this monument, to one deeply loved and mourned,
+binding upon the Dutch Governor--a condition loyally observed during
+the century since the cessation of English rule. Cinnamon and clove
+scent the breeze which whispers mysterious secrets to the swaying
+plumes of the tall sago-palms, and dies away in the delicate foliage of
+tamarind and ironwood tree. A network of air roots makes a grotesque
+circle round the spreading boughs of the banyan grove, mahogany and
+sandal-wood, ebony and cork, ginger-tree and cardamom, mingle their
+varied foliage, the translucency of sun-smitten green shading through
+deepening tones into the sombre tints of ilex and pine with exquisite
+gradation. Flamboyant trees flaunt fiery pyramids of blossom high in
+the air, and the golden bouquets of the salacca light up dusky avenues,
+where large-leaved lianas rope themselves from tree to tree in cables
+of vivid green. Bare stems, except in the palms, are unknown in this
+richly-decorated temple of Nature; climbing blade-plants with
+sword-like leaves of gold-striped verdure, huge orchids like
+many-coloured birds and butterflies fluttering in the wind, wreathe
+trunk and branch with fantastic splendour, and matted creepers weave
+curtains of dense foliage from spreading boughs. The austere and scanty
+vegetation of Northern climes, which gives a distinct outline and value
+to every leaf and flower, has nothing in common with the prodigal and
+passionate beauty of the tropical landscape, where the wealth of earth
+is flung broadcast at our feet in mad profusion. Day by day the
+marvellous gardens of Buitenzorg take deeper hold of mind and
+imagination. The early dawn, when the dark silhouettes of the palms
+stand etched against the rose-tinted heavens, the hot noontide in the
+shadows of the colossal kanari-trees, the sunset gold transfiguring the
+foliage into emerald fire, and spilling pools of liquid amber upon the
+mossy turf, or the white moonlight which transmutes the forest aisles
+into a fairy world of sable and silver, invest this vision of Paradise
+with varied aspects of incomparable beauty. The surrounding scenery,
+though full of interest, seems but the setting of the priceless gem,
+and when inexorable Time, the modern angel of the flaming sword, at
+length bars the way, and banishes us from our Javanese Eden, the exiled
+heart turns back perpetually to the floral sanctuary, the antitype of
+that Divinely-planted Garden on the dim borderland of Time which
+revealed and fulfilled the primeval beauty of earth's morning hours.
+
+
+
+
+SOEKABOEMI AND SINDANGLAYA.
+
+
+Soekaboemi (Desire of the World), a favourite sanatorioum of the Dutch,
+is approached by an exquisite railway, curving round the purple heights
+of forest-girt Salak. The usual afternoon deluge weeps itself away,
+palm plumes and cassava boughs, overhanging the silvery Tjiligong, drop
+showers of diamonds into the current, and giant bamboos creak in the
+spicy wind, redolent of gardenia and clove. The hills, scaled by green
+rice-terraces, each with tiny rill and miniature cascade, are vocal
+with murmuring waters. Lilac plumbago, red hybiscus, and golden
+allemanda mingle with pink and purple lantana, yellow daisies, and
+hedges of scarlet tassels, enclosing wicker huts in patches of banana
+and cocoanut. Brown girls, in blue and orange _sarongs_, occupy the
+steps of a basket-work shrine, from whence an unknown god, smeared with
+ochre, extends a sceptred hand, for Hinduism left deep traces on
+inland Java, dim with the dust of vanished creeds. The expense and
+trouble of former travel by the superb post-roads, made at terrible
+sacrifice of life in earlier days, is now done away with, though the
+noble avenues and picturesque shelters, erected for protection from sun
+or rain, suggest a pleasant mode of leisurely progress. No trains may
+run at night, not only on account of native incompetence, but from
+dangers caused by constant geographical changes on this volcanic soil,
+where rivers suddenly alter their course, and earthquakes obstruct the
+way with yawning chasms or heaps of debris. A paternal Government
+provides the traveller with a half-way house, erecting a large hotel at
+Maos, with uniform rates, entirely for the benefit of the passenger by
+rail. Trains are built on the American plan, stations are spacious and
+airy, refreshments easily secured, and every halting-place offers an
+_embarras de richesses_ in the shape of tropical fruits, wherewith to
+supplement or replace the solidity of the Dutch commissariat. Coffee
+and tea plantations in ordered neatness, contrast with the untamed
+profusion of forest vegetation, clothing sharp promontory and shelving
+terrace. Dusky villages cling like birds' nests to ledges of rock,
+screw-palms with airy roots frame mountain tarns, and a Brazilian
+Emperor-palm, with smooth column bulging into a pear-shaped base,
+accentuates the sunset glory from a crag crowned by the black canopy
+of colossal fronds. The Preanger Regency was the heart of ancient
+Mataram, that historic kingdom of old-world Java round which perpetual
+warfare waged for centuries.
+
+Language and customs change as we cross the saddle between the blue
+peaks of Salak and Gedeh; gay crowds bring fruits to picturesque
+wayside markets, bearing bamboo poles laden with golden papaya and
+purple mangosteen, or plaited baskets containing the conglomerate
+native cuisine. The elastic and gracefully-modelled figures of the
+Soendanese populace betoken a purer race than that of the steamy
+Batavian lowlands, where foreign elements deteriorate the native stock.
+The Hotel Victoria at Soekaboemi consists of detached white buildings
+round tree-filled courts, erected on the "pavilion system." Every two
+visitors occupy a tiny bungalow of two bedrooms, opening on a spacious
+verandah divided by a screen, and each section provided with lamp,
+rocking-chair, and tea-table, the long public dining hall being
+approached by a covered alley. The rain, swishing down through the
+night in torrents and cataracts, clears at sunrise, and though heavy
+clouds still veil the heights of Salak, the transparent beauty of the
+morning crystallises the atmosphere, and sharply defines every feature
+of the landscape. The country roads, shaded by towering palms and
+fruit-laden mangos, glow with a continuous procession of brown
+figures, the women clad in the universal _sarong_, but men and children
+often in Nature's garb, with touches of orange or crimson in scarf and
+turban. Water-oxen and buffaloes, goats and sheep, vary the throng, but
+cattle fare badly in fertile Java, where the all-pervading rice ousts
+the pasture-land. Glorious bamboos form arches of feathery green
+meeting across the road, and the busy China _campong_, or _desar_ in
+Preanger parlance, is full of life and movement with the first streak
+of day, for all trade in Java depends upon the indefatigable industry
+of the Celestial. The idle gambling Malay, though an expert hunter and
+fisher, takes no thought for the morrow, and is protected by the Dutch
+Government from ruin by an enforced demand of rice for storage,
+according to the numbers of the family. Every village contains the
+great Store Barn of plaited palm leaves, so that, in case of need, the
+confiscated rice can be doled out to the improvident native, who thus
+contributes to the support of his family in times of scarcity. This
+regulation relieves want without pauperising, the common garner merely
+serving as a compulsory savings bank. Many salutary laws benefit the
+Malay, possessing a notable share of tropical slackness, and the lack
+of initiative partly due to a servile past under the sway of tyrannical
+native princes. The little brown people of Java, eminently gentle and
+tractable, are honest enough for vendors of eatables to place a laden
+basket at the roadside for the refreshment of the traveller, who drops
+a small coin into a bamboo tube fastened to a tree for this purpose.
+The customary payment is never omitted, and at evening the owner of the
+basket collects the money, and brings a fresh supply of food for future
+wayfarers. Country districts demonstrate the fact of Java being a
+creedless land. This is Sunday, and the Feast of the Epiphany, but the
+only honour paid to the day consists in a gayer garb, and a band
+playing for an hour in the palm-shaded garden. Work goes on in
+rice-field and plantation, but no church bell rings from the closed
+chapel outside the gates, and no sign of religion is evident, whether
+from mosque, temple, or church. Lovely lanes form alluring vistas. The
+pretty _desas_ of plaited palm and bamboo, hiding in depths of tropical
+woodland, with blue thunbergia clambering over every verandah, and the
+Preanger girls, with their brilliant _slandangs_ of orange and scarlet,
+amber and purple, make vivid points of colour in the foreground of blue
+mountain and dusky forest. A copper-coloured boy carries on his head a
+basket of gold-fish large as salmon, the westering sun glittering on
+the ruddy scales.
+
+Traditional servility remains ingrained in Preanger character, and the
+crouching obeisance known as the _dodok_, formerly insisted upon, is
+still observed by the native to his European masters, the humble
+posture giving place to kneeling on a nearer approach. The kind
+proprietor of the Soekaboemi Hotel offers every facility to those
+guests anxious to penetrate below the surface of Soendanese life,
+placing his carriage and himself at the disposal of the visitor, and
+affording a mine of information otherwise unattainable, for books on
+Java are few and far between, and the work of Sir Stamford Raffles
+continues the best authority on island life and customs, though a
+century has elapsed since it was written. Why, one asks in amazement,
+did England part with this Eastern Paradise? rich not only in
+vegetation, but containing unexplored treasures of precious metal and
+the vast mineral wealth peculiar to volcanic regions, where valuable
+chemical products are precipitated by the subterranean forces of
+Nature's mysterious laboratory. In the far-off days when "the grand
+tour" of Europe was the climax of the ordinary traveller's ambition,
+beautiful Java was relinquished on the plea of being an unknown and
+useless possession, too far from the beaten track of British sailing
+ships to be of practical value. The remonstrances of Sir Stamford
+Raffles, and his representations of future colonial expansion, were
+regarded as the dreams of a romantic enthusiast, and the noble English
+Governor, in advance of his age, while effecting during his brief
+tenure of office results unattainable by a century of ordinary labour,
+found his efforts wasted and his work undone. Instead of returning
+home, he applied himself heroically to the developement of Singapore,
+the eternal monument of patriotic devotion and invincible courage.
+
+The line to Tjandjoer, the starting point for Sindanglaya, traverses
+one of the exquisite plains characteristic of Java. Mountain walls,
+with palm-fringed base and violet crest, bound a fertile expanse, where
+myriad brooks foam through fairy arches of feathery bamboo and long
+vistas of spreading palm fronds. Rice in every stage of growth, from
+flaming green to softest yellow, covers countless terraces, the
+picturesque outlines of their varied contours enhancing the beauty of
+the fantastic scene. A _sado_, with a team of three tiny ponies, dashes
+up the long avenue leading to the palm-fringed hills, the mighty
+Amherstia trees forming aisles of dark green foliage, brightened with
+the vivid glow of orange red blossoms. The broad road is a kaleidoscope
+of brilliant colour, for native costume vies with the dazzling tints of
+tropical Nature as we advance further into the Preangers. The gay
+headgear, worn turbanwise, with two ends standing upright above plaited
+folds, and magenta _kabajas_, with _slandangs_ of apple green, amber or
+purple, make a blaze of colour against the forest background, or glow
+amidst the dusky shadows of palm-thatched sheds, where thirsty
+travellers imbibe pink and yellow syrups, the favourite beverages of
+the Malay race. The ascending road commands superb views of the
+mountain chain, and the rambling two-storied hotel, widened by immense
+verandahs, stands opposite cloud-crowned Gedeh, half-veiled by the
+spreading column of volcanic smoke. The misty blue of further hills
+leads the eye to the three weird peaks of the Tangkoeban Prahoe, the
+boat-shaped "Ark" regarded as the Ararat of Java, for the universal
+tradition of the great Deluge underlies the religious history welded
+from Moslem, Buddhist, and Hindu elements. Legendary lore clusters
+round the petrified "Ark" in which the progenitors of the Malayan stock
+escaped from the Noachian flood. The storm-tossed and water-logged
+boat, lodged between jutting rocks, was reversed that it might dry in
+the sun, but the weary voyagers who traditionally peopled the Malay
+Archipelago remained in the lotus-eating land, and the disused "Ark" or
+_Prau_, fossilizing through the ages, became a portion of the peaks
+whereon it rested. The sacred mountain developed into a place of
+pilgrimage and prayer, and the ruins of richly-carved temples, together
+with four broken flights of a thousand steps, denote the former
+importance ascribed to the great Altar of Nature, and the power of
+religion on the social life of the past. Generations of later
+inhabitants, dwelling in flimsy huts of bamboo and thatch, regarded the
+mysterious ruins of the Tankahan Prahoe as the work of giants or
+demons, and the haunted hill as a mysterious resort of evil spirits.
+In lofty Sindanglaya, the swaying palms of the lowlands yield to
+glorious tree-ferns, shading road and ravine with feathery canopies of
+velvet green. A lake of azure crystal mirrors a thick fringe of the
+great fronds, and on every parapet of the ruddy cliffs the living
+emerald of the lanceolated foliage glows in vivid contrast with the
+splintered crags. Sindanglaya is the refuge of fever-stricken Europeans
+from malarial coast or inland swamp, but the hotel is now empty of
+invalids. The kind proprietor lavishes time and care on English guests,
+and the attentive Malay "room-boys," squatting on the verandah outside
+our doors, fear to lose sight of their charges for a moment, lest some
+need of native help should arise. They watch hand and eye like faithful
+dogs, for their language is unintelligible to us as ours to them, and
+the only attempt at speech is "_Chow-chow, mister!_" when the
+dinner-bell rings, the mystic words accompanied by a realistic
+pantomime of mouth and fingers.
+
+The following morning dawns like an ideal day of June, and we start in
+chairs, carried by four coolies, for the beautiful Falls of Tjibereum.
+A mountain road winds through rice-fields and tree-ferns towards fold
+upon fold of lilac peaks, until we reach the mountain garden of
+Tjibodas, the beautiful supplement of incomparable Buitenzorg. A
+strange sense of remoteness belongs to this lonely pleasaunce of the
+upper world, on a sheltered slope of ever-burning Gedeh, quiescent now
+save for the blue curl of sulphurous smoke, which gives perpetual
+warning of those smouldering forces ever ready to devastate the
+surrounding country. Subterranean activity increases during the rainy
+season, and tremors of earthquake occasionally startle the equanimity
+of those unused to the perils of existence on this thin crust of Mother
+Earth, for Java's teeming soil and population rest upon an ominous
+fissure of the globe's surface, and twelve of the forty-five volcanos
+on this island of terror and beauty are still moderately active,
+sometimes displaying sudden outbursts of energy. The green lawns and
+towering camphor trees of Tjibodas suggest the spellbound beauty of
+some enchanted spot, unprofaned by human foot. A glassy lake mirrors
+the tall bamboos and feathery tamarinds, their slender and sensitive
+foliage motionless in the still air of the dewy dawn. Huge coleas
+accentuate the spring verdure with heavy masses of bronze and crimson,
+and magnolias exhale intoxicating odours from snowy chalices. Blue
+lilies and flaxen pampas grass grow in thickets upon the emerald
+slopes, and the ordered loveliness of the mountain Paradise, walled in
+by dense jungle and savage precipice, brings the glamour of dreamland
+into the stern environment of mysterious forest and frowning peak. A
+rudely-paved and mossy path, shadowed by the black foliage of stately
+casuarinas, leads into the gloomy jungle. The forest monarchs are
+curtained with tangled creepers and roped together with serpent-like
+lianas, stag-horn ferns, and green veils of filmy moss fluttering from
+every bough. A swampy path through rank grass and rough boulders
+pierces the dense thickets, matted together with inextricable
+confusion, teak and tamarind, acacia and bread-fruit, palm and
+tree-fern losing their own characteristics and merging themselves into
+concrete form. The appalling stillness and solemnity of the dense
+jungle appears emphasised by a solitary brown figure, with pipe and
+betel-box, beneath a thatched shed at an angle of the narrow track,
+where he presides over a little stall of cocoanuts, bananas, and
+coloured syrups, for the refreshment of coolies on their way from the
+Tjibodas garden to villages across the heights of Gedeh. No voice ever
+seems raised in these remote recesses of the mountains, where even the
+children of each brown hamlet play silently as figures in a dream. Our
+bearers, swishing through wet grass and splashing across brimming
+brooks, push with renewed energies up a steep ascent to the heart of
+the wild solitude, where three mighty waterfalls dash in savage
+grandeur from a range of over hanging cliffs into a churning river,
+descending by continuous rapids over a stairway of brown-striped
+trap-rock and swirling between lichen-clad banks, to lose itself in the
+green gloom of the impenetrable woods. One of these huge cascades
+would make the fortune of a Swiss valley, and we need no further
+efforts of our willing bearers in the cause of sight-seeing, but as
+neither words nor gestures prove intelligible to Western obtuseness, a
+brown coolie seizes each arm, and rushes us up a grassy hill to a huge
+cavern, hung with myriad bats, and containing a pool of crystal water.
+The simple minds of these kindly mountaineers shirk no trouble for the
+benefit of the stranger, who, though regarded as a madman, must be
+humoured as such, not only to the top of his bent, but often beyond it.
+A descent through rice-fields and _desas_ skirts the serrated cliffs of
+Gedeh's northward side, though tree-ferns growing in thousands afford
+shelter from the daily showers. The sudden passion of tropical rain
+dies away, leaving an atmosphere of unearthly transparency. Gedeh,
+carved in amethyst, leans against a primrose sky, streaked by the puff
+of white smoke from the crater. Villagers returning from work brighten
+the road with patches of scarlet and yellow; children, clad only in
+necklaces of red seeds and silver bangles, running about amid groups of
+women in painted _battek_, with brown babies carried in the orange or
+crimson folds of the _slandang_, pause before the doorways of woven
+basket-work huts, or carry crates of yellow bananas and strings of
+purple mangosteens, to supplement the "evening rice" of their frugal
+meal. The Malay races have been called "the flower of the East," noted
+for their soft voices and courteous manners in the days of old, but
+European intercourse obliterates native characteristics, and the
+inhabitant of the sea-coast, or of the larger towns, unpleasantly
+imitates the brusquerie of his Dutch masters, and even exaggerates it.
+The Soendanese of the Preanger hills, less in contact with the external
+world, retains traces of life's ancient simplicity, and though a keen
+intelligence forms no part of his mental equipment, his desire to
+please and satisfy his employer is of pathetic intensity.
+
+The Governor-General of Java, whose stipend is of double the amount
+received by the American President, owns a country palace at
+Sindanglaya, in addition to the splendid official residences at Batavia
+and Buitenzorg. A lovely walk leads from this flower-girt mansion to a
+pavilion on the Kasoer hill, commanding a prospect of four mountain
+ranges, outlined in tender hues of lavender and turquoise against the
+cobalt sky. In the foreground stretches a fertile plain, with bamboo
+and sugar-cane varying the eternal rice in brilliant shades of green
+and gold, always decorative, from the first emerald blade to the
+amber-tinted straw, for the sacred grain possesses a beauty far
+exceeding that of wheat, barley, or rye.
+
+Undulating lines and ascending terraces break the uniformity of the
+lovely plains with the fascination of weird contour and fanciful
+design, intricate as the pattern traced on the native _sarong_. The
+rice-culture of these fields and valleys is a perfect survival of the
+primeval system, unchanged since the days when "the gift of the gods"
+was first bestowed on primitive man in this land of plenty. The
+peasant, toiling in the flooded _sawas_, and occupied from seedtime to
+harvest in the arduous labour demanded by the rice-field, combines with
+his agricultural work the idea of a sacred duty to the divinities who
+gave him the staple commodity whereon his life mainly depends. Cocoanut
+and sugar-cane, maize and tapioca, banana and cassava, supplement the
+rice, but it ranks above all other products of the teeming soil, for
+sacramental efficacy and supernatural origin have hallowed the "grain
+of heaven" from the very dawn of history, and the hereditary belief in
+the efficacy of the sacred crop still remains mystically rooted in the
+sub-consciousness of the Malay race.
+
+
+
+
+GAROET AND HER VOLCANO.
+
+
+The occasional drawback of weeping skies is counterbalanced by the
+gorgeous vegetation only seen to perfection in the rainy season, and
+that clouds should sometimes veil the burning blue to mitigate
+Equatorial sunshine proves a source of satisfaction to those who fail
+to appreciate the Rip Van Winkle life of womankind in Java. The journey
+to Garoet supplies a succession of vivid pictures, illustrating the
+individuality of the insular scenery. The weird outlines of volcanic
+ranges, shading from palest azure to deepest plum-colour, the dreamlike
+beauty of Elysian plains, and the stately palm-forests extending league
+upon league, with mighty vans clashing in the mountain breeze, assume
+magical charm as we penetrate into the heart of the alluring land. Two
+pyramidal peaks, Haroeman and Kaleidon, rise sheer from the fair plain
+of Leles in colossal stairways of green rice-terraces. Knots of palm
+shelter innumerable villages which dot the mountain flanks, the woven
+huts fragile as houses of cards, but built up on identical sites
+through countless ages, recorded in perennial characters of living
+green on these twin trophies of primitive agriculture. Many travellers
+have commented on the strange undertone of music, echoing from a
+thousand silvery rills and tiny cascades, which follow the verdant
+lines of terrace or parapet, and make the shimmering air vocal with
+melody, like the distant song of surf on a coral reef. Variety of form
+belongs to all Javanese agriculture as the result of handicraft, for
+the peasant unconsciously puts his own personality into his toil. The
+exquisite tints of the rice in different stages of growth display a
+translucence indescribable except in terms of light and fire. The amber
+gleam of young shoots, the green flames of the springing crop, the
+pulsating emerald of later growth, and the golden sheen of ripened
+ears, invest the "gift of the gods" with unearthly radiance. The
+Eastern mind has ever responded to Nature's touch, for the great Mother
+whispers her closest secrets to simple hearts, and science now realises
+that civilisation has broken many of the subtle links which in earlier
+days were mystic bonds of union between man and the universe.
+
+Malay idiosyncracy evidences the survival of many primal influences
+forgotten or denied by races of higher type and deeper culture. Very
+little is known concerning the Malayan people who mingled with almost
+every Oriental stock. Amphibious tastes suggest picturesque traditions
+of prolonged voyaging in search of fresh fishing grounds to supply the
+needs of a rapidly multiplying population. A strong Malay element
+exists even in far-off Japan, and the wide ramifications of the nomadic
+stock can be traced to broad rivers encountered on the southward
+journey, and luring stragglers from the main body by the mysterious
+glamour of winding water-ways piercing the tangled forests, and
+pointing to unknown realms of hope or promise. The Malay retains many
+of the hereditary gifts bestowed on the untaught children of Nature,
+and, in spreading his language and customs far over the vast Pacific,
+adopted few extraneous ideas from the world through which he wandered.
+His primeval instincts still sway his life under other conditions.
+Marvellous skill in hunting, fishing, boat-building, and navigation in
+tornado-swept waters, remains to him. The deft weaving of palm-leaf hut
+and wall of defence creates a village or destroys it at lightning
+speed. Even now his basket-work home is never built on dry land, if
+water can be found wherein to plant the supporting poles of the fragile
+dwellings, suggesting the impermanence of a nomadic race. The Malay
+never travels on foot to any place which can possibly be reached by
+water, his native element; winds and tides have imbued him with
+something of their own unstable and changing character, and the sea
+which nurtured him is still the supreme factor in his life. Feet vie
+with fingers in marvellous capacity, and to see a native cocoanut
+gatherer run up the polished stem of a swaying palm, with greater ease
+and swiftness than anyone shows in mounting a ladder, transports
+thought to the distant past, when the ancestral stock, disembarking
+from the rude canoes at nightfall, sought an evening meal on the edge
+of the palm-forest, bowed beneath the weight of green and yellow nuts a
+hundred feet overhead. What wonder if in lands of perpetual summer the
+syren song of some "long bright river" should lure the storm-tossed
+mariners from the perilous seas to the comparative security of inland
+life! The stern environment of Northern poverty stands out in terrible
+contrast with the teeming prodigality of tropical Nature, offering all
+the richest fruits of earth in full measure to these early wanderers
+across the Southern seas.
+
+The mountain railway, curving round ridge or precipice and spanning
+sombre gorge with bridge and aqueduct, affords superb views of the
+unrivalled plains. Waterfalls foam over granite cliffs; a sinuous river
+flings a silver chain round the symmetrical base of Kaleidon, and from
+our lofty vantage point we gaze into the luminous green of a million
+palms, where the warm heart of a deep forest opens to display the
+lustre and colour of molten emeralds. The Soendanese quarter of the
+island gives place to the ancient Javanese territory, and Malay
+characteristics, though underlying and mingling with every insular
+stock, are here modified by a strain of Hindu ancestry, which gives
+refinement of feature and grace of carriage. Well-modelled figures and
+delicate hands and feet are attributed to the liberal admixture of
+royal and noble blood with that of the peasantry, for the ancient
+Rulers of Java respected no rights but their own, and the domestic
+arrangements of King Solomon prevailed in a kingdom of tyrants and
+slaves. Hindu thraldom was intensified under Arab priests, who,
+following in the train of piratical Moormen, claimed the sovereignty of
+Java under their protection. The gold-embroidered jacket of civil or
+military rank, with the _kris_ thrust into a brilliant sash, here
+supplements the universal _sarong_, itself of bolder design and glowing
+colour in this old-world realm of Mataram, the centre of Java's
+historic interest. The crooked blade of the _kris_ is still used in
+divination, light and shadow playing over the wavy steel, ever
+suggesting cabalistic signs inscribed by an invisible hand on the azure
+surface. The _kris_ is popularly endowed with healing efficacy, and the
+availing touch of the sacred talisman is an article of Javanese faith.
+A hundred varieties of the weapon are found in the Malay Archipelago,
+from the gold-hilted and diamond-studded royal _kris_ to the
+boat-handled dagger of common use, permitted to all but peasants;
+women of the higher class wear it in the girdle, and though
+unrepresented in the sculpture of Javanese temples, the _kris_ is
+ascribed to the days of Panji, a Hindu warrior whose feats form the
+libretto of a popular drama, though his authenticity appears uncertain.
+The changes in local costume and character, as seen in wayside
+villages, enliven the journey until we reach the mountain gateway of
+Tjadas Pangeran, "the Royal Stone," flanked by flashing waterfalls, and
+forming the entrance to the region supreme in natural scenery, archaic
+art, and literary interest. The black cone of Goentoer, "the thunder
+peak," accentuates the red blaze of the declining sun on the intricate
+rice-mosaic of green and gold in the divinely beautiful plain revealed
+through the rocky cleft. Amid the many glories of Javanese landscape,
+the poetic glamour of these palm-girt levels lingers longest in the
+memory, for the world-famed picture known as "The Plains of Heaven"
+might have been inspired by the haunting loveliness of these rolling
+uplands. Our railway carriage contains a native Regent, his principal
+wife, and a pretty daughter. Javanese princes are made ostensible
+rulers of native districts, but associated with Dutch Residents as
+"Elder Brothers," who may be more accurately termed compulsory
+advisers. Without a measure of despotic authority exercised by the
+fraternal partner, the spendthrift Malay would cause perpetual
+hindrance to insular development and commercial prosperity. The old
+Regent, with embroidered military jacket glittering above his
+elaborately-patterned _sarong_, looks a grim and forbidding figure, and
+evidently regards his womenkind as beneath notice. His head is tied up
+in a black kerchief, and a brilliant Order conferred by the Queen of
+Holland adorns his breast. Madame, in magenta shawl and purple gown,
+travesties European costume. Diamonds blaze incongruously on arms and
+neck, a scarlet flower in oily black braids completing her startling
+attire. The girl, in yellow _sarong_ and pink cotton jacket glorified
+with rubies and pearls, shows her high breeding in slender wrists,
+delicate hands, and bare feet of exquisite modelling, a red stain of
+henna drawing attention to their statuesque contour. She staggers
+beneath a load of impedimenta belonging to her princely father: bags,
+bundles, and a heavy cloak. Javanese parents of exalted rank treat
+their daughters with disdain, the approved discipline of family life
+consisting in stamping an impression of abject insignificance deeply on
+the plastic mind of girlhood. Fertile plain and wooded slopes are alike
+destitute of domestic animals. The sheep was unknown to native races in
+this pastureless land, and, though introduced by the earliest
+colonists, is still spoken of as "the Dutch goat," no other term
+existing for it in Malay parlance. Monkeys chatter and rustle in
+forest trees, gorgeous birds flit past on jewelled wings, and frogs in
+this rainy season make a deep booming like the tuning of numerous
+violoncellos. At length the little town of Garoet appears in a green
+valley, encircled by a diadem of peaks which suggest a tropical
+Engadine. Volcanic mountains replace Alpine crests, but the white
+battlements of Papandayang's smoking crater give the effect of distant
+snow, and the dark pines of the Swiss valley are merely translated into
+the lustrous green of crowding palms. Brawling river, rustic bridge,
+and brown hamlets foster the strange illusion, and if it be true that
+somewhere in the wide world every face finds a counterpart, natural
+scenery may be subject to an identical law, and various ice-bound
+landscapes be mirrored under Southern skies in pictures wreathed with
+palm-fronds and tropic flowers. The Hotel Rupert, garlanded with
+creepers, the open lattices trellised with ivy and roses, shows a more
+poetic aspect than any hostelry of the distant Engadine. Our hostess is
+the widow of a German physician, and her fair young daughter, alert and
+capable as the typical _Hausfrau_ of her native land, has established a
+reputation for supplying the guests with the home comforts and restful
+atmosphere which make the Hotel Rupert an ideal abiding-place in
+stagnant Java, where as a rule the sole luxuries are out-of-doors, and
+of Nature's providing. That the Dutchman flourishes on his diet of
+tinned meat, his appalling rice-table, and the extraordinary sequence
+of dishes which probably belonged to the early days of colonisation,
+either proves herculean strength or the triumph of mind over matter,
+but to those of less heroic mould the unwonted amenities of a more
+familiar civilisation are welcome as a green oasis in a sandy desert. A
+cool and healthy mountain climate gives unwonted zest for the lovely
+excursions of which Garoet is the centre. From the little lake Setoe
+Bajendit, a covered raft plies to a cupola-crowned hill, facing a noble
+panorama of volcanic peaks the Soendanese _desa_ of basket-work huts,
+through which we pass, presents a curious spectacle, with the village
+street lined on either side by rows of kneeling children, clad in Dame
+Nature's brown suit alone; each little figure holding up a long-stemmed
+flower--red hybiscus, creamy tuberose, or snowy gardenia--the imploring
+faces raised in silent entreaty to the white strangers for the
+infinitesimal coins which suffice to purchase a sheaf of blossom.
+Changing lights and shadows sweep across the glancing emerald of the
+rice-filled vale, darken the purple rifts of mountain gorges, or
+intensify the luminous azure of soaring crests. Wayside fruit-stalls
+make gay patches of colour among green piles of banana leaves, and thin
+yellow strips of bamboo, the approved paper and string of the tropics,
+in which every parcel is packed. Tall sugar-cane and plumy maize
+surround each brown _desa_ beneath the knot of palms, and fields of
+tapioca vary the prevailing rice-grounds with sharp-pointed leaves and
+paler verdure. The entire tapioca crop of Java belongs to Huntley and
+Palmer, for use in the manufacture of the biscuits which make a
+valuable supplement to the Javanese commissariat, for unlimited rice
+seldom commends itself to English tastes. Hot springs abound in this
+volcanic soil, and in the "five waters" of Tjipanas, each of different
+temperature, the native finds a panacea wherein he can indulge to his
+heart's content, the healing springs rushing into stone tanks set in
+sheds of bamboo. The principal excursion from Garoet is to the active
+crater of the Papandayang, a long drive of twelve miles leading to the
+foot of the volcano. From this point a chair carried by six coolies is
+required for the steep road, formed by hundreds of moss-grown steps.
+Plantations of coffee, cinchona, and tapioca girdle the lower slopes of
+the mountain, hedges and thickets of red and purple coleas bordering
+the primeval jungle of orchid-decked trees on the higher levels, the
+moss-grown boughs wreathed with epiphytal plants, the trunks covered
+with branching ferns, and the thick ropes of matted lianas strangling
+the dense forest in their green embrace. Wild oleander mingles rosy
+blossoms with bushes of living gold like tall growths of double
+buttercups, and at length the cooler regions show the familiar ferns,
+violets, and primroses of the temperate zone. The weird silence of the
+jungle is emphasised by an occasional cry of a wild bird, flitting
+among the tall tree tops, or the crash of a bough, dragged down by the
+weight of some climbing rattan. A walk up a boulder-strewn slope
+reaches the old crater, or Solfatara, almost surrounded by steep walls
+of rock. Boiling and wheezing springs, fast-forming sulphur columns,
+and clouds of choking steam, rise from the yellow and orange-powdered
+earth. A deafening noise issues from the self-building architecture of
+ruddy pillars, the bubbling of boiling mud, and the shrill spouting of
+hot vapours from narrow orifices in the trembling crust of the
+fire-charged earth. Golden sulphur-pools shower burning drops on every
+side, and from the mysterious _kawa_ or crater, echoes of subterranean
+thunder sound at intervals, from the traditional forge where native
+legends assert that a chained giant is condemned to work eternally in
+the service of the Evil One.
