A breadfruit tree in JavaA breadfruit tree in JavaLINK TO IMAGE
The Dutch residents are called "elder brothers." Each resident watches his residency with great care to see that the taxes are collected and paid to the government, and that the natives are treated with justice. He is usually the judge who settles all family quarrels and disputes between neighbors. He is just in his judgments and his decisions arenot questioned. Affairs are managed in much the same way as the "School City" or the George Settlement in the United States.
At the same time the Dutch are very careful to impress their authority on the natives. They require the natives to pay great respect to all officers of the colony. A native who comes into the presence of an official must have his head turbaned and his attire in proper form. Under no circumstances is he permitted to smoke, chew betel-nut, or behave carelessly.
The daily work of the natives is very carefully supervised. They are taught where to plant, what to plant, and how to plant their crops. The "elder brothers" also see that the crops are cultivated with care and properly harvested.
Java is ruled by a Governor-General and a council appointed by himself. The officers are selected because of their fitness, and most of the subordinates must pass a civil service examination. Once in the East India service an official is fixed for life, and when he has served his time he retires on a pension. Most of the pensioners prefer to remain in the island the rest of their lives.
The officials and, indeed, all European residents live well. Stone houses with marble or tile floors, wide verandas, and large gardens are the rule. Breakfast at one o'clock is the substantial meal of the day. It marks not the beginning but the end of the day's work. From one to five the intense heat keeps every one indoors. At five, official Java and all other Europeans bathe, dress, and get ready for dinner. After dinner, driving, calling, and gossiping at the clubs is the proper thing, and nowhere are people more ceremonious.
The natives have but little ambition and no desire to do anything for themselves. Now and then there are exceptions, however; and a native may be found pegging awayat the studies that will enable him to pass the examinations and hold an official position.
As a whole, the native is gentle and polite and yields ready obedience to those in authority. He is fond of amusement, feasts, and gambling; he, moreover, celebrates every possible event—his marriage, the birth of his children, the building of his home, the rice harvest, a return from a journey, a recovery from illness, and even the filing of his teeth. If he, perchance, has not sufficient money to hold the celebration, he can join with a neighbor, then both will share mutually the expense. On all occasions his deportment is quiet, and whether moved by joy or anger, no loud language or boisterous laughter is ever heard.
The marriageable age of girls is from twelve to fourteen years, and that of boys sixteen. The night preceding the wedding must be spent by the couple in watching, in order to avert subsequent unhappiness, and the next day they repair to a mosque and are married according to Muhammadan rites and customs. To symbolize her total submission to her husband, the wife washes his feet. Unfortunately, a divorce can be obtained by the husband for a trivial cause by the payment of a small fee. A native, on being asked why he got a divorce from his wife, replied, "She ate too much and I could not afford to keep her."
Early in the morning the highways are thronged with people on their way to and from the markets. And the markets?—well, one is certain to find John Chinaman in charge. As a matter of fact, there are more than half a million Chinese in the island, and they have the control of the trade with the natives. But the native Javanese trudges along, balancing two baskets on a long bamboo pole. Women and girls help to make up the throng, and they, too, are laden.
At the market pandemonium seems to be loose, and both buyer and seller are shrieking at the top of their voices overa bargain price. There is no question as to which wins; the Chinese merchant is there for business. When the native receives the pay for his produce quite as likely as not he makes for the nearest gambling-house and in half an hour loses the savings of a month.
To the natives the greatest terrors are lightning and tigers, both of which claim hundreds of victims each year. They often refrain from killing the tigers, since the tigers kill the wild pigs which destroy their crops.
The tiger is killed usually by capturing him in a sort of box-trap, and then the trap is taken to the nearest stream, where it is submerged and the animal drowned, to avoid injury to the skin, which brings a good price. The claws and whiskers are carefully removed and sold as fetiches, since they are considered to be very efficacious.
