Thomas Hill Green - "An Estimate of the Value and Influence of Works of Fiction in Modern Times"

George Mueller - "A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller"

W. Stanley - "Instruction for Using a Slide Rule"

Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay) - "Cecilia vol. 2"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Malay Archipelago

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




At this place I obtained some light on the complicated mixture of
races in Aru, which would utterly confound an ethnologist. Many
of the, natives, though equally dark with the others, have little
of the Papuan physiognomy, but have more delicate features of the
European type, with more glossy, curling hair: These at first
quite puzzled me, for they have no more resemblance to Malay than
to Papuan, and the darkness of skin and hair would forbid the
idea of Dutch intermixture. Listening to their conversation,
however, I detected some words that were familiar to me. "Accabó"
was one; and to be sure that it was not an accidental
resemblance, I asked the speaker in Malay what "accabó" meant,
and was told it meant "done or finished," a true Portuguese word,
with its meaning retained. Again, I heard the word "jafui" often
repeated, and could see, without inquiry, that its meaning was
"he's gone," as in Portuguese. "Porco," too, seems a common name,
though the people have no idea of its European meaning. This
cleared up the difficulty. I at once understood that some early
Portuguese traders had penetrated to these islands, and mixed
with the natives, influencing their language, and leaving in
their descendants for many generations the visible
characteristics of their race. If to this we add the occasional
mixture of Malay, Dutch, and Chinese with the indigenous Papuans,
we have no reason to wonder at the curious varieties of form and
feature occasionally to be met with in Aru. In this very house
there was a Macassar man, with an Aru wife and a family of mixed
children. In Dobbo I saw a Javanese and an Amboyna man, each with
an Aru wife and family; and as this kind of mixture has been
going on for at least three hundred years, and probably much
longer, it has produced a decided effect on the physical
characteristics of a considerable portion of the population of
the islands, more especially in Dobbo and the parts nearest to
it.

March 28th.--The "Orang-kaya" being very ill with fever had
begged to go home, and had arranged with one of the men of the
house to go on with me as his substitute. Now that I wanted to
move, the bugbear of the pirates was brought up, and it was
pronounced unsafe to go further than the next small river. This
world not suit me, as I had determined to traverse the channel
called Watelai to the "blakang-tana;" but my guide was firm in
his dread of pirates, of which I knew there was now no danger, as
several vessels had gone in search of them, as well as a Dutch
gunboat which had arrived since I left Dobbo. I had, fortunately,
by this time heard that the Dutch "Commissie" had really arrived,
and therefore threatened that if my guide did not go with me
immediately, I would appeal to the authorities, and he would
certainly be obliged to gig a back the cloth which the "Orang-
kaya" had transferred to him in prepayment. This had the desired
effect; matters were soon arranged, and we started the next
morning. The wind, however, was dead against us, and after rowing
hard till midday we put in to a small river where there were few
huts, to cook our dinners. The place did not look very promising,
but as we could not reach our destination, the Watelai river,
owing to the contrary wind, I thought we might as well wait here
a day or two. I therefore paid a chopper for the use of a small
shed, and got my bed and some boxes on shore. In the evening,
after dark, we were suddenly alarmed by the cry of "Bajak!
bajak!" (Pirates!) The men all seized their bows and spears, and
rushed down to the beach; we got hold of our guns and prepared
for action, but in a few minutes all came back laughing and
chattering, for it had proved to be only a small boat and some of
their own comrades returned from fishing. When all was quiet
again, one of the men, who could speak a little Malay, came to me
and begged me not to sleep too hard. "Why?" said I. "Perhaps the
pirates may really come," said he very seriously, which made me
laugh and assure him I should sleep as hard as I could.