+
+At night the broad verandah of the Hotel Rupert is transformed into a
+stage for a performance of the _topeng_ or national drama, chartered by
+an American guest. The weird spectacle, accompanied by the _gamelon_
+music, transports us to the days of old-world Java, story and
+performance being of ancient origin and religious signification. The
+subjects of the _topeng_ are derived from the Panji group of dramatic
+poems, the ancient costumes, the curious masks, and the office of the
+_dalang_ or reciter, whose ventriloquial skill is required for the
+entire wording of the _libretto_, comprise a valuable memento of bygone
+days, otherwise entirely forgotten. The _wayang-wayang_ or "shadow
+dance" of puppets, vies with the _topeng_ in popularity, but the latter
+ranks as classic and lyrical drama. A graceful girl in pink, with
+floating scarf, and gleaming _kris_ in her spangled sash, exhibits
+wonderful skill in the supple play of wrist and fingers, through the
+process known as devitalization, a form of drill which gives to the arm
+a plastic power of detached movement, fascinating but uncanny. The
+dusky garden is filled with a native crowd, moved alternately to tears
+and laughter by exploits unintelligible to the European spectator, for
+the story of every national hero is known to the poorest and most
+ignorant of the people, from perpetual attendance on theatrical
+performances. The _al fresco_ entertainments necessitated by the
+climate provide exceptional opportunities of dramatic education in the
+legends of Java's heroic age. The spacious verandahs gleaming with the
+soft light of Chinese lanterns, and set in depths of shadow, the
+scented gloom of the tropical night veiling the dusky lawns, crowded
+with mysterious figures drawn by the weird music from every quarter,
+the brilliant robes and grotesque masks of the actors, compose a
+picture of archaic charm. Passers-by pause on their way to look, and
+listen with unwearied interest to the oft-told tales, for the stories
+of the world's childhood, like the fairy lore of our own early days,
+deepen their significance to the untaught mind by perpetual repetition.
+The Hindu cloudland which veils the Javanese past "was reached by a
+ladder of realities," for the exploits of gods and mythical heroes were
+afterwards attributed to native Rulers, until the medley of truth and
+fiction, history and mythology, became an inextricable tangle. The
+birds' beaks, and hooked noses of the masks in the _topeng_, and of the
+puppets in the shadow-play, were made compulsory after the Arabic
+conquest, in order to reconcile the national pastime with the creed of
+Islam, which forbade the dramatic representation of the human form. The
+reigning _Susunhan_ evaded the decree by distorting mask and puppet,
+but although the outside world might no longer recognise the heroes of
+the play, Javanese knowledge of national tradition easily pierced the
+flimsy disguise, and credited their deified heroes with a new power of
+metamorphosis. The fantastic play lasts so far into the night that the
+prolonged _libretto_ is brought to a summary conclusion by the hostess,
+since European nature can stand no more, though the rapt attention of
+the Malay would continue till morning. The satiety of modern days has
+never touched these simple minds, and an entire absence of that
+critical element which disintegrates so many of life's simple joys,
+ministers to the supreme satisfaction derived from the crude ideals of
+native drama. Silently the brown spectators slip away like shadows from
+the dim and dewy garden, for the simple and untaught Malay, though
+eagerly welcoming the privileges permitted to him, never encroaches
+upon them, and the conduct of these Eastern playgoers affords an
+example of order and sobriety which shames many an audience of higher
+education and social superiority in distant Europe.
+
+
+
+
+DJOKJACARTA.
+
+
+A long day's journey lies between Garoet and Djokjacarta, which popular
+parlance abbreviates into Djokja. From the blue Preanger hills and
+palm-shadowed upland plains, the railway descends by steep gradients to
+the dense jungle and fever-laden swamp known as the Terra Ingrata.
+Malarious mists steam from marsh and mere, pink and purple lantana,
+yellow daisies, and the pallid blossoms of strangling creepers
+emphasise the gloom of the matted foliage, forming an impenetrable
+screen on either side of the narrow embankment across the dreary
+morass. The railway through the hundred miles of this miasma-haunted
+region was laid at immense sacrifice of human life, even the native
+workmen being compelled to sleep in camps far away from the scene of
+their daily toil. No white man could even direct the work, and the
+ubiquitous Chinaman, proof against every ill that flesh is heir to in
+Java, was deputed to superintend the solution of abstruse professional
+problems, between the short and hasty visits of Dutch and English
+engineers. Quagmire and quicksand, stagnant pool and sluggish stream,
+succeed in weary iteration. Bleached skeletons of dead trees writhe in
+weird contortions against the dark background of jungle, as though some
+wizard's curse had blighted life and growth amid the rank vegetation
+rising from this dismal Slough of Despond. The brooding melancholy of
+atmosphere and scenery penetrates mind and soul, oppressed by an
+intangible weight, and escape from the Dantesque horrors of this _selva
+oscura_ is accompanied by a sudden relief and buoyancy of spirit which
+perceptibly heightens the interest of the old-world city, once isolated
+by the woodland fastness of Nature, and belonging to an ageless past,
+surrounding the authentic origin of Djokjacarta with thick clouds of
+fable and myth. The modern name is derived from Arjudja, a city
+recorded in Java's ancient annals as being established by Rama, the
+incarnate Sun-God. Na-yud-ja, the first king of this Divinely-founded
+capital, also memorialises in his name the place which became the
+nucleus of the ancient Hindu empire. Temples and palaces, walls and
+watch-towers, ruined by earthquake, buried in jungle, and blackened by
+smoke of war, testify to the splendours of old Mataram. A bitter
+resistance was offered by the invading hordes of Islam, whether pirates
+or prophets, princes or soldiers, and the Hindu territory remained
+independent until the fierce conflict in the 18th century with
+usurping Mohammedans and Dutch colonists, when family influence was
+undermined by political intrigues. The Dutch, after many vicissitudes,
+became absolute rulers of Java, though native princes, as tributaries,
+were suffered to retain a semblance of sovereignty. The shadowy
+paraphernalia of vanished power is still accorded to the Sultan of
+Djokjacarta, in melancholy travesty of past authority, though every
+hereditary privilege has been wrested from his grasp. A curious relic
+of primitive days remains in the _al fresco_ Throne of Judgment, a
+block of stone beneath a rudely-tiled canopy, moss-grown and hoary. Two
+ancient waringen-trees, their aerial roots, drooping branches, and
+colossal main trunks denoting an almost fabulous age, flank the
+historic seat, where the turbaned Ruler administered justice to the
+surging crowd which thronged around him, the indigo garb of the
+Soendanese contrasting with the gay _sarongs_ of Central Java, glowing
+in the hot sunlight as it poured through the dark trellis of fluttering
+boughs. The city in the course of ages moved away from this ancient
+centre, and the rustic Throne is now remote from the heart of civic
+life. The streets of Djokjacarta, and the surrounding roads, consist of
+shady avenues, where open _tokos_ (the native shops) vary the monotony
+of Dutch villas, their white colonnades and porticos gleaming against
+the background of stately trees, and rising from a mass of tropical
+vegetation. The prevailing indigo of Soendanese dress gives a dull
+aspect to the wide but squalid streets, for in native capitals, though
+Dutch cleanliness may enforce perpetual "tidying up," the lacking sense
+of order produces a strange impermanence in the conditions insisted
+upon. The inner court of the Sultan's Kraton, or Royal Enclosure, is
+now taboo to visitors, for the barbaric monarch, on the plea of age and
+infirmity, has obtained the privilege of privacy, and the Palace can
+only be seen through a personal interview. The outer courts are
+accessible to carriages, which make the square-mile circuit of the
+spacious quadrangles. Massive gates and crumbling machicolated walls
+command a green plain, where immense waringen-trees, clipped into the
+semblance of evergreen umbrellas, display the Eastern symbol of
+sovereignty. Officials passing to and fro show a continuous procession
+of these State _pajongs_. The Sultan's august head is canopied with
+gold, edged by an orange stripe, the Crown Prince sporting an umbrella
+with a golden border. Sultanas and royal children are known by white
+_pajongs_, while the vast concourse of Court officials, with umbrellas
+of pink, blue, red, black, purple and green, show their status to the
+initiated eye through the sequence of colour by which the _pajongs_
+form a complete system of heraldry. In the dusky angle of a mossy wall,
+four elephants, used in State processions, feed upon bundles of bamboo
+and sugar-cane. Mud huts and bamboo sheds prop themselves against tiled
+eaves and windowless houses. Open doors afford glimpses of squalid
+interiors, crowded with slatternly women and dirty children, the
+hereditary retainers and hangers-on of this effete and moribund
+royalty. Private troupes of dancing _bedayas_, _gamelon_ players,
+actors, pipe, fan, and betel-box bearers, pertain to the tumbledown
+Palace, and the patriarchal system of ancient Java permits the presence
+of whole families belonging to these indispensable ministers of the
+royal pleasure. The people show the same indifference to Mohammedanism
+as to the perished faiths of olden time, and a large funeral party
+encountered on leaving the Kraton displays painful irreverence, though
+scattering rice and lighting incense sticks before a white coffin borne
+shoulder-high, and decked with a tracery of yellow marigolds and
+rosettes of pink paper. No priest accompanies the procession, and the
+laughter of the white-scarved mourners, preceded by men carrying ropes
+and planks, suggests an utter heartlessness and barbarity. Gay
+_passers_, a busy _campong Tchina_, a very hive of Celestial industry,
+and innumerable drives beneath over-arching trees, with distant views
+of purple peaks, comprise the interests of old-world Djokja, with the
+one exception of the famous Taman Sarie, or Water Castle, ruined by
+earthquake, but remaining as a pathetic memorial of bygone power and
+pride. Pavilions and baths, grottoes and fish-ponds, set in the tangled
+verdure of a neglected garden, surround the arcaded parapets of a
+colossal tower. Green plumes of fern wave from wall and battlement,
+velvet moss and orange lichen tapestry the blackened stone, and matted
+creepers sway their woven curtains in the evening wind. A Dancing Hall,
+which formerly rang with the weird music accompanying the "woven paces
+and waving hands" of Court _bedayas_, in their spangled pink robes, now
+echoes to the tread of alien feet; the dim arcades teem with ghostly
+memories, and the mournful desolation of the Taman Sarie borrows fresh
+poignancy in the former scene of mirth and music. A moss-grown and
+slippery stairway leads to the green twilight of a subterranean grotto,
+containing the richly-carved stone bedstead of the Sultan, who sought
+this cool retreat from the ardour of a tropical sun. A silvery curtain
+of murmuring water fell before his sculptured couch, and supplied this
+haunt of dreams with an ideal, if rheumatic environment of poetic
+beauty and lulling charm. Superstition clings to the deserted
+resting-place, and to touch even the stone columns of the royal couch
+is to invoke the powers of evil, and the presence of Death. The _Sumoor
+Gamelon_, or "Musical Spring," echoing with the voice of flowing
+waters, flanks the ancient banqueting hall, and cools a circle of
+vaulted grottoes, their shadowy depths bathed in the emerald twilight,
+deepened by the veil of verdure and the transparent foliage drooping
+over open window spaces. The Sultan's oval bathing tank, with stone
+galleries and spiral pavilions, occupies a hollow tower, but a touch of
+young life dispels the gloom, for a group of brown children swim and
+dive in the cool depths, shouting and splashing with a merriment
+unsubdued by the solemn sadness of the deserted halls. A Portuguese
+architect designed this fantastic retreat for an old-time Sultan, who
+brought the idea of the Water Castle from a far-off Indian home. The
+earthquake of 1867 rendered the Taman Sarie uninhabitable, choked the
+lake in which it stood, and destroyed the subaqueous tunnel which
+ensured the absolute seclusion of Sultan and harem. The famous Marshal
+Daendels, weary of waiting for an interview with a dilatory Sultan,
+yielded to natural impatience, and hearing the sound of distant music
+from the watery depths, dashed through the thicket of tamarinds which
+concealed the entrance to the water pavilion, and, dragging the Sultan
+from the place of dreams, scattered _bedayas_ and _gamelon_ players in
+terror, forcing the so-called "Regent of the World" and "Shadow of the
+Almighty" to accompany him to the Dutch headquarters. Rose garden and
+shrubbery, palm grove and pleasaunce, are fast relapsing into
+impenetrable jungle. Broken fountains, and mouldering vases once
+filled with orange-trees, outline the balustraded terraces; gilt
+pavilions lift their upcurved eaves above a wild growth of oleander,
+but the enchanted scene of old romance is given up to bats and lizards,
+for the crumbling Taman Sarie is now a fast-vanishing monument of
+Java's buried past.
+
+The number of _rechas_, or sacred stone figures of Brahmin and Buddhist
+origin, in the garden of the Dutch Residency, shows the scant care
+bestowed on the ancient temples, for years used as mere quarries of
+broken statuary, and still receiving inadequate recognition as
+historical remains, though Sir Stamford Raffles a century ago realised
+the supreme importance of Javanese sculpture as an indispensable link
+in archaeological science. Djokjacarta, interesting in itself as the
+survival of an ancient dynasty, borrows double attraction from the
+architectural wonders which surround it, buried for ages in the deep
+green grave of tropical vegetation, but now laid bare as an open book,
+wherein we may read those graven records which unveil the mysteries of
+the past, and enable us to gaze down the long vista of Time and Change.
+
+
+
+
+BORO-BOEDOER.
+
+
+The archaeological interest of Java culminates in the mysterious temple
+known as Boro-Boedoer, "the aged thing," with an actual history lost in
+mist and shadow, though recorded in imperishable characters on this
+spellbound sanctuary of a departed faith. The little tramway from
+Djokjacarta traverses fields of rice and sugar-cane, indigo and pepper;
+a range of dreamlike mountains bounds the view, crowned by the
+turquoise cone of Soemboeung, the traditional centre of Java, a green
+knoll at the base of the volcanic pyramid being regarded as the "spike"
+which fastens the floating isle to some solid rock in unfathomed depths
+of ocean. The fitful fancy of a wandering race, ever drifting across
+the changing seas, reflects itself in the legendary lore of the Malay
+Archipelago, often represented by weird traditions as though in
+perpetual motion. The vicissitudes of volcanic action, whereby islands
+were sometimes submerged or created, gives a colouring of fact to the
+vague ideas entertained by these nomads of the sea. Merbaboe, the
+"ash-ejecting," and Merapi, the "fire-throwing," flank the loftier
+crest, honeycombed with dim cave temples, now deserted and forgotten,
+but formerly sanctifying those watch-towers of Nature which guard the
+hoary shrine of Boro-Boedoer. At Matoelan we hear that the swift river
+separating the great Temple from the secular world is in flood, the
+bridge broken down, and the supplementary raft impossible through the
+swirling current. This untoward event involves a further expedition to
+Magelang, a sordid town of continuous markets, the Javanese population
+being of pronounced Hindu type, silent and sad, according to the
+idiosyncracy of their mysterious ancestors across the sea. The
+conversational difficulties presented by the Dutch and Malay languages,
+combined with the incapacity of our brown driver, eventually land us at
+Mendoet, on the wrong side of the turbid stream--the Jordan which
+divides the weary traveller from his Land of Promise. Evening draws on,
+the clear sky flushes pink above the darkness of the palm-woods, and
+hope sinks apace, for the surging flood shows no sign of abatement.
+Suddenly the apathetic driver rouses himself from what proves a
+profitable meditation, and, with folded hands, breathes the magic word
+_pasteur_, whipping up his sorry steeds to fresh exertions. We draw up
+at a white bungalow on the roadside, close to a rustic church, and find
+a friend in an English-speaking Dutch priest, who, after giving us tea
+on his verandah, suggests inspection of Mendoet's little moated
+temple, on the edge of the forest. An ever-growing tangle of lianas and
+vines buried this ancient shrine through the lapse of ages, until
+accident revealed the entombed sanctuary about eighty years ago. A
+processional terrace surrounds the walled pavement supporting the grey
+edifice, and the sculptured bas-reliefs denote the transitional stage
+of Buddhist faith, as it materialised through Jainism into the Puranic
+mythology of Hindu creed. The central chapel contains the famous
+picture in stone known as "The Tree of Knowledge," and represents the
+Buddha beneath the sacred Bo-Tree of Gaya. A fluted _pajong_, propped
+against the boughs, canopies his head, one hand being raised in
+benediction over kneeling converts, offering rice and incense.
+Listening angels hover overhead, birds peep out from nests among the
+leaves, and kids lean with necks outstretched over fretted crags,
+magnetised by the mystic attraction of the inspired Teacher. Long-eared
+statues show Nepalese influence, even the Buddhist images being girt
+with the sacred cord of Brahma. A controversy exists as to their
+identification with the Hindu Trinity, but as Eastern cults frequently
+bestow Divine attributes on mortals, the mysterious figures may
+possibly represent the murdered wives of the Rajah who founded the
+Mendoet temple in expiation of his crime. Another legend suggests the
+petrification of a princely family, as a punishment for marrying
+within the forbidden degrees, but myth grows apace in this haunted
+land, and every century offers fresh variations of old-world stories,
+until original form is lost beneath a weight of accretion, like the
+thick moss blurring the chiselled outlines of some carven monument.
+After careful scrutiny of the miniature temple which suggests so many
+interpretations of symbolic imagery, we return to the little presbytery
+to hear of the subsiding river, and the good priest, announcing that
+the raft can now be safely negotiated, accompanies us to the tottering
+structure, a straw matting laid over three crazy boats punted across
+the turbulent stream. A half-hour's stroll beneath the arching boughs
+of a kanari avenue, ends at a picturesque Rest House, facing the
+temple-crowned hill. Surely we have reached the peace and silence of
+Nirvana at last! and the exquisite beauty of the surrounding landscape,
+mountain and forest, park-like valley and winding glen, transfigured in
+the deepening gold of sunset, stamps an ineffaceable impression of
+Boro-Boedoer in that mystic gallery of imagination and memory which
+retains earth's fairest scenes as eternal possessions of mind and soul.
+A shadowy garden, fragrant and dim, stretches up to the pyramidal pile
+which covers the hill. A frangipanni grove scents the air, with
+gold-starred blossoms gleaming whitely amid the silvery green of
+lanceolated leaves, and a shaft of ruby light striking the stone
+Buddhas which guard the portico, emphasises the inscrutable smile of
+the tranquil faces. Like all stupendous monuments of Art or Nature,
+Boro-Boedoer at first sight seems a disappointment, simply because the
+mind fails to grasp the immensity of the noblest Temple ever dedicated
+to the gentle Sage whose renunciation typified the greater Sacrifice
+offered by the Saviour of the World. Who that reads the story of Sakya
+Munyi can doubt that through the Prince who gave up kingdom, throne,
+and earthly ties for the sake of downtrodden humanity, a prophetic
+gleam of heavenly light pierced the darkness of the future, and pointed
+to the distant Cross? Twenty-five centuries have rolled away since
+Prince Siddartha closed his unique career, and twelve centuries later
+the wondrous sanctuary of Boro-Boedoer was erected in honour of the
+creed eternally dear to the heart of the mystic East. The eight stately
+terraces which climb and encircle the sacred hill rise from a spacious
+pavement of blackened stone, and the walled processional paths display
+a superb series of sculptured reliefs, which would measure three miles
+in length if placed side by side. The grey and black ruins, with their
+rich incrustations of sacred and historic scenes, remain in such
+splendid preservation that fancy easily reconstructs the bygone glory
+of the golden age, when this mighty Altar of Faith witnessed the
+glittering pageantry of Oriental devotion; when gaily-clad crowds
+flocked to the morning sacrifice of flowers and music, while monarchs
+brought their treasures from far-off lands to lay at the feet of the
+mystic Sage, prophetically revealed as an incarnation of purity and
+peace vouchsafed to a world of oppression and sorrow. Life-size
+Buddhas, enthroned on the sacred lotus, rise above the crumbling altars
+of five hundred arcaded shrines, and stone stairways ascend from every
+side, beneath sharply-curved arches bordered with masks or gargoyles.
+The last three terraces form sweeping circles, flanked by bell-shaped
+_dagobas_ resembling gigantic lotus-buds. Each open lattice of hoary
+stone reveals an enthroned Buddha, mysteriously enclosed in his
+symbolical screen, for these triple terraces typify the higher circles
+of Nirvana. Each dreamy face turns towards the supreme Shrine of the
+glorious sanctuary, a domed _dagoba_ fifty feet high, and once
+containing some authentic relic of the Buddha's sacred person. Certain
+archaeologists recognise in this spire-tipped cupola a survival of
+Nature-worship, incorporated with the later Buddhism in a form derived
+from the tree temples of primeval days, and built over a receptacle for
+the cremated ashes of the Buddhist priesthood. A touch of mysticism
+added by an unfinished statue in the gloom of the shadowy vault,
+suggests the unknown beauty of the soul which attains Nirvana's
+supremest height, for the supernal exaltation of purified humanity to
+Divine union may not be interpreted or expressed by mortal hands, but
+must for ever remain incommunicable and incomprehensible. From the
+central _dagoba_, ascended by a winding stair, the intricate design of
+the spacious sanctuary discloses itself with mathematical precision,
+and the changing glories of dawn, sunset, and moonlight idealize the
+sacred hill, rising amid the palm-groves and rice-fields of a matchless
+valley, sweeping away in green undulations which break like emerald
+waves against the deepening azure and amethyst of the mountain heights.
+The solemn grandeur of Boro-Boedoer blinds the casual observer to many
+details which manifest the ravages of time, the ruthlessness of war,
+and the decay of a discarded creed. Headless and overthrown figures,
+broken _tees_, mutilated carvings, and shattered chapels abound, but
+the vast display of architectural features still intact conveys an
+impression of permanence rather than of ruin.
+
+For six centuries, Boro-Boedoer was blotted from the memory of the
+people, and the heavy pall of tropical verdure which veiled the vast
+Temple remained unlifted. Superincumbent masses of trees, parasites,
+and strangling creepers wove their intricate network of root, branch,
+and stem round the monumental record of a dead faith and a buried
+dynasty. The riotous luxuriance of tropical Nature triumphed over the
+glories of Art, hewn with incalculable toil and skill in the living
+rock. Seeds borne on the wind, or sown by wandering birds, filled
+every interstice of the closely-matted verdure; stair and terrace, dome
+and spire, sank out of sight into the forest depths, and when English
+engineers arrived to excavate the monumental pile, the task of clearing
+away the tangled masses of foliage occupied two hundred coolies during
+six weeks of arduous toil. The brief English occupation of the island
+necessarily left the work unfinished, but Dutch archaeologists continued
+the labour, though with slower methods and feebler grasp of the
+situation. A transient cult sprang up among the Javanese populace as
+the ancient sanctuary revealed itself anew. The statues were invoked
+with reverential awe, incense was offered; the saffron, used as a
+personal decoration on festive occasions, was smeared over the
+impassive faces, unchanged in the eternal calm of a thousand years, and
+fragrant flower petals were heaped on the myriad altars. Vigils were
+kept on the summit, and the sick were laid at the feet of favourite
+images. This spurious devotion, hereditary or instinctive, sprang up in
+responsive hearts with simultaneous fervour, though the forgotten
+doctrines of Buddhism were never reinstated. Sentiment survived dogma
+in the subconscious soul, and the faint shadow cast by an immemorial
+past indicates the depths plumbed by the early creed in the abyss of
+Eastern personality. The vague simulacrum quickly faded, like a
+flickering flame in the wind which fanned it into life; but simple
+souls, as they pass Boro-Boedoer in the brief twilight, mutter
+incantations, and brown hands grasp the silver amulets which ward off
+the powers of evil, for the deserted temple is still regarded as the
+haunt of unknown gods, who may perchance wreak vengeance on the world
+which has forsaken them.
+
+The long scroll of ancient history, unrolled by the sculptured
+terraces, represents the birth, growth, and development of Buddhist
+faith. Queen Maya, jewelled and flower-crowned, with the miraculous
+Babe on her knee, sits among her maidens, the earth breaking into
+blossom at the advent of her star-born child. His education in the
+mental and physical achievements imperative on Eastern royalty, when
+the sword-pierced heart of the mother who typified the Virgin Queen of
+Saints was translated to Nirvana's rest, is contrasted with the sudden
+realisation of life's vanity when brought face to face with the world's
+threefold burden of sorrow, sickness and death. The renunciation of
+power, wealth and love follows, liberating the soul for the pilgrimage
+along the mystic "path," pursued until "the dew-drop fell into the
+shining sea" of Eternity. The manifold details of the Buddha's
+traditional career are vividly pourtrayed on the hoary walls of
+volcanic trachyte in outline clear and sharp, as though the sculptors
+of the eighth century had just laid down burin and chisel. The indented
+leaves of the Bo-Tree, beneath which the Sage meditates, are so
+exquisitely carved that they almost seem to flutter in the breeze. The
+scene of the deer-park wherein he judges beasts and men, carefully
+weighing the tiniest birds in the balance of the sanctuary, suggests a
+prophetic vision of the greater Saviour, Who declared that even the
+humble sparrow is remembered by the Creator. Countless scriptural
+truths throw their anticipatory shadows across the life of the Eastern
+mystic who approached so closely to the Christian ideal of a later age,
+for the Buddha's spiritual experiences became the inspiration of
+unnumbered hearts, and exercised a purifying influence over every creed
+of the philosophic East. The social life of ancient Java, comprising
+public ceremonials, domestic occupations, architecture, agriculture,
+navigation, drama and music, is memorialised by succeeding terraces of
+the igneous rock which sufficed for the old-world sculptor as the
+medium of his Art. An unknown King and Queen, the traditional founders
+of Boro-Boedoer, appear in varied guise, throned and crowned, walking
+in religious processions beneath State _pajongs_, kneeling before
+Buddha with open caskets of treasure, and receiving the homage of the
+people, accompanied by bearers of smoking censers and waving fans.
+Armed warriors guard the jewelled thrones, and the popular attitude in
+every scene of the royal progress evidences the semi-sacred character
+awarded to Indian sovereignty. The eighth century A.D. was the meridian
+of the Javanese Empire, and in the subsequent changes of nationality
+the facial type of the past has altered beyond recognition, for in the
+ancient civilisation depicted on these sculptured terraces,
+archaeologists assert that every physiognomy is either of Hindu or
+Hellenic character. Ships of archaic form, with banks of rowers;
+palm-thatched huts built on piles, in the unchanging fashion of the
+Malay races; graceful _bedayas_, the Nautch girls of Java, performing
+the old-world dances still in vogue; and women with _lotahs_ on their
+heads, passing in single file to palm-fringed tanks, might be
+represented with equal truth in this twentieth century. Seedtime and
+harvest, ploughing and reaping, bullock-carts and water-buffaloes,
+fruit-laden wagons and village _passers_, pass in turn before the
+spectator in this wondrous gallery of native art. Richly-caparisoned
+elephants suggest Indian accessories of royal life and State
+ceremonial, an occasional touch of humour enlivening the solemn
+pageantry. In one grotesque relief a _bedaya_ and an elephant stand
+_vis-a-vis_, the ponderous monster imitating the steps of the slim
+maiden in floating veil and embroidered robes, her slender limbs
+contrasting with the outflung feet of her clumsy partner. Weird myths
+of the great fishes which guided and propelled the coracle-like boats
+of the first Buddhist missionaries to the shores of Java are
+perpetuated in stone, and the forest, sloping down to the wave-beaten
+coast, shows the rich vegetation which still clothes this island of
+eternal summer. The _sumboya_ or flower of the dead, droops over
+stately tombs; bamboo and palm, banana and bread-fruit, mingle their
+varied foliage; mangosteen and pomegranate, mango and tamarind, acacia
+and peepul, show themselves as indigenous growths of the fertile soil;
+while palace and temple, carven stairway, and flower-girt pavilion,
+suggest the wealth and prosperity of the ancient empire. The mighty
+Temple of Boro-Boedoer, built up through successive ages, indicates the
+gradual change from the simplicity of the early faith, at first
+supplanting, and eventually becoming incorporated with, the Brahminism
+which succeeded it in modified form, as though rising from the ashes of
+the earlier Hindu creed which Buddhism virtually destroyed. In the
+higher terrace, the last addition to this stupendous sanctuary, the
+images of Buddha represent the ninth _Avatar_ or Incarnation of the god
+Vishnu, though he still sits upon the lotus cushion and holds the
+sacred flower in one hand. This inclusion of Sakya Munyi within the
+Puranic Pantheon was a masterly feat of strategy accomplished by
+reviving Brahminism, the heresy of the Jains supplying the link between
+the rival creeds. All the sculptured figures, leaning forward in
+veneration of the mystic statue in the central cupola, are invested
+with the sacred thread of the Vishnavite Brahmin. The images of the
+highest circular terrace are carved in four symbolical attitudes. The
+"teaching" Buddha rests an open palm on one knee; in the posture of
+"learning" his hands are outstretched to receive the gift of knowledge.
+In "exposition," one hand is raised towards Heaven, and in the act of
+"demonstration," thumbs and index fingers are joined. Ferguson points
+out that within the grey lattice of each lotus-bell _dagoba_, the right
+palm of the enthroned Buddha curves over the left hand. This restful
+posture indicates the state of final comprehension, when the aspiring
+soul, raised to the different spheres of Nirvana by steps of ascending
+sanctity, receives increasing peace and satisfaction from gradual
+absorption into the Infinite. No creed passes unaltered through any
+crucible of national thought; Indian Buddhism borrowed both form and
+colour from races which, in accepting the new faith, retained their own
+individuality and modes of assimilation. They gave as well as received,
+and the value of the gift depended on the character of the giver.
+
+No inscriptions exist on the stones of Boro-Boedoer. The sculptured
+reliefs tell their own story, which admits of diverse interpretations.
+The relics of the world-renowned Mystic were dispersed throughout Asia
+in the sudden impulse of missionary enterprise three centuries after
+his death, and every Buddhist temple received some infinitesimal
+treasure. No record is found of the date when the precious relic,
+probably a hair or an eyelash, was deposited in the great _dagoba_ of
+Boro-Boedoer, but an Indian prince sailed with an imposing fleet to
+found a Buddhist empire in Java at the opening of the 7th century A.D.,
+and a subsequent inscription discovered on the coast of Sumatra
+commemorates the completion of a seven-storeyed _Vihara_, evidently the
+colossal Temple of Boro-Boedoer, by the contemporary King of "Greater
+Java," the ancient name of Sumatra. In the tenth century, a reigning
+monarch sent his sons to India for religious education. They brought
+back in their train artists, sculptors, monks, priests, and the
+gorgeous paraphernalia then used in the ceremonial of Buddhist worship,
+but the heart of the ancient faith was atrophied by the indifference of
+the people, and the zealous attempt to galvanise a moribund creed into
+fresh life failed even to arrest the progress of decay. National
+thought, fickle as the wind, had turned from an impersonal philosophy
+to the materialistic cult of Hindu deities, as the Israelites of old
+hankered after the visible symbol of Isis and Osiris in the Golden
+Calf. No definite creed succeeded in gaining a permanent hold upon the
+wandering minds and shallow feelings of a race whose deepest instincts
+reveal the fleeting fancies and inconstant ideas indigenous to a
+sea-faring stock, imbued with the spirit of change and unrest. A
+magical charm broods over the mysterious Temple, the materialised dream
+of a mighty past rescued from the sylvan sepulchre of equatorial
+vegetation, and restored to a vivid reality beside which the paintings
+of Egyptian tombs sink into comparative insignificance. The seclusion
+of the memory-haunted pile enhances the thrill of an unique experience.
+Vista after vista opens into the world of long ago so graphically
+depicted on the monumental tablets of the processional paths, while
+type and symbol point also to the infinite future intensely realised by
+Eastern mysticism. Mortal life was but a fleeting mirage besides this
+vision of the life beyond. For the words "_Shadow_, _Unreality_,
+_Illusion_," perpetually repeated by the yellow-robed monks on the
+beads of the Buddhist Rosary were inscribed on the inmost heart of the
+faithful disciple, who strove to attain that detachment from the world
+of sense inculcated by the creed expressed on the hoary stones of
+Boro-Boedoer.
+
+
+
+
+BRAMBANAM.
+
+
+The ruined temples of Brambanam memorialise that phase of Java's
+religious history, when the altars of Buddha were finally deserted, and
+Hinduism became the paramount creed of the fickle populace. An
+archaeological report sent to Sir Stamford Raffles a century ago,
+describes the remains of Brambanam as "stupendous monuments of the
+science and taste belonging to a long-forgotten age, crowded together
+in the former centre of Hindu faith." A rough country road leads from
+the little white railway station, perched on a desolate plain, to these
+far-famed temples. A brown village, shaded by the dark foliage of
+colossal kanari-trees, shows the usual fragility of structure in
+basket-work walls and roofs of plaited palm-leaves, but the humble
+dwellings, destroyed and rebuilt myriad times on the ancient site of
+Java's Hindu capital, have supplemented native workmanship by a
+multitude of carven stones, broken statues, and moss-grown reliefs, for
+the ruins, theoretically guarded from the spoiler's hand, are still
+inadequately protected, and the grey _recha_ have been used as seats,
+landmarks, or stepping-stones over muddy lane and brimming
+water-course. The conversion of Java to the materialistic creed for
+which she forsook the subtleties of an impersonal Buddhism, though
+shallow was complete, and the doctrine of impermanence, inculcated by
+the discarded faith, continued an essential factor in spiritual
+development, for the inconstancy of the national mind only found a
+temporary halting-place in each successive creed which arrested it. The
+seed was sown, the bud opened, and the flower faded, with incredible
+rapidity, but the growth while it lasted, showed phenomenal luxuriance.
