Captain Shaw Asked The Imaum Of One
Of The Mosques Of Malacca About Alligator's Eggs A Few Days Ago, And
His Reply Was, That The Young That Went Down To The Sea Became
Alligators, And Those Which Came Up The Rivers Became Iguanas.
At
daylight, after coffee and bananas, we left the hill, and after an
accident, promptly remedied by Mr. Hayward, reached Serambang when the
sun was high in the heavens.
I should think that there are very few
circumstances which Mr. Hayward is not prepared to meet. He has a
reserve of quiet strength which I should like to see fully drawn upon.
He has the scar of a spear wound on his brow, which Captain Murray says
was received in holding sixty armed men at bay, while he secured the
retreat of some helpless persons. Yet he continues to be much burdened
by his responsibility for these fair girls, who, however, are enjoying
themselves thoroughly, and will be none the worse.
We had scarcely returned when a large company of Chinamen, carrying
bannerets and joss-sticks, came to the Residency to give a spectacle or
miracle-play, the first part consisting of a representation of a huge
dragon, which kicked, and jumped, and crawled, and bellowed in a manner
totally unworthy of that ancient and splendid myth; and the second, of
a fierce melee, or succession of combats with spears, shields, and
battle-axes. The performances were accompanied by much drumming, and by
the beating of tom-toms, an essentially infernal noise, which I cannot
help associating with the orgies of devil-worship. The "Capitan China,"
in a beautiful costume, sat with us in the veranda to see the
performance.
I have written a great deal about the Chinese and very little about the
Malays, the nominal possessors of the country, but the Chinese may be
said to be everywhere, and the Malays nowhere. You have to look for
them if you want to see them. Besides, the Chinese are as ten to two of
the whole population. Still the laws are administered in the name of
the Datu Klana, the Malay ruler. The land owned by Malays is being
measured, and printed title-deeds are being given, a payment of 2s. an
acre per annum being levied instead of any taxes on produce. Export
duties are levied on certain articles, but the navigation of the rivers
is free. Debt slavery, one curse of the Malay States, has been
abolished by the energy of Captain Murray with the cordial co-operation
of the Datu Klana, and now the whole population have the status and
rights of free men. It is a great pity that this Prince is in Malacca,
for he is said to be a very enlightened ruler. The photograph which I
inclose (from which the engraving is taken) is of the marriage of his
daughter, a very splendid affair. The buffalo in front was a marriage
present from the Straits Government, and its covering was of cloth of
gold thick with pearls and precious stones.
We visited yesterday a Malay kampong called Mambu, in order to pay an
unceremonious visit to the Datu Bandar, the Rajah second in rank to the
reigning prince. His house, with three others, a godown on very high
stilts, and a mound of graves whitened by the petals of the Frangipani,
with a great many cocoa-nut and other trees, was surrounded, as Malay
dwellings often are, by a high fence, within which was another
inclosing a neat, sanded level, under cocoa-palms, on which his
"private residence" and those of his wives stand. His secretary, a
nice-looking lad in red turban, baju, and sarong, came out to meet us,
followed by the Datu Bandar, a pleasant, able-looking man, with a
cordial manner, who shook hands and welcomed us. No notice had been
given of our visit, and the Rajah, who is reclaiming and bringing into
good cultivation much of his land, and who sets the example of working
with his own hands, was in a checked shirt, and a common, checked, red
sarong. Vulgarity is surely a disease of the West alone, though, as in
Japan, one sees that it can be contagious, and this Oriental, far from
apologizing for his dishabille, led us up the steep and difficult
ladder by which his house is entered with as much courteous ease as if
he had been in his splendors.
I thoroughly liked his house. It is both fitting and tasteful. We
stepped from the ladder into a long corridor, well-matted, which led to
a doorway with a gold-embroidered silk or valance, and a looped-up
portiere of white-flowered silk or crepe. This was the entrance to a
small room very well proportioned, with two similar doorways, curtained
with flowered silk, one leading to a room which we did not see, and the
other to a bamboo gridiron platform, which in the better class of Malay
houses always leads to a smaller house at the back, where cooking and
other domestic operations are carried on, and which seems given up to
the women. There was a rich, dim light in the room, which was cool and
wainscoted entirely with dark red wood, and there was only one long,
low window, with turned bars of the same wood. There were three
handsome cabinets with hangings of gold and crimson embroidery, and an
ebony frame containing a verse of the Koran in Arabic characters hung
over one doorway. In accordance with Mohammedan prohibitions, there was
no decoration which bore the likeness of any created thing, but there
were some artistic arabesques under the roof. The furniture, besides
the cabinets, consisted of a divan, several ebony chairs, a round table
covered with a cool yellow cloth, and a table against the wall draped
with crimson silk flowered with gold. The floor was covered with fine
matting, over which were Oudh rugs in those mixtures of toned-down rich
colors which are so very beautiful.
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