Notwithstanding their hard lot, the people seem happy and there is no starvation poverty. They and their ancestors from time immemorial have always worked hard under task-masters and they know of no better condition. Since their scanty clothing costs but little, if they can have enough to eat and a little amusement occasionally, they are content. When they have money they spend it recklessly, regardless of the future. If the needs of the present are supplied, that is sufficient. When misfortune or disaster overtakes them they merely say: "It is the will of God."
The temples built centuries ago are among the most wonderful structures in the world. They vie in size and grandeur with those of India. Thousands of these ruined temples are found scattered everywhere over central and eastern Java, and many of them are built on the slopes and summits of mountains. These ruins give evidence of the wonderful skill in sculpture and building attained by the people in by-gone ages, a skill not excelled even in modern times, but lost to the present inhabitants.
The ruins of the great temple of Boro-Bodor, situated in the south-central part of Java, are among the largest and most striking in the world. This temple is square and was built in six terraces or steps on the summit of a hill. The first terrace measures about five hundred feet on each side, while each of the five decreases in size toward the top. The last one is crowned by a cupola fifty-two feet in diameter, surrounded by sixteen smaller ones.
Here in this great temple of the dead past may be seen scores of statues, showing on their countenances the peace of Nirvana. On both inside and outside of the structure are hundreds of images of Buddha and carvings of scenes connected with his life. It is estimated that all of the sculptures occupy an extent of wall at least three miles in length. All the figures are carved from large blocks of lava.
This wonderful temple is built of lava blocks without lime or mortar, the huge stones being jointed most accurately by tenons, mortises, and dovetails which bind them solidly together.
Many of the temples erected by the Buddhists and Brahmanists were destroyed by the Moslem invaders, and others abandoned. All of these edifices became, during the succeeding centuries, overgrown with the luxuriant tropical vegetation and partly buried. Some of them, like that of Boro-Bodor, have been uncovered, displaying hundreds of statues and long lines of bas-relief.
Java is one of the most productive regions of the world, otherwise thirty millions of people could not live there. The greater part of the islands consists of government plantations, but there are more than twenty thousand private plantations. The Dutch government has built fine wagon roads and miles of railways, otherwise the great crops of rice, sugar, coffee, and tea could not be moved to the great trade centres and seaports. Rice is the chief crop, but somuch is consumed that only a little is left for export. The export rice is sold in Borneo. Most of it is grown on the low coast plains, and these are watered by a net-work of canals.
Coffee is the crop that has made Java famous, and Java coffee is regarded the best produced. A few years ago it was the custom to sort the coffee with great care and then to store it several years in order to improve the flavor. The coffee thus seasoned was known as "old government" coffee. Much of the crop is now grown by private owners and is known as "private plantations" coffee.
Sugar has become the foremost export crop. Most of it goes to Europe; a small part of it is sent to the refineries of the United States. The great sugar plantations are likewise on the lowlands. Most of the plantations are owned by wealthy Hollanders, or by Dutch companies. The cane grows taller than that of the Cuban plantations; usually it is twice the height of the native laborers and grows so thickly as to make the field like a jungle. It requires a great sum of money to carry on a sugar plantation, for thousands of dollars must be spent in preparing the land.
But when one sees the great mills with their ponderous machinery, the thousands of native workmen, and the train loads of sugar which seem to be swallowed by the great steamships, one cannot help thinking that the sugar-planters make a lot of money in their business. Their homes, many of them, are beautiful palaces—as costly as can be found anywhere in Europe.
Indigo is another famous product of Java. The indigo plant would look like a rank bunch of weeds were it not planted in rows. The leaves, which contain the coloring matter, are picked two or three times a year and soaked in water. When they begin to rot, the coloring matter leaves the plant and mixes with the water, from which it is afterwardseparated by boiling. The coloring matter itself is called indigo; it is a beautiful blue used for dyeing yarns and cloth. The blue cotton cloth so much worn by the Dutch peasants is colored with indigo, and both the cloth and the dye find a market in pretty nearly every country in the world.
Coffee-drying in JavaCoffee-drying in JavaLINK TO IMAGE
Years ago an enterprising Dutch botanist brought to Java some cinchona trees from South America. The experiment was successful and so many trees were afterward planted that Java now furnishes about half the world's supply of quinine, which is extracted from the bark of the tree.