+The erection of these Hindu sanctuaries signalised the zenith of
+Javanese power; their fame travelled across the seas, and numerous
+expeditions sailed for this early El Dorado of the Southern ocean.
+Kublai Khan came with his Mongol fleet, but was repulsed with loss, and
+branded as a felon. A second and stronger attempt from the same quarter
+met with absolute defeat. Marco Polo, compelled to wait through the
+rainy season in Sumatra for a favourable wind, came hither in the palmy
+days of mediaeval Portugal, but returned discomfited. Goths from the
+Northern bounds of Thuringian pine forests followed in their turn, but
+the power and prestige of Hindu Java remained invincible until
+destroyed by the wayward fickleness of her own children. Brahminism
+was finally discarded for the specious promises of Arabian invaders,
+and the lightly-held faith succumbed to the creed of Islam. Mosques
+were built, Hindu temples were forsaken, and Nature's veil of
+vegetation was once more suffered to hide altar and statue, wall and
+stairway, until every sculptured shrine became a mere green mound of
+waving trees, strangling creepers, and plumy ferns. The memory of the
+past was entirely obliterated from the hearts of the people, and every
+year buried the relics of the former religion in a deeper grave.
+
+Siva the Destroyer, and also the Life-Giver, the Third Person of the
+Hindu Trinity, together with Parvati and Brahma, were worshipped here
+in their original character, and an exquisite statue of Lora Jonggran
+(Parvati in her Javanese guise) remains enshrined in a richly-decorated
+chapel, surrounded by dancing houris, inspired in their sacred measure
+by the flute-playing of Krishna. A further instance of the mode already
+mentioned by which sentiment survives dogma in the Malay races, is
+shown by the fact that Lora Jonggran still receives the homage of
+Javanese women. Flowers are laid at her feet, love affairs are confided
+to her advocacy, and as the shadows deepen across the great quadrangle,
+a weeping girl prostrates herself before the smiling goddess, and,
+raising brown arms in earnest supplication, kisses the stone slab at
+the feet of the beautiful statue, popularly endowed with some occult
+virtue which the loosely-held Mohammedanism of a later day has failed
+to discredit or deny. The temples of Brambanam were erected shortly
+after the completion of that upper terrace in the great sanctuary of
+Boro-Boedoer which marks the traditional epoch between Buddhism and the
+later Hinduism, including Sakya Munyi among the _avatars_ of Vishnu.
+The sacred trees and lions carved here on the walls of the temple
+quadrangle, give place in the galleries to scenes from the great Hindu
+epic of the Ramayan. The familiar form of Ganesh, the elephant-headed
+God of Wisdom, looms from the shadows of a vaulted shrine; Nandi, the
+sacred bull, stands beneath a carven canopy, and the great memorial of
+a bygone faith contains the identical galaxy of gods found in the
+Indian temples of the present day, for the thin veil of Javanese
+thought is a transparency rather than a disguise, softening rather than
+hiding the clear-cut outlines of the original idea. The "fatal beauty"
+of the graceful waringen-tree has played an ominous part in the
+destruction of the Brambanam temples, for the interlacing roots, like a
+network of branching veins, make their devious way through crevice and
+cranny, splitting and uplifting the strongest slab, wherein one tiny
+crack suffices for the string-like fibres to gain foothold. Masks and
+arabesques, fruit and flowers, fabulous monsters and sacred emblems,
+encrust the grey balustrades and bas-reliefs of the noble stairways.
+Roof and column teem with richest ornament, for Hindu art had reached
+the climax of splendour when the great city, formerly surrounding the
+monumental group of stately temples, attained to her utmost power and
+fame. The Greek influences which prevailed in Northern Hindustan were
+translated to Brambanam in their attributes of dignity and grace, for
+the flowing robes and easy postures of the sculptured figures correct
+and modify the grotesque and over-laden character of original Hindu
+art. The great stone-paved court once contained an imposing group of
+twenty pyramidal shrines, but only three remain in the original contour
+of the so-called "pagoda style," peculiar to the Dravidian temples of
+Southern India, from whence Java derived her special form of faith. The
+ruins on the opposite side of the grey quadrangle are mere cone-shaped
+piles of rubbish, dust, and broken stone, but the tapering pyramids,
+with their graceful galleries and processional terraces, richly carved
+and adorned with images, enable us to reconstruct in imagination the
+stately beauty of the architectural panorama once displayed by the
+temple courts. Scenes from the Ramayan and Mahabharata adorn the great
+blocks of the boundary wall, sculptured in high relief. The Vedic
+Powers of Nature, with Indra as the god of storm and hurricane,
+manifest the recognition of that earlier belief which became submerged
+in the vast system of Pantheistic mythology. The faith of further India
+takes form and colour from the idiosyncracy of Java, and the goddess
+Parvati, or Kali, worshipped under these different names according to
+her attributes of glory or terror, becomes Lora Jonggran, the benignant
+goddess of Java, popularly known as "the maiden of the beauteous form."
+Four lofty stairways ascend to the hoary chapels within each sculptured
+pyramid, every dusky vault containing the broken image of the tutelary
+_Deva_.
+
+Only separated from Brambanam by a winding path and a green belt of
+jungle, stands the great Buddhist temple of Chandi Sewon, and the
+colossal figures flanking the entrance gate indicate a decadent phase
+of the ancient creed which Boro-Boedoer illustrates in the purity of
+earlier developement. Chandi Sewon, the "thousand temples," includes in
+the number myriad unimportant shrines, ruined, overthrown, or covered
+with a green network of interlacing creepers. The great architectural
+pile, built at a uniform level, surrounds the central sanctuary with
+five great enclosures. All the ancient faiths of the world contain
+foreshadowings or reflections of Christian truth, and the cruciform
+temple which forms the climax of this monumental erection shows the
+mystic value attached to the sacred Sign so frequently encountered in
+Buddhist shrines, and known as the _Shvastika_. The numerous chapels
+of Chandi Sewon contained the galaxy of Tirthankas or Buddhist saints
+which the materialism of the Jains added to the impersonal subtleties
+of esoteric Buddhism. The blank emptiness and desertion of this vast
+sanctuary produces an impression of unutterable desolation. The
+weed-grown courts, the ruined altars, and the moss-blackened arches,
+encumbered with indistinguishable heaps of shattered sculpture, lack
+all the reposeful charm of Boro-Boedoer, still a sermon in stone which
+he who runs may read. The degenerate creed memorialised by Chandi
+Sewon, has failed to impress itself on the colossal pile which bears
+melancholy witness to the evanescent character of the heretical
+offshoot from the parent stem. Jungle and palm-forest in Central Java
+contain innumerable vestiges of pyramidal temples, palaces, and
+shrines; vaults hidden beneath the shrouding trees have yielded a rich
+store of gold, silver, and bronze ornaments, household utensils, and
+armour. For many years the peasants of the region between Samarang and
+Boro-Boedoer paid their taxes in gold melted from the treasure trove
+turned up by the plough, or dug from the precincts of some forgotten
+sanctuary, buried beneath the rank vegetation of the teaming soil. The
+discarded Hindu gods still haunt the forest depths, and the
+superstitious native, as he threads the dark recesses of the solemn
+woods, gazes with apprehensive eyes on the trident of Siva, or the
+elephant's trunk of Ganesh emerging from the trailing wreaths and
+matted tapestry of liana and creeper, veiling the blackened stone of
+each decaying shrine. Nature has proved stronger than Art or Creed, in
+the eternal growth beneath an equatorial sun, of the kingdom over which
+she reigns in immortal life. Silently and insidiously she undermines
+man's handiwork, and realisation of his futile conflict with her
+invincible power enters with disastrous effect into the popular mind,
+lacking that immutable force without which the spiritual temple of
+faith rests on a foundation of shifting sand. Kawi literature,
+popularised by translation, and familiar through the medium of national
+drama, interprets Javanese creeds and traditions. This "utterance of
+poetry" derived from Sanskrit, fell into disuse after the Mohammedan
+conquest, though a few Arabic words became incorporated into the
+two-fold language comprising _Krama_, the ceremonial speech, and
+_Ngoko_, the speech of "thee and thou," or colloquial form of address.
+The island of Bali, and the slopes of the Tengger range, retain a
+modification of Hinduism, and Bali treasures a Kawi version of the
+Ramayan and Mahabharata epics. Many inspiring thoughts and noble
+sentiments, expressed in story and song, have become well-known maxims
+identified with Javanese life. "Rob no man of due credit, for the sun,
+by depriving the moon of her light, adds no lustre to his own." "As
+the lotus floats in water, the heart rests in a pure body." "Ye cannot
+take riches to the grave, but he who succoureth the poor in this world
+shall find a better wealth hereafter." A _babad_ or rhythmical ballad
+of semi-religious character belongs to every province, but though many
+details of temple worship--Buddhist, Hindu, and Mohammedan--may be
+gathered from the lengthy scroll, heroic and princely exploits, myths
+and traditions, encumber the sacred text, which Eastern imagination
+transforms into a fairy tale. Creeds lose their chiselled outline, and
+crumble away in the disintegrating medium of Javanese thought, which
+blends them into each other with changing colour and borrowed light.
+The inconstant soul of the Malay knows nothing of that rigid adherence
+to some centralising truth which often forms the heart of a living
+faith, and his religious history is an age-long record of failure,
+change, desertion, and oblivion, repeated in varying cadences, and
+inscribed in unmistakeable characters on the ruined sanctuaries of old
+Mataram.
+
+
+
+
+SOURAKARTA.
+
+
+The imperial city of Sourakarta, commonly abbreviated into "Solo," was
+the hereditary capital of the Mohammedan emperors, now mere
+puppet-princes held in the iron grasp of Holland. The present Susunhan,
+descended from both Hindu and Arab ancestry, maintains a brilliant
+simulacrum of royal state, and his huge Kraton, far surpassing that of
+Djokjacarta, contains 10,000 inhabitants. The pronounced Hindu type,
+though debased and degraded, remains noticeable even amid the
+all-pervading environment of squalor and disorder, which dims the
+gorgeous colour and brilliant ceremonial, producing the effect of
+jewels flung in the dust. A dense throng of brown humanity, clad and
+unclad, walks to and fro beneath the dusky avenues of feathery
+tamarinds which shield Solo from the ardour of the tropical sun. Old
+crones, with unkempt locks streaming over brown and bony necks, pass
+by, their wide mouths distorted and discoloured with sucking the
+scarlet lumps of _Sarya_, from which the native derives unfailing
+consolation, even the Javanese girl showing absolute disregard of the
+disfigurement produced by this favourite stimulant. Deep moats,
+lichen-stained walls, and hoary forts, invest Solo with a feudal
+aspect, and the grim tower of Vostenberg menaces the Kraton with
+bristling cannon, reminding the hereditary Ruler of his subserviency to
+modern Holland, for only a melancholy illusion of past glory remains to
+him. The dragon-carved eaves of the Chinese quarter, the open _tokos_
+beneath waringen boughs, the shadowy _passer_ brightened by mounds of
+richly-coloured fruits, and the stuccoed palaces of Court dignitaries,
+framed in dark foliage, give character and interest to the city, where
+the life of the past lingers in a series of street pictures remaining
+from bygone days of pomp and show. Ministers of State walk beneath
+many-coloured official umbrellas, held by obsequious attendants;
+graceful _bedayas_, in glittering robes, execute intricate dances, and
+_gamelon_ players discourse weird music on pipe and drum. Court
+ballet-girls, known as _Serimpi_, are borne swiftly through the crowd
+in gilded litters, and masked actors give _al fresco_ performances of
+the historic _Wayang-wayang_, represented by living persons, for the
+actual "shadow-play" is impossible in broad daylight. The colour of the
+mask indicates the character assumed by the actor. The golden mask
+signifies Divinity, heroes wear white, and evil spirits black or red.
+Here, as elsewhere, the profile of the grotesque disguise invariably
+shows either the Greek, or the hawk-nose strangely suggestive of
+Egyptian origin, and which, as a variation on human physiognomy,
+specially commended itself to Mohammedan thought as a skilful evasion
+of an inconvenient dogma. Elsewhere the spirit of concession to alien
+ideas is almost unknown, even flower and leaf being conventionalised on
+those architectural monuments of Islam which form the supreme
+expression of Mussulman genius. The suppression of national amusements
+has ever proved a perilous step, and in the heart of this ancient
+kingdom the original setting of Javanese life remained in stereotyped
+form. The moving panorama of the tree-shadowed streets possesses a
+strange fascination, and the light of the past lingers like a sunset
+glow over the human element of the changed and modernised city. The
+twang of double-stringed lutes, the tinkle of metal tubes, and the
+elusive melody of silvery gongs, echo from the ages whence dance and
+song descend as an unchanged inheritance. An itinerant minstrel recites
+the history of _Johar Mankain_, the Una of Java, who shone like a jewel
+in the world which could not tarnish the purity and devotion of one
+whose heart entertained no evil thought. In the intricate byways of the
+crumbling Kraton, a professional story-teller draws a squalid crowd of
+women from their dark hovels and cellars, with the magic wand of
+enchantment wielded by the reciter of heroic deeds from the _Panji_,
+exaggerated out of all recognition by the addition of fairies and
+giants, demons and dwarfs, to the simple human element of the original
+story. The apathy and decay of native life, lacking all the scope and
+interest common to a strenuous age, appears galvanised into some
+fleeting semblance of vitality by the extravaganza presented to it, for
+the language of hyperbole is the natural expression of Eastern thought,
+and penetrates into mental recesses unknown and unexplored by the
+relater of unvarnished facts. The quick response of the native mind to
+Nature's teaching, and the wealth of tradition woven round flower and
+tree, mountain and stream, foster the love of marvel and miracle in
+those whose daily wants are supplied by the prodigality of a tropical
+climate, for the innate poetry of the race has never been crushed out
+by the weight of practical necessities.
+
+A permit being obtained to view the interior of the Susunhan's palace
+under a Dutch escort, we present ourselves at the colonnaded portico,
+where the Prince Probolingo, brother of the Susunhan, receives his
+visitors with simple courtesy. This descendant of a hundred kings is
+simply attired in a dark brown _sarong_ and turban, the _kris_ in his
+belt of embroidered velvet ablaze with a huge boss of diamonds.
+Attendants, holding State umbrellas over the favoured guests, usher
+them through marble-paved courts, in one of which a little prince is
+seated, with furled golden umbrella behind him to denote his rank, a
+group of royal children playing round him, their lithe brown forms
+half-hidden in the green shadows of a great tamarind tree. A superb
+marble ball-room with crystal chandeliers, forms an incongruous modern
+feature of the spacious Palace, but helps to popularise the so-called
+"Nail of the Universe" among the European inhabitants of Solo, by the
+splendid entertainments continually given at the imperial command. The
+porcelain and glass rooms convey an idea of the boundless hospitality
+bestowed; the thousands of wine-glasses being especially noticeable,
+for 800 guests are often invited at a time. Treasures of linen and
+costly embroidery, silken hangings and velvet banners, gorgeous carpets
+and mats of finest texture, are displayed to our admiring eyes, but
+possession rather than enjoyment is the keynote of Eastern character,
+and the bales and bundles of priceless value, kept in huge cabinets of
+fragrant cedar-wood, seldom see the light of day. Long counting-houses
+are crowded with native scribes, their brown bodies naked except for
+_sarong_ and _kris_, the perpetual rattle of the abacus making a
+deafening din, for apparently the smallest sum cannot be added up under
+Eastern skies without the assistance of this wire frame with the
+ever-shifting marbles. Cramped fingers move wearily over the yellow
+parchments, with their long lists of undecipherable hieroglyphics, and
+the turbaned heads are scarcely raised until the entrance of the Prince
+necessitates the time-honoured salute of the _dodok_, the crouching
+posture assumed in the presence of a superior. The needs and luxuries
+of the immense royal household render the counting-house a feature of
+the utmost importance. The Prince Probolingo has himself forty wives,
+and a Harem in proportion to their numbers, the Susunhan's Imperial
+Harem far exceeding that of his brother. Wonderful tales are told of
+the fairy-like loveliness belonging to these inner palaces, with their
+treasures of ivory and sandalwood, cedar and ebony, but they are
+jealously guarded from intrusion, and a glimpse of their fantastic
+glory seldom permitted to Western eyes. After an exhibition of
+gold-encrusted litters and painted coaches of State, used in royal
+processions, the Prince, a clever-looking man of forty, takes wine with
+his guests. Each stand of solid silver contains six bottles, the
+crouching attendants also carrying silver trays of tumblers and
+wine-glasses, a gaily clad servitor with a huge silver ice-bowl
+bringing up the rear. After drinking the health of His Royal Highness
+in iced Rhine wine, we make our adieux, and escape from our splendid
+_pajongs_ of rainbow hue on the steps of the Great Entrance, conveying
+our thanks through the medium of an interpreter. These faineant princes
+learn no tongue but their own, greatly to the advantage of their Dutch
+masters. The colossal incomes assigned to scions of the royal stock
+only serve the double purpose of political expediency and personal
+extravagance, for the luxury of a licentious Court remains unchecked,
+and the idea of educating or reforming tributary princes is unknown in
+Java. Territorial rights were relinquished for pecuniary gains, and the
+entire Court of the Susunhan is in the pay of the Dutch, the wealth
+amassed from the richest island in the world affording ample
+compensation for the pensions lavishly bestowed on the former owners of
+the tropical Paradise. The Dutch Resident, in his capacity of "Elder
+Brother" to the indigenous race, claims the full privileges of his
+assumed position, but the advancing tide of social reform has even
+touched these distant shores, and the alien authority tends on the
+whole to the welfare of the community. Hygienic regulations are
+compulsory, and even here the traditions of Holland enjoin an amount of
+whitewashing and cleaning up unique in tropical colonies. The green and
+vermilion panelled _sarongs_ of Solo are renowned for their elaborate
+designs, and the painting of _battek_, or cotton cloth, remains a
+flourishing industry of the ancient capital. The intricate beauty of
+the hand-made patterns far surpasses that of the woven fabrics
+wherewith new mills and factories begin to supply the market. Centuries
+of hereditary training, from the days when royal Solo was a
+self-supporting city, contribute to the amazing skill of the _battek_
+girls, but the elaboration of native Art is doomed to decay, for Time,
+hitherto a negligeable quantity in this "summer isle of Eden," begins
+to reveal a value unknown to the Javanese past, and as the poetry of
+illumination vanished before the prose of the printing press, so the
+painting of _battek_ must inevitably give way to the wholesale methods
+of Manchester in the near future of Java, just awakening from her
+spellbound sleep to the changed conditions of life and labour. An
+exquisite plain, described by de Charnay as unrivalled even in Java,
+surrounds Sourakarta with belts of palm, avenues of waringen, and
+picturesque rice-fields of flaming green and vivid gold. Azure peaks
+frame the enchanting picture. The storied heights are rich in
+traditions of gods and heroes, with innumerable myths haunting the
+ruined temples which cluster round the base of the mountain range, and
+suggest themselves as relics of an earlier creed than Buddhism or
+Brahminism. Archaic sculptures, obelisks, and gateways, massive and
+undecorated, recall the architecture of Egyptian sanctuaries, but no
+record exists which throws any light on the origin of the extensive
+monuments of a forgotten past, though the triple pyramid of Mount Lawu
+is still a place of sacrifice to Siva the Destroyer. Pilgrims climb the
+steep ascent to lay their marigold garlands and burn their
+incense-sticks at the foot of the rude cairn erected in propitiation of
+the Divine wrath, typified by the cloud and tempest hovering round the
+jagged pinnacles of the volcanic range, which frowns with perpetual
+menace above the verdant loveliness of plain and woodland. The
+instinctive worship seems one of those hereditary relics of a perished
+faith so frequently encountered in Java; a blind impulse for which no
+reason can be ascribed by the devotee, swayed by those mysterious
+forces of the subconscious self which seem imperishable elements in the
+brown races of the Malay Archipelago. The native Court attracts myriad
+parasites, and the wealthy Chinese half-castes, or _Paranaks_ of Solo,
+with their inborn commercial genius, surpass all competitors in the
+pursuit of fortune. The three centuries of mixed marriages have
+modified Chinese conservatism, and though the _Paranak_ is severely
+taxed, and excluded from all political offices, he remains supreme in
+the kingdom of finance, regarded even by the Dutch as an indispensable
+factor in the complicated affairs of the island.
+
+The great _passer_ of Solo becomes an endless delight, and the
+interminable corridors, where the fumes of incense mingle with the
+breath of flowers, convey strange suggestions of antiquity. Simple
+meals of rice and bananas progress round cooking-pots of burnished
+copper. Pink pomelo and purple mangosteen vary the repast; strips of
+green banana leaf folded into cups fastened with an acanthus thorn, or
+serving as plates for Dame Nature's prodigality, provide the
+accessories of the feast as well as the provisions. The Javanese
+populace, wonderfully free from those household cares which involve so
+much time and trouble in Northern nations strenuously occupied in
+keeping the wolf from the door, and left to carry out their own
+inventions, have evolved numerous methods of blending the different
+metals--steel and iron, brass and silver. The veinings of the _kris_,
+beautiful as those of any Toledo blade, are produced by the welding of
+metals steeped in lime-juice and arsenic, which destroy the iron and
+retain the ingrained pattern. The chains of mingled brass and silver
+show exquisite designs and a special charm of colour, in the soft
+golden hue and subdued gleam of the heavy links, with their
+richly-enamelled talismans of ruby and turquoise enamel. Soft voices,
+tranquil movements, and courteous manners are the age-long heritage of
+Malay idiosyncracy, and even in the crowded _passer_, with its horde of
+buyers and sellers, noise and dispute are non-existent. It is a market
+of dreamland, and though echoes of marching feet and music of native
+bands remind us that we are in imperial Sourakarta, the busy hive of
+the _passer_ suggests a panoramic picture of native life, rather than
+the pushing, jostling crowd represented by the ordinary idea of a
+market in that Western hemisphere which, in bestowing so many priceless
+gifts on humanity, has taken from it the old-world grace of repose.
+
+
+
+
+SOURABAYA AND THE TENGGER.
+
+
+The port of Sourabaya, supreme in mercantile importance, ranks as the
+second city of Java, as it contains the military headquarters, the
+principal dockyards, and the arsenal. Leagues of rice and sugar-cane
+lie between Solo and Sourabaya, the landscape varied by gloomy teak
+woods, feathery tamarinds, and stately mango trees. White towns nestle
+in rich vegetation, and the green common known as the _aloon-aloon_
+marks each hybrid suburb, Europeanized by Dutch canals, white bridges,
+and red-tiled houses, planted amid a riotous wealth of palm and banana.
+A broad river, brimming over from the deluge of the previous night,
+flows through burning Sourabaya; a canal, gay with painted _praus_
+connecting it with the vast harbour, where shipping of all nations lies
+at anchor, the sheltered roads bristling with a forest of masts and
+funnels. Bungalows, in gorgeous gardens, flank dusky avenues of
+colossal trees, for even Sourabaya, the hottest place in steaming Java,
+enjoys "a boundless contiguity of shade." In the _sawa_ fields
+broad-eaved huts, set on stilts above the swamp, protect the brown boys
+who frighten birds from the rice, for the clapping and shouting must be
+carried on under shelter from the ardent sun. No air blows from the
+rippling water, set with acres of lotus-beds, the fringed chalices of
+rose and azure swaying on their plate-like leaves of palest green. The
+heterogeneous character of Sourabaya gives unwonted interest to the
+streets, uniquely brilliant in grouping and colour. Gilded eaves of
+Chinese houses, many-tiered Arab mosques, encrusted with polished tiles
+of blue and purple, white colonnades of Dutch bungalows, and pointed
+huts of woven basket-work within wicker gate and bamboo fence, mingle
+in fantastic confusion to frame a series of living pictures.
+Cream-coloured bullocks and spirited Timor ponies, in creaking waggons
+and ramshackle carriages, pass in endless procession. Bronze-hued
+coolies balance heavy loads on the swaying _pikolan_, a sloping pole of
+elastic bamboo, and strolling players, rouged and tinselled, collect
+crowds in every open space where a fluttering tamarind-tree offers a
+welcome patch of shadow to each turbaned audience, clad in the
+paradisaical garb of the tropics. Graceful Malay women flit silently
+past, in pleasing contrast to their burly Dutch mistresses, clad in a
+caricature of native garb which the appalling heat of Sourabaya renders
+a more slatternly disguise than even colonial _sans gene_ accomplishes
+elsewhere. Orchids spread broad spathes of scented bloom from grey
+trunks of courtyard trees, and cascades of crimson and purple creepers
+tumble over arch and wall. Insinuating Chinamen untie bundles of
+_sarongs_, scarves, and delicate embroideries on the marble steps of
+hotel porticoes, where the prolonged "shopping" of the drowsy East is
+catered for by the industrious Celestial, when _tokos_ are closed, and
+the tradesman sleeps on the floor amid his piled-up wares, for the
+slumber of Java is too deep to be lightly disturbed, and the solemnity
+of the long siesta seems regarded almost as a religious function. In
+this far-off land of dreams it seems "always afternoon," and the
+complacency wherewith the entire population places itself "hors de
+combat" becomes a perpetual irritation to the traveller, anxious to
+seize a golden opportunity of fresh experience. The sun sinks out of
+sight before the sultry atmosphere begins to cool. The weird "gecko," a
+large lizard which foretells rain, screams "Becky! Becky!" in the
+garden shadows, and a cry of "Toko! Toko!" echoes from another unseen
+speaker of a mysterious language, while wraith-like forms of his tiny
+brethren make moving patterns on the white columns, as the hungry
+little reptiles hunt ceaselessly for the mosquitos which form their
+staple diet. Lashing rain and deafening thunder at length cool the
+fiery furnace, blue lightning flares on the solid blackness of heaven,
+and the storm only dies away when we start at dawn for Tosari, the
+mountain sanatorium of the Tengger. The flat and flooded land glows
+with the vivid green of springing rice, tremulous tamarind and
+blossoming teak bordering a road gay with pilgrim crowds, for the great
+volcano of the Tengger remains one of Nature's mystic altars, dedicated
+to prayer and sacrifice. Moslem girls in yellow veils jostle brown men
+with white prayer-marks and clanking bangles. The _sari_ of India
+replaces the _sarong_ of Java, with fluttering folds of red and purple;
+children, clad only in silver chains and medals, or strings of blue
+beads, dart through the crowd, from whence the familiar types of Malay
+and Javanese personality are absent. We change carts in a busy roadside
+_passer_, which drives a roaring trade in rice-cakes and fruit, syrups
+and stews, to mount through changing zones of vegetation, where palms
+give place to tree ferns, and luscious frangipanni or gardenia yields
+to rose and chrysanthemum. From the half-way house of Poespo, a forest
+road ascends to Tosari. Sombre casuarina, most mournful of the pine
+tribe, mingles with teak and mahogany in dense woods falling away on
+either side from the shadowy path. Innumerable monkeys swing from bough
+to bough, eating wild fruits, and breaking off twigs to pelt the
+intruders on their domains. At length the sylvan scenery gives place to
+endless fields of cabbage, potatoes, maize, and onions, for the cool
+heights of the Tengger range serve the prosaic purpose of market-garden
+to Eastern Java, and all European vegetables may be cultivated here
+with success. A patchwork counterpane of green, brown, and yellow,
+clothes these steep slopes, but the extent of the mountain chain, and
+the phantasmal outlines of volcanic peaks, absorb the incongruities
+grafted upon them. Valerian and violet border the track between swarthy
+pines with grey mosses hanging down like silver beards from forked
+branches, and sudden mists shroud the landscape in vaporous folds, torn
+to shreds by gusts of wind, to melt away into the blue sky, suddenly
+unveiled in dazzling glimpses between the surging clouds. A long flight
+of mossy steps ascends to the plateau occupied by the Sanatorium, with
+wide verandahs and a poetic garden, like some old Italian pleasaunce,
+with fountain and sundial, espaliered orange boughs, and ancient
+rose-trees overhanging paved walks, gay parterres, and avenues of
+myrtle or heliotrope. Flowers are perennial even on these airy heights,
+and dense hedges of datura, with long white bells drooping in myriads
+over the pointed foliage, transform each narrow lane into a vista of
+enchantment. Eastern Java spreads map-like beneath the overhanging
+precipice, the blue strait of Madoera curving between fretted peak and
+palm-clad isle. The velvety plum-colour of nearer ranges fades through
+tints of violet and mauve into the ethereal lilac of distant summits.
+The lowlands gleam with brimming fish-ponds and flooded _sawas_, as
+though the sea penetrated through creek and inlet to the heart of the
+green country, the vague glitter of this watery world investing the
+scene with dream-like unreality. Brown _campongs_ cling to mountain
+crest and precipitous ledge. These almost inaccessible fastnesses were
+colonised after the Moslem conquest by a Hindu tribe which refused to
+relinquish Brahminism. Driven from place to place by the fanatical
+hordes of Islam on the downfall of the Hindu empire, the persecuted
+race, a notable exception to native inconstancy and indifference,
+retreated by degrees to this mountain stronghold, where they
+successfully retained their religious independence, and defended
+themselves from Mohammedan hostility. Brahminism through centuries of
+isolation, has assimilated many extraneous heathen rites, and wild
+superstitions have overlaid the original creed. The worship of the
+Tenggerese is now mainly directed to the ever-active crater of the
+awe-inspiring Bromo, always faced by the longer side of the windowless
+communal houses, built to contain the several generations of the
+families which in patriarchal fashion inhabit these spacious dwellings.
+Huge clouds of smoke from the majestic volcano curl perpetually above
+the surrounding peaks, and float slowly westward, the thunderous roar
+of the colossal crater echoing in eternal menace through the rarefied
+air, and regarded as the voice of the god who inhabits the fiery
+Inferno. These lonely hills, ravaged by tempest and haunted by beasts
+of prey, are the hiding-places of fear and the cradles of
+ever-deepening superstition. Wild fancies sway the untaught
+mountaineers, responsive to Nature's wonders, though powerless to
+interpret their signification. The constant struggle for existence
+produces a character utterly opposed to that of the suave and facile
+Malay. The graces of life are unknown, but the strenuous temperament of
+the Tenggerese is shown by indefatigable industry in the difficult
+agriculture of the mountain region, and the careful cultivation of the
+vegetables for which the district is renowned. Day by day, the
+Tenggerese women--gaunt, scantily-clad, and almost unsexed by incessant
+toil in the teeth of wind and weather--carry down their burdens to the
+plain, their backs bent under the weight of the huge crates, while the
+brown and wizened children are prematurely aged and deformed by their
+share in the family toil. The more prosperous inhabitant carries his
+vegetables on a mountain pony, trained to wonderful feats in the art of
+sliding up and climbing down walls of rock almost devoid of foothold,
+for the riding of Tenggerese youth and maiden rivals that of the Sioux
+Indian. Misdirected zeal strips the hills of forest growth; the scanty
+pines of the higher zone serving as fuel, and the ruthless destruction
+of timber brings the dire result of decreasing rainfall. Only bamboo
+remains wherewith to build the communal houses, formerly constructed of
+tastefully blended woods, and the flimsy substitute, unfitted to resist
+drenching rain and raging wind, is dragged with the utmost difficulty
+from cleft and gorge along rude tracks hewn out in the mountain side.
+Rice, elsewhere the mainstay of life in Java, has never been cultivated
+by the Tenggerese, the sowing and planting of the precious crop being
+forbidden to them during the era of gradual retreat before the
+Mohammedan army centuries ago, and the innate conservatism of the
+secluded tribe, in spite of life's altered environment, clings to the
+dead letter of an obsolete law. The tigers, once numerous round Tosari,
+have retreated into the jungle clothing the lower hills, and seldom
+issue from their forest lairs unless stress of weather drives them
+upward for a nightly prowl round byre and pen. The destruction of
+covert renders Tosari immune from this past peril, and the tragic tiger
+stories related round the hearthstone of the communal house are
+becoming oral traditions of a forgotten day, gathering round themselves
+the moss and lichen of fable and myth.
+
+The main interest of Tosari centres round the stupendous Bromo,
+possessing the largest crater in the world, a fathomless cavity three
+miles in diameter, veiled in Stygian darkness, and suggesting the
+yawning mouth of hell. This bottomless pit, bubbling like a boiling
+cauldron, pouring out black volumes of sulphureous smoke, and
+clamouring with unceasing thunder, was for ages a blood-stained altar
+of human sacrifice. Every year the fairest maiden of the Tengger was
+the chosen victim offered to Siva, who, in his attribute of a Consuming
+Fire, occupied the volcanic abyss. The worship of the Divine Destroyer
+has ever been a fruitful source of crime and cruelty, and a tangible
+atmosphere of evil lingers round those hoary temples of India dedicated
+to the Avenging Deity, whose fanatical followers are reckoned by
+millions. Through the inversion of creed peculiar to Hindu Pantheism,
+the propitiation of Divine wrath has become the fundamental principle
+of religion, and pathetic appeals for mercy continually ascend from
+darkened hearts to those unseen powers vividly present to Hindu
+thought, which, amid countless errors and degradations, has never
+ceased to grasp the central fact of Eternity. The impalpable air teems
+with Divinity. Watchful eyes and clutching hands surround the pilgrim's
+path, and unseen spirits dog faltering footsteps as they stumble
+through the snares and pitfalls of earthly life. In the rude tribes of
+the Tengger, hereditary faith reflects the uncompromising features of
+local environment. The lotus-eating races of the tropical lowlands,
+with their feeble grasp on the sterner aspects of creed and character,
+have nothing in common with this Indian tribe, remaining on the
+outskirts of an alien civilisation. The creed for which the early
+Tenggerese fought and conquered, has cooled from white heat to a
+shapeless petrifaction, and weird influences throng the ruined temple
+of a moribund faith, but the shadows which loom darkly above the
+mouldering altars still command the old allegiance, and a thousand
+hereditary ties bind heart and soul to the past.
