The Malay Archipelago

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago

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There are two kinds of people inhabiting these islands--the
indigenes, who have the Papuan characters strongly marked, and
who are pagans; and a mixed race, who are nominally Mahometans,
and wear cotton clothing, while the former use only a waist cloth
of cotton or bark. These Mahometans are said to have been driven
out of Banda by the early European settlers. They were probably a
brown race, more allied to the Malays, and their mixed
descendants here exhibit great variations of colour, hair, and
features, graduating between the Malay and Papuan types. It is
interesting to observe the influence of the early Portuguese
trade with these countries in the words of their language, which
still remain in use even among these remote and savage islanders.
"Lenco" for handkerchief, and "faca" for knife, are here used to
the exclusion of the proper Malay terms. The Portuguese and
Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They
effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than
any other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their
power of impressing their own language, religion, and manners on
rode and barbarous tribes.

The striking contrast of character between these people and the
Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One day when I was
rambling in the forest, an old man stopped to look at me catching
an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put it away
in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer,
but bent almost double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter.
Every one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay
would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what I
was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never
heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a stranger, to
whom, however, his disdainful glances or whispered remarks are
less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of
merriment. The women here were not so much frightened at
strangers, or made to keep themselves so much secluded as among
the Malay races; the children were more merry and had the "nigger
grin," while the noisy confusion of tongues among the men, and
their excitement on very ordinary occasions, are altogether
removed from the general taciturnity and reserve of the Malay.

The language of the Ke people consists of words of one, two, or
three syllables in about equal proportions, and has many
aspirated and a few guttural sounds. The different villages have
slight differences of dialect, but they are mutually
intelligible, and, except in words that have evidently been
introduced during a long-continued commercial intercourse, seem
to have no affinity whatever with the Malay languages.

Jan. 6th.-The small boats being finished, we sailed for Aru at 4
P.M., and as we left the shores of Ke had a line view of its
rugged and mountainous character; ranges of hills, three or four
thousand feet high, stretching southwards as far as the eye could
reach, everywhere covered with a lofty, dense, and unbroken
forest. We had very light winds, and it therefore took us thirty
hours to make the passage of sixty miles to the low, or flat, but
equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we anchored in the
harbour of Dobbo at nine in the evening of the next day.

My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily terminated, I
must, before taking leave of it for some months, bear testimony
to the merits of the queer old-world vessel. Setting aside all
ideas of danger, which is probably, after all, not more than in
any other craft, I must declare that I have never, either before
or since, made a twenty days' voyage so pleasantly, or perhaps,
more correctly speaking, with so little discomfort. This I
attribute chiefly to having my small cabin on deck, and entirely
to myself, to having my own servants to wait upon me, and to the
absence of all those marine-store smells of paint, pitch, tallow,
and new cordage, which are to me insupportable. Something is also
to be put down to freedom from all restraint of dress, hours of
meals, &c., and to the civility and obliging disposition of the
captain. I had agreed to have my meals with him, but whenever I
wished it I had them in my own berth, and at what hours I felt
inclined. The crew were all civil and good-tempered, and with
very little discipline everything went on smoothly, and the
vessel was kept very clean and in pretty good order, so that on
the whole I was much delighted with the trip, and was inclined to
rate the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpassing those
of the most magnificent screw-steamer, that highest result of our
civilisation.

CHAPTER XXX

THE ARU ISLANDS--RESIDENCE IN DOBBO

(JANUARY TO MARCH 1857.)

On the 8th of January, 1857, I landed at Dobbo, the trading
settlement of the Bugis and Chinese, who annually visit the Aru
Islands. It is situated on the small island of Wamma, upon a spit
of sand which projects out to the north, and is just wide enough
to contain three rows of houses. Though at first sight a most
strange and desolate-looking place to build a village on, it has
many advantages. There is a clear entrance from the west among
the coral reefs that border the land, and there is good anchorage
for vessels, on one side of the village or the other, in both the
east and west monsoons. Being fully exposed to the sea-breezes in
three directions it is healthy, and the soft sandy heath offers
great facilities for hauling up the praus, in order to secure
them from sea-worms and prepare them for the homeward voyage. At
its southern extremity the sand-bank merges in the beach of the
island, and is backed by a luxuriant growth of lofty forest. The
houses are of various sizes, but are all built after one pattern,
being merely large thatched sheds, a small portion of which, next
the entrance, is used as a dwelling, while the rest is parted
oft; and often divided by one or two floors, in order better to
stow away merchandise and native produce.