Two days were spent here, but the place was unproductive of
insects or birds of interest, so we made another attempt to get
on. As soon as we got a little away from the land we had a fair
wind, and in six hours' sailing reached the entrance of the
Watelai channel, which divides the most northerly from the middle
portion of Aru. At its mouth this was about half a mile wide, but
soon narrowed, and a mile or two on it assumed entirely the
aspect of a river about the width of the Thames at London,
winding among low but undulating and often hilly country. The
scene was exactly such as might be expected in the interior of a
continent. The channel continued of a uniform average width, with
reaches and sinuous bends, one bank being often precipitous, or
even forming vertical cliffs, while the other was flat and
apparently alluvial; and it was only the pure salt-water, and the
absence of any stream but the slight flux and reflux of the tide,
that would enable a person to tell that he was navigating a
strait and not a river. The wind was fair, and carried us along,
with occasional assistance from our oars, till about three in the
afternoon, when we landed where a little brook formed two or
three basins in the coral rock, and then fell in a miniature
cascade into the salt water river. Here we bathed and cooked our
dinner, and enjoyed ourselves lazily till sunset, when we pursued
our way for two hours snore, and then moored our little vessel to
an overhanging tree for the night.

At five the next morning we started again, and in an hour
overtook four large praus containing the "Commissie," who had
come from Dobbo to make their official tour round the islands,
and had passed us in the eight. I paid a visit to the Dutchmen,
one of whom spoke a little English, but we found that we could
get on much better with Malay. They told me that they had been
delayed going after the pirates to one of the northern islands,
and had seen three of their vessels but could not catch them,
because on being pursued they rowed out in the wind's eye, which
they are enabled to do by having about fifty oars to each boat.
Having had some tea with thorn, I bade them adieu, and turned up
a narrow channel which our pilot said would take us to the
village of Watelai, on the west side- of Are. After going some
miles we found the channel nearly blocked up with coral, so that
our boat grated along the bottom, crunching what may truly be
called the living rock. Sometimes all hands had to get out and
wade, to lighten the vessel and lift it over the shallowest
places; but at length we overcame all obstacles and reached a
wide bay or estuary studded with little rocks and islets, and
opening to the western sea and the numerous islands of the
"blakang-tuna." I now found that the village we were going to was
miles away; that we should have to go out to sea, and round a
rocky point. A squall seemed coming on, and as I have a horror of
small boats at sea, and from all I could learn Watelai village
was not a place to stop at (no birds of Paradise being found
there), I determined to return and go to a village I had heard of
up a tributary of the Watelai river, and situated nearly in the
centre of the mainland of Aru. The people there were said to be
good, and to be accustomed to hunting and bird-catching, being
too far inland to get any part of their food from the sea. While
I was deciding this point the squall burst upon us, and soon
raised a rolling sea in the shallow water, which upset an oil
bottle and a lamp, broke some of my crockery, and threw us all
into confusion. Rowing hard we managed to get back into the main
river by dusk, and looked out for a place to cook our suppers. It
happened to be high water, and a very high tide, so that every
piece of sand or beach was covered, and it was with the greatest
difficulty, and after much groping in the dark, that we
discovered a little sloping piece of rock about two feet square
on which to make a fire and cook some rice. The next day we
continued our way back, and on the following day entered a stream
on the south side of the Watelai river, and ascending to where
navigation ceased found the little village of Wanumbai,
consisting of two large houses surrounded by plantations, amid
the virgin forests of Aru.

As I liked the look of the place, and was desirous of staying
some time, I sent my pilot to try and make a bargain for house
accommodation. The owner and chief man of the place made many
excuses. First, be was afraid I would not like his house, and
then was doubtful whether his son, who was away, would like his
admitting me. I had a long talk with him myself, and tried to
explain what I was doing, and how many things I would buy of
them, and showed him my stock of heads, and knives, and cloth,
and tobacco, all of which I would spend with his family and
friends if he would give me house-room. He seemed a little
staggered at this, and said he, would talk to his wife, and in
the meantime I went for a little walk to see the neighbourhood.
When I carne back, I again sent my pilot, saying that I would go
away if he would not dive me part of his house. In about half an
hour he returned with a demand for about half the cost of
building a house, for the rent of a small portion of it for a few
weeks. As the only difficulty now was a pecuniary one, I got out
about ten yards of cloth, an axe, with a few beads and some
tobacco, and sent them as my final offer for the part of the
house which I had before pointed out. This was accepted after a
little more talk, and I immediately proceeded to take possession.