+
+The expedition to the Bromo, by horse or litter, affords the supreme
+experience of Javanese volcanoes. The broken track, knee-deep in mud
+and rent by landslips, traverses fields of Indian corn, rocky clefts,
+and rugged water-courses. The familiar flora of Northern Europe fringes
+babbling brooks, their banks enamelled with wild strawberries and
+reddening brambles. Curtains of ghostly mist lift at intervals to
+disclose the magical pink and blue of the mountain distance, as sunrise
+throws a shaft of scarlet over the grim cliff's of the Moengal Pass. A
+chasm in the stony wall reveals the famous Sand Sea below the abrupt
+precipice, a yellow expanse of arid desert encircling three fantastic
+volcanoes. The pyramidal Batok, the cloud-capped Bromo, and the
+serrated Widodaren, set in the wild solitude of this desolate Sahara,
+form a startling picture, suggesting a sudden revelation of Nature's
+mysterious laboratories. The deep roar of subterranean thunder, and the
+fleecy clouds of sulphureous smoke ever rising from the vast furnaces
+of the Bromo, emphasise the solemnity of the marvellous scene. Native
+ideas recognise this terror-haunted landscape as the point where Times
+touches Eternity, and natural forces blend with occult influences.
+Tjewara Lawang, "the gate of the spirits," traditionally haunted by the
+countless _Devas_ of Hindu Pantheism, bounds the ribbed and tumbled
+Sand Sea with a black bridge of fretted crags, from whence the
+invisible host keeps watch and ward over the regions of eternal fire.
+
+By a fortunate coincidence, the annual festival of the Bromo is
+celebrated to-day, when Siva, the Third Person of the Hindu Triad, is
+propitiated by a living sacrifice. Goats and buffaloes were flung into
+the flaming crater long after the offering of human victims was
+discontinued, but, alas for the chicanery of a degenerate age! even the
+terrified animals thrown into the air by the sacrificing priest never
+reach the mystic under-world, their downward progress being arrested by
+a skilled accomplice, who catches them at a lower level, and risks
+great Siva's wrath by preserving them for more prosaic uses. The
+silence of the Sand Sea is broken to-day by the bustle of a gay market
+on the brink of the yellow plain. The terrific descent through a gash
+in the precipice, carved by falling boulders, landslips, and torrential
+rains, lands the battered pilgrim in the midst of a lively throng in
+festal array. Girls in rose and orange _saris_, with silver pins in
+sleek dark hair plaited with skeins of scarlet wool, dismount from
+rough ponies for refreshment, or gallop across the Sand Sea to the
+mountain of sacrifice. The turbaned men in rough garb of indigo and
+brown show less zeal than their womenkind, and betel-chewing, smoking,
+or the consumption of syrups and sweetmeats, prove more attractive than
+the religious service, for modern materialism extends even to these
+remote shores, and the Avenging God is often worshipped by proxy.
+
+The Sand Sea was originally the base of the Tengger volcano, split from
+head to foot by an appalling eruption, which forced mud, sand, and lava
+from the enclosing walls into the surrounding valley. Fresh craters
+formed in the vast depths of sand and molten metal; the three new
+volcanoes--Bromo, Battok, and Widodaren--casting themselves up from the
+blazing crucibles hidden beneath the fire-charged earth. We stand on
+the thin and crumbling crust of the globe's most friable surface, a
+mere veil concealing fountains of eternal fire, foaming solfataras, and
+smoking fumaroles. Circle after circle, the great belt of volcanic
+peaks rises around us, visible outlets of incalculable forces, ever
+menacing the world with ruin and havoc.
+
+On the steep descent, a few devout pilgrims offer preliminary
+sacrifices of food, or flowers, to the _Devas_ of the mountains, laying
+the little treasures in oval vaults dug by human hands, before entering
+the inner courts of the fiery sanctuary. The yellow Sand Sea, swept by
+a moaning wind, sends up whirling eddies, and the dusky haze shimmers
+in fantastic outlines, which probably originated the idea of spiritual
+presences hovering round the scene. Grey heather and clumps of
+cypress-grass dot the wild Sahara with their dry and colourless
+monotony, but give place on the southern side to patches of fern and
+turf, the scanty pasture of the mountain ponies, herding together until
+sickness or accident breaks the ranks, when the hapless sufferer,
+deserted by his kind, falls an easy prey to the wild dogs of the
+Tengger ranges. A heap of bleaching bones points to some past tragedy,
+and terrifies the swerving horses of the native pilgrims. The ascent of
+the Bromo is negotiated from the eastern side to the lip of the
+gigantic crater. Slanting precipices of lava, their grey flanks scored
+with black gullies below the volcanic ash which covers the upper
+slopes, rise to the jagged pinnacles bordering the black gulf of
+eternal mystery and night. A rickety ladder of bamboo, approached
+through a chaos of boulders, mounts to the edge of the profound abyss.
+The ladder has been renewed for this Day of Atonement, and worshippers
+clad in rainbow hues crowd round the base of the volcano, while the
+priests of Siva, in motley robes of brilliant patchwork, adorned with
+cabalistic tracery in white, ascend the swaying rungs, bearing their
+struggling victims, bleating, crowing, and clucking in mortal terror.
+Stalwart arms toss the black goat with accurate aim to an assistant
+priest, who passes on his clever "catch" to a third expert in the task
+of hoodwinking Siva and depriving him of his lawful prey. Sundry cocks
+and hens, evidently toothsome morsels, are then thrown from one priest
+to another, and saved for the cooking-pot, but a tough-looking
+chanticleer of the Cochin China persuasion is finally selected, and
+cast into the seething pit to propitiate the terrible wrath of the
+Avenging Deity at the smallest expense and loss to the astute
+priesthood. At the close of the sacerdotal is sacreligious performance,
+we mount the shaking ladder to a thatched shed on the rim of the
+crater. From hence, between the dense volumes of smoke, the huge cavity
+is visible to a depth of 600 feet. Sallow clouds of sulphur emerge from
+a pandemonium of tumultuous clamour; red-hot stones shoot upward, but
+fall back into the chasm before they reach us; burning ashes strike the
+smooth walls with a weird scream, and then whirl back into the
+darkness; yellow solfataras rise in foaming jets, with the fierce hiss
+of unseen serpents, and bellowing thunders shake the earth. The superb
+spectacle of nature's power in her armoury of terror is unique among
+the volcanos of Java, for unless the Bromo blazes in the throes of a
+violent eruption, when the ascent to the crater becomes impossible, no
+danger exists in gazing down into the mysterious abyss. At every gust
+which rages round this laboratory of Nature, the vast clouds--black,
+yellow, and blue--floating away into space, assume grotesque forms
+suggesting primeval monsters or menacing giants, darkening the skies
+with their ghostly presence. Driving rain and a rising gale hasten a
+rapid descent to the Sand Sea, but the sudden storm dies away into
+sunlit mists. The climb to the Moenggal Pass is complicated by a series
+of pools and cascades; the horses pick their own perilous way, but the
+management of the chairs by the noisy coolies demands superhuman
+strength and security of hand and foot, the crazy and battered _doolie_
+escaping falls and collisions by a continuous miracle.
+
+The expedition to Ngandwona, in the heart of the hills, skirts green
+precipices and traverses brown _campongs_ forlorn and neglected, like
+this stranded Hindu race, incapable of adjustment to life's law of
+change, and retaining the form without the spirit of the past. The
+glens lie veiled in cloud, but the peaks bask in sunshine. Waterfalls
+dash through thickets of crimson foxglove, and daturas swing their
+fragrant bells over the dancing water. A little goatherd, leading his
+bleating flock, plays on a reed flute to summon a straggler from a
+distant crag. The brown figure, in linen waistcloth and yellow turban,
+suggests that Indian personality which has survived ages of exile on
+these lonely heights. The route to Ngandwona discloses the Tengger in
+a different aspect; the volcanos are far away, and this central region
+is rich in pastoral pictures full of lulling charm. The voice of the
+Bromo still breaks the silence of the deep valley with a mysterious
+undertone, but only benignant _Devas_ haunt this flower-filled hollow,
+remote alike from the terrors of Nature and the influences of the
+external world.
+
+The following day varies the character of the range, exposed to every
+vicissitude of temperature and climate. White billows of fog beat upon
+the mountain tops like a silent sea, and blot out the landscape with an
+impenetrable veil. Thunder echoes through the rocky caves with
+incessant reverberations, and rain settles down in a drenching flood.
+The chill of the wooden Hotel penetrates to the bone; enthusiasm wanes
+below zero, and even scorching Sourabaya appears preferable to this wet
+and windy refuge on the storm-swept heights. The hurricane proves brief
+in proportion to the violence displayed, and the walk to Poespo at
+dawn, behind the baggage-coolie, is a vision of delight. Violet
+mountains lean against the pale blue of a rain-washed sky, tjewara and
+teak glisten with jewelled lustre, and the Tengger, bathed in
+amethystine light, lifts itself above the world as the realm of purity
+and peace, ever revealed and prophesied by the glory of mountain
+scenery.
+
+
+
+
+CELEBES.
+
+
+
+
+MAKASSAR AND WESTERN CELEBES.
+
+
+Each island of the great Archipelago offers distinctive interests, for
+many alien races grafted themselves on the original stock, after those
+age-long wanderings across the Southern seas which probably coincided
+with the westward march from Central Asia, whereby primeval man
+fulfilled the decrees of destiny.
+
+A long pull in a rickety _sampan_ across the harbour of Sourabaya
+involves numerous collisions with fruit-boats, canoes, and rafts,
+before reaching the steamer in the offing. Intervals of comparative
+safety permit cursory observation of the gorgeously-painted _praus_
+with upturned stern, curving bamboo masts, and striped sails, the
+outline of the gaudy boats accentuated by a black line, and producing
+the effect of huge shells tossing on the tide. The green isle of
+Madoera, and the level morasses of Eastern Java, bound the wide
+harbour, the blue cloud of the distant Tengger soaring abruptly on the
+horizon. The ship becomes our home for a month, and affords a welcome
+relief from divers struggles on land, involved by a dual language,
+official red tape, and native incompetence. A brilliant sunset flames
+across the heavens, and we glide across a golden sea as a fitting
+prelude to unknown realms of enchantment. The dreamful calm of the two
+days' passage obliterates the memory of bygone difficulties and
+perturbations, the interval between past and future experiences falling
+like refreshing dew on the weary spirit, and increasing the receptive
+capacity required for the assimilation of new impressions. The vast
+extent of the Malay Archipelago, and the stupendous size of the
+principal islands, comes as a fresh revelation to travellers whose
+ideas have been limited by vague recollections of schoolroom geography.
+The seven hundred miles of Java's length, Sumatra's vast extent of
+fourteen hundred miles, the area of Borneo equalling that of France and
+Germany combined, and the fact of Celebes, for which we are bound,
+exceeding the dimensions of Norway and Sweden, convey startling
+suggestions of the limitless space occupied by the great Equatorial
+group. The palms and flowers of myriad smaller isles break the blue
+monotony of these summer seas traversed by the Malay wanderers of olden
+days, striving to sail beyond the sunset, and to overtake that
+visionary ideal flitting ever before them, and luring them on with the
+fairy gold of unfulfilled desires.
+
+At length the high blue peaks of central Celebes pierce the silver
+mists of a roseate dawn, and beyond a cluster of coral islets, the
+white town of Makassar gleams against a green background of palms.
+Miles of brown _campongs_ fringe the shore, but the gay scene on the
+wooden wharves at first occupies undivided attention. _Sarongs_ of
+crimson, orange, purple, or boldly-contrasting plaids, enhance the deep
+bronze of native complexion, the ample folds of the wide skirts drawn
+up above the knees. High turbans of white or red cambric, elaborately
+twisted, add dignity to the stately figures, deeply-cut features and
+hawk noses denoting Arab origin, for the Makassarese is a lineal
+descendant of the Moslem pirates, once the terror of these
+island-studded seas. Proud, courageous, and passionately addicted to
+adventurous travel in far-off lands, these sturdy islanders have little
+in common with the inert races of Java. The normal Malay element
+appears extinguished by the fiery superstructure of Arab nature,
+retaining the vindictive and fanatical traits of ancestral character.
+The women, in rainbow garb, use their floating _slandangs_ as
+improvised _yashmaks_, holding the red and yellow folds before their
+faces in approved Moslem fashion, when passing a man. Makassar,
+formerly ruled by a line of powerful princes as an independent fief,
+but now subject to a Dutch Governor, has become the capital of Celebes,
+and occupies an important commercial position. The wharves are filled
+with bales of _copra_, mother-of-pearl shells, plumage of native birds,
+dried fish, bundles of rattan, and precious woods from the primeval
+forests of the interior. The boom of the fisherman's drum echoes across
+the water in constant reverberations, a secularised relic of the
+religious past, originally serving the purpose of the Mohammedan call
+to prayer, but now fulfilling the prosaic office of signalling the
+arrival or departure of boats, though the devout mariner still appeals
+by drum to the Heavenly Powers for fair weather and a good haul of
+fish. The official buildings of Makassar, including the Dutch
+Governor's palace, face a green _aloon-aloon_, flanked by superb
+avenues of kanari and tamarind trees. The hoary fort, scarcely
+distinguishable from the solid rock which supports it, was captured
+from the King of Goa by a Dutch admiral, who thrust his sword through
+an adjacent cocoanut palm, to symbolise his intention of piercing the
+hearts of all who resisted the Treaty afterwards drawn up. The sword
+and cocoanut now form part of the heraldic arms belonging to Makassar.
+
+Local costume affords a continuous feast of colour, and streets and
+avenues appear like moving tulip beds, the broad blue sky and dazzling
+sunshine of this tropical land intensifying every glowing tint of robe,
+fruit, and flower. In the umber shadows of dusky _tokos_, gold-beaters
+fashion those red-gold ornaments rich in barbaric beauty, for which
+Makassar has ever been renowned. Portuguese art glorifies native
+workmanship, and the Dutch carry on the traditions of the past, merely
+simplifying the old methods by introducing modern tools to lighten the
+labour of production. Silken scarves, and elaborately-painted _battek_,
+woven with gold and silver thread, swing from the black rafters of dim
+corridors, and countless treasures of the deep, in shells and coral of
+rich and delicate colouring, manifest the infinite variety of Nature's
+handiwork. From the crowded lanes, with their busy markets and hybrid
+population, we drive through the long line of _campongs_ bordering the
+palm-fringed coast. The bamboo walls of the fragile houses, standing on
+stilts or rocking on poles in the rippling sea, show a multitude of
+fantastic designs, the broad roofs of thatched grass or plaited
+palm-leaves extending in penthouse eaves above carven panels let into
+the gables. A riot of glorious vegetation frames and overshadows the
+clustering huts of deftly-woven cane. Dark faces peer through the
+narrow slits of bamboo window-spaces, but Makassar pride contains the
+elements of self-respect, and though the stranger attracts a certain
+amount of interest, no discourtesy mars the pleasure of exploration. A
+red road beneath towering palms, skirts rice-fields and bamboo thickets
+to the beautiful ford of the Tello, a broad river flowing between vast
+woods of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees, with only a tiny dug-out,
+steered by a brown boy in a scarlet turban, to dispel the loneliness of
+the scene. The vicinity of Makassar offers no special characteristics
+beyond those of a tropical garden, but the changing aspects of native
+life provide subjects of unceasing interest. To-day a great Chinese
+festa takes place, which attracts all the inhabitants of town and
+_campong_, for amusements are scarce on these distant shores, and no
+questions of race or faith complicate the determination to secure a
+share in the pleasures of the ceremony. When the usual burst of squibs
+and crackers, lighting of bonfires, and tossing of joss-papers into the
+air, marks the commencement of the holiday, spectators line the roads,
+climb the trees, and crowd the fiat roofs of Portuguese houses. The
+afternoon is the children's portion of the festival, and the little
+bedizened figures, with rouged faces, tinsel crowns, and spangled
+robes, bestride grotesque wooden dragons, fishes, and birds,
+brilliantly painted, and drawn on wheels by masked men in robes of pink
+and green. A crowd of high-class babies, also bedizened and spangled,
+follows in perambulators wreathed with flowers, and pushed by their
+Chinese nurses. Hideous gods in glittering robes, and appalling demons
+painted in black and scarlet, bring up the rear of the long procession,
+which traverses every street and lane of the Chinese _campong_, the
+open houses displaying the lighted altars and tutelary gods of
+Buddhist and Taoist creed, for the mystic philosophy of the Eastern
+sages materialises into grossest realism by passing through the
+crucible of Chinese thought.
+
+A visit to the so-called "Kingdom of Goa" fills up our last day in
+Makassar. The Palace of the tributary Sultan, ten miles from the
+capital, consists of steep-roofed houses built upon huge trunks of
+forest trees, and connected by carved galleries and crumbling stairs
+with the Harem at the back of the main edifice. Squalid women in blue
+yashmaks loll on the crazy verandah, whence a native secretary marshals
+us through the dusty and ruinous building. The Sultan, taking to the
+hills as a necessary precaution after inciting his subjects to
+rebellion against the Dutch, has just been captured, but, whether by
+accident or design, fell over a cliff, and until his dead body is
+brought back to receive the Mohammedan rites of burial, the royal
+residence remains in charge of the police. The grass-grown road to the
+decaying Palace intersects the rambling and sordid village of Goa, the
+feudal appanage of the sorry chieftain, a perpetual thorn in the side
+of the Dutch Government. The surrounding country appears almost a
+solitude, the silence stirred by the song of the distant surf, the
+chirping of myriad grasshoppers, and the ceaseless clash of waving
+palms in the breeze which steals up from the sea. A quaint
+water-castle, shaped like a Chinese junk, stands on a rock in a
+fish-pond reflecting the rosy sky, and the fretted marble of a
+beautiful Arabian tomb gleams from a clump of white-starred _sumboya_
+exhaling incense on the air. As the magic and mystery of night shroud
+Makassar in a mantle of gloom, the surrounding sea becomes a vision of
+phosphorescent flame to the furthest horizon. The sheet-lightning of
+the tropical sky repeats the wonders of the deep, the glamour of
+romance gilds the prose of reality, and we apprehend that spirit of
+wondering awe which breathes through the records of old-world voyagers
+across uncharted oceans, when witnessing the phenomena of Nature in the
+sanctuary of her power, before Science had torn the veil from the
+mystic shrine.
+
+The steamer's course follows the bold and mountainous coast; steep
+cliffs alternate with forest-clad ravines, the purple ranges of the
+foreground melting into the azure crests of soaring peaks. Skilful
+navigation is required in threading the blue water-lanes of the
+Spermunde group, the scores of palm-clad islets like bouquets of
+verdure thrown on the tranquil sea. The wicker-work _campongs_ of the
+fishing population form a ring round each white beach of sparkling
+coral sand. The black bow of the "Bromo," a ship which broke her back
+on a reef twenty years ago, stands high above the treacherous rocks,
+and accentuates the vivid colouring of water and foliage. At Pare-Pare,
+a native _campong_ in a deep bay at the edge of a forest, the steamer
+stops to discharge cargo, and affords an opportunity of landing. A gay
+crowd lines the shore of the picturesque village, the houses of
+palm-thatched bamboo adorned with carved ladders and upcurving eaves of
+white wood. One of the numerous military expeditions to turbulent
+Celebes has lately been successful, and the _campong_, where every hut
+was closed for a year in consequence of the local Rajah forcing his
+people to join in his insurrection, has at last been re-opened, though
+under a guard of Dutch and Malay troops. A brown bodyguard of native
+children, mainly clad in silver chains and medals, escorts the
+strangers with intense delight to a shabby little mosque, where a
+Dervish, in the orange turban rewarding a pilgrim to Mecca, beats a big
+drum in the stone court. The little savages encountered at Mandja on
+the following day seem equally free from clothes and cares, but
+Europeans, though possessing the charm of novelty, are regarded with
+awe; a sudden stop, a word, or even a lifted hand, sufficing to make
+the whole juvenile population take to their heels, and hide among the
+palms and bananas until a sudden impulse of fresh curiosity banishes
+fear. Clothing is at a discount, but ornaments of brass, silver, and
+coloured beads, are evidently indispensable. Natural flowers, like
+immense red fuchsias with long white bells, serve as ear-rings, and
+scarlet caps adorn the sleek black heads of the elder girls. An _al
+fresco_ picnic party from the hills occupies a green mound, and boils a
+kettle on sticks of flaming bamboo, though a stray spark might easily
+burn down the entire _campong_. A great part of Celebes is uninhabited
+and uncultivated, but the tribes of the interior, warlike and
+treacherous, have never been completely subjugated. The slave trade
+flourishes among these lonely hills, murder and violence are rife; the
+methods of warfare, comprising poisoned arrows, and bullets containing
+splinters of glass, denote absolute barbarism, and the enormous island,
+which ought to be a field of emigration for some of Java's twenty-seven
+millions, except for the coast _campongs_ and the rice-grounds of the
+far interior, remains one of the waste places of the earth, in spite of
+a perfect climate and a teeming soil.
+
+Day by day the scenery becomes more wild and dreary; the forests
+disappear, and the sun-baked hills encroach on the low brushwood beyond
+the white beaches of coves and inlets, without any sign of habitation.
+An atmosphere of crystalline purity discloses the highest range of the
+interior, a long chain of azure peaks. Our course traverses league upon
+league of melancholy solitude, emphasised rather than relieved by the
+brilliant sunlight and balmy breezes playing over this realm of
+neglected possibilities, where the wants of countless sufferers might
+be abundantly supplied. Anchoring for an hour in the deep blue bay of
+Tontoli, we come once more into the haunts of men, and two picturesque
+_campongs_ buried in cocoa-palms beneath the wooded mountains of Tomini
+are pointed out as exclusively peopled by descendants of the pirates
+who infested this western coast of Celebes. From this point the
+interest of the cruise increases. Pretty _campongs_ line the shore of
+every sheltered creek. Boats of quaint form and colour push off to meet
+the steamer, quickly surrounded by _sampans_, _blotos_ (the native
+canoes), or carved and painted skiffs, all manned by an amphibious race
+in Nature's suit of brown, which renders the wearers indifferent to
+overturned boats, water-logged _blotos_, and collapsing rafts, though
+the encouraging statements of our Malay crew as to the warmth and
+shallowness of the water in case of any contretemps, is less reassuring
+to the travellers who venture shoreward on the risky craft. The loan of
+the captain's boat makes the visit to Dongalla an experience of
+unalloyed pleasure, but the people appear morose and sullen. A
+dignified youth, in purple turban and checked _sarong_, attempts to do
+the honours of his native place, but his comrades, oppressed by vague
+suspicions, close the heavy doors of their wooden houses, and peep
+through the interstices of the bamboo shutters as we thread the narrow
+alleys, escorted by the deck steward. A more genial crowd welcomes us
+to the palm-groves of Palehle, where a light-hearted bodyguard of
+children shows us every nook and corner of the brown _campong_, with
+smiling faces and merry laughter. The heart-whole mirth of these little
+savages might brighten the saddest soul. Living in the present, with no
+artificial wants to create dissatisfaction, and free from the pains or
+penalties of poverty, as experienced in Northern climes, the simple
+life close to the heart of Nature suggests ideas of Eden's unshadowed
+joy. Amid the treasures of memory garnered during the winter's
+wanderings through the Malay Archipelago, the unclouded merriment which
+endows these children of Nature remains as the deepest impression
+stamped on the memory of the Western pilgrim. European childhood, at
+the best and brightest, but faintly approaches this spontaneous gaiety,
+the special attribute of untutored souls in a world of primal
+innocence.
+
+At Soemalata the steep declivities of wooded mountains enclose the
+harbour, and a narrow pass leads to the gold mines, where the process
+of smelting and separating the ore takes place in a primitive series of
+conduits, sluices, mills, and pounding machines. The gold concession
+granted by the local Rajah prospers in European hands, but the barbaric
+chieftain adheres to the ancient custom of having the gold washed from
+the river sand by his own slaves. The English engineer of the mines
+hails a compatriot with delight, and his explanation of the complicated
+machinery ends with a welcome invitation to tea in his pretty
+bungalow. A solitary Englishman is frequently found stationed in the
+remotest outposts of civilisation throughout the Malay Archipelago,
+enduring a life of unexampled loneliness with the tenacity and
+determination inherent in national character. The oft-receding vision
+of a successful future inspires the dauntless heart less than a sense
+of present duty, and these exiles from the social ties of nation and
+kindred possess special claims on sympathy and remembrance. Lovely
+lanes of palm and banana, brightened by trees of crimson poinsettia,
+wind upward to the hills, and a cluster of green islets gems the blue
+waters; the scarlet-stemmed Banka palm offering a glowing contrast to
+the sweeping emerald of the feathery fronds. The little settlement of
+Kwandang, with a gold _fabrik_ occupying a wooded islet, completes the
+circuit of the western coast, for the North-Eastern Cape comprises a
+distinctive province, requiring a separate chapter. Intervening
+mountains, with jagged cliffs and towering summits, rise like Titanic
+fortresses from the creaming surf which washes the yellow bastions,
+leaving no space for the wicker _campongs_, impermanent as a child's
+house of cards, but perpetually rebuilt in identical fashion, and never
+developing into substantial dwellings, or adjusted on the new lines
+required by varieties of environment.
+
+
+
+
+THE MINAHASA.
+
+
+Steaming slowly through the phosphorescent seas of the starlit night,
+we anchor at dawn in the forest-lined bay of Amoerang, the principal
+harbour of the Minahasa. The picturesque Northern Cape of Celebes
+contains a population differing in origin and character from all other
+races of the vast island, and conveys the idea of a distinctive
+country. The mountain panorama of shelving ridges and fretted
+promontories, breaking the outlines of the rocky coast with infinite
+variety, culminates in the chiselled contours of volcanic peaks,
+cutting sharply into the silvery blue of a stainless sky. Amoerang,
+half-buried in sago-palms, on the green rim of the secluded haven,
+shows slight resemblance to the _campongs_ generally encountered on the
+western coast. Wooden cottages, though built on piles of wood or stone,
+and thatched with _atap_ (plaited palm leaves) possess many features in
+common with the screened and balconied dwellings of Japan. The people,
+in aspect and feature, also convey suggestions of the Japanese origin
+ascribed to them, for ancient traditions assert that the Minahasa was
+colonised by an Asiatic tribe, driven out of Formosa by native savages,
+in one of those wild raids upon the peaceful maritime population which
+drove them to face the perils of an unknown sea, rather than fall into
+the ruthless hands of the bloodthirsty aborigines who inhabited the
+forests and mountains of the interior. Many of the hapless exiles
+perished through hunger, thirst, storm, and shipwreck of their
+slightly-built craft, during the long wanderings which ended as though
+by chance for the survivors, in the distant Minahasa. The Malay element
+in those Japanese refugees, displayed the usual characteristics of
+skill in boat-building and navigation, together with that accurate
+observation of natural phenomena which alone could compensate for the
+lack of scientific knowledge. The women, with oblique eyes and oval
+faces, wear the gay _sarong_ and white _kabaja_ customary in Eastern
+Java. The men, in shapeless gowns and wide trousers, with broad hats of
+battered straw on their close-cropped hair, afford a sorry spectacle of
+unbecoming and disorderly attire, conveying grotesque hints of Japanese
+ideas beneath the squalid ugliness overlaying them. The fishermen,
+conveniently unclad for the necessities of their calling, wear only a
+yellow or scarlet waist-cloth, the bright touch of colour emphasising
+the deep bronze of their slight but athletic forms. The people of the
+Minahasa, Christianised after the Calvinistic methods of Dutch and
+German missionaries a century ago, have always been specially favoured
+by the Government of Holland, and large sums are annually expended in
+improving the status of this distant colony. The making of roads, the
+building of schools and churches, and the improvement of social
+conditions, are liberally catered for, not only for the advantage of
+the Minahasa, but that no excuse may exist for any rebellion against
+such paternal rule. Tribal insurrections continually recur in the great
+Archipelago, where a storm in a teacup often swells into dangerous
+proportions, and the peaceful adherence of the Minahasa to the powers
+that be becomes an important factor in turbulent Celebes. The race, so
+strangely amalgamated with alien interests, shows the apathy of a
+temperament incapable of developement on foreign lines, though unable
+to resist the pressure imposed upon it. The pretty _campong_ seems
+silent as the grave. No native _warongs_, or restaurants, enliven the
+straight roads with their merry crowds or cheerful gossip, and sellers
+of food and drink, whose cries echo through the streets of Makassar,
+are unknown in this northern port, where even the arrival of the
+fortnightly steamer fails to excite much interest in the public mind.
+
+A rash determination to drive across the Minahasa, and pick up the boat
+at Menado, involves unimagined difficulties. Heavy waggons drawn by
+brown _sappies_ (_i.e._, bullocks), which travel at the rate of two
+miles an hour, suffice for native use in remote Amoerang, but at length
+a dilapidated gig, with two sorry steeds harnessed in tandem fashion by
+sundry bits of old rope, is produced. Having frequently experienced the
+pace accomplished by many a Timor pony of emaciated and dejected
+aspect, faith accepts even this unpromising team for the long drive of
+thirty miles. Quaint _campongs_, with bamboo fences and curiously
+arched gateways, flank the woodland road. Each little garden flames
+with red poinsettia, purple convolvulus, and yellow daisies. The
+latticed screens pushed back from open verandahs, show Japanese-looking
+rooms, furnished with the European lamps, chairs, and tables, exported
+by thousands to the Minahasa, but the same atmosphere of stagnation
+broods over these quiet villages, and even the children, returning from
+a bamboo schoolhouse on the edge of the forest, show the staid and
+solemn demeanour of their elders. For a few miles all goes well, with
+the trifling exception of occasional breakages in the countless knots
+of the rope harness. The last whistle of the steamer floats upward as
+she leaves her anchorage, and refusing to yield to a faint misgiving as
+to the success of the present enterprise, eyes and thoughts concentrate
+themselves on the increasing beauty of the mountain road, the living
+emerald of the rice-fields, and the picturesque mills for husking the
+grain, which give special character to this unique district of Celebes.
+Suddenly the rickety conveyance comes to a full stop, and a kicking
+match begins, the plunging ponies refusing to budge an inch. The
+incapable Jehu implores his fare's consent to an immediate return, but
+meets with an inexorable refusal, the halting Malay sentences eked out
+with an unmistakable pantomime of threats and warnings. The driver's
+whip, supplemented by an English umbrella, produces no effect on the
+obtuse animals, which have to be led, or rather hauled, on their
+unwilling way. One obstreperous steed becomes so unmanageable that it
+becomes necessary to hitch him to the back of the cart, at the imminent
+risk of overturning it, in his determination to thwart his companion's
+enforced progress. Mile after mile the wearisome struggle continues.
+Even a lumbering bullock waggon passes us again and again, in the
+numerous stoppages required for fresh conflict. The endless hours of
+the weary day drag on like a terrible nightmare, but a descent into a
+profound ravine of these mountain solitudes at length enables the
+driver to start the team at a rate which makes it impossible for them
+to stop, and he vaults lightly into his place as we spin merrily
+downhill. Our troubles are not over, for on the next upward grade the
+old game of rearing, backing, and futile attempts at buck-jumping,
+begins again. Despairing eyes rest on a thatched booth at the
+roadside, containing a row of bottles hung up by a string, with the
+bamboo tube for coins. Holding the ropes, and currying favour with the
+ponies by leading them to a patch of grass, it becomes possible for the
+boy to leave them for a sorely-needed drink of the sago-wine. The
+fiendish animals try to upset the cart, and the fight recommences for
+the fiftieth time, but the brown huts of a _campong_ in a cactus
+thicket inspire hope, and after a furious battle in the street, to the
+intense delight of the Japanese-looking people, a man comes to the
+rescue with a stout pony. The boy mounts one battered steed, the other
+is left behind in a hospitable stable, and we trot briskly on through
+lovely scenery of forest and mountain to Kanas, at the head of the
+beautiful lake of Tondano, hitherto seen in glimpses at an immense
+depth between encircling peaks. Wearied almost to stupefaction by
+eleven hours of a combat, after which victory seems scarcely less
+ghastly than defeat, we would gladly remain for the night at the little
+Rest House of Kanas, but prudence compels us to push on to Tondano, at
+the other end of the lake, while a capable pony remains at disposal.