As we had arrived early in the season, most of the houses were
empty, and the place looked desolate in the extreme--the whole of
the inhabitants who received us on our landing amounting to about
half-a-dozen Bugis and Chinese. Our captain, Herr Warzbergen, had
promised to obtain a house for me, but unforeseen difficulties
presented themselves. One which was to let had no roof; and the
owner, who was building it on speculation, could not promise to
finish it in less than a month. Another, of which the owner was
dead, and which I might therefore take undisputed possession of
as the first comer, wanted considerable repairs, and no one could
be found to do the work, although about four times its value was
offered. The captain, therefore, recommended me to take
possession of a pretty good house near his own, whose owner was
not expected for some weeks; and as I was anxious to be on shore,
I immediately had it cleared out, and by evening had all my
things housed, and was regularly installed as an inhabitant of
Dobbo. I had brought with me a cane chair, and a few light
boards, which were soon rigged up into a table and shelves. A
broad bamboo bench served as sofa and bedstead, my boxes were
conveniently arranged, my mats spread on the floor, a window cut
in the palm-leaf wall to light my table, and though the place was
as miserable and gloomy a shed as could be imagined, I felt as
contented as if I had obtained a well-furnished mansion, and
looked forward to a month's residence in it with unmixed
satisfaction.

The next morning, after an early breakfast, I set off to explore
the virgin forests of Aru, anxious to set my mind at rest as to
the treasures they were likely to yield, and the probable success
of my long-meditated expedition. A little native imp was our
guide, seduced by the gift of a German knife, value three-
halfpence, and my Macassar boy Baderoon brought his chopper to
clear the path if necessary.

We had to walk about half a mile along the beach, the ground
behind the village being mostly swampy, and then turned into the
forest along a path which leads to the native village of Wamma,
about three miles off on the other side of the island. The path
was a narrow one, and very little used, often swampy and
obstructed by fallen trees, so that after about a mile we lost it
altogether, our guide having turned back, and we were obliged to
follow his example. In the meantime, however, I had not been
idle, and my day's captures determined the success of my journey
in an entomological point of view. I had taken about thirty
species of butterflies, more than I had ever captured in a day
since leaving the prolific banks of the Amazon, and among them
were many most rare and beautiful insects, hitherto only known by
a few specimens from New Guinea. The large and handsome spectre
butterfly, Hestia durvillei; the pale-winged peacock butterfly,
Drusilla catops; and the most brilliant and wonderful of the
clear-winged moths, Cocytia durvillei, were especially
interesting, as well, as several little "blues," equalling in
brilliancy and beauty anything the butterfly world can produce.
In the other groups of insects I was not so successful, but this
was not to be wondered at in a mere exploring ramble, when only
what is most conspicuous and novel attracts the attention.
Several pretty beetles, a superb "bug," and a few nice land-
shells were obtained, and I returned in the afternoon well
satisfied with my first trial of the promised land.

The next two days were so wet and windy that there was no going
out; but on the succeeding one the sun shone brightly, and I had
the good fortune to capture one of the most magnificent insects
the world contains, the great bird-winged butterfly, Ornithoptera
Poseidon. I trembled with excitement as I saw it coming
majestically towards me, and could hardly believe I had really
succeeded in my stroke till I had taken it out of the net and was
gazing, lost in admiration, at the velvet black and brilliant
green of its wings, seven inches across, its bolder body, and
crimson breast. It is true I had seen similar insects in cabinets
at home, but it is quite another thing to capture such oneself-to
feel it struggling between one's fingers, and to gaze upon its
fresh and living beauty, a bright gem shirring out amid the
silent gloom of a dark and tangled forest. The village of Dobbo
held that evening at least one contented man.

