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

132 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.them in the gravy and swallowed them rapidly, withdipi^ecllittle pieces of meat and fowl cooked in a variety of ways. Aboy fanned the young Rajah while eating. He was a youth ofabout fifteen, and had already three wives. All wore the kris,or Malay crooked dagger, on the^beauty and value of which theygreatly pride themselves. A companion of the Rajah's had onewith a golden handle, in which were set twenty-eight diamondsand several other jewels. He said it had cost him 700/. Thesheaths are of ornamental wood and ivory, often co veered on oneside with gold. The blades are beautifully veined with whitemetal worked into the iron, and they are kept very carefully.Every man without exception carries a kris, stuck behind intothe large waist-cloth which all wear, and it is generally the mostvaluable piece of property he possesses.A few days afterwards our long-talked-of excursion to GunongSari took place. Our party was increased by the captain andsupercargo of a Hamburg ship loading with rice for China. Wewere mounted on a very miscellaneous lot of Lombock ponies,which we had some ditlieulty in supplying with the necessarysaddles, itc. ; and most of us had to patch up our girths, bridles,or stirrup-leathers, as best we could. We passed throughMataram, where we were joined by our friend Gusti Gadioca,mounted on a handsome black horse, and riding as all thenatives do, without saddle or stirrujis, usii|g_only a handsomesaddle-cloth and very ornamental bridle. About three milesfurther, along pleasant byways, brought tTs lo the place. Weentered through a rather handsome brick gateway supported byhideous Hindoo deities in stone. Within was an enclosure witht-wo square fish-ponds and some fine trees ; then another gatewaythrougli which we entered into a park. On the right wasa brick house, built somewhat in the Hindoo style, and placedon a high terrace or platfoiTU ; on the left a large fish-pond,sui:)pliecl by a little rivulet which entered it out of the mouthof a gigantic crocodile well executed in brick and stone. Tlieedges of the pond were bricked, and in the centre rose a fantasticand picturesque pavilion ornamented with grotesquestatues. The pond was well stocked with fine fish, which comeevery morning to be fed at the sound of a wooden gong whichis hung near for the jDurpose. On striking it a number of fishimmediately came out of the masses of weed with which thepond abounds, and followed us along the margin expecting food.At the same time some deer came out of an adjacent wood,which, from being seldom shot at and regularly fed, are almosttame. The jungle and woods which surrounded the parkappearing to abound in birds, I went to shoot a few, and wasrewarded by getting several specimens of the fine new kingfisher,Halcyon fulgidus, and the curious and handsome ground thrush,Zoothera andromeda. The former belies its name by not frequentingwater or feeding on fish. It lives constantly in lowdamp thickets picking up ground insects, centipedes, and small