The Malay Archipelago

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

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The people who inhabit these miserable huts are very similar to
the Ke and Aru islanders, and many of them are very handsome,
being tall and well-made, with well-cut features and large
aquiline noses. Their colour is a deep brown, often approaching
closely to black, and the fine mop-like heads of frizzly hair
appear to be more common than elsewhere, and are considered a
great ornament, a long six-pronged bamboo fork being kept stuck
in them to serve the purpose of a comb; and this is assiduously
used at idle moments to keep the densely growing mass from
becoming matted and tangled. The majority have short woolly hair,
which does not seem capable of an equally luxuriant development.
A growth of hair somewhat similar to this, and almost as
abundant, is found among the half-breeds between the Indian and
Negro in South America. Can this be an indication that the
Papuans are a mixed race?

For the first three days after our arrival I was fully occupied
from morning to night building a house, with the assistance of a
dozen Papuans and my own men. It was immense trouble to get our
labourers to work, as scarcely one of them could speak a word of
Malay; and it was only by the most energetic gesticulations, and
going through a regular pantomime of what was wanted, that we
could get them to do anything. If we made them understand that a
few more poles were required, which two could have easily cut,
six or eight would insist upon going together, although we needed
their assistance in other things. One morning ten of them came to
work, bringing only one chopper between them, although they knew
I had none ready for use.

I chose a place about two hundred yards from the beach, on an
elevated ground, by the side of the chief path from the village
of Dorey to the provision-grounds and the forest. Within twenty
yards was a little stream; which furnished us with excellent
water and a nice place to bathe. There was only low underwood to
clear away, while some fine forest trees stood at a short
distance, and we cut down the wood for about twenty yards round
to give us light and air. The house, about twenty feet by
fifteen; was built entirely of wood, with a bamboo floor, a
single door of thatch, and a large window, looking over the sea,
at which I fixed my table, and close beside it my bed, within a
little partition. I bought a number of very large palm-leaf mats
of the natives, which made excellent walls; while the mats I had
brought myself were used on the roof, and were covered over with
attaps as soon as we could get them made. Outside, and rather
behind, was a little hut, used for cooking, and a bench, roofed
over, where my men could sit to skin birds and animals. When all
was finished, I had my goods and stores brought up, arranged them
conveniently inside, and then paid my Papuans with knives and
choppers, and sent them away. The next day our schooner left for
the more eastern islands, and I found myself fairly established
as the only European inhabitant of the vast island of New Guinea.

As we had some doubt about the natives, we slept at first with
loaded guns beside us and a watch set; but after a few days,
finding the people friendly, and feeling sure that they would not
venture to attack five well-armed men, we took no further
precautions. We had still a day or two's work in finishing up the
house, stopping leaks, putting up our hanging shelves for drying
specimens inside and out, and making the path down to the water,
and a clear dry space in front of the horse.

On the 17th, the steamer not having arrived, the coal-ship left,
having lain here a month, according to her contract; and on the
same day my hunters went out to shoot for the first time, and
brought home a magnificent crown pigeon and a few common birds.
The next day they were more successful, and I was delighted to
see them return with a Bird of Paradise in full plumage, a pair
of the fine Papuan lories (Lorius domicella), four other lories
and parroquets, a grackle (Gracula dumonti), a king-hunter
(Dacelo gaudichaudi), a racquet-tailed kingfisher (Tanysiptera
galatea), and two or three other birds of less beauty.

I went myself to visit the native village on the hill behind
Dorey, and took with me a small present of cloth, knives, and
beads, to secure the good-will of the chief, and get him to send
some men to catch or shoot birds for me. The houses were
scattered about among rudely cultivated clearings. Two which I
visited consisted of a central passage, on each side of which
opened short passages, admitting to two rooms, each of which was
a house accommodating a separate family. They were elevated at
least fifteen feet above the ground, on a complete forest of
poles, and were so rude and dilapidated that some of the small
passages had openings in the floor of loose sticks, through which
a child might fall. The inhabitants seemed rather uglier than
those at Dorey village. They are, no doubt, the true indigenes of
this part of New Guinea, living in the interior, and subsisting
by cultivation and hunting. The Dorey men, on the other hand, are
shore-dwellers, fishers and traders in a small way, and have thus
the character of a colony who have migrated from another
district. These hillmen or "Arfaks "differed much in physical
features. They were generally black, but some were brown like
Malays. Their hair, though always more or less frizzly, was
sometimes short and matted, instead of being long, loose, and
woolly; and this seemed to be a constitutional difference, not
the effect of care and cultivation. Nearly half of them were
afflicted with the scurfy skin-disease. The old chief seemed much
pleased with his present, and promised (through an interpreter I
brought with me) to protect my men when they came there shooting,
and also to procure me some birds and animals. While conversing,
they smoked tobacco of their own growing, in pipes cut from a
single piece of wood with a long upright handle.