+The lake road is a vista of entrancing loveliness, overhung by arching
+bamboos and great sago-palms, the vanguard of the forest which clothes
+the lower spurs of the purple mountain ranges, shutting off the long
+blue lake from the outside world. A rudely-built _bloto_, merely the
+hollowed trunk of a tree, crosses the water, with a torch flickering at
+the prow, for the sun has set, and the crimson afterglow begins to fade
+from the serrated crests of the opposite heights. The ripple of the
+water in the reeds at the edge of the road, and the sigh of the evening
+breeze, fluttering the leaves and creaking the yellow canes of the
+great bamboos, alone stir the silence, which comes as a welcome relief
+after the toil and excitement of the day; but alas! we have all
+forgotten the perils of the road at nightfall, and in the sudden
+darkness, deepened by the shadowy trees, a false step might precipitate
+cart and passengers into the deep water. Any advance becomes dangerous
+on the winding way, which follows every curve of the irregular shore,
+so a halt is called, while the boy rides on towards some twinkling
+lights denoting a lakeside _campong_. After a long wait, he returns in
+triumph with three matches and a piece of flaming tow in a bottle. By
+observing due precaution, we can now follow his guidance, while he
+holds out the flaring light with extended arm. As we turn round the
+foot of the lake into a raised causeway above fields of ripening rice,
+the full moon comes up behind the sombre hills, and transfigures the
+night with a sparkling flood of silver glory. We reach the white Dutch
+town of Tondano as the clock strikes ten, but everyone is in bed at
+this dissipated hour, and difficulty is experienced even in getting
+admission to the little Hotel, though the delight of finding an
+English-speaking landlord atones for a somewhat ungracious reception
+after a long and painful pilgrimage, which should serve as a solemn
+warning against the rash attempt to penetrate the wilds of the Minahasa
+under native guidance.
+
+Tondano, with houses and verandahs gleaming in spotless whiteness among
+green spaces and luxuriant trees, appears a typical Dutch town,
+incongruous but picturesque. The absolute purity and transparency of
+the atmosphere give value and intensity to every shade of colour, and
+the scarlet hybiscus flowers show the incandescent glow belonging
+rather to lamps than to blossoms. The river Tondano forms a series of
+lovely cascades below the town, situated four miles from the lake at
+the present time, for the marshy flats have been reclaimed as
+rice-grounds, thus somewhat diminishing the stretch of water. The steep
+drive down to Menado offers a succession of lovely views. The little
+port, in a nest of verdure, encircles the azure bay, where our steamer,
+merely a white speck in the distance, lies at anchor. A turn of the
+road discloses a glimpse of the mountain lake, a sheet of sapphire
+sparkling in the morning sun, but retrospective thoughts in this
+instance convey pain as well as pleasure, for "mounting ambition" has
+for once "o'erleapt itself," and failure counterbalances success.
+Menado, divided by the river, is inhabited by two distinct tribes of
+the mysterious colonists who came from the farthest East to these
+unknown shores. The ubiquitous Chinaman has found a firm footing in the
+northerly port of Celebes, and the splendidly-carved dragons of a
+stately temple, rich in ornaments of green jade, blue porcelain, and
+elaborate brass-work, denote the important status of the wealthy
+community. A busy _passer_ supplies the usual pictures of native life,
+but the people of the Minahasa, here as elsewhere, lack both the gay
+insouciance of the South, and the strenuous energy of the Northern
+mind, the residuum of apathetic dullness, deprived of all the salient
+characteristics which constitute charm and interest. European houses of
+Dutch officials stand in ideal gardens of brilliant flowers and richest
+foliage. The little Hotel Wilhelmina is a paradise of exotic blossoms,
+but Menado, apart from a lovely situation, and the usual riot of
+glorious verdure which makes every tropical weed a thing of beauty,
+offers little inducement for a prolonged stay. The bay, exposed to
+contrary winds and chafed by conflicting currents, tosses in perpetual
+turmoil, though a long jetty diminishes the former difficulties of the
+stormy passage between ship and shore. In the amber light of sunset,
+the dark mountain ranges stand out with unearthly clearness. The jagged
+peaks of Klabat and Soedara in the background, bringing into prominence
+the grey cliffs and purple ravines of the smoking Lokon. The wonderful
+scenery of the Malay Archipelago seldom lacks that element of terror
+which enhances the radiant loveliness of Nature by painting it on a
+tragic background of storm and cloud, the vague suggestion of
+evanescence intensifying the mysterious charm with poetic significance.
+The receding coast discloses a striking panorama of the mountain
+heights piled one upon another, the grey towers and bastions guarding
+this narrowing Cape of the Minahasa, a veritable outpost of Nature,
+eternally washed by the restless seas. As the steamer rounds the savage
+promontories, and threads the blue straits formed by two rocky islets
+at the northern extremity, the weird and desolate landscape conveys a
+strange sense of separation even from the alien humanity which peoples
+the far-reaching peninsula of the Minahasa, and this northern extremity
+appears a limitless waste. Chaotic masses of imperishable granite,
+splintered reefs thrusting black spikes through the creaming surge, and
+wind-swept cliffs of fantastic form, characterise the solemn headland,
+unpainted and unsung, although the sea-girt sanctuary of Nature demands
+interpretation through the terms of Art and Poetry.
+
+
+
+
+GORONTALO AND THE EASTERN COAST.
+
+
+The steamer's first halt on the wild eastern coast of Celebes is the
+gold-mining settlement of Todok, where the Company's rustic offices of
+palm-thatched bamboo border an enchanting bay, with a string of green
+islets studding the shoaling blue and purple of the gleaming depths.
+Two passengers disembark for the ebony plantations on the slopes of a
+volcanic range, declaring itself by a slight earthquake rocking the
+_atap_ shanty, where the ship's officer who tallies the cargo, offers
+hospitality until the fierce heat modifies sufficiently for a stroll.
+
+A dusty and shadeless road leads up into the wooded hills which
+bound the prospect, but the _campong_, largely consisting of
+recently-constructed dwellings, occupied by alien employes in the
+service of the Gold Syndicate, offers no inducements for exploration,
+and until the launch returns, a shadowy palm-grove by the wayside makes
+a welcome retreat from the dust and glare, the creaking of innumerable
+bullock-waggons, and the shouts of crew and coolies, disputing over the
+loading of a raft.
+
+The arrival at Gorontalo in the radiant dawn provides a more
+interesting experience. The river which forms the beautiful harbour,
+rushes through a profound ravine of the forest-clad mountains, which
+descend sharply to the water's edge. The scene resembles a Norwegian
+fiord, translated into tropical terms of climate and vegetation. A
+narrow track climbs the ledges of a cliff behind the brown fishing
+_campong_ of Liato, but a rude wharf on the opposite side affords a
+less picturesque though safer landing, for the swirling currents of the
+swift stream require more careful navigation than the amphibious
+boatman, unembarrassed by clothing, is wont to bestow on craft or
+passenger. The spirit of enterprise is also in abeyance, scotched if
+not killed by the struggles of the memorable pilgrimage through the
+Minahasa. The quiet haven in the shadow of the guardian hills looks an
+ideal haunt of peace. A Dutch battleship lies at anchor, and the red
+sails of a wide-winged _prau_ make broken reflections in the rippling
+clearness of the green water. A wooden bridge crosses the river at the
+narrow end of the funnel-shaped harbour, connecting it with the town in
+the steaming valley, the usual medley of open _tokos_ and _atap_ huts,
+supplemented by two dubious hotels, a green _aloon-aloon_, and a few
+stone houses denoting the presence of the European element. The
+original inhabitants of Gorontalo are of Alfoer race--dark, glum, and
+forbidding. How this ancient stock, indigenous to some of the southern
+islands in the Malay Archipelago, wandered from thence to distant
+Celebes has not been satisfactorily accounted for. The records of
+savage tribes depend on oral tradition, but the outlines of an oft-told
+tale become blurred and dim during the lapse of ages, when the mental
+calibre of the racial type lacks normal acumen. The graces of life are
+ignored by the Alfoer woman, her mouth invariably distorted by the red
+lump of betel-nut, accommodated with difficulty, and rendering silence
+imperative. Her bowed shoulders become deformed with the heavy loads
+perpetually borne, for the rising trade of Gorontalo supplies the men
+with more congenial employment than the field work, which frequently
+becomes the woman's province. A straight road between crowding palms
+crosses a wide rice-plain, opening out of the cleft carved by the
+mountain river, and leads to the curious Lake of Limbotto, a green mass
+of luxuriant water-weeds, the dense vegetation solidifying into
+floating islands of verdure, intersected by narrow channels, only
+navigable to a native _bloto_ skilfully handled, for Nature alternately
+builds up and disperses these flowery oases, blocking up old water-ways
+and opening new ones with bewildering confusion. Buffaloes wallow
+between the tangled clumps of pink lotus and purple iris, and wild
+ducks nest in the waving sedges, or darken the air in a sudden flight
+down the long lake. A noisy market flanks the water, and bronze
+figures, in red turbans row gaily-clad women, laden with purchases, to
+some distant _campong_, reached through the mazes of verdure. The
+country _passer_, a shifting scene of gaudy colouring, contains greater
+elements of interest than commercial Gorontalo, where the native
+_campong_ loses individuality in gaining the prosaic adjuncts of a
+trading centre. The lovely harbour dreams in the moonlight as we steam
+slowly out of the widening estuary to pick up cargo in the great bay of
+Tomini, which sweeps in a mighty curve round half the Eastern coast of
+Celebes. The conical island of Oena-Oena rises sheer from the waves,
+the red peak of a lofty volcano composing the apex of a green pyramid,
+formed by a forest of palms. Until six years ago no anchorage for ships
+was possible at this forest-clad isle, but a volcanic eruption deepened
+the bay, and a thriving trade in _copra_ was initiated, for the whole
+surface of Oena-Oena is clothed with a dense mass of drooping cocoanut
+trees. Scattered dwellings nestle in the thick woods, but no regular
+_campong_ exists in this thinly-peopled spot, a vernal Eden set in the
+purple sea. The heat of the day, though intense, is everywhere tempered
+by the interlacing canopies of the feathery fronds, until sunset fuses
+them into the vivid transparency of green fire, and a fluttering zephyr
+stirs the whispering foliage. The shy brown people, who at first hide
+in their _atap_ huts at the approach of strangers, venture out to see
+the last of the departing steamer, which forms the sole link between
+barbarism and civilisation, and a month must elapse before any contact
+with the outside world can vary the seclusion of this lonely spot, a
+dreamland vision of repose. At Posso, the next port on Celebes, we land
+a Dutch officer, bound for the important barracks on a hill above the
+straggling _campong_, after a successful expedition against the
+tree-dwellers, cannibals, and slave-traders of the interior, still sunk
+in barbarism. An olive-green river, infested with crocodiles, flows
+sluggishly through rank vegetation into the sea below the dilapidated
+huts of the depressing native town. This forlorn outpost of military
+duty involves exile from civilisation, and the risk of occasional raids
+from the wild tribes of the surrounding hills.
+
+At Parigi, canopied by spreading palms, the _atap_ houses, with bamboo
+rafters strengthening the fragile walls, stand in neglected gardens,
+overgrown with a tangle of flower and foliage. The low tide makes the
+dangerous _bloto_ a necessity, though the hollowed tree, top heavy and
+water-logged, is in imminent peril of capsizing every minute of the
+long course between ship and shore. Objections to a boat upsetting in
+shallow water being beyond Malay comprehension, the only way of
+accomplishing the transit in safety is by a summary command that two
+brown boys should immediately jump overboard to lighten the rocking
+craft. Nothing loth, they swim to shore in our wake, rolling over in
+the sand to dry themselves like Newfoundland dogs, and with less
+embarrassment on the score of clothing. A native Queen or Maharanee
+rules Parigi from her bamboo palace in the deepest recesses of the
+adjacent palm-forest, but she is invisible to her subjects, and dwells
+in the seclusion of _purdah_, possibly a relic of Indian origin. Her
+nominal authority proves insufficient to keep the peace between the
+native population and the Dutch, for Parigi has been for months in a
+state of insurrection and unrest. Only a year ago a raid was made on
+the Eurasian merchant's office wherein I take shelter from the noonday
+sun, and two white men were attacked by a band who rushed down from the
+mountains and cut off their heads. The ringleader of the assassins is
+now imprisoned for life in the gaol of Batavia, no capital punishment
+being permitted in the Netherlands India. An immense cargo of _copra_
+and rattan fills a fleet of boats and rafts. The great stacks of cane
+cause no annoyance, but the sickening smell of _copra_ (the dried and
+shredded cocoanut used for oil) pervades the ship, and an occasional
+cockroach of crab-like dimensions clatters across the deck in his coat
+of mail from a hiding place in the unsavoury cargo. The philosophic
+Hollander accepts these horrors of the tropics with undisturbed
+composure, but happily for the peace of the English passenger, the
+Malay "room-boy" welcomes a new idea, and becomes gradually inspired
+with the ardour of the chase. Ominous clouds darken over the Bay of
+Tomini as we embark once more on the rolling waters, having completed
+the circuit of the vast island, possessing a coast-line of 2,500 miles.
+Blue peaks and waving palms recede into the mists of falling night. We
+are once more afloat on a sleeping sea, the restful monotony of wind
+and wave enabling indelible impressions of each varying scene to sink
+deeply into mind and memory, and preventing the too rapid succession of
+travelling experiences.
+
+
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF BORNEO.
+
+
+An element of uncertainty attends the cruise among the Malayan islands,
+through sudden orders to include strange ports of call in the programme
+of the route. During the stay at Makassar, a cable from Batavia
+necessitates a flying visit to Borneo, and though the detour was made
+from the western coast of Celebes, the great sister island demands a
+special notice. In steaming thither through the radiant glory of an
+Equatorial sunset, strange atmospheric effects denote fresh variations
+of climate and temperature. The rounded horizon, which suggests the rim
+of the terrestrial globe, seems within a stone's throw of the ship, and
+as the crimson sun sinks below the sharply-defined curve outlined by
+the sea, a glowing hearth of smouldering embers appears burning on the
+edge of the water. The eastern sky blooms into vivid pink from the
+reflection of this fiery incandescence, which fades only to give place
+to the leaping brightness of phosphorescent waves, and the nightly
+pageant of tropical skies ablaze with lambent flames of summer
+lightning. Morning reveals the dark forests of mysterious Borneo,
+rolling back to the misty blue of a mountain background. The pathless
+jungles of teak and iron wood, inextricably tangled by ropes of liana
+or ladders of rattan, latticed with creepers and wreathed with
+clambering fern, make an impenetrable barrier between the settlements
+of the coast and the unknown interior, where barbarism still reigns
+triumphant, and "head-hunting" remains the traditional sport.
+Insurmountable difficulties of transit and progress are reported, even
+by the few enthusiastic botanists, who merely penetrate the outworks of
+Nature's stronghold in search of rare orchids, worth more than a king's
+ransom if we take into account the sacrifice of life, and the hardships
+suffered in wresting these floral gems from their forest casket. Any
+complete exploration of these tropical wilds seems at present beyond
+human means and capacities, but even a few months of the soil and
+climate of Borneo can transform a forest clearing into a wilderness of
+riotous vegetation, more impassable than that woodland maze of a
+century's growth encircling the palace of the Sleeping Beauty in the
+loveliest of old-world fairy tales. Our present quest has no connection
+with the mysteries of the interior, and only concerns itself with the
+prosaic task of taking in a cargo of oil, used as the ship's fuel. We
+steam into a wooded bay, beneath a hill covered with the brown _atap_
+bungalows of European colonists. Colossal oil-tanks, painted red,
+disfigure the shore. Each tank holds 4,000 tons of oil, 30,000 tons per
+month being the usual export. Kerosene taints the air, but is
+considered to be innocuous, and to drive away the curse of mosquitos.
+The unimaginable and ferocious heat makes every step a terror, during a
+snail's progress up a wooded road. Sun-hat and white umbrella scarcely
+mitigate the scorching rays on this perilous promenade, but there is
+only a day at disposal, and it cannot be wasted. Towards noon a breeze
+springs up, and exploration of the long line of _tokos_ beyond the
+wharves is simplified by the spreading eaves of palm-leaf thatch. A row
+of workmen's dwellings forms a prosaic continuation of the _campong_,
+inhabited by a mixed population, chiefly imported to Balik-Papan in the
+interests of the oil trade. A chance rencontre with the Scotch doctor
+of the European settlement affords an opportunity of visiting the Oil
+Refinery, with the varied distillations, culminating in the great tank
+of benzine, a concentration of natural forces like a liquid dynamite,
+capable of wrecking the whole settlement in a moment. Endless
+precautions and vigilant care alone secure the safety of Balik-Papan
+from the perils incidental to the vast stores of explosive material.
+The raw petroleum brought from the mines of Samarinda, farther down the
+coast, by a fleet of _hoppers_ (the local steamers which ply round the
+indented shore), is extracted by boring a stratum of coal known as
+"antichine," and always containing indications of mineral oil. Dutch
+and English Companies work this valuable product; fortunes are quickly
+made, and the industrious inhabitants, absorbed in dreams of a golden
+future, appear untroubled by any consciousness of metaphorically
+sleeping on the brink of a volcano. Iced soda-water, and a brief
+siesta, revive drooping spirits after the broiling exertions of the
+morning, and as the shadows of the palm-trees lengthen on the edge of
+the jungle, it becomes possible to mount the hill behind the wharf to
+the picturesque bungalow of another kindly Scot, who invites me to tea.
+The pretty tropical dwelling of plaited _atap_, through which every
+precious breath of air can penetrate, stands in the midst of a gorgeous
+thicket, composed of scarlet hybiscus and yellow Allemanda, the
+splendid blossoms growing in wild luxuriance on this sandy soil. The
+glare of the sun still requires the _atap_ screens to be closed on the
+broad-eaved verandah, but the freshness of the evening breeze steals
+into the twilight of the pretty drawing-room, the simple but refined
+appointments of a restful home intensely refreshing after weeks of ship
+and hotel existence. The fragrant tea, with dainty cups and saucers,
+and the home-made cakes, seem almost forgotten luxuries, for the
+amenities of British civilisation stop short at Singapore. A cheery
+party assembles round the table, and these exiles on a foreign shore
+extend the warmest of welcomes to the stray bird of passage, who will
+soon leave behind only the shadowy "remembrance of a guest who tarrieth
+but a day." The idea so familiar to the self-seeking spirit, that "it
+is not worth while" to trouble about a passing acquaintance, finds no
+echo in this hospitable coterie. To the visitor, the bright hours of
+that afternoon, ten thousand miles away from England, remain as an
+evergreen memory of genuine human sympathy, the true "touch of Nature"
+linking hearts and lives. A long walk through the encroaching jungle
+fills up the day. The narrow track skirts dark depths of matted
+foliage, with strange bird-calls echoing through the gloom. The
+phenomenal growth of vegetation in Borneo is so rapid that a month's
+neglect in cutting back branches, and rooting up masses of strangling
+creeper, would entirely obliterate the path. In six months a tree,
+supposed to be cut down beyond possibility of resurrection, lately shot
+up to the height of seventeen feet, with a girth of several inches in
+diameter, so tenacious is the exuberant life of this irrepressible
+vegetation, eternally renewing itself in immortal strength and primeval
+freshness. From the edge of the sombre jungle the azure bay, set in the
+dark frame of forest and gilded with sunset light, resembles a Scotch
+loch at midsummer, and the poignant counterpart brings a sigh to the
+lips of my companion, exiled for years from his Highland home. A long
+slow river, navigable for native craft, widens into an estuary as it
+approaches the sea, through the shadowy and impenetrable mazes of the
+virgin woods traversed by the winding waterway. The Dyaks and other
+wild aborigines of Borneo still haunt the forest depths, though the
+fringe of civilisation drives them further inland, and some of the
+local Sultans begin to fraternise with the settlers, who alone can
+develope the riches of the extensive island. At present the northern
+territory of Sarawak, successfully governed by an alien race, finds no
+adequate counterpart on the island, though coast towns, springing up at
+wide intervals, open small districts to the enterprise of the European
+world. Balik-Papan, rising tier above tier on the dark hillside, and
+brilliant with a multitude of flashing lights, looks picturesque as
+Naples itself, when we steam away in the gathering gloom, and the
+dazzling illumination, reflected in the tranquil sea, appears a
+miraculous transfiguration. Oil tanks and warehouses, refineries and
+factories, vanish under the veil of night, and only a fairy vision of
+unearthly brightness remains as a final recollection of our brief visit
+to Borneo.
+
+
+
+
+THE MOLUCCAS.
+
+
+
+
+TERNATE, BATJAN, AND BOEROE.
+
+
+The Birds of Paradise (known by the Malay as _Manuk Devata_, "birds of
+God") were traditionally represented as lured from their celestial home
+by the spicy perfume of these enchanted isles, from whence perpetual
+incense steals across the sea, and rises heavenward with intoxicating
+fragrance. A Dutch naturalist in 1598 says, "These birds of the sun
+live in air, and never alight until they die, having neither feet nor
+wings, but fall senseless with the fragrance of the nutmeg." Linnaeus
+asserts that "they feed on the nectar of flowers, and show an equal
+variety of colour, blue and yellow, orange and green, red and violet."
+Portuguese naturalists also represent the _passaros de sol_ as
+footless, their mode of flight concealing the extremities. Birds of
+Paradise were articles of tribute from native chiefs, and a sacred
+character belonged to the feathered tribe, wheeling between earth and
+sky above the spicy groves of the alluring Moluccas. This island group,
+for ages the coveted prize of European nations, exercised an
+irresistible attraction on Arabia and Persia. Various expeditions were
+organised, and in the ninth century Arab sages discovered the healing
+virtues of nutmeg and mace, as anodynes, embrocations, and condiments.
+A record remains of a certain Ibn Amram, an Arabian physician, whose
+uncontrolled passion for the _nux moschata_ overthrew his reason. The
+story, continually quoted as a warning to subsequent explorers of the
+Spice Islands, has apparently kept his memory green, for no previous
+details of his career have come down to us. Eastern spices were
+favourite medicines in Persia during the tenth century, and fifty years
+later the _karoun aromatikon_ was added to the Pharmacopeia of Europe.
+In A.D. 1400, Genoa and Barcelona became the principal spice markets,
+though the attention of Northern Europe had been directed to the
+Moluccas by those voyages of Marco Polo which, especially in lands of
+fog and snow, fired popular imagination with myriad visions of realised
+romance. Camoens, in the Lusiad, chanted the praises of the _verde noz_
+in those poetic groves, which he regarded as a new garden of
+Hesperides, when the magic lure of an untravelled distance, and the
+dreamful wonder of an untracked horizon, wove their spells over the
+mind of an awakening world. Powers of observation and comparison were
+still untrained and untried; superstition was rife, and a necromantic
+origin was frequently ascribed to the unfamiliar products of the mystic
+East. Portugal, in the zenith of her maritime power, became the first
+European trader in the Southern Seas, and in A.D. 1511 Albuquerque
+reached the Moluccas, but was quickly followed by the Spaniards under
+their great Emperor Charles V. Incessant war continued for the
+possession of "the gold-bearing trees," until Spain and Portugal,
+united by a common danger, combined their forces to exclude the
+northern nations from any share in the coveted spoil. The rage for
+spices spread throughout Europe, and kindled a fire of international
+animosity which lasted for centuries. In A.D. 1595 the unwieldy Dutch
+ships started on a perilous voyage round the Cape, to trace the unknown
+path to the mysterious Moluccas, described as "odorous with trees of
+notemuge, sending of their fragrance across the sea on the softe breath
+of the south winde," and Holland, at the climax of her power,
+eventually secured the monopoly of spices. The islands so fiercely
+contested were twice owned by England, but finally relinquished in that
+readjustment of power necessitated by the fall of Napoleon. Although
+the Moluccas were declared open to the flag of every friendly nation in
+1853, it was not until twenty years later that every vestige of
+monopoly disappeared, and the Spice Islands were liberated from the
+political chicanery of rival Powers. Peace brooded at last over the
+sea-girt Elysium, where "Nature tries her finest touch," and in the
+green shades of these "ultimate islands," the tumult of the world died
+away into silence. Old German and Flemish ballads borrow quaint
+anachronisms from that sylvan sanctuary of incense-laden sweetness,
+which coloured the thoughts and dreams of contemporary poets, and added
+exotic traits to their descriptions of northern scenery. "The nutmeg
+boughs in the Garden of Love," droop over the fair-haired Teutonic
+maiden in her home amid German pine-forests, and she gathers "the
+scented fruit of gold," as a worthy _gage d'amour_ for her stalwart
+Saxon lover, with that picturesque incongruity of poetical license
+permitted to mediaeval versifiers. The canvas of many an early painter
+depicts the sacred figures of Madonna and Child on an incongruous
+background of German or Italian landscape, and the mediaeval poet seldom
+hesitates to enrich his verse with whimsical allusions, full of
+fantastical inaccuracy, but valuable as revelations of current thoughts
+and ideas. Only a slight sketch of the prolonged conflict waged for
+centuries round the nutmeg groves of the remote Moluccas is possible in
+this little record, but even the briefest account of the Spice Islands
+demands mention of evidence proving the value attached to the precious
+"fruit of gold," then outweighing every other product of tropical
+climes in popular estimation.
+
+Three volcanic peaks tower up before us on reaching Ternate, the first
+of the Molucca group. This mountain chain includes types representing
+every period of volcanic agency. The smoking cone of Ternate slopes in
+sweeping contours to the blue strait unbroken by bay or creek, and
+smaller satellites flank the central height, grooved by wooded gorges.
+The serrated ridge of Tidore, the opposite island, culminates in the
+red pinnacle formed by a fresh pyramid of lava above the ruined wall of
+a broken crater, the gap creating a sheltered inlet, where a fishing
+boat with yellow sails skims like a huge butterfly across the
+shimmering purple of the flowing tide. The fretted turquoise of the
+further range rises on the great island of Halmaheira, inhabited by an
+Alfoer population of Papuan origin, but beyond the scope of the present
+cruise. The port of Ternate, on the southern slope of the volcano,
+shows the pointed gables of palm-thatched dwellings rising from masses
+of glorious greenery, brightened by purple torrents of bougainvillea,
+or golden-flowered ansena trees, wreathed and roped with a gorgeous
+tangle of many-coloured creepers. The breath of heavily-scented flowers
+mingles with the pungent sweetness of clove and nutmeg. An avenue of
+dadap trees skirts the shore, with varied foliage of amber and carmine.
+The dark figures sauntering in the shade, and clad in rose-colour,
+azure, or orange, add deeper notes to the symphony of colour, only
+marred by the white-washed Dutch conventicle, like an emphatic protest
+against Nature's response to her Creator. Ruined arches and pillars of
+white Portuguese houses, standing in a wilderness of verdure amid
+tumbled heaps of stone and concrete, testify to the earthquakes which
+have continually wrecked the little port. The mixed population includes
+Chinese, Arabs, and Malays. The original native race also contains
+Malay, Dutch, and Portuguese elements, European descent resulting here
+as elsewhere in darkening the native brown of the pure-blooded
+Ternatian to ebony blackness in the second and succeeding generations.
+
+The discovery of an English-speaking schoolmistress simplifies the
+day's itinerary, which begins with the thatched palace or _kedaton_ of
+the Sultan. The tiered roofs of the royal _Messighit_ rise above the
+_atap_ dwellings of the rustic Court, still professing a slack
+Mohammedanism. The Dutch territory includes the Chinese and Oriental
+_campongs_ divided by Fort Orange, but though the palmy days of
+Ternate's hereditary Ruler have long since passed away, he retains a
+shadowy authority over a limited area. Sir Francis Drake, on one of his
+romantic voyages, touched at Ternate in the early days of the 16th
+century, and in graphic words records his amazement at "the fair and
+princely show" of this barbaric potentate, who sat robed in cloth of
+gold, beneath a gold-embroidered canopy, and wore "a crown of plaited
+golden links." Chains of diamonds and emeralds clasped his swarthy
+neck, and on the royal right hand "there shone a big and perfect blue
+turky." This regal splendour was attained by monopoly of the Spice
+Trade, the incalculable profits inducing Europeans to exchange fortunes
+of gold and jewels with native magnates. The Dutch, when seizing the
+islands, often compelled the local Sultans to destroy acres of
+spice-bearing trees, in order to concentrate the focus of commerce. The
+thriving industries of _copra_, rattan, and _damar_ (the gum used in
+making varnish) were increased tenfold by the abolition of private
+spice-trading, and by emancipation of the slaves in 1861, when the
+Dutch Government placed the liberated population under police
+surveillance, compelling each individual to prove honest acquirement of
+the slender means necessary for subsistence. Contact with the world
+begins to sharpen native intelligence, already heightened by the fusion
+of European blood with the island race, and external cleanliness being
+enforced systematically in Dutch territory, the concrete cottages which
+alternate with the thatched dwellings are dazzlingly white, the
+diligent sweeping and watering at fixed hours helping to energise the
+indolent people of the Moluccas. The warm air, redolent of spices and
+flowers, the riotous profusion of richest foliage, and the depth of
+colour in sea and sky, imbue Ternate with the glow and glamour of
+fairyland. Bright faces and gay songs manifest that physical _joie de
+vivre_ of which Northern nations know so little. The grass screens
+hanging before the open houses are drawn to keep off the burning sun,
+but the twang of lutes (a relic of the Portuguese occupation), and the
+sound of laughter echo from the dusky interiors. A forest of mangos,
+mangosteens, bread-fruit, and cocoa-palms, extends between the town and
+Fort Teloko, the first Portuguese stronghold, and now a rocky outpost
+of Fort Orange, the headquarters of the Dutch troops. Beyond shadowy
+nutmeg groves lies the Laguna, a volcanic lake between mountain and
+sea. In the poetic Moluccas one draws closer to the warm heart of
+Nature than in any other part of the vast Archipelago, for the great
+Mother seems calling her children to rest, as she raises the veil from
+her inmost shrine and discloses her altar of peace. The presence of the
+smoking volcano which dominates the landscape, supplies that poignant
+note which, like a minor chord, accentuates the sweetness of the
+melody. "Gather ye roses while ye may," sounds Nature's admonition to
+humanity amid the lavish loveliness of blossom and foliage, clothing
+the mysterious height which hides the smouldering fountains of eternal
+fire beneath the vivid splendours of tropical vegetation. The
+population of Ternate--native, Malay, Dutch, and half-caste--throngs
+the wharf; the pretty schoolmistress, in spotless muslin, waves a
+smiling farewell. Though we are to each other but as "ships that pass
+in the night," the memory of cheery words and gracious deeds throws
+rays of light across the surging seas, and the golden cord of kindness
+anchors heart to heart. Passengers are few from these remote parts. A
+Dutch officer, with a half-caste wife and two unruly children, whose
+violent outbreaks would even give points to the juvenile English of
+British India, are returning from a three years' exile at Ternate. The
+incompetence of Malay nurses is equalled by the maternal indifference
+to kicking and squealing, which threatens pandemonium for the remainder
+of the voyage. At the last moment the native Sultan of Batjan embarks
+for his island home, after commercial negotiations in Ternate, for this
+native prince, a keen-faced man in European dress and scarlet turban,
+trades largely in _damar_, the basis of his wealth. When at anchor next
+morning in the wooded bay of Batjan, the green State Barge of his
+Highness, with drums beating and banners flying, flashes through the
+water, the blades of the large green oars shaped like lotus-leaves. A
+horse's head carved at the prow, and a line of floating pennants--red,
+black, and white--above the gilded roof of the deck-house, enhance the
+barbaric effect of the gaudy boat, the brown rowers clad in white,
+with gay scarves and turbans.
+
+Although our ship possesses a launch, various modes of landing are
+required by the vagaries of the tide, the outlying reefs, and the
+position of the ports. A wobbling erection of crossed oars, a plank
+insecurely poised on the shoulders of two men, a rocking _bloto_, and
+an occasional wade to shore, with shoes and stockings in hand, vary the
+monotony of the proceedings. Landing at Batjan is accomplished in a
+chair, borne aloft on two woolly black heads, but the shore, being cut
+off by a crowd of fishing craft, can only be reached by sundry
+scrambles over intermediate boats. The Sultan's modest mansion stands
+in the midst of the palm-thatched _campong_, ostensibly guarded by a
+grey fort, among rustling bamboos and tall sugar-canes. A friendly
+native offers me a palm-leaf basket, filled with nutmeg sprays of
+glossy leaves and yellow fruit from a roadside plantation, and a tribe
+of children, dancing along through the delicious shade of a palm-grove,
+leads the way to a point of view on a green knoll, with merry laughter
+and eager gesticulation. Blue mountain crests soar above dark realms of
+virgin forest, where the sombre conifers exude the precious _damar_,
+which glues itself to the red trunks in shining lumps often of twenty
+pounds' weight, or sinks deeply into the soft soil, from whence the
+solidified gum needs excavation. The _damar_, pounded and poured into
+palm-leaf tubes, serves for the torches of the fishermen, and for the
+lighting of the dusky native houses. Batjan--rich in gold, copper, and
+coal--awaits full development of the mineral treasures hidden in the
+mountains of the interior. The island was colonised in early days by a
+band of wandering Malays, who exchanged the perils of the sea for the
+tropical abundance of this unknown anchorage, sheltered within the
+reefs of the lagoon-like bay. If an aboriginal element existed in
+Batjan, it probably died out or mingled with the immigrant race, which
+broke off from the main body of the nomadic Malays, and formed one of
+the numerous sub-divisions of the stock eventually planted on almost
+every island and continent of the vast Pacific. The weaving of a bark
+cloth, stained with the red juice of water-plants, suggests an industry
+of these early days. The native cuisine still includes the unfamiliar
+Malay delicacy of flying fox cooked in spice, and the hereditary skill
+in hunting finds endless satisfaction in forests abounding with deer,
+wild pig, and edible birds. A touch of barbarism lends a charm to
+mysterious Batjan, and the marked individuality which belongs to every
+portion of the Molucca group is nowhere more apparent than in this
+island, which lies on the borderland of civilisation without losing the
+distinctive character stamped upon it by the influences of an
+immemorial past.