Tobacco is extensively grown in Java, but one does not hear much about it, because a great deal of it is sold as "Sumatra" leaf. Tea-growing has become a great industryin Java and the tea in quality is as fine as that grown in China. Women and girls are the pickers. They work with head and arms bare, each wearing a loose gown resembling a Japanese kimona without sleeves. As fast as they are picked the leaves are piled on squares of white cloth. When the cloth contains enough to make a bundle of good size the picker carries it on her head to the factory, where the leaves are first wilted, rolled into compact form and then dried on great stone floors that are shielded from the sun. The hundreds of pickers with their brightly colored gowns and white bundles, form a wonderful kaleidoscope picture.
In recent years petroleum, long known to the natives, has added much to the wealth of Java. The thrifty Hollander studied well-drilling in Pennsylvania and California; then he put his training to work on the Javanese oil-fields. As a result Java is beginning to supply not only the East Indies, but also Japan with coal-oil.
Years ago travellers used to tell marvellous stories about a certain poison valley of Java in the centre of which stood an upas-tree. The tree itself was famed for the deadly effects of its poisonous exhalations, which killed man, beast, or bird that came near it. These stories proved to be mere fabrications. They grew out of the fact that near by was a valley from which arose at times carbonic-acid gas in sufficient quantity to kill small animals running over certain low places. But the upas played no part, though the juice of the tree is poisonous.
Batavia is the capital of the Dutch East Indies. It is on low, flat land, half a dozen miles from the artificial harbor which has not long been finished; for the old port had but little protection from stormy seas and high winds. The swampy land on which the city is built has been drained by canals. Excepting the business streets, the city is almosthidden by the gardens with their profusion of plants. It is the Amsterdam of the Old World; and one will find as good wares in Batavia as in Holland. During the eruption of Krakatoa, Batavia was buried deep in dust and ragged cinders of lava. More than twenty thousand dead were under the heaps of ash.
Surabaya is larger than Batavia and has a population of more than one hundred and fifty thousand. But Surabaya has not much trade with Europe; its commerce is mainly with the ports of Asia. The harbor is good and it has become the chief naval station of the Dutch East Indies.
The Dutch authorities do not encourage visitors to Java. All visitors must have passports or permits; and if one goes to the interior, officials question him at every turn and demand his permit at every district.
CHAPTER XXXIIITHE DUTCH EAST INDIES—SUMATRA AND CELEBES
Two lofty mountain ranges with a deep valley between them lie at the eastern side of the Indian Ocean. The Malay Peninsula is one range; the island of Sumatra is the other. The floor of the valley between them is covered by the sea and forms the Strait of Malacca.
As islands go, Sumatra is of goodly size—larger than New York, Pennsylvania, and the New England States together. From end to end its length is about the distance between Boston and Chicago. Greenland, Borneo, New Guinea, and Madagascar are each larger. The equator crosses Sumatra at its central part.
Sumatra is also a possession of the Dutch East Indies,but it is not very important as compared with Java. Although it is three times as large as Java, it has scarcely one-tenth the population. There is a pretty good reason for this. In the first place, the mountainous region is very rugged and much of it is covered with jungle; therefore, it is neither habitable nor productive for mankind. In the second place, the broad plain on the east side of the island is not well adapted to cultivation; it is cut by deep river valleys in the higher parts, swampy in the middle part, and covered with water next the coast during a part of the year.
Rather singularly the lakes—and there are many—are not in the low, swampy lands; most of them are high in the mountains. What is still more singular, these lakes are the craters of inactive volcanoes. But Sumatra, like Java, has many active volcanoes. One of these, Dempo, is almost constantly active. Every now and then it discharges great quantities of sulphur gases; these are caught by the rain and, falling on the cultivated lands, kill pretty nearly everything touched.
In the jungles nature has been very lavish with life. The forests contain more than four hundred kinds of trees—among them teak, ebony, camphor, and even good pine. Sumatra is also the home of several trees and plants from which gutta-percha is obtained. Railroads to connect the forest belts to the coast are the one thing needed to make Sumatra a lumber-producing country.
