One Of Them
Was On The Top, In The Very Centre Of The Cave, And From Down Below
It Looked Like A Distant Star.
This opening was on the very summit of
the Gomanton rock.
This cave greatly resembled the smaller one I have
already described, except that it was of much grander dimensions. As in
the first cave, one could hear the roar of an underground torrent, and
the swallows seemed even more numerous. On the rocky walls I noticed
plenty of large spiders and a curious insect, with a long body and
long, thin legs, which ran very fast, and whose bite we were told
was very poisonous.
On the way back, when passing through some very low caves, the Hadji
got some of his men to knock down for me a few of the white nests from
the sides of the cave with long poles, and in another cave they got me
some black nests. The difference between these white and black nests
is this: they are made by two different kinds of swallows. The white
nest is made by a very small bird, but the bird that builds the black
nest is twice the size of the other. The white nest looks something
like pure white gelatine, and is very clean, and has no feathers
in it. The black nest, on the contrary, is plentifully coated with
feathers, and it is, in consequence, not worth nearly as much as the
white nest. The nests are made from the saliva of the birds. Both
are very plain coloured birds; an ordinary swallow is brilliant in
comparison. This is unusual in a country so full of brilliant-plumaged
birds as Borneo is; but, as they spend most of their lives in the
depths of these sombre caves, I suppose it is only natural that their
plumage should be obscure and plain. These birds'-nest caves are found
all over Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, and also in Java and other
parts of the Malay archipelago, but these are by far the largest. The
revenue from these caves alone brings the Government a very large
sum. By far the greatest number of these nests are sent to China,
where birds'-nest soup is an expensive luxury. The natives of Borneo
do not eat them. For myself, I found the soup rather tasteless.
We were told that if they missed one season's nest collecting, most
of the birds would forsake these caves, possibly because there would
be so little room for them to build again. I learned that they build
and lay four times a year, but I think that they meant that both
the black and the white-nest birds lay twice each. The white kind
build their first nests about March, and the black kind in May, and,
as these nests are all collected before they have time to hatch their
eggs, there are no young birds till later in the year, when the nests
are not disturbed, but the old nests are collected with the new ones
the following year. If the guano could be easily transported to the
coast it would be a paying proposition, but the Government fears that
it might frighten the birds away.
About dusk that evening after we had returned to our hut, I heard a
noise like the whistling of the wind, and, going outside, I saw a truly
wonderful sight, in fact a sight that filled me with amazement. The
millions of small bats which share these caves with the birds were
issuing forth for the night from the small hole I spoke about on the
very top of the rock leading into the large cave, but what a sight it
was! As far as the eye could see they stretched in one even unbroken
column across the sky. They issued from the cave in a compact mass
and preserved the same even formation till they disappeared in the far
distance. As far as I could see there were no stragglers. They rather
resembled a thick line of smoke coming out of the funnel of a steamer,
with this exception that they kept the same thick line till they went
out of sight. The most curious thing about it was that the thick line
twisted and wriggled across the sky for all the world like a giant
snake, as if it were blown about by gusts of wind, of which, however,
there was none. Even with these strange manoeuvres the bats kept the
same unbroken solid formation. They were still coming forth in the same
manner till darkness set in, and then I could only hear the beating
of myriads of wings like the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops.
They return in early morning in much the same fashion. I heard that
the swallows usually did the same thing, only the other way about;
when the bats came out, the swallows entered the eaves, and when the
bats went in, the swallows came out, but it being now their nesting
season, they went in and out of the eaves irregularly all day, but
I was quite satisfied to see the bats go through the performance,
as it was one of the most wonderful sights I have ever seen.
We had been told that it would be three or four more days before the
collecting would take place, and also that they had to wait for a
good omen in the shape of a good dream coming to one of the chief
owners of the caves. Our pleasure was great, therefore, when the
Hadji and some of his followers paid us a visit that night and told
us that work should start in the largest cave the next morning for
our benefit. That was good news, indeed, as Richardson could not wait
more than another day. It was another good move for the Hadji and his
Panglima-ship, and I told Richardson he ought to give it him forthwith.
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