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

XV.] CELEBES. 173while a long bamboo in the other serves to guide the buffaloes.These animals require an immense deal of driving to get themon at all ; a continual sliower of exclamations is kept up at them,and " !Oh ! ah ! gee ! ugh " are to be heard in various keys andin an uninterrupted succession all day long. At night we werefavoured with a different kind of concert. The dry groundaround my house had become a marsh tenanted by frogs, whokept up a most incredible noise from dusk to dawn. They weresomewhat musical too, having a deep vibrating note which attimes closely resembles the tuning of two or three bass-viols inan orchestra. In Malacca and Borneo I had heard no such soundsas these, which indicates that the frogs, like most of the animalsof Celebes, are of species peculiar to it.My kind friend and landlord, Mr. Mesman, Avas a good specimenof the Macassar-born Dutchman. He was about thirty-fiveNATIVE WOODEN PLOL'GH..-- g3i.years of age, had a large family, and lived in a spacious housenear the town, situated in the midst of a grove of fruit trees, andsurrounded by a perfect lal^yrinth of offices, stables, and nativecottages occupied by his numerous servants, slaves, or dependants.He usually rose before the sun, and after a cup of coffeelooked after his servants, horses, and dogs, till seven, when asubstantial breakfast of rice and meat was ready in a coolverandah. Putting on a clean white linen suit, he then di^oveto town in his buggy, where he had an office, with two or threeChinese clerks who looked after his affairs. His business wasthat of a coffee and oiDium mercliant. He had a coffee estate atBontyne, and a small prau which traded to the Eastern islandsnear New Guinea, for mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell. Aboutone he would return home, have coffee and cake or fried j^lantain,first changing his dress for a coloured cotton shirt and trousersand bare feet, and then take a siesta with a book. About four,