We had arrived at Dorey about the end of the wet season, when the
whole country was soaked with moisture The native paths were so
neglected as to be often mere tunnels closed over with
vegetation, and in such places there was always a fearful
accumulation of mud. To the naked Papuan this is no obstruction.
He wades through it, and the next watercourse makes him clean
again; but to myself, wearing boots and trousers, it was a most
disagreeable thing to have to go up to my knees in a mud-hole
every morning. The man I brought with me to cut wood fell ill
soon after we arrived, or I would have set him to clear fresh
paths in the worst places. For the first ten days it generally
rained every afternoon and all night r but by going out every
hour of fine weather, I managed to get on tolerably with my
collections of birds and insects, finding most of those collected
by Lesson during his visit in the Coquille, as well as many new
ones. It appears, however, that Dorey is not the place for Birds
of Paradise, none of the natives being accustomed to preserve
them. Those sold here are all brought from Amberbaki, about a
hundred miles west, where the Doreyans go to trade.

The islands in the bay, with the low lands near the coast, seem
to have been formed by recently raised coral reef's, and are much
strewn with masses of coral but little altered. The ridge behind
my house, which runs out to the point, is also entirely coral
rock, although there are signs of a stratified foundation in the
ravines, and the rock itself is more compact and crystalline. It
is therefore, probably older, a more recent elevation having
exposed the low grounds and islands. On the other side of the bay
rise the great mass of the Arfak mountains, said by the French
navigators to be about ten thousand feet high, and inhabited by
savage tribes. These are held in great dread by the Dorey people,
who have often been attacked and plundered by them, and have some
of their skulls hanging outside their houses. If I was seem going
into the forest anywhere in the direction of the mountains, the
little boys of the village would shout after me, "Arfaki!
Arfaki?" just as they did after Lesson nearly forty years before.

On the 15th of May the Dutch war-steamer Etna arrived; but, as
the coals had gone, it was obliged to stay till they came back.
The captain knew when the coalship was to arrive, and how long it
was chartered to stay at Dorey, and could have been back in time,
but supposed it would wait for him, and so did not hurry himself.
The steamer lay at anchor just opposite my house, and I had the
advantage of hearing the half-hourly bells struck, which was very
pleasant after the monotonous silence of the forest. The captain,
doctor, engineer, and some other of the officers paid me visits;
the servants came to the brook to wash clothes, and the son of
the Prince of Tidore, with one or two companions, to bathe;
otherwise I saw little of them, and was not disturbed by visitors
so much as I had expected to be. About this time the weather set
in pretty fine, but neither birds nor insects became much more
abundant, and new birds -were very scarce. None of the Birds of
Paradise except the common one were ever met with, and we were
still searching in vain for several of the fine birds which
Lesson had obtained here. Insects were tolerably abundant, but
were not on the average so fine as those of Amboyna, and I
reluctantly came to the conclusion that Dorey was not a good
collecting locality. Butterflies were very scarce, arid were
mostly the same as those which I had obtained at Aru.