For some reason or other many of the wild animals that crossed the shallow water between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra did not cross the Sunda Strait to Java. There are many more kinds of animals in Sumatra than in Java; indeed, nearly all the larger species of wild animals of southern Asia are found in Sumatra, and only a few are in Java. There are many elephants in the uplands; the rhinoceros lives in the lowlands; the tiger lives in the jungle, as inIndia. The flying "fox" is one of the curiosities of Sumatra. So much for a name, however, for the animal is not a fox but a very large bat. Its wings are membranes that connect the limbs corresponding to one's fingers. Like other bats, it hangs from the limb of a tree, head down, in the daytime, and goes to business at night. Its body is not much larger than that of a hare, but when in flight it is four or five feet from tip to tip.
Natives in the jungle, SumatraNatives in the jungle, SumatraLINK TO IMAGE
The flying "cat" is likewise a misnamed animal that bears no relationship to pussy, but is a kind of lemur. The wild dog, however, is very much dog and nuisance at the same time—as much of a nuisance as the coyote of the western United States, and far more numerous. The "coffee" rat is likewise a great nuisance wherever found; unfortunately it is found almost everywhere. Monkeys are also numerous.
The natives of Sumatra, like those of Java, are Malays.Unlike them, however, they are difficult to govern; some of the interior tribes are fierce and warlike. Near the coast, and in places controlled by the Dutch, the native ruler is subject to an "elder brother" or Dutch commissioner. Most of the tribes of the interior are Muhammadans; they believe that they will be blessed if they are killed in war, and, therefore, they take every opportunity to make war. The natives of Acheen, a province in the northwestern part of the island, have always given the Dutch a great deal of trouble, and they are not fully conquered, even after a hundred years of warfare.
One of the interior tribes, it is thought, came from India several hundred years ago, for their religion and customs are much the same as those of the Hindus. Although they are surrounded by savage tribes, and far removed from the civilization, both of India and Europe, they have reached a remarkable condition of civilization of their own. They are excellent farmers and stockmen; they also make firearms, cloth, and jewelry which they sell to the Malay peoples about them.
Throughout the island the houses are much like those of Malay peoples elsewhere, with timber frames and thatched roofs. As in the other islands, they are set on posts wherever floods are likely to occur. The larger timbers of many houses are beautifully carved, although many of the designs are grotesque and even hideous. All the houses are clustered in villages. This is done partly for protection against man-eating tigers, and partly because the people are inclined to social life. The club-house is usually to be found in the villages. It is the town hall, bazaar, market, lounging place, and social club combined. Perhaps a wedding and a funeral may be going on there at the same time. Men gamble, and women gossip and chew betel-nut; the peddler likewise shows his bargain-counter wares at the club-house.
The great plantations of sugar, coffee, and tobacco are managed much the same as in Java. The rice-fields are cultivated usually by the Chinese, and they have much of the trade in the rice. Sumatra is famous for its tobacco. The plants grow larger and higher than those cultivated in the United States. The leaves are large and the best of them are used as "wrappers," or outer coverings for fine cigars. Sumatra leaf commands a high price, and a considerable amount of the best tobacco is shipped to Cuba and the United States.
The coffee crop is also of excellent quality. Some of it reaches the market as "Java" coffee; and, indeed, it is equal to the best coffee grown in Java. The beans are large, light in color, and of fine flavor. Carefully sorted Palembang coffee commands a high price.
Sumatra is famous for its pepper, and not far from one-half the world's product of pepper comes from this island. The plant producing pepper is not the pepper-tree so commonly grown for its beautiful foliage and bright red berries in California and Mexico; it is a vine or climbing bush. It is commonly planted near to a sapling, around which it twines; but in many plantations the plants are pruned and trimmed so that they grow unsupported. The pepper of commerce consists of the dried berries or fruit of the vine. It is the custom to pick the berries as they turn red. The berries shrivel and turn black as they dry. These, when ground, are the black pepper of commerce. When fully ripe the color of the berry turns to a pale yellow and the outer skin is easily removed. The "husked" berries are used for making the white pepper of commerce.