The house was a good large one, raised as usual about seven feet
on posts, the walls about three or four feet more, with a high-
pitched roof. The floor was of bamboo laths, and in the sloping
roof way an immense shutter, which could be lifted and propped up
to admit light and air. At the end where this was situated the
floor was raised about a foot, and this piece, about ten feet
wide by twenty long, quite open to the rest of the house, was the
portion I was to occupy. At one end of this piece, separated by a
thatch partition, was a cooking place, with a clay floor and
shelves for crockery. At the opposite end I had my mosquito
curtain hung, and round the walls we arranged my boxes and other
stores, fated up a table and seat, and with a little cleaning and
dusting made the place look quite comfortable. My boat was then
hauled up on shore, and covered with palm-leaves, the sails and
oars brought indoors, a hanging-stage for drying my specimens
erected outside the house and another inside, and my boys were
set to clean their gnus and get ail ready for beginning work.

The next day I occupied myself in exploring the paths in the
immediate neighbourhood. The small river up which we had ascended
ceases to be navigable at this point, above which it is a little
rocky brook, which quite dries up in the hot season. There was
now, however, a fair stream of water in it; and a path which was
partly in and partly by the side of the water, promised well for
insects, as I here saw the magnificent blue butterfly, Papilio
ulysses, as well as several other fine species, flopping lazily
along, sometimes resting high up on the foliage which drooped
over the water, at others settling down on the damp rock or on
the edges of muddy pools. A little way on several paths branched
off through patches of second-growth forest to cane-fields,
gardens, and scattered houses, beyond which again the dark wall
of verdure striped with tree-trunks, marked out the limits of the
primeval forests. The voices of many birds promised good
shooting, and on my return I found that my boy s had already
obtained two or three kinds I had not seen before; and in the
evening a native brought me a rare and beautiful species of
ground-thrush (Pitta novaeguinaeae) hitherto only known from New
Guinea.

As I improved my acquaintance with them I became much interested
in these people, who are a fair sample of the true savage
inhabitants of the Aru Islands, tolerably free from foreign
admixture. The house I lived in contained four or five families,
and there were generally from six to a dozen visitors besides.
They kept up a continual row from morning till night--talking,
laughing, shouting, without intermission--not very pleasant, but
interesting as a study of national character. My boy Ali said to
me, "Banyak quot bitchara Orang Aru "(The Aru people are very
strong talkers), never having been accustomed to such eloquence
either in his own or any other country he had hitherto visited.
Of an evening the men, having got over their first shyness, began
to talk to me a little, asking about my country, &c., and in
return I questioned them about any traditions they had of their
own origin. I had, however, very little success, for I could not
possibly make them understand the simple question of where the
Aru people first came from. I put it in every possible way to
them, but it was a subject quite beyond their speculations; they
had evidently never thought of anything of the kind, and were
unable to conceive a thing so remote and so unnecessary to be
thought about, as their own origin. Finding this hopeless, I
asked if they knew when the trade with Aru first began, when the
Bugis and Chinese and Macassar men first came in their praus to
buy tripang and tortoise-shell, and birds' nests, arid Paradise
birds?

This they comprehended, but replied that there had always been
the same trade as long as they or their fathers recollected, but
that this was the first time a real white man had come among
them, and, said they, "You see how the people come every day from
all the villages round to look at you." This was very flattering,
and accounted for the great concourse of visitors which I had at
first imagined was accidental. A few years before I had been one
of the gazers at the Zoolus, and the Aztecs in London. Now the
tables were turned upon me, for I was to these people a new and
strange variety of man, and had the honour of affording to them,
in my own person, an attractive exhibition, gratis.

