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

172 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.wondei", as tliey merely consist of posts and joists all placed uprightor horizontal, and fastened rudely together with rattans.They may be seen in every stage of the process of tumblingdown, from the first slight inclination, to such a dangerous slopethat it becomes a notice to quit to the occupiers.The mechanical geniuses of the country have only discoveredtwo waj^s of I'emedying the evil. One is, after it has commenced,to tie the house to a post in the ground on the windward side bya rattan or bamboo cable. The other is a preventive, but howthey ever found it out and did not discover the true way is amystery. This plan is, to build the house in the usual way, butinstead of having all the princi^Dal supports of straight posts, tohave two or three of them chosen as crooked as possible. I hadoften noticed these crooked posts in houses, but imputed it tothe scarcity of good straight timber, till one day I met somemen carrying home a post shaped something like a dog's hindleg, and inquired of my native boy what they were going to dowith such a piece of wood. " To make a post for a house," saidhe. " But why don't they get a straiglit one, there are j^lentyhere ? " said I. " Oh," replied he, " they prefer some like that ina house, because then it won't fall," evidently imputing the effectto some occult property of crooked timber. A little considerationand a diagram will, however, show, that the eflect imputed tothe crooked post may be really jDroduced by it. A true squarechanges its figure readily into a rhomboid or oblique figure, butwhen one or two of the uprights are bent or sloping, and placedso as to oppose each other, the effect of a strut is produced,though in a rude and clumsy manner.Just before I had left Mamajam the people had sown a considerablequantity of maize, which appears above ground in twoor three days, and in favourable seasons ripens in less than twomonths. Owing to a week's i^remature rains the ground was allflooded when I returned, and the plants just coming into earwere yellow and dead. Not a grain would be obtained by thewhole village, but luckily it is only a luxury, not a necessary oflife. The rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in order tosow rice on all the flat lands between us and the town. Theplough used is a rude wooden instrument, with a very shortsingle handle, a tolerably well-shaped coulter, and the pointformed of a piece of hard palm-wood fastened in with wedges.One or two buffaloes draw it at a very slow pace. The seed issown broadcast, and a rude wooden harrow is used to smooththe surface.By the beginning of December the regular wet season had setin. Westerly winds and driving rains sometimes continued fordays together ; the fields for miles around were under water, andthe ducks and buffaloes enjoyed themselves amazingly. Allalong the i"oad to Macassar i:)loughing was daily going on in themud and water, through which the wooden plough easily makesits way, the ploughman holding the plough-handle with one hand