Jan. 26th.--Having now been here a fortnight, I began to
understand a little of the place and its peculiarities. Praus
continually arrived, and the merchant population increased almost
daily. Every two or three days a fresh house was opened, and the
necessary repairs made. In every direction men were bringing in
poles, bamboos, rattans, and the leaves of the nipa palm to
construct or repair the walls, thatch, doors, and shutters of
their houses, which they do with great celerity. Some of the
arrivals were Macassar men or Bugis, but more from the small
island of Goram, at the east end of Ceram, whose inhabitants are
the petty traders of the far East. Then the natives of Aru come
in from the other side of the islands (called here "blakang
tana," or "back of the country") with the produce they have
collected during the preceding six months, and which they now
sell to the traders, to some of whom they are most likely in
debt.

Almost all, or I may safely say all, the new arrivals pay me a
visit, to see with their own eyes the unheard-of phenomenon of a
person come to stay at Dobbo who does not trade! They have their
own ideas of the uses that may possibly be made of stuffed birds,
beetles, and shells which are not the right shells--that is,
"mother-of-pearl." They every day bring me dead and broken
shells, such as l can pick up by hundreds on the beach, and seem
quite puzzled and distressed when I decline them. If, however,
there are any snail shells among a lot, I take them, and ask for
more--a principle of selection so utterly unintelligible to them,
that they give it up in despair, or solve the problem by imputing
hidden medical virtue to those which they see me preserve so
carefully.

These traders are all of the Malay race, or a mixture of which
Malay is the chef ingredient, with the exception of a few
Chinese. The natives of Aru, on the other hand, are, Papuans,
with black or sooty brown skims, woolly or frizzly hair, thick-
ridged prominent noses, and rather slender limbs. Most of them
wear nothing but a waist-cloth, and a few of them may be seen all
day long wandering about the half-deserted streets of Dobbo
offering their little bit of merchandise for sale.

Living in a trader's house everything is brought to me as well as
to the rest,--bundles of smoked tripang, or "beche de mer,"
looking like sausages which have been rolled in mud and then
thrown up the chimney; dried sharks' fins, mother-of-pearl
shells, as well as birds of Paradise, which, however, are so
dirty and so badly preserved that I have as yet found no
specimens worth purchasing. When I hardly look at the articles,
and make no offer for them, they seem incredulous, and, as if
fearing they have misunderstood me, again offer them, and declare
what they want in return--knives, or tobacco, or sago, or
handkerchiefs. I then have to endeavour to explain, through any
interpreter who may be at hand, that neither tripang nor pearl
oyster shells have any charms for me, and that I even decline to
speculate in tortoiseshell, but that anything eatable I will buy-
-fish, or turtle, or vegetables of any sort. Almost the only
food, however, that we can obtain with any regularity, are fish
and cockles of very good quality, and to supply our daily wants
it is absolutely necessary to be always provided with four
articles--tobacco, knives, sago-cakes, and Dutch copper doits--
because when the particular thing asked for is not forthcoming,
the fish pass on to the next house, and we may go that day
without a dinner. It is curious to see the baskets and buckets
used here. The cockles are brought in large volute shells,
probably the Cymbium ducale, while gigantic helmet-shells, a
species of Cassis, suspended by a rattan handle, form the vessels
in which fresh water is daily carried past my door. It is painful
to a naturalist to see these splendid shells with their inner
whorls ruthlessly broken away to fit them for their ignoble use.

My collections, however, got on but slowly, owing to the
unexpectedly bad weather, violent winds with heavy showers having
been so continuous as only to give me four good collecting days
out of the first sixteen I spent here. Yet enough had been
collected to show me that with time and fine weather I might
expect to do something good. From the natives I obtained some
very fine insects and a few pretty land-shells; and of the small
number of birds yet shot more than half were known New Guinea
species, and therefore certainly rare in European collections,
while the remainder were probably new. In one respect my hopes
seemed doomed to be disappointed. I had anticipated the pleasure
of myself preparing fine specimens of the Birds of Paradise, but
I now learnt that they are all at this season out of plumage, and
that it is in September and October that they have the long
plumes of yellow silky feathers in full perfection. As all the
praus return in July, I should not be able to spend that season
in Aru without remaining another whole year, which was out of the
question. I was informed, however, that the small red species,
the "King Bird of Paradise," retains its plumage at all seasons,
and this I might therefore hope to get.