Among the insects of other orders, the most curious and novel
were a group of horned flies, of which I obtained four distinct
species, settling on fallen trees and decaying trunks. These
remarkable insects, which have been described by Mr. W. W.
Saunders as a new genus, under the name of Elaphomia or deer-
flies, are about half an inch long, slender-bodied, and with very
long legs, which they draw together so as to elevate their bodies
high above the surface they are standing upon. The front pair of
legs are much shorter, and these are often stretched directly
forwards, so as to resemble antenna. The horns spring from
beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of the lower part
of the orbit. In the largest and most singular species, named
Elaphomia cervicornis or the stag-horned deer-fly, these horns
are nearly as long as the body, having two branches, with two
small snags near their bifurcation, so as to resemble the horns
of a stag. They are black, with the tips pale, while the body and
legs are yellowish brown, and the eyes (when alive) violet and
green. The next species (Elaphomia wallacei) is of a dark brown
colour, banded and spotted with yellow. The horns are about one-
third the length of the insect, broad, flat, and of an elongated
triangular foam. They are of a beautiful pink colour, edged with
black, and with a pale central stripe. The front part of the head
is also pink, and the eyes violet pink, with a green stripe
across them, giving the insect a very elegant and singular
appearance. The third species (Elaphomia alcicornis, the elk-
horned deer-fly) is a little smaller than the two already
described, but resembling in colour Elaphomia wallacei. The horns
are very remarkable, being suddenly dilated into a flat plate,
strongly toothed round the outer margin, and strikingly
resembling the horns of the elk, after which it has been named.
They are of a yellowish colour, margined with brown, and tipped
with black on the three upper teeth. The fourth species
(Elaphomia brevicornis, the short-horned deer-fly) differs
considerably from the rest. It is stouter in form, of a nearly
black colour, with a yellow ring at the base of the abdomen; the
wings have dusky stripes, and the head is compressed and dilated
laterally, with very small flat horns; which are black with a
pale centre, and look exactly like the rudiment of the horns of
the two preceding species. None of the females have any trace of
the horns, ane Mr. Saunders places in the same genus a species
which has no horns in either sex (Elaphomia polita). It is of a
shining black colour, and resembles Elaphomia cervicornis in
form, size, and general appearance. The figures above given
represent these insects of their natural size and in
characteristic attitudes.

The natives seldom brought me anything. They are poor creatures,
and, rarely shoot a bird, pig, or kangaroo, or even the sluggish
opossum-like Cuscus. The tree-kangaroos are found here, but must
be very scarce, as my hunters, although out daily in the forest,
never once saw them. Cockatoos, lories, and parroquets were
really the only common birds. Even pigeons were scarce, and in
little variety, although we occasionally got the fine crown
pigeon, which was always welcome as an addition to our scantily
furnished larder.

Just before the steamer arrived I had wounded my ankle by
clambering among the trunks and branches of fallen trees (which
formed my best hunting grounds for insects), and, as usual with
foot wounds in this climate, it turned into an obstinate ulcer,
keeping me in the house for several days. When it healed up it
was followed by an internal inflammation of the foot, which by
the doctor's advice I poulticed incessantly for four or five
days, bringing out a severe inflamed swelling on the tendon above
the heel. This had to be leeched, and lanced, and doctored with
ointments and poultices for several weeks, till I was almost
driven to despair,--for the weather was at length fine, and I was
tantalized by seeing grand butterflies flying past my door, and
thinking of the twenty or thirty new species of insects that I
ought to be getting every day. And this, too, in New Guinea--a
country which I might never visit again,--a country which no
naturalist had ever resided in before,--a country which contained
more strange and new and beautiful natural objects than any other
part of the globe. The naturalist will be able to appreciate my
feelings, sitting from morning to night in my little hut, unable
to move without a crutch, and my only solace the birds my hunters
brought in every afternoon, and the few insects caught by my
Ternate man, Lahagi, who now went out daily in my place, but who
of course did not get a fourth part of what I should have
obtained. To add to my troubles all my men were more or less ill,
some with fever, others with dysentery or ague; at one time there
were three of them besides myself all helpless, the coon alone
being well, and having enough to do to wait upon us. The Prince
of Tidore and the Resident of Panda were both on board the
steamer, and were seeking Birds of Paradise, sending men round in
every direction, so that there was no chance of my getting even
native skins of the rarer kinds; and any birds, insects, or
animals the Dorey people had to sell were taken on board the
steamer, where purchasers were found for everything, and where a
larger variety of articles were offered in exchange than I had to
show.

After a month's close confinement in the house I was at length
able to go out a little, and about the same time I succeeded in
getting a boat and six natives to take Ali and Lahagi to
Amberbaki, and to bring them back at the end of a month. Ali was
charged to buy all the Birds of Paradise he could get, and to
shoot and skin all other rare or new birds; and Lahagi was to
collect insects, which I hoped might be more abundant than at
Dorey. When I recommenced my daily walks in search of insects, I
found a great change in the neighbourhood, and one very agreeable
to me. All the time I had been laid up the ship's crew and the
Javanese soldiers who had been brought in a tender (a sailing
ship which had arrived soon after the Etna), had been employed
cutting down, sawing, and splitting large trees for firewood, to
enable the steamer to get back to Amboyna if the coal-ship did
not return; and they had also cleared a number of wide, straight
paths through the forest in various directions, greatly to the
astonishment of the natives, who could not make out what it all
meant. I had now a variety of walks, and a good deal of dead wood
on which to search for insects; but notwithstanding these
advantages, they were not nearly so plentiful as I had found them
at Sarawak, or Amboyna, or Batchian, confirming my opinion that
Dorey was not a good locality. It is quite probable, however,
that at a station a few miles in the interior, away from the
recently elevated coralline rocks and the influence of the sea
air, a much more abundant harvest might be obtained.