All the men and boys of Aru are expert archers, never stirring
without their bows and arrows. They shoot all sorts of birds, as
well as pigs and kangaroos occasionally, and thus have a
tolerably good supply of meat to eat with their vegetables. The
result of this better living is superior healthiness, well-made
bodies, and generally clear skins. They brought me numbers of
small birds in exchange for beads or tobacco, but mauled them
terribly, notwithstanding my repeated instructions. When they got
a bird alive they would often tie a string to its leg, and keep
it a day or two, till its plumage was so draggled and dirtied as
to be almost worthless. One of the first things I got from there
was a living specimen of the curious and beautiful racquet-tailed
kingfisher. Seeing how much I admired it, they afterwards brought
me several more, which wore all caught before daybreak, sleeping
in cavities of the rocky banks of the stream. My hunters also
shot a few specimens, and almost all of them had the red bill
more or less clogged with mud and earth. This indicates the
habits of the bird, which, though popularly a king-fisher, never
catches fish, but lives on insects and minute shells, which it
picks up in the forest, darting down upon them from its perch on
some low branch. The genus Tanysiptera, to which this bird
belongs, is remarkable for the enormously lengthened tail, which
in all other kingfishers is small and short. Linnaeus named the
species known to him "the goddess kingfisher" (Alcedo dea), from
its extreme grace and beauty, the plumage being brilliant blue
and white, with the bill red, like coral. Several species of
these interesting birds are now known, all confined within the
very limited area which comprises the Moluccas, New Guinea, and
the extreme North of Australia. They resemble each other so
closely that several of them can only be distinguished by careful
comparison. One of the rarest, however, which inhabits New
Guinea, is very distinct from the rest, being bright red beneath
instead of white. That which I now obtained was a new one, and
has been named Tanysiptera hydrocharis, but in general form and
coloration it is exactly similar to the larger species found in
Amboyna, and figured at page 468 of my first volume.

New and interesting birds were continually brought in, either by
my own boys or by the natives, and at the end of a week Ali
arrived triumphant one afternoon with a fine specimen of the
Great Bird of Paradise. The ornamental plumes had not yet
attained their full growth, but the richness of their glossy
orange colouring, and the exquisite delicacy of the loosely
waving feathers, were unsurpassable. At the same time a great
black cockatoo was brought in, as well as a fine fruit-pigeon and
several small birds, so that we were all kept hard at work
skinning till sunset. Just as we had cleared away and packed up
for the night, a strange beast was brought, which had been shot
by the natives. It resembled in size, and in its white woolly
covering, a small fat lamb, but had short legs, hand-like feet
with large claws, and a long prehensile tail. It was a Cuscus (C.
maculatus), one of the curious marsupial animals of the Papuan
region, and I was very desirous to obtain the skin. The owners,
however, said they wanted to eat it; and though I offered them a
good price, and promised to give them all the meat, there was
grout hesitation. Suspecting the reason, I offered, though it was
night, to set to work immediately and get out the body for them,
to which they agreed. The creature was much hacked about, and the
two hind feet almost cut off; but it was the largest and finest
specimen of the kind I had seen; and after an hour's hard work I
handed over the body to the owners, who immediately cut it up and
roasted it for supper.

As this was a very good place for birds, I determined to remain a
month longer, and took the opportunity of a native boat going to
Dobbo, to send Ali for a fresh supply of ammunition and
provisions. They started on the 10th of April, and the house was
crowded with about a hundred men, boys, women, and girls,
bringing their loads of sugar-cane, plantains, sirih-leaf, yams,
&c.; one lad going from each house to sell the produce and make
purchases. The noise was indescribable. At least fifty of the
hundred were always talking at once, and that not in the low
measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with loud
voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the women and
children were even more conspicuous than the men. It was only
while gazing at me that their tongues were moderately quiet,
because their eyes were fully occupied. The black vegetable soil
here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and the sugar-cane
was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat
were often ten and even twelve feet long, and thick in
proportion, with short joints throughout, swelling between the
knots with the, abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbo they get a
high price for it, 1d. to 3d. a stick, and there is an insatiable
demand among the crews of the praus and the Baba fishermen. Here
they eat it continually. They half live on it, and sometimes feed
their pigs with it. Near every house are great heaps of the
refuse cane; and large wicker-baskets to contain this refuse as
it is produced form a regular part of the furniture of a house.
Whatever time of the day you enter, you are sure to find three or
four people with a yard of cane in one hand, a knife in the
other, and a basket between their legs, hacking, paring, chewing,
and basket-filling, with a persevering assiduity which reminds
one of a hungry cow grazing, or of a caterpillar eating up a
leaf.