As I became familiar with the forest scenery of the island,
(perceived it to possess some characteristic features that
distinguished it from that of Borneo and Malacca, while, what is
very singular and interesting, it recalled to my mind the half-
forgotten impressions of the forests of Equatorial America. For
example, the palms were much more abundant than I had generally
found them in the East, more generally mingled with the other
vegetation, more varied in form and aspect, and presenting some
of those lofty and majestic smooth-stemmed, pinnate-leaved
species which recall the Uauassu (Attalea speciosa) of the
Amazon, but which I had hitherto rarely met with in the Malayan
islands.

In animal life the immense number and variety of spiders and of
lizards were circumstances that recalled the prolific regions of
south America, more especially the abundance and varied colours
of the little jumping spiders which abound on flowers and
foliage, and are often perfect gems of beauty. The web-spinning
species were also more numerous than I had ever seen them, and
were a great annoyance, stretching their nets across the
footpaths just about the height of my face; and the threads
composing these are so strong and glutinous as to require much
trouble to free oneself from them. Then their inhabitants, great
yellow-spotted monsters with bodies two inches long, and legs in
proportion, are not pleasant to o run one's nose against while
pursuing some gorgeous butterfly, or gazing aloft in search of
some strange-voiced bird. I soon found it necessary not only to
brush away the web, but also to destroy the spinner; for at
first, having cleared the path one day, I found the next morning
that the industrious insects had spread their nets again in the
very same places.

The lizards were equally striking by their numbers, variety, and
the situations in which they were found. The beautiful blue-
tailed species so abundant in Ke was not seen here. The Aru
lizards are more varied but more sombre in their colours--shades
of green, grey, brown, and even black, being very frequently
seen. Every shrub and herbaceous plant was alive with them, every
rotten trunk or dead branch served as a station for some of these
active little insect-hunters, who, I fear, to satisfy their gross
appetites, destroy many gems of the insect world, which would
feast the eyes and delight the heart of our more discriminating
entomologists. Another curious feature of the jungle here was the
multitude of sea-shells everywhere met with on the ground and
high up on the branches and foliage, all inhabited by hermit-
crabs, who forsake the beach to wander in the forest. I lave
actually seen a spider carrying away a good-sized shell and
devouring its (probably juvenile) tenant. On the beach, which I
had to walls along every morning to reach the forest, these
creatures swarmed by thousands. Every dead shell, from the
largest to the most minute, was appropriated by them. They formed
small social parties of ten or twenty around bits of stick or
seaweed, but dispersed hurriedly at the sound of approaching
footsteps. After a windy night, that nasty-looking Chinese
delicacy the sea-slug was sometimes thrown up on the beach, which
was at such times thickly strewn with some of the most beautiful
shells that adorn our cabinets, along with fragments and masses
of coral and strange sponges, of which I picked up more than
twenty different sorts. In many cases sponge and coral are so
much alike that it is only on touching them that they can be
distinguished. Quantities of seaweed, too, are thrown up; but
strange as it may seem, these are far less beautiful and less
varied than may be found on any favourable part of our own
coasts.