One afternoon I went on board the steamer to return the captain's
visit, and was shown some very nice sketches (by one of the
lieutenants), made on the south coast, and also at the Arfak
mountain, to which they had made an excursion. From these and the
captain's description, it appeared that the people of Arfak were
similar to those of Dorey, and I could hear nothing of the
straight-haired race which Lesson says inhabits the interior, but
which no one has ever seen, and the account of which I suspect
has originated in some mistake. The captain told me he had made a
detailed survey of part of the south coast, and if the coal
arrived should go away at once to Humboldt Pay, in longitude 141°
east, which is the line up to which the Dutch claim New Guinea.
On board the tender I found a brother naturalist, a German named
Rosenberg, who was draughtsman to the surveying staff. He had
brought two men with him to shoot and skin birds, and had been
able to purchase a few rare skins from the natives. Among these
was a pair of the superb Paradise Pie (Astrapia nigra) in
tolerable preservation. They were brought from the island of
Jobie, which may be its native country, as it certainly is of the
rarer species of crown pigeon (Goura steursii), one of which was
brought alive and sold on board. Jobie, however, is a very
dangerous place, and sailors are often murdered there when on
shore; sometimes the vessels themselves being attacked.
Wandammen, on the mainland opposite Jobie, inhere there are said
to be plenty of birds, is even worse, and at either of these
places my life would not have been worth a week's purchase had I
ventured to live alone and unprotected as at Dorey. On board the
steamer they had a pair of tree kangaroos alive. They differ
chiefly from the ground-kangaroo in having a more hairy tail, not
thickened at the base, and not used as a prop; and by the
powerful claws on the fore-feet, by which they grasp the bark and
branches, and seize the leaves on which they feed. They move
along by short jumps on their hind-feet, which do not seem
particularly well adapted for climbing trees. It has been
supposed that these tree-kangaroos are a special adaptation to
the swampy, half-drowned forests of, New Guinea, in place of the
usual form of the group, which is adapted only to dry ground. Mr.
Windsor Earl makes much of this theory, but, unfortunately for
it, the tree-kangaroos are chiefly found in the northern
peninsula of New Guinea, which is entirely composed of hills and
mountains with very little flat land, while the kangaroo of the
low flat Aru Islands (Dorcopsis asiaticus) is a ground species. A
more probable supposition seems to lie, that the tree-kangaroo
has been modified to enable it to feed on foliage in the vast
forests of New Guinea, as these form the great natural feature
which distinguishes that country from Australia.

On June 5th, the coal-ship arrived, having been sent back from
Amboyna, with the addition of some fresh stores for the steamer.
The wood, which had been almost all taken on board, was now
unladen again, the coal taken in, and on the 17th both steamer
and tender left for Humboldt Bay. We were then a little quiet
again, and got something to eat; for while the vessels were here
every bit of fish or vegetable was taken on board, and I had
often to make a small parroquet serve for two meals. My men now
returned from Amberbaki, but, alas brought me almost nothing.
They had visited several villages, and even went two days'
journey into the interior, but could find no skins of Birds of
Paradise to purchase, except the common kind, and very few even
of those. The birds found were the same as at Dorey, but were
still scarcer. None of the natives anywhere near the coast shoot
or prepare Birds of Paradise, which come from far in the interior
over two or three ranges of mountains, passing by barter from
village to village till they reach the sea. There the natives of
Dorey buy them, and on their return home sell them .to the Bugis
or Ternate traders. It is therefore hopeless for a traveller to
go to any particular place on the coast of New Guinea where rare
Paradise birds may have been bought, in hopes of obtaining
freshly killed specimens from the natives; and it also shows the
scarcity of these birds in any one locality, since from the
Amberbaki district, a celebrated place, where at least five or
six species have been procured, not one of the rarer ones has
been obtained this year. The Prince of Tidore, who would
certainly have got them if any were to be had, was obliged to put
up with a few of the common yellow ones. I think it probable that
a longer residence at Dorey, a little farther in the interior,
might show that several of the rarer kinds were found there, as I
obtained a single female of the fine scale-breasted Ptiloris
magnificus. I was told at Ternate of a bird that is certainly not
yet known in Europe, a black King Paradise Bird, with the curled
tail and beautiful side plumes of the common species, but all the
rest of the plumage glossy black. The people of Dorey knew
nothing about this, although they recognised by description most
of the otter species.

