The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

X.] BALI AND LOMBOCK. 123tliese pests. The box and the bench were however literally theonly places where anytiling could be put away, and they weregenerally well occupied by two insect boxes and about a liundredbirds' skins in pi^ocess of drying. It may therefore be easilyconceived that when anything bulky or out of the common waywas collected, the question " Where is it to be put ? " was rathera difficult one to answer. All animal substances moreover requiresome time to dry thoroughly, emit a very disagreeableodour while doing so, and are particularly attractive to ants,flies, dogs, rats, cats, and other vermin, calling for especialcautions and constant supervision, which under the circumstancesabove described were impossible.My readers may now partially understand why a travellingnaturalist of limited means, like myself, does so much less thanis expected or than he would himself wish to do. It would beinteresting to preserve skeletons of many birds and animals,reptiles and fishes in spirits, skins of the larger animals, remarkablefruits and woods, and the most curious articles of manufactureand commerce ; but it will be seen that under thecircumstances I have just described it would have been impossibleto add these to ^the collections which were my ow^nmore especial favourites. When travelling by boat the difficultie)5are as great or greater, aiid they are not diminishedwhen the journey is by land. It was absolutely necessarytherefore to limit my collections to certain groups to which Icould devote constant personal attention, and thus secui-e fromdestruction or decay what had been often obtained by muchlabour and pains.While Manuel sat skinning his birds of an afternoon, generallysurrounded by a little crowd of Malays and Sassaks (as the indigenesof Lombock are termed), he often held forth to themwith the air of a teacher, and was listened to with profoundattention. He was very fond of discoursing on the " specialprovidences " of which he believed he was daily the subject." Allah has been merciful to-day " he would say—for althouglia Christian he adopted the Mahometan mode of speech—" andhas given us some very fine birds ; we can do nothing withoutHim." Then one of the Malays would reply, "To be sure, birdsare like mankind ; they have their appointedtime to die ;whenthat time comes nothing can save them, and if it has not comeyou cannot kill them." A murmur of assent follows this sentiment,and cries of "Butul ! Butul " (Right, right.) Then!Manuel would tell a long stoiy of one of his unsuccessful hunts ;—how he saw some fine bird and followed it a long way, andthen missed it, and again found it, and shot two or three timesat it, but could never hit it. " Ah " ! says an old ]\talay, "itstime was not come, and so it was impossible for you to kill it."A doctrine this which is very consoling to tlie bad marksman,and which quite accounts for the facts, but which is yet somehownot altogether satisfactory.