Sago is also an important product of Sumatra. It is the starchy pith of a kind of palm-tree—the sago-palm. The pith is dried, ground to a powder and washed in order to remove the stringy fibre. In the process of washing, thestarchy granules sink to the bottom, while the woody fibre floats off.
A jungle, scene in SumatraA jungle, scene in SumatraLINK TO IMAGE
There are several large towns in Sumatra—Siboga, Padang, Benkulen, Telok Belong, and Palembang—but their names are rarely seen in print or spoken. The reason is not hard to find; Singapore, just across the Strait of Malacca, is a free port, with a fine harbor. Vessels from every part of the world call at Singapore, and it is much more convenient to have the Sumatra products marketed there than to send them from Sumatra ports.
A few miles to the east of Sumatra are the islands of Banka and Billiton, famous for their tin mines. These mines produce about two-thirds the world's supply of tin. It is interesting to know that the silver-white metal, withwhich so many of our kitchen utensils are coated, has travelled more than half-way around the world to be used, but this is probably the case.
Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java. In this narrow strait is situated the island of Krakatoa, remarkable for one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions that have ever occurred. The great eruption was preceded by low rumblings and slight explosions for three months before the volcano burst out in all its fury, on the night of August 26, 1883. The explosions were heard at a distance of many hundred miles and over an area equal to one-thirteenth of the earth's surface. The entire southern part of the island was blown away and the earth was shaken for thousands of miles, the shock being recorded as far as South America.
The upheaval caused a tidal wave one hundred and twenty feet high which, with the lava clots and ash ejected, destroyed all of the towns and plantations bordering on both sides of the straits. In this disaster more than forty thousand persons perished and every vestige of animal and vegetable life in the surrounding region disappeared. The only person left to look out upon the scene of destruction was the keeper of the light-house, a structure one hundred and thirty feet high, whose light the gigantic waves merely succeeded in extinguishing.
A cubic mile of material is said to have been thrown out in the form of lapilli and dust by the successive explosions. The dust, estimated to have reached the height of several miles, was disseminated by the upper currents of air and caused the brilliant sunsets seen for months in nearly every part of the civilized world.
Celebes is the most curiously shaped island in the world. It has a central body from which project four large arms, making it look like a huge starfish. These radiating peninsulas are mountain ranges, here and there peaked withvolcano cinder cones. There are no low-lying marshes; the position and high surface render this one of the healthiest islands in the Malay Archipelago.
The Dutch have had settlements here for more than two centuries; and their wise and just treatment of the natives has made the island famous for peace and prosperity. Except a few tribes of the interior, all the islanders are at least partly civilized. The natives who live in the coast regions are intelligent and industrious. Paganism and corrupted Muhammadanism are the prevailing religions, but Christianity has secured a firm hold in a few places. A written language and literature have prevailed for centuries.
All able-bodied men are compelled to work and each year to give a few days' labor to keep the excellent roads in good repair; but they reap the reward of their industry and are happy and contented.
The best coffee land in the East Indies is to be found on this island. The most favorable soil for coffee is the rich, black volcanic ash that covers the mountain slopes in many parts of north Celebes.
The Menado coffee is said to be the finest the world produces.
The coffee-trees are allowed to grow to the height of six feet, when the tops are cut off, so as to strengthen the growth of the lateral branches which bear the fruit.
Besides a fungus disease, coffee has many other enemies. Both rats and mice are fond of the juicy stalks of the berries when they are nearly ripe, and they nibble at them until the berries fall. The long-haired black rat is the greatest of these pests. Cats are kept on each plantation to prey upon the animal pests; but, unfortunately, the natives are very fond of cats—not as pets, but as articles of food. This feline appetite on the part of the workmen causes the owner to keep a vigilant watch over his cat family, and to severelypunish any offender. Perhaps in time they will learn to employ the python as a rat-catcher, for the python is not surpassed for this purpose.
