As the "flamboyant" and the "flame of the forest"
(Poinciana regia). Very still, hot, tropical, sleepy, and dreamy,
Malacca looks, a town "out of the running," utterly antiquated, mainly
un-English, a veritable Sleepy Hollow.
I. L. B.
LETTER IX
The Lieutenant-Governor of Malacca - A Charming Household - The Old
Stadthaus - A Stately Habitation - An Endless Siesta - A Tropic
Dream - Chinese Houses - Chinese Wealth and Ascendency - "Opium
Farming" - The Malacca Jungle - Mohammedan Burial-Places - Malay
Villages - Malay Characteristics - Costume and Ornament - Bigotry and
Pilgrimage - The Malay Buffalo
STADTHAUS, MALACCA, January 21-23.
This must surely fade like a dream, this grand old Stadthaus, this
old-world quiet, this quaint life; but when it fades I think I shall
have a memory of having been "once in Elysium." Still, Elysium should
have no mosquitoes, and they are nearly insupportable here; big spotted
fellows, with a greed for blood, and a specially poisonous bite, taking
the place at daylight of the retiring nocturnal host. The Chinese
attendant is not careful, and lets mosquitoes into my net, and even one
means a sleepless night. They are maddening.
I was introduced to my rooms, with their floors of red Dutch tiles,
their blue walls, their white-washed rafters, their doors and windows
consisting of German shutters only, their ancient beds of portentous
height, and their generally silent and haunted look, and then went to
tiffin with Mr. and Mrs. Biggs.