When the steamer left, I was suffering from a severe attack of
fever. In about a week I got over this, but it was followed by
such a soreness of the whole inside of the mouth, tongue, and
gums, that for many days I could put nothing solid between my
lips, but was obliged to subsist entirely on slops, although in
other respects very well. At the same time two of my men again
fell ill, one with fever, the other with dysentery, and both got
very bad. I did what I could for them with my small stock of
medicines, but they lingered on for some weeks, till on June 26th
poor Jumaat died. He was about eighteen years of age, a native, I
believe, of Bouton, and a quiet lad, not very active, but doing
his work pretty steadily, and as well as he was able. As my men
were all Mahometans, I let them bury him in their own fashion,
giving them some new cotton cloth for a shroud.

On July 6th the steamer returned from the eastward. The weather
was still terribly wet, when, according to rule, it should have
been fine and dry. We had scarcely anything to eat, and were all
of us ill. Fevers, colds, and dysentery were continually
attacking us, and made me long I-o get away from New Guinea, as
much as ever I had longed to come there. The captain of the Etna
paid me a visit, and gave me a very interesting account of his
trip. They had stayed at Humboldt Bay several days, and found it
a much more beautiful and more interesting place than Dorey, as
well as a better harbour. The natives were quite unsophisticated,
being rarely visited except by stray whalers, and they were
superior to the Dorey people, morally and physically. They went
quite naked. Their houses were some in the water and some inland,
and were all neatly and well built; their fields were well
cultivated, and the paths to them kept clear and open, in which
respects Dorey is abominable. They were shy at first, and opposed
the boats with hostile demonstrations, beading their bows, and
intimating that they would shoot if an attempt was made to land.
Very judiciously the captain gave way, but threw on shore a few
presents, and after two or three trials they were permitted to
land, and to go about and see the country, and were supplied with
fruits and vegetables. All communication was carried on with them
by signs--the Dorey interpreter, who accompanied the steamer,
being unable to understand a word of their language. No new birds
or animals were obtained, but in their ornaments the feathers of
Paradise birds were seen, showing, as might be expected, that
these birds range far in this direction, and probably all over
New Guinea.

It is curious that a rudimental love of art should co-exist with
such a very low state of civilization. The people of Dorey are
great carvers and painters. The outsides of the houses, wherever
there is a plank, are covered with rude yet characteristic
figures. The high-peaked prows of their boats are ornamented with
masses of open filagree work, cut out of solid blocks of wood,
and often of very tasteful design, As a figurehead, or pinnacle,
there is often a human figure, with a head of cassowary feathers
to imitate the Papuan "mop." The floats of their fishing-lines,
the wooden beaters used in tempering the clay for their pottery,
their tobacco-boxes, and other household articles, are covered
with carving of tasteful and often elegant design. Did we not
already know that such taste and skill are compatible with utter
barbarism, we could hardly believe that the same people are, in
other matters, utterly wanting in all sense of order, comfort, or
decency. Yet such is the case. They live in the most miserable,
crazy, and filthy hovels, which are utterly destitute of anything
that can be called furniture; not a stool, or bench, or board is
seen in them, no brush seems to be known, and the clothes they
wear are often filthy bark, or rags, or sacking. Along the paths
where they daily pass to and from their provision grounds, not an
overhanging bough or straggling briar ever seems to he cut, so
that you have to brush through a rank vegetation, creep under
fallen trees and spiny creepers, and wade through pools of mud
and mire, which cannot dry up because the sun is not allowed to
penetrate. Their food is almost wholly roots and vegetables, with
fish or game only as an occasional luxury, and they are
consequently very subject to various skin diseases, the children
especially being often miserable-looking objects, blotched all
over with eruptions and sores. If these people are not savages,
where shall we find any? Yet they have all a decided love for the
fine arts, and spend their leisure time in executing works whose
good taste and elegance would often be admired in our schools of
design!

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