The Appurtenances of Civilization - Babu - Characteristics of Captain
Murray - An Embodied Government - Chinese Mining Enterprise - A Chinese
Gaming-House
- The "Capitans China" - New-Year Visits - Sittings "In
Equity" - A Court of Justice - The Serambang Prison - "Plantation
Hill" - A Monster Bonfire - An Ant World - An Ant Funeral - Night on
"Plantation Hill" - The Murder of Mr. Lloyd - A Chinese Dragon Play - A
Visit to a Malay Prince - The Datu Bandar's House - A Great
Temptation - The Return Journey - An Obituary Quotation
RESIDENCY, SUNGEI UJONG, January 30.
We have been here for four days. The heat is so great that it is
wonderful that one can walk about in the sunshine; but the nights,
though the mercury does not fall below 80 degrees, are cool and
refreshing, and the air and soil are both dry, though a hundred inches
of rain fall in the year. These wooden bungalows are hot, for the
attap roofs have no lining, but they are also airy. There is no-one but
myself at night in the one in which my room is, but this is nothing
after the solitude of the great, rambling Stadthaus. Since we came a
sentry has been on duty always, and a bull-dog is chained at the foot
of the ladder which leads to both bungalows. But there is really
nothing to fear from these "treacherous Malays." It is most curious to
see the appurtenances of civilization in the heart of a Malay jungle,
and all the more so because our long night journey up the Linggi makes
it seem more remote than it is. We are really only sixty miles from
Malacca.
The drawing-room has a good piano, and many tasteful ornaments, books,
and china - gifts from loving friends and relations in the far off
home - and is as livable as a bachelor would be likely to make it. There
is a billiard table in the corridor. The dining-room, which is reached
by going out of doors, with its red-tiled floor and walls of dark,
unpolished wood, is very pretty. In the middle of the dinner table
there is a reflecting lake for "hot-house flowers;" and exquisite
crystal, menu cards with holders of Dresden china, four classical
statuettes in Parian, with pine-apples, granadillas, bananas,
pomegranates, and a durion blanda, are the "table decorations." The
cuisine is almost too elaborate for a traveler's palate, but plain meat
is rarely to be got, and even when procurable is unpalatable unless
disguised. Curry is at each meal, but it is not made with curry powder.
Its basis is grated cocoa-nut made into a paste with cocoa-nut milk,
and the spices are added fresh. Turtles when caught are kept in a pond
until they are needed, and we have turtle soup, stewed turtle, curried
turtle and turtle cutlets ad nauseam. Fowls are at every meal, but
never plain roasted or plain boiled. The first day there was broiled
and stewed elephant trunk, which tastes much like beef.
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