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

192 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.rock about, and creak and crack as if it would fall to pieces.Then began a cry throughout the village of " Tana goyang !tana goyang "! (Earthquake ! earthquake !) Everybody rushedout of their houses—women screamed and children cried—andI thought it pi'udent to go out too. On getting up, I found myhead giddy and my steps unsteady, and could hardly walkwithout falling. The shock continued about a minute, duringwhich time I felt as if I had been turned round and round, andwas almost sea-sick. Going into the house again, I found alamp and a bottle of arrack upset. The tumbler which formedthe lamp had been thrown out of the saucer in which it hadstood. The shock apiDeared to be nearly vertical, rapid, vibratory,and jerking. It was sufficient, I have no doubt, to havethrown down brick chimneys and walls and church towers ;but as the houses here are all low, and strongly framed oftimber, it is impossible for them to be much injured, except bya shock that would utterly destroy a EurojDeau city. Thepeojile told me it was ten years since they had had a strongershock tlian tliis, at which time many houses were thrown downand some people killed.At intervals of ten minutes to half an hour, slight shocks andtremors were felt, sometimes strong enough to send us all outagain. There was a strange mixture of the terrible and theludicrous in our situation. We might at any moment have amuch stronger shock, which would bring down the house overus, or—what I feared more—cause a landslip, and send us downinto the deep ravine on the very edge of which the village isbuilt ;yet I could not help laughing each time we ran out at aslight shock, and then in a few moments ran in again. Thesublime and the ridiculous were here literally but a step apart.On the one hand, the most terrible and destructive of naturalphenomena was in action around us—the rocks, the mountains,the solid earth were trembling and convulsed, and we wereutterly impotent to guard against the danger that might atany moment overwhelm us. On the other hand was the spectacleof a number of men, women, and children running in andout of their houses, on what each tim-e proved a very unnecessaryalarm, as each shock ceased just as it became strong enoughto frighten us. It seemed really very much like " playing atearthquakes," and made many of the people join me in a heartylaugh, even while reminding each other that it really might beno laughing matter.At length the evening got very cold, and I became verysleepy, and determined to turn in, leaving orders to my boys,who slept nearer the door, to wake me in case the house was indanger of falling. But I miscalculated my apathy, for I couldnot sleep much. The shocks continued at intervals of half anhour or an hour all night, just strong enough to wake methoroughly each time and keep me on the alert ready to jumpup in case of danger. I was therefore very glad when morning