+
+Crescent-shaped Boeroe, where difficulties in landing involve launch,
+_bloto_, and paddling through a long reach of shallow water to a black
+swamp, possesses a commercial rather than an artistic value, being the
+only place in the Archipelago which exports eucalyptus oil, locally
+known as _kajopoetah_. A fleet of _praus_, with graceful masts of
+bending bamboo, surrounds the steamer, the aromatic cargo packed in
+long bamboo cases. The head-man of the _campong_, lightly attired in
+his native brown, with a few touches of contrasting colour in scarf and
+turban, acts as escort through a maze of weedy paths, and across bamboo
+bridges in various stages of dilapidation to a couple of dreary
+villages. The religious interests of Boeroe are represented by two
+ruinous _Messighits_, and a deplorable Dutch conventicle. Some Hindu
+element underlies native idiosyncracy, for nearly every forehead bears
+a white prayer-mark, but the unchanging conservatism of localities
+almost untouched by the lapse of Time, often retains symbolic forms
+when their original meaning is entirely forgotten, and the lack of
+missionary or educational enterprise among the Dutch exercises a
+paralysing effect on the small communities of distant islands. Only a
+relative poverty belongs to a clime where the shaking of a sago-palm
+provides a large family with rations for three months, but the physical
+energies of Boeroe have ebbed to a point where "desire fails," and the
+unsatisfactory conditions of life meet for the most part with apathetic
+acceptance. The marshy coast abounds with harmless snakes, but these
+gruesome inmates of the tropical morass seldom leave their
+hiding-places before sunset. The presence of the steamer awakens a
+faint simulacrum of life and interest in sleepy Boeroe, and a native
+woman, in the rusty black calico wherewith Dutch Calvinism counteracts
+the Eastern love of glowing colours, brings a rickety chair from her
+dingy hut, and sets the precious possession under a shadowy nutmeg-tree
+in the village street. A little crowd assembles, for local excitements
+are few, and the Malay phrase-book, an inseparable companion, aids in
+carrying on a halting conversation, eked out with signs and facial
+contortions. No school is found on Boeroe, and the simple people assert
+with submissive sadness that nothing is done for them. The tone of
+regret suggests an underlying consciousness of the hopeless ignorance
+inevitable under the conditions of their narrow lot. The watery plain,
+covered with tangled verdure, extends to the foot of the twin peaks
+which merge into a low range of wooded hills, their lower slopes
+glistening with the grey-green foliage of the great _kajopoetah_ trees.
+The writhing roots of screw-palms rise above the green marshes, and
+patches of tobacco alternate with ripening millet, but every crop seems
+allowed to degenerate into unpruned disorder, and the feeble attempts
+at cultivation soon lapse into the surrounding wilderness. The ruddy
+trunk of the candelabra-tree towers above the ferns and oil-palms of
+the tall undergrowth, the glossy sword-like leaves, often ten feet
+long, being woven into the _cocoyas_, or sleeping mats, peculiar to
+Boeroe. The whistle of the steamer proves a welcome summons from this
+melancholy island, a solitary exception to the divine beauty and
+irresistible witchery of the Molucca group.
+
+
+
+
+AMBON.
+
+
+The fiord-like Bay of Ambon flows into the heart of the fragrant Clove
+Island, between the peninsulas of Heitor and Leitemor, which gradually
+ascend from the harbour's mouth until their heights of glowing green
+merge into wooded mountains, behind the white town of Amboyna. This old
+European settlement ranks as the tiny capital of the Molucca group.
+_Praus_ and fishing smacks dot the blue inlet with tawny sails and
+curving masts, the local craft varied by a fantastic barque from the
+barbarous Ke isles, with pointed yellow beak and plume of crimson
+feathers at the prow, suggesting some tropical bird afloat upon the
+tide. The glossy darkness of the clove plantations enhances the paler
+tints of the prevailing foliage, and the virginal tints of the sylvan
+scenery indicate a climate of perpetual spring. Thatched roofs, and
+walls of plaited palm-leaf, stand among white-washed cottages of coral
+concrete, for low houses, or slight material, afford comparative
+security against collapse by earthquake. The brown population throngs
+the pier, and a little fleet of _dug-outs_ escorts the steamer through
+the bay with gay songs and merry laughter, for the lively Ambonese
+value every link that binds them to the outside world, and this is
+their gala day. Bold, eager, craving for foreign intercourse, and
+possessing the quickened intelligence due to the mixture of Dutch and
+Portuguese blood with the native strain, a roving spirit of adventure
+counteracts the lazy independence of a life where daily needs are
+supplied without exertion. The sea swarms with fish, the woods teem
+with sago, and cultivation of the clove procures extra wages when any
+special purpose requires them. The Portuguese who colonised Ambon, in
+the zenith of their maritime power, were of vigorous stock, and the
+mental heritage of the island was permanently enriched by elements
+derived from a foreign source.
+
+The Ambonese soldiers of the Netherlands India manifest a courageous
+and warlike character; their rate of payment equals that of their
+European brothers-in-arms, and in the raids or skirmishes frequent
+throughout the wild districts of Celebes and Sumatra they play a
+spirited part. The burghers of Ambon show more of the Dutch element in
+their composition. The island, Christianised in the dreary mode of
+Calvinistic Holland, accepts in half-hearted fashion the creed so
+incongruous with tropical Nature. Dutch missionaries, waging aimless
+war against brightness and colour, arrayed their brown converts in
+funereal gloom. The Sunday attire of the men consists of black calico
+coats down to the heels, and flopping black trousers. The women wear a
+shapeless gown of the same shabby and shiny material, with a white
+scarf dangling from the left arm. These blots on the brilliancy of the
+scene produce a curious impression when approaching the wharf, where
+the native bronze of children and coolies, the blue robes of Chinamen,
+and the gay turbans of Mohammedans, blend harmoniously with the scheme
+of colour in flower and foliage. The _praus_ which follow in our wake
+make ready the rustic Malay anchor, a forked branch of stout timber,
+strengthened by twisted rattan, which also secures the stone
+cross-piece. This relic of a distant past can scarcely have changed
+since the days when the wandering tribe first launched upon the blue
+waters of the Pacific, in that mysterious voyage which moulded the
+destinies of the Malay race. A rudimental feeling for art co-exists
+with imperfect civilisation, and elaborate carving adorns rude skiffs,
+floats of fishing lines, and even wooden beaters of the clay used in
+native pottery. A dervish, in turban of flaming orange and garb of
+green and white, beats a huge drum in the pillared court of a large
+mosque, for the followers of the Prophet are numerous, and though the
+usual deadly conventicle occupies a conspicuous place, it produces no
+effect on the Arab element. The son of the Dutch pastor who, after his
+grim fashion, Christianised the former generation, proves better than
+his condemnatory creed, and acts as personal conductor to the sights of
+Amboyna. After a rest in the flower-wreathed verandah of his home, and
+a chat with his kindly half-caste wife, we visit the gilded and
+dragon-carved mansion of a leading Chinese merchant, friendly,
+hospitable, and delighted to exhibit his household gods, both in
+literal and figurative form. A visit to the Joss Temple follows,
+liberally supported by this smiling Celestial, whose zeal and charity
+may perchance plead for him in that purer sanctuary not made with
+hands, and as yet unrevealed to his spiritual sight. The appalling
+green and vermilion deities who guard the temple courts, indicate fear
+as the chosen handmaid of faith in this grotesque travesty of religion,
+but the costly tiling of violet and azure, the rich gilding of the
+curling eaves terminating in scarlet dragons, and the deeply-chiselled
+ebony, falling like a veil of thick black lace before the jade and
+porphyry shrines, prove that even the despised Chinaman offers of his
+best to the Divinity dimly apprehended by his darkened soul.
+
+The large Malay School of Amboyna manifests an educational position in
+advance of the smaller islands, and knowledge of the wider world
+beyond the Archipelago stimulates the spirit of enterprise inherited in
+different degrees and varying conditions, both from Malay and
+Portuguese ancestry.
+
+A dilapidated carriage is chartered with difficulty, as only three
+vehicles belong to the island, and the driver evidently expects his
+skeleton steed to collapse at any pace quicker than a walk. The green
+lanes, with their hedges of scarlet hybiscus overhung by the feathery
+foliage of tamarind and bamboo, wind along the shore, and penetrate
+into the depths of the hills. Rustling sago-palms sway their tall
+plumes on the mountain side, and shadow luxuriant clove gardens, their
+pungent aroma mingling with nutmeg and cinnamon to steep the soft
+sea-wind in a wealth of perfume. European houses of white stone nestle
+among palm and tamarind, the broad seats flanking the central door, and
+the bulging balconies of old Dutch style recalling the 16th century
+dwellings on the canal banks of distant Holland, but the crow-stepped
+gable here gives place to the flat roof. Every green garden contains a
+refuge of interwoven _gaba-gaba_ stalks, as a retreat during
+earthquakes, when the overthrow of the flimsy arbour would entail no
+injury, though it serves as a shelter from the torrential rains which
+often accompany volcanic disturbances. A wayside stall of palm-thatched
+bamboo provides _sageroe_ for thirsty pilgrims. This fermented beverage
+often excites the Ambonese nature to frenzy, though only made from the
+juice of the _aren_ or sugar palm. The brown dame who presides over the
+bamboo buckets, in her eagerness to honour a white customer, wipes an
+incredibly dirty tumbler on her gruesome calico skirt before dipping
+the precious glass into the foaming pail, and tastes the draught by way
+of encouragement. With some difficulty she is induced to wash the
+tumbler, and to omit the last reassuring ceremony. The _sageroe_, sweet
+and refreshing, gains tonic properties from an infusion of quassia,
+which sharpens the flavour and strengthens the compound, packed in
+bamboo cases or plaited palm-leaf bags for transport to the
+neighbouring islands. A grey fort, and weather-worn Government offices,
+flank the green _aloon-aloon_ of Amboyna, surrounded by tamarind
+avenues. The Dutch Resident finds ample employment, owing to the mania
+for litigation among the Ambonese. The honour of appearing before a
+Court of Justice is eagerly sought, and imaginary claims or grievances
+are constantly invented in order to satisfy the ambition for publicity.
+A modest and retiring temperament forms no part of native equipment,
+and the slight veneer of Christianity, in the crudest phase of Dutch
+Protestantism, increases the aggressive tendency. The missionary
+agencies of Calvinistic Holland seem incapable of practical sympathy
+with the island people; but half a loaf is better than no bread, and
+in any form of Christian faith the Heavenly Husbandman scatters grains
+of wheat among the tares, that all His wandering children may reap a
+share of harvest gold even from a stubborn and sterile soil.
+
+Amboyna shows signs of commercial prosperity in the crowded _passer_
+and the busy Chinese _campong_, for the enterprising Celestial forms an
+important element of the mercantile community in the Clove Island.
+Three memorial tablets erected in front of the hoary fort, the bare
+Dutch church, and the crumbling guard-house, record the worthy name of
+Padrugge, a Dutch Governor who restored Amboyna after complete
+destruction by a violent earthquake, that ever-haunting terror within
+the great volcanic chain of the Malay Archipelago. The steep acclivity
+behind the palm-shaded park of the Residency contains a stalactite
+grotto, infested by a multitude of bats, which cling to the sparkling
+pendants of the fretted roof, unless disturbed by the Ambonese coolies,
+who regard them as culinary delicacies, and catch them in this ancient
+breeding-place, with a noise which brings down the terrified creatures
+into unwelcome proximity, cutting short any attempts at exploration,
+and causing rash intruders to beat a hasty retreat.
+
+In the hush of dawn, when the intensity of calm steals colour as well
+as sound from the motionless waters, we embark on an expedition to the
+_Zeetuinen_, or Sea Gardens, the fairy world of the coral reefs,
+revealed through the magic mirror of the watery depths. As we gaze
+steadily through the silvery blue of the glassy sea, a misty vision of
+vague outline and shifting colour materialises into an enchanted
+forest, and appears rising towards the surface. Coral trees, pink and
+white, gold and green, orange and red, wave interlacing branches of
+lace-like texture and varying form, above the blue water-ways which
+divide the tremulous masses of rainbow-tinted foliage. The sinuous
+channels expand at intervals into quiet pools, bordered with azure and
+purple sea-stars, or studded with clumps of yellow lilies, spotted and
+striped with carmine. A circle of rock, enclosing a miniature lake,
+blazes with rose and scarlet anemones, and the boat, floating over the
+wilderness of marine vegetation, pauses above a coral growth, varied in
+form as any tropical woodland. Majestic trees, of amber and emerald
+hue, stand with roots muffled in fading fern, or sunk in perforated
+carpets of white sponge, and huge vegetable growths or giant weeds,
+lustrous with metallic tints of green and violet, fill clefts and
+ravines of coral rock. A grove of sea-palms mimics the features of the
+upper world, as though Nature obeyed some mysterious law of form, lying
+behind her operations, to regulate expression and bring order out of
+chaos. Giant bunches of black and mauve grapes, like the pictured
+spoils of the Promised Land, lie on soft beds of feathery moss, but the
+familiar greens of the velvety carpet shade into orange and pink. A
+weird marine plant shoves long black stems, crowned with a circle of
+azure blue eyes, which convey an uncanny sensation of being regarded
+with sleepless vigilance by mysterious sentinels, transformed and
+spellbound in ocean depths. Tree-fern and hart's-tongue show verdant
+fronds, flushed with autumnal red or gold, and a dense growth of starry
+flowers suggests a bed of many-coloured tulips. Dazzling fish dart
+through the crystal depths. A shoal of scarlet and green parrot-fish
+pursue a tribe striped with blue and orange. Gold-fish flash like
+meteors between uplifted spears of blood-red coral, and the glittering
+scales of myriads, splashed with ruby, or flecked with amethyst,
+reflect the colours of the gorgeously-frilled and rosetted anemones in
+parterres between red coral crags. Tresses of filmy green floating from
+the mouth of a cavern, suggest a mermaid's hair, and her visible
+presence would scarcely add to the wonders in this under-world of
+glamour and mystery. Shells, pink and pearly, brown and lilac, scarlet
+and cobalt, strew the flower-decked floor with infinite variety,
+concave and spiral, ribbed and fluted, fretted and jagged--the satin
+smoothness of convoluted forms lying amid rugged shapes bristling with
+spines and needles. We gaze almost with awe at the lovely vision of a
+dainty Nautilus, sailing his fairy boat down a blue channel fringed
+with purple and salmon-coloured anemones, beneath a hedge of rosy
+coral. The shimmering sail and carven hull of iridescent pearl skim the
+water with incredible swiftness, and tack skilfully at every bend of
+the devious course, not even slackening speed to avoid collision with a
+lumbering star-fish encountered on the way. These submarine Gardens
+contain the greatest natural collection of anemones, coral beds,
+shells, and fish, discovered in the ocean world. The richest treasures
+of Davy Jones's Locker lie open to view, as the boat glides through the
+ever-changing scenery mirrored in the transparent sea. Opalescent
+berries resemble heaps of pearls, and the lemon stalks of marine sedge
+gleam like wedges of gold in the crystalline depths. The long oars
+detach pinnacles of coral like tongues of flame, and a cargo of
+seaweed, shells, and anemones, fills the boat as each enchanted grotto
+contributes a quota of treasure trove, but the vivid colouring fades
+apace when the sea-born flora leaves the native element, and the deep
+blue eyes, gazing from their dark stems with weird human effect, lose
+their radiance in the upper world.
+
+We land at the pretty valley of Halong, where a rippling brook
+traverses a wood of sago-palms, and falls in a white cascade over the
+rocks of a sheltered bathing-pool, screened by green curtains of banana
+and tall mangosteens, laden with purple fruit. Makassar-trees rain
+their yellow blossoms into the water, cloves fill the air with pungent
+fragrance, and lychees droop over the clear current. A melancholy Malay
+song floats up from the sea, but the sad sweet notes only accentuate
+the haunted silence of the fairy glen, with an echo from that distant
+past which breathes undying music round these enchanted isles. Woodland
+shadows and wayside palms disclose the sweeping horse-shoe curves of
+numerous Chinese tombs, the white stone elaborately carved and covered
+with hieroglyphics. Plumy cocoanut and tremulous tamarind wave over the
+last resting-places of these exiles from the Holy Land of the Celestial
+Empire, for the second generation established on an alien soil is
+forbidden to seek burial in China. The so-called _Paranak_ of the Malay
+Archipelago frequently marries a native wife, and, as purity of race
+becomes destroyed, ancestral obligations lose their power even over the
+mind of the most conservative people in the world.
+
+The woods of Ambon teem with the abundant bird-life peculiar to the
+Moluccas. An exquisite kingfisher, with golden plumage and emerald
+throat, darts across the stream, and the scarlet crests of green
+parrots resemble tropical flowers, glowing amidst the verdant foliage
+hardly distinguishable from the fluttering wings of the feathered
+tribe, which includes twenty-two species indigenous to the islands.
+The megapodius or mound-maker, an ash-coloured bird about the size of a
+small fowl, grasps sand or soil in the hollow of a powerful claw, and
+throws it backwards into mounds six feet high, wherein the eggs are
+deposited, to be hatched by this natural incubator, through the heat of
+the vegetable matter contained in the rubbish heap. The young birds
+work their way through the mound, and run off at once into the forest,
+where they start on an independent career. They emerge from their
+birthplace covered with thick down and provided with fully-developed
+wings. The maternal instinct of the megapodius ceases with the laying
+of eggs, and, having supplied a safe cradle for the rising generation,
+she takes no further thought for her precocious progeny, capable of
+securing a livelihood in the unknown world from the moment of their
+first appearance in public.
+
+A merry group, half-hidden in the shadows of clustering sago-palms,
+gathers the harvest of precious grain, the pith of a large tree
+producing thirty bundles, each of thirty pounds weight. The baking of
+the sago-cakes made from this lavish store occupies two women for five
+days, and the housekeeping cares of the largest family only need
+quarterly consideration in this island of plenty, where the struggle
+for the necessaries of existence is unknown and unimaginable. Leisure
+and liberty, those priceless gifts which can only be attained where
+the pressure of poverty is unfelt, serve valuable purposes in Ambonese
+hands, for the European energies fused into the native race prevent
+mental stagnation, and spur tropical indolence to manifold activities.
+A variety of thriving industries belong to this far-off colony.
+Mother-of-pearl shells, and _beche-de-mer_ (the sea-slug of Chinese
+cuisine) supplement the important export of the cloves, the speciality
+of Ambon, chosen by the East India Company as the sole place of
+cultivation for this spice-bearing tree, when the system of monopoly
+extirpated the clove gardens of the other islands. Vases, mats, and
+miniature boats, of fringed and threaded cloves, are offered as
+fantastic souvenirs of Amboyna, and the spirit of the place seems
+imprisoned in these tiny curios which revive so many haunting memories
+of the romantic island.
+
+Nominal adherence to Dutch Calvinism fails to repress the natural
+instincts of a gay and pleasure-loving race. The national dance known
+as _Menari_, and often performed on the shore in honour of the outgoing
+steamer, no longer satisfies Ambonese requirements, with the slow
+gyrations and studied postures of Oriental tradition. The eager and
+passionate temperament finds truer expression in the walzes and galops
+of European origin, known as _dansi-dansi_, enthusiastically practised
+on those festive occasions, when the full dress of funereal black and
+white seems specially inappropriate to the wild abandon of the
+merry-making populace. In sunny Amboyna the cowl does not make the
+friar, and the last recollection of the little Moluccan capital is a
+vision of whirling figures and twanging lutes at the water's edge,
+while the receding steamer furrows the milky azure of the land-locked
+bay. The vivid green of one palm-clad shore burns in the gold of
+sunset, but the eastern side lies veiled in shadow, and as the
+sheltered inlet gives place to the open sea, the luminous
+phosphorescence of the Southern ocean bathes the rocky bastions of
+enchanted Ambon in waves of liquid fire. A strange history belongs to
+the physical conformation of volcanic shores, alternately raised and
+depressed by the agitation of earth and sea. The coast-line has varied
+from time to time; straits have become lakes, islands have severed or
+united, occasionally rising suddenly from the waves, or vanishing in
+the bosom of the deep. Geologists assert that the Malay Archipelago was
+originally thrown off by volcanic action from Asia and Australia, and
+that an interchange of animal and vegetable life has frequently taken
+place. Hurricanes have uprooted forest trees, and floods have borne
+them out to sea, the tide eventually washing them up on the shores of
+distant islands. A fresh growth of foreign vegetation was thus
+inaugurated, as these sylvan colonists struck their saplings into an
+alien soil. Insects, preserved by the bark, propagated themselves in
+new surroundings, and seeds drifting on the waves, or clinging to roots
+and fibres, wreathed unfamiliar shores with exotic flowers. Animal
+migration has frequently been caused by natural catastrophes, and to
+birds directing their swift flight by faculties now attributed to keen
+observation rather than to unreasoning instinct, the change of locality
+was infinitely simplified. In the Moluccas we may read a compendium of
+the wide-spread history which applies to the vast regions comprised in
+the mighty Archipelago. The doctrine of earthly changes and chances,
+too often accepted as a mere figure of speech, is here recognised as a
+stern reality; the tragedies of destruction repeat themselves through
+the ages, the laboratories of Nature eternally forge fresh
+thunderbolts, and the fate of humanity trembles in the balance.
+Meanwhile a profusion of flowers wreathes the sacrificial altars, the
+fairest fruits ripen above the thin veil which hides the fountains of
+volcanic fire, and the sweetest spices of the world breathe incense on
+the air. The uncertain tenure of earthly joys gives them redoubled zest
+and poignancy, the passionate love of life becomes intensified by the
+looming shadows of Death, and the light glows with clearer radiance
+against the blackness of the menacing thunder-cloud.
+
+
+
+
+BANDA.
+
+
+The exquisite islands of Banda, dominated by the stately volcano of
+Goenoeng Api (the mountain of fire), form the climax of the enchanting
+Moluccas. Contour and colour reach their utmost grace and softest
+refinement in this ideal spot, a priceless jewel resting on the heart
+of the Malay Archipelago.
+
+The mists of dawn have scarcely lifted their gossamer veils from the
+dreaming sea, when the pinnacled rocks of Rum and Aye, the outposts of
+the Banda group, pierce the swathing vapours. The creamy cliffs of
+Swangi (the Ghost Island), traditionally haunted by the spirits of the
+departed, show their spectral outlines on the northern horizon, and the
+sun-flushed "wings of the morning" span the sapphire arch of heaven as
+we enter the sheltered gulf of the Zonnegat, fringed by luxuriant woods
+clothing a mountain side, and brushing the water with a green fringe of
+trailing branches. Gliding between Cape Lantaka and two isolated crags,
+the steamer enters a glassy lake, encircled by sylvan heights, with
+the menacing cone of the Goenoeng Api rising sheer from the water's
+edge. A white town climbs in irregular tiers up the shelving terraces
+of a fairy island, the central hill crowned by the crenellated
+battlements of a grey citadel. The largest ship can anchor close to
+shore, for the rugged boundaries of Banda descend by steep gradients
+into the crystalline depths. Chinese and Arab _campongs_ border
+European streets of concrete houses, long and low, with flat roofs and
+external galleries.
+
+The southern shore of Banda Neira faces the forest-clad heights of
+Great Banda, clothed from base to summit with nutmeg trees, shadowed by
+huge kanaris, their interlacing canopies protecting the precious spice
+plantations from the sun. A slender rowing boat, known as a _belang_,
+makes a brilliant point of colour on the blue strait between the sister
+islands. Red and yellow flags and pennants flutter above the green
+deck; the clash of gongs and cymbals echoes across the water, and a
+weird chant accompanies the rhythmic plash of the short oars, as the
+brown rowers toss them high in air, and bring them down with a sharp
+splash. A splendid avenue of kanari-trees extends along the shore, the
+usual Dutch church symbolises the uncompromising grimness of
+Calvinistic creed, and the crumbling fort of Orange-Nassau, the scene
+of many stirring incidents in the island past, adjoins the beautiful
+thatched bungalow of the Resident, the broad eaves emerging from depths
+of richest foliage. A subterranean passage connects the deserted
+stronghold on the shore with Fort Belgica, the citadel now used as
+barracks, but formerly for the preservation of the nutmegs from the
+fierce raids of foreign powers, when the new-born passion for spices
+intoxicated the mind of the world, and kindled the fires of war between
+East and West. The lofty peak of the Goenoeng Api still smoulders,
+although the main crater is supposed to be extinct. The lower slopes,
+where not planted with vegetables by enterprising invaders from the
+island of Boeton, abound with delicate ferns and rare orchids, for the
+fertility of the volcanic soil, rich in metallic ingredients, creates a
+luxuriant growth. Sulphureous vapours rise continually from a plateau
+beneath the summit, where tumbled boulders of blackened lava lie sunken
+in deep layers of volcanic ash. Banda Neira evidently rose from the sea
+in some long-past eruption of the larger island, now the long ridge of
+a ruined crater which collapsed in a fierce outburst, and threw off the
+fragments of rock which compose the outer group. A curious fatalism
+characterises the inhabitants of volcanic districts, and the
+incalculable value of Banda in the middle ages outweighed all risks of
+eruption and earthquake. The history of island colonisation by
+Portugal, Spain, and Holland, forms a continuous record of battle,
+loot, and persecution, in which the native population was decimated,
+and even now the inhabitants would be quite insufficient to cultivate
+and gather the "golden fruit," without the aid of innumerable emigrants
+from Java. Hard measures were dealt out in order to maintain the
+monopoly of spices, and the injury to the native races, by destroying
+the nutmeg trees of the other islands, crippled the trade which had
+found a natural outlet in Asia. All the nutmegs were sent to Europe,
+but one-fifth of the yearly produce was diverted by smuggling into
+forbidden channels, though severe punishment was inflicted upon
+offenders. Economic administration was unknown in the 17th and 18th
+centuries, but the holocaust of spices burnt in the market-place of
+Amsterdam, and the extermination of the nutmeg trees in Moluccan
+islands, sent a thrill of horror through the European world, which
+placed such an exaggerated value on the possession of spices that the
+wars waged to secure them breathe the romantic fanaticism of a wild
+crusade. Monopoly and slavery were at length definitely abolished, and
+in 1873 the Dutch Government, realising the necessity of Free Trade,
+sanctioned the independence of the nutmeg planters. The far-seeing
+views of Sir Stamford Raffles during the second brief English
+occupation of the Moluccas, from 1810 to 1816, were disregarded in
+England (knowing little, and caring less, about the remote Spice
+Islands), though his counsels were eventually adopted by the Dutch
+Government as the only means of ensuring an increased profit. A
+high-prowed native boat, known as an _orembai_, plies across the
+narrow strait which separates the islands of Banda Neira and Banda
+Lonthar, or Great Banda. The long range of hills covered with a dense
+forest of the precious nutmeg trees, attains an ideal of sylvan scenery
+surpassing even the glorious palm-woods of Java. These may be described
+in terms of comparative accuracy, and their beauty painted in realistic
+language, but none can translate into words the irresistible charm and
+glamour of the nutmeg aisles, the exquisite foliage and contours of the
+spice-bearing trees, the wealth of delicate blossom and peach-like
+fruit, and the flickering emerald light from hues shading through the
+whole gamut of colour, from the tender verdure of spring to the glossy
+darkness of winter evergreen. Colossal kanari-trees, veritable monarchs
+of the forest, tower over the nutmegs, and form an unbroken roof of
+interlacing boughs, for the nutmeg, needing shelter to bring the fruit
+to perfection, is not suffered to attain a height of more than seventy
+feet. The columnar trunks of the majestic kanaris wreathe their huge
+girth with lace-like fern and broad-leaved epiphytal plants, and the
+symmetrical beauty of the conical nutmeg-trees in these forest aisles
+suggests a vast sanctuary of Nature, enshrining the mystic presence of
+Divinity. Here, as amid the shades of unfallen Eden, we can imagine a
+trysting-place of God and man in the perennial "cool of the day," which
+breathes through the green twilight of these solemn groves, redolent
+with the incense from myriad sprays of creamy blossom and ripened nuts
+in shells of pink-flushed amber, for flower and fruit deck the
+"gold-bearing tree" without intermission, and every day produces a
+fresh harvest of nutmegs. The brown kernel of the opening fruit,
+contained in a network of scarlet mace, falls to the ground in
+twenty-four hours, and unremitting care is needed in gathering and
+handling the nutmegs with the _gaai-gaai_, a long stick ending with a
+prong, to break off the ripe fruit into the woven basket accurately
+poised beneath the wooden fork. Only the female trees yield the
+precious crop, and the highest point of production, attained at the
+twentieth year, continues undiminished through four subsequent decades,
+after which the strength of the average tree declines, although it
+often lives for a century. The cooing of the nutmeg pigeon, which feeds
+on the abundant fruit, echoes through the shadowy glades with soothing
+monotony. Yellow canaries flit through the vivid green of the pointed
+foliage, and the scarlet crests of parrots glow through the dark
+canopies of the giant kanari-trees. The voices of children at play, the
+distant songs of the nutmeg-gatherers, the plash of the waves on the
+coral reef, and the scented breeze whispering in the green crowns of a
+million trees, blend in harmonious concord to fill the sylvan temple of
+tropical Nature with mysterious music. At wide intervals the white
+houses of the planters gleam amid the drooping boughs, the prevailing
+green of the spacious woods relieved by the rosy purple of
+Bougainvillea mantling a pillared verandah, or by great vases of
+crimson and yellow flowers, bordering broad flights of stone steps.