The forest trees are much like those of the adjacent islands. There are no very large animals, those peculiar to Celebes being the tailless baboon and the "pig-deer," which has tusks and curving horns.
Parts of the interior of Celebes still remain unexplored and are said to be inhabited by cannibals and head-hunters.
Macassar is the capital and chief city. It is situated in the southern part of the southwestern peninsula, and in commerce ranks next to the largest cities of Java. Its trade totals upward of three million dollars annually.
The principal exports of the island are coffee, rice, nutmegs, cloves, dammer, copal, rattan, copra, tobacco, trepang, and tortoise-shell; coffee greatly outranking all the other products.
CHAPTER XXXIVBORNEO AND PAPUA
Hot, damp, and swampy along the coast lowlands; rugged and fairly pleasant in the high plateau lands—that is Borneo, an island as large as the State of Texas. Borneo has a great future, however, when a race of civilized people can be found who can inhabit it, for it is even more unhealthful than Sumatra.
But the wealth is there—diamonds that are rather poor in color, gold, copper, iron, coal, and petroleum. That is a good list, and it remains only to find a people who can live there and make the great wealth of the island available to the world. Perhaps it may be the Japanese—less likely the Chinese, for they are content to trade with the natives.Possibly it may be the Filipinos—for some of the Filipinos, especially the Moros, are the descendants of Borneo peoples.
Safe it is to say that the native tribes will not accomplish this result, for they are among the most debased and disgusting savages on the face of the earth. Many of these tribes are Malays governed by chiefs, or dattoes. Some of the tribes near the coast carry on a crude sort of farming, which is encouraged by the Chinese merchants who buy their produce. Some of the interior tribes just live, being both lazy and vicious. For food, there is an abundance of bananas and meat. As to the meat, it makes little or no difference about the kind; any animal whose flesh has become putrid is relished.
The most interesting natives of Borneo, however, are the Dyaks, the people from whom the Moros of the Philippine Islands are descended. They are perhaps the most intelligent, but certainly the most troublesome peoples. They are best known as the "head-hunters" of Borneo. Among themselves, the one who has killed the greatest number of people is the greatest man of the tribe, and the heads of his victims are the testimony to his greatness. So the head-hunters kill just for the pleasure of killing, and the heads of their victims are kept as trophies. Not all Dyak tribes are head-hunters, however.
When they are not off on head-hunting expeditions, the Dyaks are very industrious farmers. They are fond of ornaments. The men of some of the tribes wear richly embroidered jackets; the women may wear waists made of fine rattan strung with metal beads and ornaments. They may even wear crowns of burnished metal; at all events, they are certain to wear earrings of astonishing size—perhaps three or four inches across and made of solid brass. To hold these pieces of native jewelry the lobes of the ears,after they have been pierced, are stretched until they form loops two inches or more in length.
The men also are fond of earrings and similar ornaments, but a real Dyak swell does not consider himself properly in style until his front teeth are filed away so that they are notched and shut together like the teeth of a steel trap. Moreover, he cannot hope to obtain a wife unless he has at least one head as a trophy.
In hunting, the Dyak often makes use of the blow-gun. This weapon, for short distances, is about as sure and true as a rifle. It is a wooden tube four or five feet in length, the bore of which is made very straight and smooth. The arrow, or dart, fits the bore of the tube. To make sure of the game the tip of the dart is dipped in a most deadly poison; so that, if it merely breaks the skin of the animal at which it is shot, it makes a wound that is quickly fatal.
Unlike most of the natives of the tropical Indies, instead of living in villages, the Dyaks frequently live in communal houses. Sometimes twenty or more families live in the same house, which is not unlike the communal houses of the American Indian, except that it is surrounded by a broad veranda.
Hunting honey in the forests is one of the native sports. The forests of certain parts of Borneo seem to be alive with wild bees. As a result, honey and wax are very abundant. The honey-bear gets a good share of the wild honey, for his shaggy hide is proof against the stings of the bees. The Dyak hunter has no shaggy coating to protect him; so he goes about robbing the bees in a more scientific manner.