The natives here, even those who seem to be of pare Papuan race,
were much more reserved and taciturn than those of Ke. This is
probably because I only saw them as yet among strangers and in
small parties, One must see the savage at home to know what he
really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes
breaks out. Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or
talk aloud to themselves (quite a negro characteristic); and try
all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the true
Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and
having a fancy to try what sort of eating tripang would be, I
bought a couple, paying for them with such an extravagant
quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer.
He could not, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the
fragrant weed, and exhibited the large handful to his companions,
he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in a most
expressive pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in
paying a Malay for some trifle. In no case, however, was his
pleasure visible on his countenance--a dull and stupid hesitation
only showing his surprise, which would be exhibited exactly in
the same way whether he was over or under paid. These little
moral traits are of the greatest interest when taken in connexion
with physical features. They do not admit of the same ready
explanation by external causes which is so frequently applied to
the latter. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to
trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly from
country to country, and thus have few opportunities of becoming
acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of
ascertaining what is really the average physical conformation of
the people. Such are exceedingly apt to be deceived in places
where two races have long, intermingled, by looking on
intermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural
transition from one race to the other, instead of an artificial
mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be the more
readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers
on the subject should have been in the habit of classing these
races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in
physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one
might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the
Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated as any two
human races that exist, being distinguished by physical, mental,
and moral characteristics, all of the most marked and striking
kind.

Feb 5th.--I took advantage of a very fine calm day to pay a visit
to the island of Wokan, which is about a mile from us, and forms
part of the "canna busar," or mainland of Aru. This is a large
island, extending from north to south about a hundred miles, but
so low in many parts as to be intersected by several creeks,
which run completely through it, offering a passage for good-
sized vessels. On the west side, where we are, there are only a
few outlying islands, of which ours (Wamma) is the principal; but
on the east coast are a great number of islands, extending some
miles beyond the mainland, and forming the "blakang tang," or
"back country," of the traders, being the principal seat of the
pearl, tripang, and tortoiseshell fisheries. To the mainland many
of the birds and animals of the country are altogether confined;
the Birds of paradise, the black cockatoo, the great brush-
turkey, and the cassowary, are none of them found on Wamma or any
of the detached islands. I did not, however, expect in this
excursion to see any decided difference in the forest or its
productions, and was therefore agreeably surprised. The beach was
overhung with the drooping branches of lame trees, loaded with
Orchideae, ferns, and other epiphytal plants. In the forest there
was more variety, some parts being dry, and with trees of a lower
growth, while in others there were some of the most beautiful
palms I have ever seen, with a perfectly straight, smooth,
slender stem, a hundred feet high, and a crown of handsome
drooping leaves. But the greatest novelty and most striking
feature to my eyes were the tree-ferns, which, after seven years
spent in the tropics, I now saw in perfection for the first time.
All I had hitherto met with were slender species, not more than
twelve feet high, and they gave not the least idea of the supreme
beauty of trees bearing their elegant heads of fronds more than
thirty feet in the air, like those which were plentifully
scattered about this forest. There is nothing in tropical
vegetation so perfectly beautiful.

My boys shot five sorts of birds, none of which we had obtained
during a month's shooting in Wamma. Two were very pretty
flycatchers, already known from New Guinea; one of them (Monarcha
chrysomela), of brilliant black and bright orange colours, is by
some authors considered to be the most beautiful of all
flycatchers; the other is pure white and velvety black, with a
broad fleshy ring round the eye of are azure blue colour; it is
named the "spectacled flycatcher" (Monarcha telescopthalma), and
was first found in New Guinea, along with the other, by the
French naturalists during the voyage of the discovery-ship
Coquille.

Feb. 18th.--Before leaving Macassar, I had written to the
Governor of Amboyna requesting him to assist me with the native
chiefs of Aru. I now received by a
vessel which had arrived from Amboyna a very polite answer
informing me that orders had been sent to give me every
assistance that I might require; and I was just congratulating
myself on being at length able to get a boat and men to go to the
mainland and explore the interior, when a sudden check carne in
the form of a piratical incursion. A small prau arrived which had
been attacked by pirates and had a man wounded. They were said to
have five boats, but more were expected to be behind and the
traders were all in consternation, fearing that their small
vessels sent trading to the "blakang tana" would be plundered.
The Aru natives were of course dreadfully alarmed, as these
marauders attack their villages, burn and murder, and carry away
women and children for slaves. Not a man will stir from his
village for some time, and I must remain still a prisoner in
Dobbo. The Governor of Amboyna, out of pure kindness, has told
the chiefs that they are to be responsible for my safety, so that
they have au excellent excuse for refusing to stir.

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