After five days' absence the boats returned from Dobbo, bringing
Ali and all the things I had sent for quite safe. A large party
had assembled to be ready to carry home the goods brought, among
which were a good many cocoa-nut, which are a great luxury here.
It seems strange that they should never plant them; but the
reason simply is, that they cannot bring their hearts to bury a
good nut for the prospective advantage of a crop twelve years
hence. There is also the chance of the fruits being dug up and
eaten unless watched night and day. Among the things I had sent
for was a box of arrack, and I was now of course besieged with
requests for a little drop. I gave them a flask (about two
bottles, which was very soon finished, and I was assured that
there were many present who had not had a taste. As I feared my
box would very soon be emptied if I supplied all their demands, I
told them I had given them one, but the second they must pay for,
and that afterwards I must have a Paradise bird for each flask.
They immediately sent round to all the neighbouring houses, and
mustered up a rupee in Dutch copper money, got their second
flask, and drunk it as quickly as the first, and were then very
talkative, but less noisy and importunate than I had expected.
Two or three of them got round me and begged me for the twentieth
time to tell them the name of my country. Then, as they could not
pronounce it satisfactorily, they insisted that I was deceiving
them, and that it was a name of my own invention. One funny old
man, who bore a ludicrous resemblance, to a friend of mine at
home, was almost indignant. "Ung-lung! "said he, "who ever heard
of such a name?--ang lang--anger-lung--that can't be the name of
your country; you are playing with us." Then he tried to give a
convincing illustration. "My country is Wanumbai--anybody can say
Wanumbai. I'm an ` orang-Wanumbai; but, N-glung! who ever heard
of such a name? Do tell us the real name of your country, and
then when you are gone we shall know how to talk about you." To
this luminous argument and remonstrance I could oppose nothing
but assertion, and the whole party remained firmly convinced that
I was for some reason or other deceiving them. They then attacked
me on another point--what all the animals and birds and insects
and shells were preserved so carefully for. They had often asked
me this before, and I had tried to explain to them that they
would be stuffed, and made to look as if alive, and people in my
country would go to look at them. But this was not satisfying; in
my country there must be many better things to look at, and they
could not believe I would take so much trouble with their birds
and beasts just for people to look at. They did not want to look
at them; and we, who made calico and glass and knives, and all
sorts of wonderful things, could not want things from Aru to look
at. They had evidently been thinking about it, and had at length
got what seemed a very satisfactory theory; for the same old man
said to me, in a low, mysterious voice, "What becomes of them
when you go on to the sea?" "Why, they are all packed up in
boxes," said I "What did you think became of them?" "They all
come to life again, don't they?" said he; and though I tried to
joke it off, and said if they did we should have plenty to eat at
sea, he stuck to his opinion, and kept repeating, with an air of
deep conviction, "Yes, they all come to life again, that's what
they do--they all come to life again."

After a little while, and a good deal of talking among
themselves, he began again--"I know all about it--oh yes! Before
you came we had rain every day--very wet indeed; now, ever since
you have been here, it is fine hot weather. Oh, yes! I know all
about it; you can't deceive me." And so I was set down as a
conjurer, and was unable to repel the charge. But the conjurer
was completely puzzled by the next question: "What," said the old
man, "is the great ship, where the Bugis and Chinamen go to sell
their things? It is always in the great sea--its name is Jong;
tell us all about it." In vain I inquired what they knew about
it; they knew nothing but that it was called "Jong," and was
always in the sea, and was a very great ship, and concluded with,
"Perhaps that is your country?" Finding that I could not or would
not tell them anything about "Jong," there came more regrets that
I would not tell them the real name of my country; and then a
long string of compliments, to the effect that I was a much
better sort of a person than the Bugis and Chinese, who sometimes
came to trade with them, for I gave them things for nothing, and
did not try to cheat them. How long would I stop? was the next
earnest inquiry. Would I stay two or three months? They would get
me plenty of birds and animals, and I might soon finish all the
goods I had brought, and then, said the old spokesman, "Don't go
away, but send for more things from Dobbo, and stay here a year
or two." And then again the old story, "Do tell us the name of
your country. We know the Bugis men, and the Macassar men, and
the Java men, and the China men; only you, we don't know from
what country you come. Ung-lung! it can't be; I know that is not
the name of your country." Seeing no end to this long talk, I
said I was tired, and wanted to go to sleep; so after begging--
one a little bit of dry fish for his supper, and another a little
salt to eat with his sago--they went off very quietly, and I went
outside and took a stroll round the house by moonlight, thinking
of the simple people and the strange productions of Aru, and then
turned in under my mosquito curtain; to sleep with a sense of
perfect security in the midst of these good-natured savages.

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