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

206 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.see no possible clue to the riglit direction. My conductors,however, laughed at the idea, which they seemed to considerquite ludicrous ; and sure enougli, about half way, we suddenlyencountered a little hut where people from Licoupang came tohunt and smoke wild pigs. My guide told me he had neverbefore traversed the forest between these two points ; and thisis what is considered by some travellers as one of the savage"instincts," whereas it is merely the result of wide generalknowledge. The man knew the topography of the whole district: the slope of the land, the direction of the streams, thebelts of bamboo or rattan, and many otlier indications of localityand direction ; and he was thus enabled to hit straight uponthe hut, in the %'icinity of which he had often hunted. In aforest of which he knew nothing, he would be quite as much ata loss as a European. Thus it is, I am convinced, wdth all thewonderful accounts of Indians finding their way througli tracklessforests to definite jDoints. Tliey may ne^er have passedstraight between the two particular points before, but theyare well acquainted with tlie vicinity of both, and have such ageneral knowledge of tlie whole country, its water system, itssoil and its vegetation, that as they apjDroach the point they areto reach, many easily-recognized indications enable them to hitupon it with certainty.The chief feature of this forest was the abundance of rattanpalms, hanging from the trees, and turning and twisting abouton the ground, often in inextricable confusion. One wondersat first how they can get into such queer shapes ; but it isevidently caused by the decay and fall of the trees up whichthey have first climbed, after whicli they grow along the groundtill they meet with anotlier trunk up which to ascend. A tangledmass of twisted living rattan is therefore a sign that at someformer period a large tree has fallen there, tliough there may benot the sliglitest vestige of it left. The rattan seems* to haveunlimited powers of growth, and a single plant may mount upseveral trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous lengththey are said sometimes to attain. They much improve theappearance of a forest as seen from the coast ; for they vary theotherwise monotonous tree-tops with feathery crowns of leavesrising clear above them, and each terminated by an erect leafyspike like a lightning-conductor.The other most interesting object in the forest was a beautifulpalm, whose perfect!}' smooth and cylindrical stem rises erect tomore than a hundred feet high, with a thickness of onlj^ eightor ten inches ; while tlie fan-shaped leaves Avhich compose itscrown are almost complete circles of six or eight feet diameter,borne aloft on long and slender petioles, and beautifully toothedround the edge by the extremities of the leaflets, which areseparated only for a few inches from the circumference. It isprobably the Livistonarotundifoliaof botanists, and is the mostcomplete and beautiful fan-leaf I have ever seen, serving ad-