The bees seem to prefer the mengalis tree, which has so many angles and hollow places about its trunk that to build the comb is an easy matter. Not infrequently there may be fifty or more swarms in a single tree. When a bee-tree is to be robbed, great piles of a certain plant or weed arecollected and put in such a position that the smoke will be carried against the nesting-places of the swarms. The piles are then fired. The smoke neither kills the bees nor does it drive them off; it merely stupefies them. When the humming of the bees is hushed, comb and honey are easily removed. A considerable part of the wax is exported, but thousands of tons are wasted.
Hunting in the forests of Borneo has its unpleasant features, for the leeches are almost as numerous as the leaves of the trees. They are big, fat, ugly-looking slugs, but they can stretch their bodies into a small, thin form. When waiting for a victim they lengthen and sway their threadlike bodies to and fro, ready to launch out at the first opportunity. So gently do they commence their work that the pricking sensation is felt only when they are gorged with blood and begin to loosen their hold.
The gathering of edible birds' nests, built by a kind of swallow, is quite an industry, and is confined to the rocky-cliff sections of certain parts of the coast where cover abounds. This species of swallow is smaller than the common swallow and builds its nest either in the dark limestone caverns or in the crevices and nooks of the overhanging cliffs. The chief material used in constructing the nest is a glutinous saliva produced by the bird itself. The Chinese are very fond of the nests, and Chinese merchants buy most of them.
The roofs of some of the caves frequented by these swallows are several hundred feet above their floors, and to reach the nests, scattered over the curved roofs and sides, it is necessary to construct ladders and stages. These are made out of rattan and bamboo and are fastened by pegs driven into the limestone walls. Crawling up on these slender supports with a candle and forked bamboo pole, the native proceeds to detach the nests, which he passes to a companionbelow. When the nests are built in caves and crevices, near the top of cliffs, a swinging ladder is dropped from above.
There are two kinds of nests, the clear yellowish-white ones, and the dark ones. The former bring a price as high as twelve dollars per pound; the latter only one-tenth as much. The best nests are found in the darkest caves.
Bird-nest gathering is a perilous calling, and serious accidents are not infrequent. The nests are gathered two or three times a year.
The northern part of Borneo is British territory, and the British also control the States of Sarawak and Brunei; the rest of the island is a part of the Dutch East Indies. The British are more interested in the minerals and jungle produce, such as gutta-percha, rattan, rubber, and birds' nests, than in the cultivation of plantations. The Dutch, on the other hand, are trying to establish the great plantations there that have made Java famous. Already these are producing great quantities of sago, tobacco, and sugar.
There are no large cities and only a few ports with good harbors, but German steamships make the rounds of the ports and carry the produce to Singapore, the clearing-house of the East Indies.
Scarcely one hundred and fifty miles north of Australia lies Papua, or New Guinea. Next to Greenland it is the largest island in the world, and in many ways it is the world's wonderland. It was one of the first large bodies of land discovered after the discovery of America, and one of the last to be settled by Europeans. Most likely dry land at one time connected Australia and New Guinea, for the animal and plant life of the two are much the same. Even the Great Barrier Reef that skirts the east coast of Australia extends part-way around New Guinea.
Of all the islands southeast of Asia, New Guinea is the most interesting. It is rich beyond measure with thingsuseful and beautiful. Sugar-cane grows wild from sea to mountain; wild oranges, lemons, and limes can be had for the picking; and land adapted for growing rice, coffee, tobacco, rubber, cocoanuts, and cinchona is plentiful. There are mountain summits clad in everlasting snow, healthful plateaus abounding in delightful scenery, and dank coast plains in which lurks the deadly jungle fever.
Dense forests cover most of the island, but the forest trees of the East Indies are not to be found except here and there in the northwest neck of the island. The famous eucalyptus abounds in the lowland regions; so also does the nipa-palm. Pines, much like the kauri pine of New Zealand, grow in the high plateaus. Most singular of all, in the high mountain regions one may find the alpine plants of Europe, New Zealand, the Antarctic islands, and the Andine heights of South America. Still another strange feature is to be found: while the forest trees are Australian kinds, the plants that make the forests a thicket are the rattans and other jungle plants of India!