+Life on a great nutmeg plantation retains patriarchal character and
+archaic charm; the multitude of dependents calls forth, in the present
+day at any rate, much of kindly solicitude, and though the unvarying
+sameness of existence sometimes proves the serpent which destroys the
+peace of the idyllic Eden in young and eager hearts, the ramifications
+of the large family party, gathered under one roof, mitigate the
+monotony of daily tasks, and supply the necessary mental friction. Work
+in the nutmeg-woods begin at 5 a.m., when a pealing bell summons the
+labourers to each plantation for their different duties of gathering
+the nuts, drying the mace, or sorting and liming the fruit. The
+beautiful forest constitutes the world of the nutmeg-gatherer, both for
+labour and recreation. In these dusky avenues youth and maiden tell
+each other Love's eternal story, wandering away into the dreamland
+shadows, vocal with sweeter melody than that of bird or breeze. The
+musical call of the nutmeg-pigeon serves as a danger-signal, uttered
+by sympathising friends, when love must yield to life's stern realities
+in the person of the overseer. An ardent courtship often contributes to
+the rapid filling of the nutmeg-basket in the hand of a rustic beauty,
+whose admirers strive to secure for her the premium awarded for special
+diligence, and a judicious official learns on occasion to be
+conveniently deaf to the feigned voice of the _manoek faloer_. If the
+chivalrous zeal of the brown lover is apt to overleap frontiers, and to
+fill the baskets of one plantation with the produce of the other, the
+ethics of Banda demonstrate the identity of human nature when swayed by
+the passion which, according to circumstances, wrecks Troy or raids a
+nutmeg orchard. A story is told of a planter who, in consequence of
+engaging a bevy of attractive maidens for the year's work, was rewarded
+by a phenomenal harvest of nutmegs, though the adjacent estates were
+barren of fruit. Evening shadows darken apace in the woodland world,
+and work ceases at three in the afternoon, when the store of gathered
+fruit is brought to the _pagger_, where drying and liming sheds
+surround the central warehouse. The nutmeg-pickers sort the ripe nuts
+in an open gallery before taking them to the drying-shed, where they
+are spread on a platform of split bamboo, twelve feet above a
+smouldering fire. The process continues for six weeks, the nuts being
+repeatedly turned until they begin to rattle. Only a slow method of
+drying prevents the escape of the essential oil, necessary to the
+flavour of the fruit, which must afterwards be dipped in slaked lime to
+preserve it from insects. The coral-like mace contains a rich supply of
+aromatic balm, and when loosened from the nutmeg can be dried in the
+sun. The delicate scarlet branches, spread on wickerwork frames in open
+spaces of the woods, contrast vividly with the shaded verdure of the
+beautiful trees. The mace, trodden flat for facility in packing,
+resembles a dainty growth of finest seaweed, and in the 16th century
+shared popularity with the nutmeg which produced it. Even in the
+present day a pewter spice box is an indispensable present on that
+sixth anniversary of a Dutch marriage still known as "the pewter
+wedding," and a nutmeg-box, with a grater, remains as a favourite
+bridal gift, the fashion originating when the passion for spices first
+pervaded mediaeval Europe. Trade, as well as Science, wrote many
+chapters of romantic adventure in the long history of the world's
+social development, and modern thought but dimly realises the magnetic
+spell of the days when the veil was first lifted between East and West,
+and the wonders of untrodden shores disclosed to the pioneer. Heine, in
+his _Lieder_, chants of the mystic nutmeg-tree as the ideal growth of
+the tropical forest, for every stage of life and growth reveals some
+fresh beauty in delicate bloom, glistening foliage, and fruit of
+roseate gold. The spreading boughs, with their perfect contour and
+emerald depths of light and shadow, suggest a typical picture of that
+unfading Tree of Life in the midst of the earthly Paradise, round which
+the passing ages weave innumerable dreams, while faith transplants it
+to a fairer Garden than that of Eden. Where the winding woodland roads
+lead along the shore, colossal screw-palms and silver-flowered
+Barringtonias border the rocks, the sparkling azure of the sea visible
+through the fantastic boughs, and the eternal song of the surf
+vibrating through the still air with mysterious undertones. The brown
+_campong_ of Banda Lonthar stands at the foot of the mossy steps which
+lead to the summit of the wooded range, and command a superb view of
+the island group. A further flight of stairs descends to the outside
+coast or Achterval, but wherever we go, to quote the words of a modern
+traveller, "we may imagine ourselves transported to the holy groves
+whereof ancient poets sing." From the rich carpet of velvety moss and
+plumy fern to the green vault of the leafy roof, the eye for once seems
+"satisfied with seeing," for no hint of imperfection breaks the fairy
+spell of enchantment in this poetic nutmeg-forest. Among serpentine
+kanari roots, which stream across the mossy turf as though poured out
+in liquid form and then petrified, we come across brown babies sleeping
+in the shade, and cradled softly in the tender lap of earth, while the
+mother, crooning a low song, pursues her work among the rustling
+leaves. Terrace after terrace, the green aisles mount to the summit of
+the great ridge, and the ruined forts on each wooded promontory recall
+the long-past days when the "fruit of gold" demanded the increasing
+vigilance of military power to defeat the onslaught of merchantman or
+privateer, willing to run every risk in order to capture a cargo of
+spices, and secure fabulous gains by appeasing the frantic thirst of
+Europe for the novel luxury of the aromatic spoils. The mediaeval craze
+has died away, and the pungent spices of the Orient have taken a
+permanent position of reasonable proportion in the culinary art of
+modern times, but the glamour of the past, like the amber haze of a
+tropical sunset, still environs the poetic tree in the island home
+where, amid evergreen foliage and waxen flowers, the famous "fruit of
+gold" still opens each coral-lined censer to exhale a wealth of undying
+fragrance on the balmy air.
+
+
+
+
+THE SOELA-BESSIR ISLES.
+
+
+Outside the fairy circle of the exquisite Moluccas, a tiny cluster of
+palm-clad islets gems the wide blue spaces of the lonely sea, unbroken
+for many leagues by any foothold possible for human habitation. The
+Dutch steamer only calls thrice a year at the remote Soela-Bessir
+group, in quest of rattan, a plentiful product of these fertile isles,
+where the leafy ladders of the aspiring parasite climb to the green
+crowns of the tallest palms, wrapping them in the fatal embrace which
+eventually levels the strongest monarch of the tropical forest to the
+earth. The thick mantle of glossy foliage often hides the multitude of
+hooks, loops, and nooses which the pliant cane flings round branch and
+stem, gripped by long ropes of flexible fibre, hardening into thick
+coils, rigid and unyielding as iron. The immense export of rattan for
+chairs, couches, and innumerable domestic purposes, indirectly results
+in the preservation of myriad palm-trees, by releasing them from the
+deadly grasp of the tenacious creepers. The waving cocoanut trees of
+Senana, the principal island of the Soela-Bessir group, kiss the blue
+water with sombre plumes, bowed down by the wealth of heavy fruit lying
+in green and golden clusters between frond and stem. The steamer
+anchors far from the shore, and the launch proving unable to cross the
+shallow bay, the landing of passengers can only be accomplished by two
+crossed oars, carried and steadied by four of the crew. The mode of
+progression is wobbling and risky, but the improbability of revisiting
+Senana supplied a mental argument of unfailing force in balancing pros
+and cons. The secluded island, so slightly influenced by the outside
+world, changes but little with the lapse of time, and the triple-tiered
+roofs of numerous thatched _Messighits_ rising above the palm-leaf huts
+of the brown _campong_, assert the hereditary creed. The green banner
+of Islam was planted here centuries ago by a fanatical horde of Arab
+pirates, who added religious enthusiasm to love of plunder and thirst
+of conquest. Their fiery zeal, though not according to knowledge,
+ensured a vigorous growth of the foreign offshoot from the questionable
+faith of these Arab corsairs, who left indelible traces on the whole of
+the Malay Archipelago. The _Messighits_ of Senana are now only the
+ruined shrines of a decadent creed, but the simple islanders remain
+nominal adherents to the Monotheism of the past. Canoes and _blotos_,
+rowed by lithe brown figures, come out to welcome the steamer, and a
+fantastic boat, with carven prow, darts from beneath a green bower of
+tangled foliage, laden with golden bananas. Merry-faced little savages
+line the shore, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the white strangers,
+who supply them with the amusement afforded by a travelling circus to
+the more sophisticated children of the West. An eager desire to please
+and gratify the extraordinary visitors, mingles with the uncontrollable
+delight, manifested in capering, dancing, and gay laughter, as they
+beckon us to follow them through the narrow lanes of the long
+_campong_. Naked brown forms dash into their native huts at sundry
+points of the route, to summon friends and kinsfolk, until the
+procession swells into formidable proportions, for the whole _campong_
+is eventually in tow, with the exception of the men and boys occupied
+in lading cargo. Through the dappled sunlight and shadows of the
+sweeping palms which flank the glassy bay, we are personally conducted
+to the principal _Messighit_, a bare, whitewashed building, without any
+decoration beyond the blue and white tiles outlining the horse-shoe
+arch of the _Mihrab_ looking towards Mecca. The exterior with three
+roofs of mossy thatch supported on bamboo poles, offers a shelter from
+the sun on a flight of crumbling steps, overshadowed by the spreading
+eaves. A big cocoanut frond serves as an improvised broom in a dusky
+hand, and the central step is carefully swept before the stranger, with
+respectful salaams and gesticulations, is invited to sit down. A
+turbaned _Imaum_, the custodian of the decaying sanctuary, comes forth
+from his dilapidated hut among the palms behind the shrine, at the
+unwonted excitement breaking the silence and solitude of the ancient
+mosque, but he evidently belongs to the dreamland of the past, and
+retires quickly from the disturbing present to meditations or slumbers
+in his obscure dwelling, closing the bamboo door against all intruders.
+This day's incident of the cruise in the Malay Archipelago seems
+absolutely cut off from ordinary experience--a solitary Englishwoman,
+resting in the shadow of the rustic mosque, and surrounded by a
+half-barbaric tribe of unfamiliar aspect, the dark woolly hair, flat
+noses, wide mouths, and dazzling teeth suggesting a liberal admixture
+of negro or Papuan blood. Native intelligence simplifies a halting
+conversation, carried on by means of the indispensable Malayan
+phrase-book. Wistful eyes rest on the stranger whose lot is cast under
+happier auspices, and unmistakeable characteristics manifest the
+Soela-Bessir islanders as a gentle and teachable race. Alas! the Dutch
+Government plants neither schools nor missions in distant Senana, too
+far from the beaten track to commend itself to the religious or
+educational care of a nation apparently indifferent to the claims of
+small communities, in the vast Archipelago subject to Holland. Only the
+quarterly call of the Dutch steamer stirs the stagnation of ages on the
+Soela-Bessir isles, but although the young, sharing in that wondrous
+heritage of mirth and gladness peculiar to the joyous early life of the
+tropics, recognise no limitations in their lot, the mothers sadly
+repeat the complaint heard elsewhere that no chance of improvement is
+given to them. The steamer, frequently bringing hither the inhabitants
+of more favoured islands in the interests of trade, already begins to
+stir feelings of unrest, and vague longings for the better things as
+yet withheld. A chieftain's daughter joins the throng round the old
+_messighit_. A red-cotton drapery, thrown over bronze limbs, is her
+only garment, but a diamond glistening on her dark hand looks
+incongruous with the scanty clothing. The gem seems a talisman or
+heirloom, but a request to examine it terrifies the owner, and she
+rushes away into the woods to safeguard the precious possession from
+perils suggested by the presence of the white pilgrim from across the
+seas. The delicious breeze which always spring up after ten o'clock in
+these latitudes renders walking a delight, the two following hours
+being invariably cooler than the trying time between eight and ten,
+when the fierce sun, on a level with the face, creates an atmosphere of
+blistering glare. The brown procession forms an orderly escort to the
+lading shed beneath a clump of tall cocoa-palms, and the kindly
+merchant who negotiates the commerce of the Soela-Bessir isles for the
+Dutch Government, sends a native boy up the smooth stem of a colossal
+tree in search of a fresh cocoanut, which fills two tumblers with
+refreshing sap. The thatched _campong_ stands against a background of
+green hills and dense woods, rich in tropical verdure, but lacking the
+loveliness of the Moluccas. The return to the ship involves a _bloto_
+across the bay, with many misgivings as to the seaworthy capacities of
+the clumsy craft, but four bamboo safety-poles, fastened by forked
+sticks to the sides of the hollowed log, suffice to steady it enough to
+avoid capsizal. In the Soela-Bessir Isles, as in many other far-off and
+forgotten regions, the genius of commerce begins to awaken the desire
+of civilisation in untutored hearts, for Trade sharing in the romance
+no longer regarded as the exclusive attribute of Art or Science, now
+helps to fuse opposing elements into unity and order. The simple
+inhabitants of distant Senana seem only waiting for an outstretched
+hand to lift them to a higher level of creed and culture, for the
+modern pioneers of missionary enterprise raise the superstructure of
+Christianity with unexampled success on the substratum of truth
+contained even in imperfect and erroneous creeds. That solid foundation
+stone of belief in the One Eternal God, laid by Arab pirates centuries
+ago, amid the lust of rapine and the smoke of war, which ever heralded
+the onward march of conquering Islam, should serve as a firm basis for
+building up these simple children of Nature into the mystical sanctuary
+of the Christian Church. The lapse of time obliterates countless
+landmarks of Moslem creed in localities removed from external contact,
+but amid the dust of disintegrating forces and forgotten forms, the
+central Truth remains imbedded, like a wedge of gold trodden in the
+mire, but retaining intrinsic value and untarnishable purity.
+
+
+
+
+SUMATRA.
+
+
+
+
+THE WESTERN COAST AND THE HIGHLANDS.
+
+
+Passing through the straits of Saleir, between a cliff-bound island and
+the south-eastern Cape of Celebes, the returning steamer in due time
+reaches her moorings in Sourabaya, and a rapid railway journey through
+Java connects with the outgoing boat from Batavia to Padang, a three
+days' voyage through a chain of green islands breaking the force of the
+monsoon on a desolate and harbourless shore. The forest-clad ranges of
+Sumatra draw nearer at Benkoelen, buried in cocoa-palms on the rim of a
+quiet bay, within a terrific reef which makes landing impossible in
+stormy weather. Fort and Residency, villas and gardens, manifest
+Benkoelen as an oasis of civilisation, the steeply-tiled roofs
+remaining as relics of the English occupation a century ago. Beyond
+the little military settlement, the Sumatran mountains tower in
+majestic gloom beyond a broken line of bristling crags, like granite
+outworks guarding the eleven hundred miles of coast-line facing the
+Indian Ocean. The rugged backbone of mysterious Sumatra, descending
+sharply to the western sea, overlooks a vast alluvial plain on the
+eastern side, where rice and sugar-cane, coffee and tobacco, flourish
+between the wide deltas of sluggish rivers, though rushing streams and
+wild cascades characterise the opposite shore. Ridges and bastions of
+rock, above profound valleys, culminate in cloud-capped Indrapura, at a
+height of 12,000 feet. Geologists affirm the vast age of Sumatra,
+indicated by the Silurian rock, the bastions of granite, the
+extraordinary vegetation fossilised in the huge coal-beds, and the
+sandstone formation, often a thousand feet thick, carved by time and
+weather into fantastic ravines. Inexhaustible mineral wealth lies
+hidden in these weird ranges, together with the costly chemical
+products of a volcanic soil, but the rich treasures of the virgin rocks
+are for the most part unknown and unexplored. Columns of smoke rise
+continually from numerous active volcanos, and the beautiful mountain
+lakes fill extinct craters. The great island, lying north-west and
+south-east, possesses a glorious climate, and the superb vegetation
+shows a distinctive character from that of Java. The Dutch, though
+supreme on the coast, have never yet subdued the interior, and
+unconquerable Acheen remains a perpetual centre of unrest. The flower
+of the Malay race belongs to Sumatra, and the wild Battek tribes of
+alien origin are fast merging themselves into the dominant stock,
+though the Redjanger clan, retaining curious customs of a remote past,
+and possessing a written character, cut with a _kris_ on strips of
+bamboo, is slow to assimilate itself to the Malayan element. The
+Sumatran language shows traces of Indian and Arabic influence, and that
+the early civilisation of the huge island was of Hindu origin is
+evidenced by innumerable Sanskrit words, and by the fact that the
+consecrated pipal tree, the "Ficus Religiosa" of India, remains to this
+day the sacred tree of the Batteks. Native chronicles record the
+descent of Sumatran princes from Alexander the Great, but though the
+pages of Javanese history are comparatively legible, those of Sumatra,
+designated in early days as "the older Java," resemble a dim
+palimpsest, marred by erasure or hiatus, and barely decipherable
+beneath the lettering on the surface of the age-worn parchment.
+
+Little _campongs_ of palm-thatched huts stand on piles at the water's
+edge, and skirt the over-shadowing forest; fairy islands, encircled
+with red-stemmed _aren_-palms, lie like green garlands on the indigo
+sea, dotted with the yellow sails of native _proas_, and the little
+train which conveys us to Padang, the western capital, seems an
+incongruous feature in a scene suggestive of primeval peace and
+solitude. A sylvan charm belongs even to this Sumatran township, for
+the wooden houses, with pointed roofs of dried palm-leaves, and broad
+eaves forming shady verandahs, stand far apart in flowery gardens,
+aflame with orange or scarlet cannas, and fragrant with golden-hearted
+frangipanni. The sweeping boughs of giant cocoanut trees make a green
+twilight beneath their interwoven fronds, Bougainvillea drapes
+crumbling wall and forest tree with curtains of roseate purple, and
+thatched stalls of tropical fruits and glowing flowers brighten the
+dusky avenues with patches of vivid colour. The determined aspect of
+the Sumatran people denotes the superior calibre of the ancestral stock
+which colonised the Archipelago, for foreign intercourse, which
+elsewhere modified national character, scarcely affected the Sumatran
+Malays, independent of the servile yoke imposed by the mighty princes
+of Java. The forty _Soekoes_, or clans, of Sumatra, are sub-divided
+into branches consisting of numerous families, all descended from a
+common stock in the female line. This curiously constituted pedigree is
+known as the Matriarchate, an ancient social system only retained in
+Western Sumatra, and among certain South American tribes. The resolute
+mien and dignified carriage of the Sumatran woman denote clear
+consciousness of her supreme importance. The cringing submission so
+painfully characteristic of Oriental womanhood is wholly unknown, and
+though nominally of Mohammedan faith, the humble position prescribed by
+the Koran to the female sex is a forgotten article of Sumatra's
+hereditary creed. After marriage (forbidden between members of the same
+clan) both man and woman remain in their own family circle. The husband
+is only an occasional visitor, and the wife is regarded as the head of
+the house. Her children remain under her exclusive care, and inherit
+her property, together with the half of what their father and mother
+earn together. The other half goes to the brothers and sisters of the
+husband, whose titles descend to his own brothers and sisters. Sumatra
+is veritably El Dorado to the Eastern wife and mother, conversant with
+every detail respecting the management of land or money, and jealously
+guarding the time-honoured rights and privileges of her exalted
+position.
+
+The hereditary chieftains of Sumatran clans exercise a patriarchal rule
+of uncompromising severity, and combine in every district to form the
+_Laras_ or local Council, the distance separating forest and mountain
+_campongs_ often necessitating sub-division into a village assembly.
+The _Laras_, and those rural chieftains nominated by popular consent,
+possess a seat on the Supreme Council of the Dutch Government, thus
+forming the transitional element between Asiatic and European rule.
+There is no Sumatran nobility, and although the hereditary chief of a
+clan is invested with official authority, the stringent regulations of
+the Matriarchate acknowledge no superiority of social status as an
+appanage of his power.
+
+The hothouse atmosphere of Padang is gladly exchanged for the freshness
+of the mountain heights, approached by a cog-wheel railway, and
+affording truer pictures of Sumatran life than the hybrid port of the
+steaming Lowlands. The luxuriant verdure of the swampy plain basks in
+the sunshine of a blazing March day, and children in gaudy _sarongs_
+drive a brisk trade at palm-thatched wayside stations, with bamboo
+trays of sliced pineapple sprinkled with capsicum, the approved
+"pick-me-up" of Sumatra. The little train burrows through a
+forest-lined pass, and skirts the chafing waters of the Anei river,
+foaming over swarthy boulders. The turbulent stream, now deeply sunk
+between granite cliffs, rises with terrific violence when lashed by the
+wild mountain wind known as the _bandjir_, and rushes up the rocky
+walls, overthrowing bridges, and dragging along immense crags with
+resistless impetus. The shrill laughter of the black bush-apes echoes
+from sombre masses of matted foliage, as the train ascends the lofty
+range, and curves round the basin of a sparkling waterfall, dashing
+from a fern-draped height. Granite cliffs soar above tropical jungle
+and solemn forest; the narrow gap of the Anei widens into a luxuriant
+valley; sago-palms rustle in the breeze, and tree-ferns spread their
+green canopies over the brawling river. The splendid scenery is viewed
+to advantage from a platform of the foremost railway carriage, the
+train being pushed up the mountains by an engine in the rear. Beyond
+the climbing forests, a bare plateau affords a glimpse of ever-burning
+Merapi, with wooded flanks and lava-strewn summit, from whence a grey
+cloud of smoke mounts in a spiral curl to the azure sky. Beyond this
+point of view lies the green plain of beautiful Fort de Kock, the gem
+of the Sumatran Highlands, to be numbered henceforth among those ideal
+scenes which remain permanently photographed on mind and memory. The
+crystalline atmosphere seems the very breath of life after a long
+sojourn in the steaming tropics, and Fort de Kock, under the shadow of
+mysterious Merapi, an Elysium of health and repose. The little Hotel
+Jansen offers clean and comfortable accommodation, the kindly German
+hostess proving a model landlady. As a Residency and the headquarters
+of a Dutch garrison. Fort de Kock provides all the necessaries of life,
+and the broad military roads of the vicinity simplify exploration. The
+little white settlement beneath the wooded volcano possesses a bright
+and cheery character, in keeping with the exhilarating climate, and
+the beautiful Sturm Park, from palm-crowned hill and flowery terrace,
+commands an exquisite prospect of the blue peaks belonging to the
+borderland of those Native States extending to the Dutch possessions on
+the Eastern coast. The curious houses of the Sumatran Highlands, with
+their adjacent rice-barns, form distinctive features of this unique
+island. The ridge of the steep thatch rises in sharp horns, interlaced
+with black fibres of _aren_ palm, or covered with glittering tin. These
+tapering points are considered talismans of good fortune, a fresh horn
+being added on every occasion of marriage, for the married daughters,
+under the provisions of the Matriarchate, remain in the home of their
+childhood, and portions of the central division belonging to the house
+are reserved for their use. Manifold horns frequently bristle above the
+lofty roof, and the front of the main building is the common living
+room for unmarried members of the large household. Houses and
+rice-barns stand on high poles, after the Malay fashion, which
+originated in the malarious districts of the Lowlands. The typical
+rice-barns are lavishly decorated with gilding, carving, and colour,
+inlaid with glass mosaic, and edged with balls of red and blue crystal,
+the upward sweep of the slender horns sharply silhouetted against the
+glowing cobalt of heaven. In every _kota_ (the Sumatran word signifying
+a fortified place, or village), the beauty of the picturesque roofs
+culminates in _Messighit_ and _Balei_, respectively the Mosque and Hall
+of Consultation for the Village Council. The roofs of the Mosque rise
+on thatched tiers, mounted on slender pine-stems, and the long _Balei_,
+with mossy thatch prolonged into an open verandah on either side, shows
+a multitude of curving horns pointing to Heaven, and symbolically
+invoking celestial aid for the solemn assembly gathered beneath them,
+when the full moon floods upland Sumatra with molten silver. Primitive
+hospitality provides a _roemah negari_, or "House of Strangers," in
+every village rich enough to erect this refuge for the toil-worn
+wanderer, but where no special resting-place for pilgrims can be
+offered, lodging can always be had in the open _Balei_, on application
+to any member of the Village Council. The primitive simplicity of
+Sumatran life remains practically unchanged in these remote hamlets of
+the Western Highlands, and though Fort de Kock poses as the nucleus of
+modern progress, European influences glance off the indurated surface
+of native character like water poured over a granite slab.
+
+Across the rice-plain of Agam, dotted with brown _kotas_, crowned by
+myriads of interweaving horns, we reach the scattered village of
+Paja-Kombo, shadowed by dense woods of cocoanut palms, and famed for
+one of the most picturesque native markets in the East. The women of
+Paja-Kombo are noted for their beauty, enhanced by the splendour of
+many-coloured _sarongs_, gleaming with gold and silver thread. Gay
+turbans swathe the stately heads, and the golden filagree of barbaric
+breastplates, heavy earrings, and broad armlets, lights up the shadowy
+gloom of stone galleries and _al fresco_ stalls, beneath the drooping
+boughs of ancient waringen-trees. The Sumatran Malays are energetic
+traders, and the dignified personality of the Sumatran woman is
+perpetually in evidence. Keen, thrifty, economical, and thoroughly
+versed in all the details of commerce, she shows herself the
+predominant partner in domestic life, and to her all decisions on
+financial matters are referred, in accordance with the laws of the
+Matriarchate, which protects her independence. The husbands and fathers
+in attendance on their womankind at the great Market, submissively
+defer to the gentler sex, which in Sumatra has ever held the reins of
+social and domestic management, exercising authority wisely and well
+within the wide area deputed to feminine sway. The Fair of Paja-Kombo
+is a treasury of native Art in most delicate filigree, silver-threaded
+cloth, baskets or fans of scented grass, and the heavy jewellery of
+burnished brass which copies the designs of the many golden heirlooms
+treasured by Sumatran womanhood. Streets of palm-thatched stalls,
+alleys of eating-houses, and the wide enclosure of a Mule-Fair, cover
+an open meadow, fringed by great sago-palms, the central grain and
+rice Market crowded with picturesque figures in striped _sarong_ and
+gold-flecked turban. The feast of colour provided by Paja-Kombo is
+scarcely surpassed even by the famous Fair of Darjeeling, the
+remoteness of the little settlement in the Sumatran Highlands
+preserving the unfaded charm of an immemorial past. The wonderful Gap
+of Harau may be reached by cart from Paja-Kombo; the palm-shaded road
+narrows at the mighty gorge, where vermilion cliffs, grooved and ribbed
+as though by some convulsion of Nature, tower up in colossal majesty on
+either side. Splendid waterfalls flash down in foam and thunder,
+scoring deep channels in the perpendicular heights, and bathing
+thickets of tree-fern and maidenhair in pearly spray. A wild river
+swirls through the deep ravine, opening towards the ethereal blue of
+clustering peaks, which lie fold upon fold in the hazy distance of the
+Native States, and disclose a mystic pathway into dreamland.
+
+Another deep gully of yellow tufa-rock behind Fort de Kock, forms the
+first stage of the romantic route to Lake Manindjoe. Crossing the twin
+rivers which have carved their winding gorge in the bosom of the hills,
+the rude track through the mountains ascends to smooth plateaux forming
+a flight of gigantic stairs, supported by rocky girders like natural
+cross-beams. In early days of Dutch colonisation these successive
+points of vantage, occupied by hostile tribes, were stormed in vain by
+the invading army, and eventually only captured by surprise. The beauty
+of upland Sumatra culminates at this mountain lake, lying within the
+foundered crater of the Danau. The volcanic walls rise fourteen hundred
+feet above the dark blue mere, a glitting sheet of _lapis lazuli_ set
+within the black cleft of the profound chasm. Brown and purple rocks
+enamelled with orange lichen, and garlanded with waving verdure, open
+to display a mysterious vision of the glistening sea, with one white
+sail like a butterfly's wing, crossing the distant waves. The flushing
+rose-tints of a tropical sunset glorify the landscape into transcendent
+beauty; the rude sculpture of the river crags, the black shadows of
+primeval forest, and the far-off gleam of the Indian Ocean, composing
+an ideal picture, enhanced by vague impressions of Infinity and
+Eternity.
+
+The great Lake of Sinkarah, flanked by volcanic ridges, and by the
+dense foliage of palm forests and coffee plantations, also presents a
+succession of entrancing landscapes. White and purple orchids wreathe
+the forest trees, troops of red monkeys chatter among the boughs, and
+woodland vistas reveal leagues of emerald rice and golden millet.
+Beyond Sinkarah lies the famous coal district of the island, where
+Chinamen, convicts, and Hindu coolies, in perpetual bustle and
+commotion, manifest an activity unique in the thinly-populated
+interior of Sumatra, dependent on the labour of alien races. Javanese
+act as woodmen, gardeners, and road-makers; the Klings serve as
+cowherds and drivers of ox-waggons; the Bengalese prove efficient
+policemen, and the Boyans skilful carpenters; the clearing of the
+forest pertaining to Malays and Batteks, also responsible for the
+building of the marvellous rice-barns, the apotheosis of Sumatran
+architecture. The ordinary tourist omits Sumatra from his itinerary.
+Occasional elephant-hunters penetrate the dense forests of the
+interior, and engineers or tobacco-planters flock to the monotonous
+levels of the eastern coast, but the glorious Western Highlands, the
+Sumatran _Bovenland_, is seldom visited. Warlike Acheen, for ever at
+feud with the Dutch Government, is forbidden ground to the European
+traveller. The unconquerable independence of the Achinese, fiercely
+resenting the sovereignty of Holland, proves an insoluble problem to
+the Dutch methods of subjugation. The bold and lawless character of
+this rebellious clan defies military discipline. The spirit of
+insurrection animates every man, woman, and child of the brave but
+treacherous race, and Acheen remains the dark centre of countless
+tragedies, due to the spurious patriotism which counts a stab in the
+dark, a poisoned arrow, or a cruel betrayal, as heroic and laudable
+modes of resistance to the hated invader of Sumatra's ancient
+liberties. The forest-clad interior of the vast island remains an
+unknown wilderness. Cannibals still lurk in the black depths of the
+pathless jungle; weird tribal customs linger unchanged in barbarous
+_campongs_, where strange gods are worshipped with the immemorial rites
+of an ageless past, rude carvings and weird symbols showing the
+personification of those natural phenomena deified by primeval tribes.
+Sumatra, with her wealth of mines and forests and her important
+geographical position, remains as yet an almost undiscovered country,
+and though her undeveloped resources excite the cupidity and arouse the
+envy of European nations, political greed and private enterprise have
+proved powerless to open up the hidden treasures of the vast island,
+apparently intended by Nature to become the key of the Southern Seas.
+
+
+
+
+A VIEW OF KRAKATAU.
+
+
+Emma-Haven, the little port of Padang, twenty minutes by train from the
+palm-girt Sumatran capital, scarcely mars the beauty of the secluded
+inlet with the red and white warehouses standing against the sylvan
+verdure which fringes the blue arc of the deep bay. Cloud upon cloud,
+the spectral vision of distant mountains gleams through the vanishing
+veil of mist melting in the sunrise, and the departing steamer, hugging
+the shore, but halting for cargo at sundry barbaric _campongs_, affords
+numerous glimpses of native life. Passengers are forbidden to land at
+these rural ports of call, for a herd of twenty frolicsome elephants
+battered down one brown village of palm-thatched bamboo only a week
+ago, and although the ruined architecture possesses the advantage of
+being as easily restored as destroyed, the unpleasant proximity of the
+dark jungle suggests the need of prudence. At another point of the
+little voyage, we anchor for a cargo of rattan before a thatched shed
+on a shell-strewn beach, but even here a solitary elephant, disturbed
+in bathing, has lately attacked a woman, rescued with difficulty from
+formidable tusks and lashing trunk. A tribe of coolies come on board
+from the pepper plantation on a terraced hill, covered with the vivid
+green of the festooning creeper, twined round long poles, and
+resembling hop-vines in growth and foliage. The landing of this
+contingent involves a call at Anjer, the northern extremity of Java,
+distinguished by the white column of the colossal Pharos on the green
+headland. A halt at nightfall outside a bristling reef, in consequence
+of a Malay lighthouse-keeper omitting to trim his lamp, after the
+fashion of his unthinking kind, secures the compensation of steaming
+within sight of world-famous Krakatau, the volcanic cone, which in 1883
+was split in half by the stupendous eruption affecting in various
+degrees the whole of the world. The successive waves of atmospherical
+disturbance, travelling with the velocity of sound, were traced three
+times completely round the globe. Krakatau, though uninhabited, was the
+occasional resort of fishermen who plied their calling in the Sunda
+Straits. A Dutch record exists of a violent eruption in 1680, but the
+Krakatau volcano was afterwards considered extinct, and until the
+spring of 1883 no signs of activity occurred. At this date, smoke,
+pumice, and cinders, fell without intermission. For eight weeks
+Krakatau blazed and thundered, the explosions being audible at Batavia,
+eighty miles off. As the fatal dawn of an August morning broke with
+lurid light, the culminating shock of an appalling detonation,
+described as "the very crack and crash of doom," echoed across the
+ocean, and was heard even in India and Australia, two thousand miles
+away. Gigantic tidal waves swept the Sundanese shores, destroying the
+adjacent villages, 36,000 people being either washed away or buried
+under the boiling rain of mud, fire, and ashes. The Royal Society
+estimated the altitude of the vast black and crimson column of flame
+and smoke, mounting from the volcano, at seventeen miles. The ashes
+fell at Singapore and on the Cocos Isles, respectively five and eight
+hundred miles away, the ejection of volcanic matter being computed at
+more than four cubic miles in extent. Krakatau, reduced from thirteen
+to six square miles, from the northern portion of the symmetrical
+pyramid being completely blown away by the volcanic fires, retains the
+conical peak of Mount Radaka, nearly three thousand feet high. Some of
+the contiguous islands sank beneath the waves, others changed their
+shape, and the formation of various banks and shoals added fresh
+difficulties to the intricate navigation of reef-bound seas. Thrilling
+stories are told of the enveloping pall of smoke and ashes, which
+shrouded Java in midnight gloom, amid the continuous roar of violent
+explosions which led up to the awful climax of the final catastrophe.
+Red-hot stones and burning cinders fired the ships, the weight of
+pumice sinking _praus_ and fishing smacks as it fell into the hissing
+sea, and a 600-ton schooner, thrown by the force of the world-shaking
+concussion into a mountain cleft of the opposite coast, still lies
+wedged between the black walls of rock. The floating pumice, which
+filled the harbour of Batavia with layers so deep that planks resting
+upon it made a safe bridge over a mile in length, drifted even to
+Zanzibar and Madagascar. The fine dust, expelled into the upper air,
+painted the sunset heavens with these translucent green and violet
+tints which enhanced the pageantry of cloudland throughout the world
+for many months after the fiery forces had expended themselves. Smoke
+still issues from Krakatau, though the vast rent in the cloven pyramid
+must materially diminish the power of any future eruption, and Nature's
+busy hand already covers the torn side of the precipitous cone with a
+green veil of sparse vegetation. A curious marine growth of weed and
+moss rooted itself on Krakatau three years after the phenomenal
+eruption, from seeds floating on the tide or carried by the wind. The
+thin soil formed by these decaying plants, and enriched by the chemical
+ingredients of disintegrating volcanic ash, in time produced a more
+luxuriant verdure, and in the interval elapsing since the threefold
+ravages of fire, flood, and earthquake, caused by Krakatau, convulsed
+the East with terror, the dread mountain has become wreathed with
+flower and fruit, for orchards and gardens, tended by the Malays from
+the surrounding islands, now flourish at the foot of the quiescent
+peak. Javanese colonists, who experienced the terrors of the
+overwhelming catastrophe, assert that no similes drawn from the most
+appalling thunderstorm, or from the roar of the heaviest artillery,
+could convey an adequate idea of the stupendous detonation which seemed
+to shatter earth and sky, as the pent-up fires burst forth in the final
+explosion, which tore the mountain asunder and poured forth the
+devastating forces of the abysmal depths over land and sea. Crimson
+lava-flood and burning hail, blackened heaven and rocking earth,
+roaring sea and clamouring volcano, represented an Apocalyptic vision
+of Divine wrath, but probably no survivor remained to record the actual
+sight of the unprecedented phenomenon, transcending every terrestrial
+convulsion recorded in the chronicles of scientists. Only a slender
+feather of grey steam now issues from the lofty crater. Leaves and
+grasses flutter in the soft breeze, and a shower of white petals drifts
+upon the iron boulders, once incandescent amid the red torrents of
+rushing fire. A sheer precipice remained as the severed half of the
+shattered cone, when the rent cliffs shivered into fragments, and
+toppled over into the sea. Nature again breathes "peace and safety," as
+she did before "the sudden destruction" gave the lie to her mocking
+voice, and as the ruined pyramid of terrible Krakatau sinks below the
+horizon, and the good ship speeds on her way, a weight of awe seems
+lifted from the mind, oppressed by imagination and association with the
+ghastly tragedy of those untameable forces which defy calculation or
+comprehension.
