On Some Days I Could
Only Catch A Few Glimpses Of It; On Others I Got A Single
Specimen; And On A Few Occasions Two, But Never Without A More Or
Less Active Pursuit.
This and several other species I never saw
but in this one ravine.
Among the people here I saw specimens of several types, which,
with the peculiarities of the languages, gives me some notion of
their probable origin. A striking illustration of the low state
of civilization of these people, until quite recently, is to be
found in the great diversity of their languages. Villages three
or four miles apart have separate dialects, and each group of
three or four such villages has a distinct language quite
unintelligible to all the rest; so that, until the recent
introduction of Malay by the Missionaries, there must have been a
bar to all free communication. These languages offer many
peculiarities. They contain a Celebes-Malay element and a Papuan
element, along with some radical peculiarities found also in the
languages of the Siau and Sanguir islands further north, and
therefore, probably derived from the Philippine Islands. Physical
characteristics correspond. There are some of the less civilized
tribes which have semi-Papuan features and hair, while in some
villages the true Celebes or Bugis physiognomy prevails. The
plateau of Tondano is chiefly inhabited by people nearly as white
as the Chinese, and with very pleasing semi-European features.
The people of Siau and Sanguir much resemble these, and I believe
them to be perhaps immigrants from some of the islands of North
Polynesia.
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