I Once Saw
Two Males Fighting Together; Each Had A Fore-Leg Laid Across The
Neck Of The Other, And The Rostrum Bent Quite In An Attitude Of
Defiance, And Looking Most Ridiculous.
Another time, two were
fighting for a female, who stood close by busy at her boring.
They pushed at each other with their rostra, and clawed and
thumped, apparently in the greatest rage, although their coats of
mail must have saved both from injury.
The small one, however,
soon ran away, acknowledging himself vanquished. In most
Coleoptera the female is larger than the male, and it is
therefore interesting, as bearing on the question of sexual
selection, that in this case, as in the stag-beetles where the
males fight together, they should be not only better armed, but
also much larger than the females. Just as we were going away, a
handsome tree, allied to Erythrina, was in blossom, showing its
masses of large crimson flowers scattered here and there about
the forest. Could it have been seen from an elevation, it would
have had a fine effect; from below I could only catch sight of
masses of gorgeous colour in clusters and festoons overhead,
about which flocks of blue and orange lories were fluttering and
screaming.
A good many people died at Dobbo this season; I believe about
twenty. They were buried in a little grove of Casuarinas behind
my house. Among the traders was a. Mahometan priest, who
superintended the funerals, which were very simple. The body was
wrapped up in new white cotton cloth, and was carried on a bier
to the grave. All the spectators sat down on the ground, and the
priest chanted some verses from the Koran. The graves were fenced
round with a slight bamboo railing, and a little carved wooden
head-post was put to mark the spot. There was also in the village
a small mosque, where every Friday the faithful went to pray.
This is probably more remote from Mecca than any other mosque in
the world, and marks the farthest eastern extension of the
Mahometan religion. The Chinese here, as elsewhere, showed their
superior wealth and civilization by tombstones of solid granite
brought from Singapore, with deeply-cut inscriptions, the
characters of which are painted in red, blue, and gold. No people
have more respect for the graves of their relations and friends
than this strange, ubiquitous, money-getting people.
Soon after we had returned to Dobbo, my Macassar boy, Baderoon,
took his wages and left me, because I scolded him for laziness.
He then occupied himself in gambling, and at first had some luck,
and bought ornaments, and had plenty of money. Then his luck
turned; he lost everything, borrowed money and lost that, and was
obliged to become the slave of his creditor till he had worked
out the debt. He was a quick and active lad when he pleased, but
was apt to be idle, and had such an incorrigible propensity for
gambling, that it will very likely lead to his becoming a slave
for life.
The end of June was now approaching, the east monsoon had set in
steadily, and in another week or two Dobbo would be deserted.
Preparations for departure were everywhere visible, and every
sunny day (rather rare now) the streets were as crowded and as
busy as beehives. Heaps of tripang were finally dried and packed
up in sacks; mother-of-pearl shell, tied up with rattans into
convenient bundles, was all day long being carried to the beach
to be loaded; water-casks were filled, and cloths and mat-sails
mended and strengthened for the run home before the strong east
wind. Almost every day groups of natives arrived from the most
distant parts of the islands, with cargoes of bananas and sugar-
cane to exchange for tobacco, sago, bread, and other luxuries,
before the general departure. The Chinamen killed their fat pig
and made their parting feast, and kindly sent me some pork, and a
basin of birds' nest stew, which had very little more taste than
a dish of vermicelli. My boy Ali returned from Wanumbai, where I
had sent him alone for a fortnight to buy Paradise birds and
prepare the skins; he brought me sixteen glorious specimens, and
had he not been very ill with fever and ague might have obtained
twice the number. He had lived with the people whose house I had
occupied, and it is a proof of their goodness, if fairly treated,
that although he took with him a quantity of silver dollars to
pay for the birds they caught, no attempt was made to rob him,
which might have been done with the most perfect impunity. He was
kindly treated when ill, and was brought back to me with the
balance of the dollars he had not spent.
The Wanumbai people, like almost all the inhabitants of the Aru
Islands, are perfect savages, and I saw no signs of any religion.
There are, however, three or four villages on the coast where
schoolmasters from Amboyna reside, and the people are nominally
Christians, and are to some extent educated and civilized. I
could not get much real knowledge of the customs of the Aru
people during the short time I was among them, but they have
evidently been considerably influenced by their long association
with Mahometan traders. They often bury their dead, although the
national custom is to expose the body an a raised stage till it
decomposes. Though there is no limit to the number of wives a man
may have, they seldom exceed one or two. A wife is regularly
purchased from the parents, the price being a large assortment of
articles, always including gongs, crockery, and cloth. They told
me that some of the tribes kill the old men and women when they
can no longer work, but I saw many very old and decrepid people,
who seemed pretty well attended to. No doubt all who have much
intercourse with the Bugis and Ceramese traders gradually lose
many of their native customs, especially as these people often
settle in their villages and marry native women.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 109
Words from 67409 to 68438
of 111511