+
+History has often proved the truth of the assertion that Time turns
+memories into dreams, but in the presence of Krakatau's smoking crater,
+the memories looming over the haunted volcano translate themselves into
+a nightmare of horror, for the shadows of doom still cling to the
+monumental pyramid, a menacing witness to the existence of those occult
+laws which baffle human investigation with their insoluble problems,
+and compel the defeated scientist to acknowledge himself a mere
+chronicler of inexplicable mysteries. The extent of the volcanic zone
+encircling the Malay Archipelago minimises the risk of catastrophe by
+numerous safety valves for the imprisoned forces of Earth's fiery
+abyss. In isolated Krakatau only one outlet existed for the vast
+accumulations of destructive agencies, gathering irresistible impetus
+through the protracted period of condensation and suppression which
+heated this mighty furnace of Nature's subterranean laboratory with
+sevenfold power. A generation has grown up since the hell of devouring
+fire swept across land and sea from this solitary mountain peak;
+villages have been rebuilt on their ancient sites, and the activities
+of life go on from year to year undisturbed. The story of Krakatau,
+told under the drooping boughs of dusky waringen-trees in the evening
+hour of leisure, seems veiled in the mists of legendary lore to youth
+and maiden, listening to the oft-told tale. Poverty clings to familiar
+soil, and in the deep groove of a narrow existence the popular mind
+takes little thought for the future. The realities of life are bounded
+by the daily needs, and the shadow of Krakatau fails to destroy the
+present peace of the simple folk, who, like children gathering flowers
+on the edge of a precipice, heed none of the grim possibilities of a
+perilous environment.
+
+
+
+
+PENANG.
+
+
+Poelo-Penang, _The Isle of the areca-nut_, separated by a narrow strait
+from the Malay Peninsula, was ceded to England in 1785 by the Rajah of
+Kedah, from whom the present Sultan of Johore is lineally descended.
+The little territory, chiefly consisting of a mountain covered with
+palm-forests, was then almost uninhabited, but the strategetic
+importance of the position resulted in the establishment of an English
+Presidency, until the phenomenal growth of Singapore made it the
+eventual centre of local authority. "Sinhapura," "the City of Lions"
+(or, more accurately, of tigers), founded by the Hinduized Malays, and
+developed by Sir Stamford Raffles into the principal trading port of
+the Eastern seas, of necessity drew off from Penang a large contingent
+of the polyglot races which flocked thither from all parts, when the
+British flag first waved above the newly-built fort, but at least
+100,000 inhabitants still occupy the verdant island, where the graceful
+areca palm attains unexampled perfection. Penang was merely regarded
+as an unimportant appendage of ancient Malacca, captured in 1311 by
+Albuquerque, and though the territory of the principal Sultan underwent
+innumerable vicissitudes through the changing fortunes of war, the
+royal line retained Johore at the foot of the Peninsula, up to the
+present day, the last scion of the old-world dynasty now accepting the
+suzerainty of England.
+
+A tribe of Klings (the Malay corruption of the word Telinga), sailing
+from the Coromandel coast, were the first immigrants under British
+rule. The half-breed Indian Malays, or _Jawi-Pekan_, followed, and the
+Chinese, finding a new outlet for their commercial genius, soon secured
+a firm footing on the fairy isle, a cone of emerald set in a sapphire
+sea. As the rickshaw wheels away from the noisy wharves of busy
+Georgetown into green aisles of areca and cocoanut, the spice-laden
+breeze blowing from the heights, and mingled with the breath of a
+thousand flowers, suggests Penang as "the mountain of myrrh, and hill
+of frankincense," described in the Canticle of Canticles. Present
+surroundings atone for the lack of life's amenities in the Dutch
+dependencies. The ripple of the sea, and the rustle of swaying palms,
+just stir the silence of the wave-washed terrace above the glassy
+straits. The gloomy blue of the Kedah mountains on the peninsula of
+Malacca, with black thunderclouds gathering round their serrated
+crests, heightens the brilliant loveliness of immediate surroundings,
+steeped in the ruby glow of the magical evening. Every road is an
+over-arching avenue of gorgeous foliage--dark tunnels of interwoven
+cocoa-palms, huge Amherstias alight as with lamps of fiery orange,
+tremulous tamarinds, and, more wonderful than all, a wide highway
+roofed by a continuous aisle of ansena-trees, the golden canopy of
+blossom overhead rivalled by the thick carpet of yellow petals, which
+deadens every sound, for the prodigal bounty of tropical Nature quickly
+replaces the loss of falling flowers. Exquisite lanes, smothered in
+glorious vegetation, surround the picturesque Racecourse, that
+_sine-qua-non_ of English occupation. Stately emperor palms, kitools
+with crimped green tresses, fan and oil palms, with the slender areca
+in countless thousands, vary the shadowy vistas branching out in every
+direction, with huge-leaved creepers and glossy rattans garlanding the
+gnarled trunks of forest-trees. The sculptured outlines of the splendid
+traveller's palm adorn the green lawns of European bungalows, embowered
+in torrents of trailing creepers, the scale of colour descending from
+white and pink to royal purple and burning crimson. Snowy arums and
+golden lilies choke the brooks, overflowing from the constant showers
+combining with a vertical sun to foster the wealth of greenery, the
+incandescent scarlet and yellow of hybiscus and allemanda glowing with
+the transparent depth of hue, beside which the fragile fairness of
+European flowers, is but a spectral reflection of those colour-drenched
+blossoms fused into jewelled lustre by the solar fires. Night drops her
+black curtain suddenly, with no intervening veil of twilight to temper
+Earth's plunge into darkness. Great stars hang low in the sombre sky,
+and the open interiors of Malay huts, aglow with lamp or torchlight,
+produce Rembrandtesque effects, revealing brown inmates cooking or
+eating their "evening rice."
+
+Georgetown, loyally named by British pioneers after a monarch eminently
+incongruous with any ideas belonging to a tropical fairyland, possesses
+neither architectural beauty nor salient character; wooden warehouses,
+Malay shanties, and white-washed streets being merely attractive from
+the ever-changing scheme of colour painted by varieties of race and
+costume. Tamils of ebon blackness drive picturesque teams of humped
+white oxen in red waggons laden with purple sugar-cane. Noble-looking
+Sikhs, in spotless linen, stride past with kingly gait. Brown Siamese,
+in many-coloured scarves and turbans gleaming with gold thread, chaffer
+and bargain at open stalls with blue-robed Chinamen, and the bronze
+figures of slim Malays, brightened by mere wisps of orange and scarlet
+added to Nature's durable suit, slip through the crowds, pausing before
+an emporium of polished brass-work, or a bamboo stall of teak wood
+carving. The sloping black mitre of a stout Parsee merchant,
+accompanied by a pretty daughter in white head-band and floating _sari_
+of cherry-coloured silk, varies the motley headgear of turban and fez,
+straw hat and sun-helmet, worn by this cosmopolitan population, the
+pink headkerchiefs, tinselled scarves, and jewelled buttons of the
+beautiful Burmese dress, drawing attention to the energetic bargaining
+of two astute customers for cooking utensils; these elegantly-attired
+but mahogany-coloured dames, rivalling the Sumatran women in business
+capacity, and equally determined on securing the _quid pro quo_. The
+long esplanade between town and sea borders a series of green lawns,
+where carriages draw up round a bandstand, and the youthful element of
+European Penang plays tennis with laudable zeal in the atmosphere of a
+stove-house. Chinese and Malay boyhood look on, and listen to the
+regimental music. The pallid English occupants of the carriages, in
+spite of diaphanous muslins and fluttering fans, appear too limp and
+wilted to bestow more than a languid attention to their surroundings,
+until the sea-breeze, springing up as the sun declines, revives their
+flagging spirits. The smartest turnout and the finest horses generally
+belong to John Chinaman, got up in irreproachable English costume, with
+his pigtail showing beneath a straw hat, though considerably
+attenuated, and lacking those adornments of silken braid and red
+tassels, generally plaited into the imposing queue of the orthodox
+Celestial. The indefatigable Chinese, frequently arriving on an alien
+shore without a dollar in their pockets, continually prove potential
+millionaires. Immune from climatic diseases, working early and late,
+tolerant and unaggressive, the iron hand in the velvet glove
+disentangles and grasps the threads of the most complicated commercial
+enterprise, for the idle Malay, "the gentleman of the East," here as
+elsewhere, cares for little beyond the sport of hunting and
+fish-spearing, which satisfies the personal necessities of his indolent
+existence. The wonderful solidarity of domestic life is an important
+factor in the Chinese career, for centuries of ancestor-worship, in
+spite of their arrestive tendency, have strengthened the bonds of
+family union and filial obedience by insisting on the supreme sanctity
+of blood-relationship.
+
+The luxuriant Botanical Garden, situated in a green cleft of an angle
+formed by encircling hills, is a paradise of dreamland, though but a
+miniature when compared with Buitenzorg for extent and variety. In the
+restful charm of the Penang garden Art and Nature go hand in hand,
+giving it an unique character among the horticultural pleasaunces of
+the Eastern world. The rolling lawns of the exquisite valley, the song
+of the waterfall which bounds the view as it leaps down the lofty
+cliffs, the abundant shade of tamarind and palm, and the gorgeous
+flowering shrubs, suggest nothing artificial or conventionalised in the
+deep seclusion of the fairy glen. Tall bamboos mirror fluffy foliage
+and white or golden stems in stream and pool. Orchids of the Brazils
+festoon unknown trees with the rose and purple butterflies formed by
+their brilliant blossoms, and colossal traveller's palms, so-called
+from the draught of water obtained by incision of the stem, stud the
+glades with stiffly-fluted fans. Lilac thunbergia wreaths over-arching
+boughs, and passion-flower flings white and crimson garlands over turf
+flushed with the pink blossoms of the sensitive plant. Gold mohur and
+red poinsettia blaze with fiery splendour, and huge crotons, with
+velvety leaves of pink, violet, and chocolate, grow to the height of
+forest trees. The tangle of brilliant flowers, systematically arranged
+by the concealed art of the Eastern horticulturist, shows many weird
+botanical forms. Green spears, bristling on mossy banks, are starred
+with crimson and barred with orange. Wine-coloured cacti twist
+blue-green spikes and stems in grotesque contortions, and topaz or
+ruby-tinted calladiums flame in thickets of hot colour outside cool
+green dells, filled by a forest of tropical ferns, mosses, and
+creepers. Lack of botanical knowledge constitutes a sore disadvantage
+in this treasury of floral beauty, but happily we may "consider the
+lilies," without cataloguing them, in this garden, "beautiful for
+situation," and worthy to be a "joy of the whole earth." The sombre
+jungle on the mountain side supplies the atmosphere of mystery which
+enhances the ideal peace of the cloistered Paradise, wrapt in the
+embrace of the haunted hills, and numbered among those visions of an
+earlier Eden, only realised in the Asiatic birthplace of Humanity which
+contained the typical Garden of the World, Divinely planted, where the
+Voice from Heaven deepened the music of whispering leaves and sighing
+breeze.
+
+A purple-red pat--for even the jasper-tinted tropical soil is
+beautiful, climbs through the glorious woods to the chief Sanatorium of
+the Malay Peninsula. A free fight among the coolies before starting
+demands a lengthy exercise of that stolidity with which the Western
+pilgrim must invest himself, as the invulnerable armour needed by the
+conflict of daily life. As a mere matter of personal convenience, this
+quality bears scant resemblance to the weapons enumerated by S. Paul in
+the Christian panoply. The oppressive heat, the futility of argument in
+an almost unknown tongue, and the general uncertainty of the subject in
+dispute, gradually producing this spurious virtue as the external
+decoration of sorely-exasperated souls. The exertion of the long ascent
+in the steaming heat requires six coolies for every chair. The red road
+mounts through enchanting vistas of palms and creepers, on the edge of
+the dark jungle, each turning point bringing a whiff of cooler air, as
+the evening gold flickers through the velvety fronds of tree-ferns, and
+the green feathers of spreading bamboos. From the white hotel near the
+summit, the blue Straits and the flats of Province Wellesley, the
+English portion of the Malay Peninsula, stand out against the frowning
+ridge of mountains, for black thunder-clouds continually brood over
+Malacca. Monkeys caper and chatter in the teak-trees bordering a
+circular terrace, and an ideal sylvan path leads to the Signal Station,
+Hospital, and Post Office, on an opposite height, dotted with the
+bungalows of summer visitors. A palm-shaded plateau beneath the hotel
+offers an ideal resting-place, but the impenetrable jungle covering the
+Penang Hills makes expeditions on foot or by chair, impracticable, and
+the wild deluges of rain, with terrific thunder peals bursting in
+uncontrolled fury on this exposed peak, minimise the delights of a
+mountain sojourn. The invasion of an army of jungle rats, behind the
+walls and above the ceiling of a room sodden and dripping with the
+afternoon's flood, completes the disillusion, and compels a hasty
+descent to the warmer damp of the lowlands, for the Equatorial climate,
+and the general absence of bed-coverings, causes a rheumatic stiffness
+on rising, which has to be steamed out by the atmospheric vapour-bath
+of the tropical island. A long rickshaw ride to Tanjong Bungah
+("Flowery Point") completes the day's cure in a sweltering heat, which
+on the return journey at 8 a.m. causes even the Chinese coolies to stop
+perpetually at wayside stalls, for the coloured syrups and sticky
+sweetmeats on which they perform prodigies of endurance and speed. An
+English planter, in his solitary cacao-garden on the edge of the sea,
+hails his compatriots with delight, and leads the way through the rocky
+ravines bordering his solitary bungalow. The glories of the tropics
+seldom alleviate the sense of exile, and cloudy England, with her
+"green fields and pastures dim," remains dearer than all the pageantry
+of Nature elsewhere to most of her absent sons.
+
+The Buddhist temple of Ayer-Etam, built in ascending tiers on a steep
+acclivity, varies the natural interests of Penang, with the marvels of
+Chinese architecture elaborated in the deep seclusion of mountain and
+forest. The dewy areca-palms throw a dark network of interlacing
+shadows across the red road, winding for miles through the sylvan
+scenery, the alchemy of the rising sun transmuting the myriad feathery
+fronds into fountains of green fire. Only the creaking of a
+bullock-waggon, or the thud of a falling cocoanut, breaks the hush of
+the tropical daybreak, when the leaves only whisper in their dreams,
+and the vernal earth, fresh as from her Creator's hand, renews her
+strength for the heat and burden of the coming day. The colossal pile,
+consisting of temple, monastery, and innumerable shrines, amid
+fountains and fish-ponds, bridges and balconies, courts and terraces,
+gleams whitely against the green gloom of the vast palm-forest on
+either side, sloping sharply to the shimmering sea. The usual appalling
+images of vermilion and gold guard every sculptured gateway, and
+surmount the painted shrines encircled by parterres of votive flowers,
+for the philosophic Buddhism of Ceylon and Siam gathers the moss and
+weeds of many an incongruous accretion in countless ages of pilgrimage
+through the Eastern world. The transcendental mysticism which spun the
+finest cobwebs of human thought, crystallises into concrete form when
+interpreted in the terms of China, where dim reminiscences of early
+Nature worship, and the terrors which upheld the authority of many
+obsolete creeds, have been incorporated into the vague ideals of Prince
+Gautama's prophetic soul. Altars, strewn with fragrant champak-flowers,
+stand beneath lace-carved alcoves of black teakwood, on the broad
+plateaux which form welcome resting-places beside each flight of steps
+on the marble stairway, the gilded pinnacles and aerial spires of the
+white temple sparkling against the sea of rich foliage. A knot of
+Burmese worshippers, with rose-coloured scarves and turbans, throw
+their infinitesimal coins on the palm-leaf mats of a red-roofed shrine,
+and tell the wooden beads of the Buddhist rosary, chanting the
+perpetual refrain of "_Pain_, _Sorrow_, _Unreality_," as a warning
+against the temptations of _Maya_, the world of illusion. The brown
+faces raised imploringly to the presiding deity, a leering demon with
+green face and yellow body, inspire the hope that the grotesque monster
+may prove his own unreality by vanishing from the hearts of his
+devotees into the limbo of nightmares from which he has emerged, for
+the philosophic quietism of Buddhist creed offers no disguise to the
+horrors of a hell far surpassing the terrific literalism of Dante's
+Inferno. Rippling conduits edge pillared courts and cloistered arcades,
+resplendent with frieze and cornice of blue and scarlet, a central
+fountain falling in prismatic showers over a sacred pond of golden
+carp. A white-robed monk smilingly conducts us across hump-backed
+bridges and colonnaded galleries to a bench beneath a grey frangipanni
+tree, starred with fragrant flowers, and brings welcome cups of tea,
+before another struggle up the interminable steps, which symbolise the
+mystic "path" leading to Nirvana's rest. Further hospitality meets us
+at a yellow kiosk, higher up the sacred hill, where a dainty breakfast
+of eggs, cakes, and honey stands on a white table-cloth, bearing a
+steaming coffee-pot. The temple paraphernalia of Buddhist worship
+strangely resembles Catholic imagery. Incense rises from open censers
+on the dais, the blue cloud enveloping a gorgeous altar, encrusted with
+gold. The central figure of Gautama Buddha, on the lotus leaf
+expresses supernal calm, and the symbolic flower, in bud, blossom, or
+foliage, forms the prevailing design of vase and amphora, within golden
+lattice-work. Hanging lamps glow on rapt faces of attendant saints, or
+on those supplementary local Buddhas which Chinese doctrine adds to the
+comparative simplicity of the original system. The foreshadowing of
+Christian truth culminates in the fact stated by a Buddhist priest,
+that bread and wine of mystic meaning are reserved on the altars of
+many among the forty subdivisions of Buddhism. The mountain Sanctuary,
+though marred by debased decoration and heathenised by the lurid
+figures of the guardian demons, inspires a reverent devotion, and
+exercises a solemnising influence on many souls whose faith differs
+from that of the white-clad monks, who seek to scale the dim heights of
+perfection from this lofty peak. "The Light which lighteth every man"
+must needs throw a faint and far-off ray even on an erroneous creed,
+groping through the darkness for the outstretched Hands which embrace
+all Humanity with boundless Love.
+
+Penang, as a little field of missionary enterprise, possesses many
+privileges often denied to the further islands of Malaysia. The variety
+of immigrant races, the constant intercourse with the Indian mainland,
+and the needs of travellers belonging to every nation, keep the
+settlement in touch with a multitude of spiritual needs. Christianity,
+both in Anglican and Roman guise, sows diligently in fields gradually
+whitening to harvest. The English Church, with reverent services and
+kindly priest, remains a little centre of cherished associations. The
+S. Francis Xavier Institute, which brings many Chinese boys into the
+Christian fold, through the labours of another Communion, carries on
+the work of the great mediaeval missionary, who reached the farthest
+East in his apostolate of love. The scarlet, yellow, and white veils of
+Eastern converts, the crowd of Eurasian Christians in both churches,
+and the presence of a devout Malay priest assisting at the English
+service, add unfamiliar notes of colour among the snowy muslins and
+flower-decked hats of English residents, but correctness of costume,
+both in men and women, contrasts refreshingly with the slovenly
+deshabille of the Netherlands India, the last and easily-snapped link
+between civilisation and barbarism.
+
+An opportunity occurs for a visit to Taiping, the capital of the Native
+Federated States, and situated in Province Wellesley. The launch
+crosses to Prai, the rising port of Malacca, and the northern terminus
+of the railway, sure to upset the passenger lists of the great steamers
+by traversing the entire peninsula to Johore. Through a channel
+bordered with weird mangroves, the boat enters a long, slow river,
+flowing between boundless palm-forests. The "black but comely" captain
+of the snorting boat escorts his European passengers to the station,
+arranges tickets, and waits on the platform till the train starts; the
+portly sailor in spotless linen, surmounted by his genial ebony face,
+waving encouragement as long as we remain in sight. The perils and
+dangers of the way are _nil_, and none of the threatened contingencies
+arise, but to Eastern thought risks, however remote and improbable, add
+to the value of a journey. Real drawbacks seem seldom mentioned, but
+imaginary lions in the way offer unlimited scope to Oriental fancy, and
+help to create a thrilling drama of destruction. Green paddi-fields,
+tall sugar-canes, and a world of palms, rise from the alluvial flats of
+Province Wellesley. The great rubber plantations, which form the chief
+source of wealth in Malacca, follow in endless succession, but, as
+usual, the astute Chinaman has obtained almost a monopoly of the
+industry, from which the greatest fortunes of the tropics are now
+derived. The bushy trees, with their black stems and ragged foliage,
+are destitute of the beauty so lavishly bestowed even on the weeds of
+this fertile soil. The tangled splendour of the wild jungle, which
+presently borders the track, demonstrates the immense difficulty of
+pioneering in a tropical forest, where the interlacing boughs of the
+myriad trees, with their impenetrable screen of climbing parasites,
+make perpetual walls of living green, defying human progress. Malay
+villages, brown and palm-thatched in the immemorial style, stand on
+piles above the swampy ground, which seems the approved site of
+habitation. A barren district devastated by a forest fire, contains the
+disused pits of ancient tin-mines, but these unsightly hollows have
+been decorated by Nature's hand with a luxuriant growth of the frilled
+pink lotus. Malay children, themselves unadorned, stand on wayside
+platforms, every brown hand filled with the rosy chalices of the sacred
+Buddhist emblem. Tradition says that the blossom, drawn up from the
+mire by the rays of the morning sun, symbolised the earth-stained soul,
+made pure and stainless by the attraction of that Divine Glory which
+Buddhism, though in distorted form, strove to attain.
+
+At the end of the sixty-mile journey, the English station-master at
+Taiping proved a veritable friend in need, arranging for a hot
+breakfast at the station, chartering rickshaw coolies, and--greatest
+blessing of all--directing the route, with a menacing pantomime
+concerning any shirking of duty, which saved all further trouble.
+Taiping is in an early stage of progress, and the open _tokos_ in
+waringen-shaded streets, show nothing but the necessaries of life, with
+terrible mementos of Birmingham in petroleum lamps, hideous oleographs,
+and machine-made household goods. Pretty bungalows stand beyond the
+interlacing avenues of dusky trees, and a framework toy of a church in
+the green outskirts, contains numerous brass tablets recording English
+lives laid down in this weary land. These pathetic memorials seem the
+only permanent features of the frail edifice in the shadowy God's-acre
+already filled with graves. The newly-planted park, with a lake fringed
+by a vivid growth of allemanda and hybiscus, stands below the purple
+heights of a long mountain chain, but Taiping offers few inducements to
+a prolonged stay, and after a hurried glimpse of terrific beasts and
+snakes of the jungle, preserved in the local museum, we return to the
+station, the kindly chef-de-gare disturbing his wife from her siesta in
+the adjacent bungalow, to feast us on tea and bananas. Darkness falls
+before the train reaches Penang, but a Chinese gentleman acts as pilot
+across some rocking boats, with only a faint flare from expiring
+torches to light the way, and starts the cringing coolies, with true
+politeness to the "foreign devils," but manifest wonder at their
+eccentric customs. Chinese womanhood, painted, bedizened, and tottering
+on the pink and gold hoofs which cause a sickening shudder to the
+Western spectator, indicates the barrier of prejudice to be surmounted
+before China can mould national ideals into harmony with modern
+progress.
+
+The vicinity of Penang to the Equatorial junction of the maritime
+world, widens local interests by the development of the Malay
+Peninsula, partly governed through the instrumentality of native
+Sultans under English guidance, but the abiding charm of the island
+lies beyond the radius of the thriving port. Nature still reigns
+supreme in this jewel of the Equator, where the amber swathes of Indian
+laburnum, the golden-hearted whiteness of luscious frangipanni blossom,
+and the red fire of the flamboyant tree, light up the endless aisles of
+swaying palms, where temple-flower and tuberose mingle their fragrance
+with the breath of clove and cinnamon, interpreting the imagery of the
+Eastern monarch's bridal song, and luring each lover of Earth's
+manifold beauty to "go down into her garden of spices and gather
+lilies."
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+The infinite variety of interests connected with the vast Malay
+Archipelago, mainly dominated by European authority, can only be
+inadequately mentioned in the simple record of a half-year's wandering
+through scenes which stamp their unfading beauty indelibly on mind and
+memory. Virgin fields of discovery still invite scientific exploration,
+and the green sepulchre of Equatorial vegetation retains innumerable
+secrets of Art and architecture. The geological mysteries of these
+volcanic shores offer a host of unsolved problems, the surpassing
+magnificence of flower and foliage makes every island a botanical
+Paradise, and the varieties of race and language which moulded and
+coloured the destinies of the Equatorial world, supply historian and
+philologist with opportunities of unlimited research. The dim
+chronicles of a distant past, inscribed in vague characters with faint
+traces of the earliest Malay wanderers, link their shadowy pages with
+historic records of falling dynasties and warring creeds, preceding
+the eventful period of colonial enterprise, initiated by the wild
+campaigns in quest of the precious spices. Although the Malay voyagers
+remain veiled in the twilight which clouds the verge of authentic
+history, the track of their keels may yet be followed through the
+conflicting currents of that hitherto unknown ocean which they opened
+to a future world. The forests and fishing grounds of every coast and
+island still support the manifold divisions of the nomadic race which
+forms the substratum of island life, and the star of hope which led
+them onward, shone for many subsequent adventurers across those
+Southern seas which aroused the energies and ambitions of later ages.
+The symbolical stories of the world's infancy join the actual
+experience of struggling humanity to the dreamland from whence it
+emerged, as some syren song lured it into unknown regions. The
+old-world legends of mankind "launching out into the deep, and letting
+down the nets for a draught," repeat themselves from age to age, for
+the human heart has ever sacrificed comfort and safety in order to set
+sail upon some trackless ocean, on the chance of reaping that harvest
+of life's sea for which man yearns with insatiable desire. The
+wanderings of Odysseus, in the youth of the world, illustrate the
+eternal pursuit of a visionary ideal, in those adventures which breathe
+the undying romance of the sea. The resemblance between the traditions
+of savage and civilised nations appears too strong to be fortuitous,
+and indicates the underlying unity of feeling and purpose implanted in
+the human race. Modern environment renders it impossible to calculate
+the tremendous force of the mysterious impulse which swayed the onward
+march of primeval tribes; even the later obstacles, overcome by bold
+spirits who followed in their wake, can never be adequately realised
+amid the artificial conditions of our present life. The charmed circle
+of the "Equator's emerald zone," encloses a region of marvel and
+mystery, where Imagination, the fairy with the magic mirror, helps to
+interpret and reveal the secrets of Beauty and Truth, which transfigure
+material form and colour with the halo of idealism. The tale of the
+mysterious ages when "the threads of families" were first "woven into
+the ropes of nations," still sways mind and fancy, but the romance of
+the world continues, though the progress of Humanity varies the
+pictured page. In the warm heart of the tropical Archipelago, Nature,
+triumphing in eternal youth, seems to mock the transient phases of
+aspiration and achievement, which vanish by turn into the misty past.
+The great Mother chants her "Song of Songs" throughout the myriad
+changes of Time, in terms so similar to the imagery of the Divine
+Epithalamium that, from a human standpoint, it seems swept by the
+spice-laden breezes of the Malayan Lotus-land, rather than by the
+fainter fragrance wafted from the orchards and gardens of Palestine or
+Egypt. Possibly the Syrian fleet, in search of ivory and peacocks,
+touched at the enchanted shores where "all trees of frankincense"
+perfumed the air, and produced those aromatic "powders of the
+merchant," regarded as priceless treasures both in primitive and
+mediaeval days. The story might well capture the fancy of the royal
+poet, and enrich the music of his verse with the luscious fragrance of
+a more luxuriant land than even his own pastoral Canaan, flowing with
+milk and honey. The hyperbole of Eastern thought often rests on a solid
+foundation of fact, and the Hebrew love-song weaves tropical Nature's
+lavish wealth of flower, fruit, and fragrance into a symbolic garland,
+flung in passionate rapture at the feet of the beloved one. The
+spiritual significance of the sacred lyric only transposes the mystic
+melody into a higher key, and heaps the thurible of the sanctuary with
+the frankincense of praise, to celebrate the typical bridal of Earth
+and Heaven.
+
+The diadem of palms on the last outlying islet of the Malay
+Archipelago, stands out in dark relief against the golden haze of the
+afterglow, which floods the sky, and changes the purple waters into a
+sea of fire. The pageant of sunset lingers for a moment, and then
+vanishes beneath of the pall of the swiftly-falling night. The
+fairyland of eternal summer sinks below the horizon, and realities melt
+into the shadows of that mental subconsciousness which holds the
+wraiths of departed joys. Memories of the golden hours spent in
+threading the flowery maze of the vast Archipelago, seem a mere handful
+of shells gathered on the surf-beaten shores, but if even the empty
+shell can hold the sound of the waves, this brief record of a cruise in
+sunny seas may also convey faint whispers of that syren voice which
+echoed through the ages of the past, and still allures the spellbound
+listener to the swaying palms and spice-scented bowers of Malaya's
+Island Paradise.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+The preference has been to retain inconsistencies and idiosyncracies in
+spelling, especially of proper nouns, except in the case of obvious
+typographical errors. Any corrections made are noted below.
+
+Many Javanese names use the "oe" group of vowels. In a few cases, the
+original text uses "oe" ligatures. Since such usage is inconsistent,
+even for the same name, and the number of instances are few, the "oe"
+ligatures have not been retained.
+
+Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words retained. (dream-like,
+dreamlike; ear-rings, earrings; re-adjustment, readjustment;
+sandal-wood, sandalwood; sub-consciousness, subconsciousness;
+sub-divisions, subdivisions; thunder-clouds, thunderclouds;
+waist-cloth, waistcloth; white-washed, whitewashed; wicker-work,
+wickerwork)
+
+In the original text, the entire Table of Contents was printed in
+italic typeface. For the plaintext version of this ebook, in order to
+reduce clutter, the standard markup for italics has not been used for
+text in the Table of Contents.
+
+Table of Contents, entry for "The Solo-Bessir Isles". The chapter
+heading in the main text reads "THE SOELA-BESSIR ISLES." The original
+wording has been retained in both cases.
+
+Pg. 34, "int oa" changed to "into a". (forest aisles into a)
+
+Pg. 35, "sanatorioum" changed to "sanatorium". (a favourite sanatorium
+of the Dutch)
+
+Pg. 38, "possing" changed to "possessing". (possessing a notable)
+
+Pg. 79, unusual spelling "pourtrayed" retained.
+
+Pg. 89, "ominious" changed to "ominous". (played an ominous part)
+
+Pg. 94 and 202, "unmistakeable" is also spelled "unmistakable" on page
+140. Original spellings retained in all cases.
+
+Pg. 114 and 115, "sulphureous" is also spelled "sulphurous" on page 44.
+Original spellings retained in all cases.
+
+Pg. 118, "prisets" changed to "priests". (while the priests of Siva)
+
+Pg. 144, "elswhere" changed to "elsewhere". (here as elsewhere)
+
+Pg. 155, "benath" changed to "beneath". (beneath a hill covered)
+
+Pg. 156, "pentrate" changed to "penetrate". (of air can penetrate)
+
+Pg. 166, "smoulderng" changed to "smouldering". (which hides the
+smouldering)
+
+Pg. 179, "he" changed to "the". (from the motionless waters)
+
+Pg. 187, "inagurated" changed to "inaugurated". (growth of foreign
+vegetation was thus inaugurated)
+
+Pg. 189, "Calvanistic" changed to "Calvinistic". (grimness of
+Calvinistic creed)
+
+Pg. 223, "violents" changed to "violent". (continuous roar of violent
+explosions)
+
+Pg. 239, "Buddhim" changed to "Buddhism". (philosophic Buddhism of
+Ceylon)
+
+Pg. 239, extraneous dot in between sentences: "through the Eastern
+world. . The transcendental". It does not appear to be an ellipsis and
+has thus been removed.
+
+Pg. 243, extraneous dot in between sentences: "derived. . The bushy
+trees". It does not appear to be an ellipsis and has thus been removed.
+
+Pg. 247, "Archipegalo" changed to "Archipelago". (the vast Malay
+Archipelago)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Through the Malay Archipelago, by Emily Richings
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO ***
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