New Guinea is noted for birds of beautiful plumage, especially birds of paradise, of which there are many kinds. Among the insects is one commonly known as the "praying" mantis. It is related to the grasshopper and is found also in many other parts of the world. In New Guinea the praying mantis is three or four inches long and at first sight seems to be nothing but a broken twig. In various parts of the world it is known as "preacher," "nun," "soothsayer," and "saint." It has received its name from the fact that it rests in a sort of kneeling position, holding its forelegs in a devotional attitude.
Its character, however, is anything but saintly; it is a most vicious wretch that may well be called the tiger of the insect world. The devotional attitude is the position in which it can best seize its insect prey; for when an unsuspectinginsect lights on what seems to be a green twig, snap!—those blade-like forelegs armed with sharp spikes come together like scissors, and the unlucky victim is cut to pieces in an instant.
John Chinaman has discovered a use for the praying mantis—a very practical use, too. John and his near-by friends capture a lot of the insects, carry them to a convenient bungalow, turn them loose in a cockpit, and bet on the survivor. When the insects are turned loose there is business on hand, for they go to work at once, cutting one another to pieces by the most approved methods of surgical amputation. The owner of the survivor wins.
The native Papuans much resemble the bushrangers of Australia; they are Negritos, with black skins and woolly hair. There are a few tribes of natives that much resemble the peoples of Samoa and Hawaii; there are also other tribes that resemble the Malays of southeastern Asia.
The Papuan tribes of the coast are about as degraded as the bushrangers of Australia. Some of the tribes are cannibals who have a fondness for sailors that have been wrecked on the shores of New Guinea. They are neither better nor worse than most of the other tribes of islanders. Like other islanders, too, they are tractable and easily governed by the Europeans who treat them decently. Not very much is known about the tribes in the interior, except that some of them have neither houses nor clothing. They live in the trees, and wear no clothing. They are hardly better off than the troops of monkeys, but unlike them eat raw flesh instead of fruit and nuts.
Missionaries have established schools along the coast settlements, and the native children trained in these schools make amazing progress. They learn to read and write quickly, are neat in dress, and polite in manners. Many of the boys who attend the mission schools are trained toskilled labor on the plantations; some go to the interior as missionary teachers.
A few of the Papuan tribes have reached a condition of barbarism much like that of the Iroquois Indians in New York when the white men found them. They live in houses, some of them four or five hundred feet in length. Perhaps thirty or forty families may occupy a single house. The houses are divided into apartments, each family living separately.
In some of the tribes the men live in a communal house by themselves. The women live in small huts, two or three together. They cook the food, which they carry to the communal house; they also do all the work required in cultivating the gardens of yams, bananas, and vegetables. War, hunting, and fishing are the only pursuits of the men.
Three nations, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, have divided New Guinea among them. The Dutch have the eastern half of the island. The British and Germans possess each about one-quarter, British New Guinea being situated opposite to Queensland, Australia. The British own the Solomon Islands to the eastward of New Guinea, also.
The Dutch are laying out plantations and teaching the natives to work them in the same way that they are managed in Java. The British are busy exploring the interior, looking especially to the rich mines in their possession. They have also established a considerable trade in copra, sago, pearl shell, and cocoa-fibre mats. They are planting rubber-trees, for there is no better land in the world for rubber. They have one great advantage, namely, the Fly River, which is navigable six hundred miles from its mouth, and opens a trading route far into the interior. Port Moresby is the trade centre of British New Guinea.
The Germans make their share of the island pay expensesby taxing and licensing the traders who go there to do business, and they manage to get a considerable profit out of it. When they find that a trading company is making too much money they buy the company out and carry on the business themselves; and this is profitable, too.
Although less is known about New Guinea than almost any other part of the earth, enough is known to make it certain that it is one of the most desirable bodies of land in the world.