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

xxx.] CERAM, GORAII, AND THE MATABELLO ISLANDS. 289off a boat, which took me on shore. I requested that messengersshould be immediately sent to the neighbouring villages inquest of the fugitives, which was promptly done. My prau wasbrought into a small creek, wliere it could securely rest in themud at low water, and part of a house was given me in whichI could stay for a while. I now found my progress againsuddenly checked, just when I thought I had overcome my chiefdifficulties. As I had treated my men with the greatest kindness,and had given them almost everything they had asked for,I can impute their running away only to their being totallyunaccustomed to the restraint of a European master, and tosome undefined dread of my ultimate intentions regardingthem. The oldest man was an oiDium smoker, and a reputedthief, but I had been obliged to take him at the last moment asa substitute for another. I feel sure it was he who inducedthe others to run away, and as they knew the country well, andhad several hours' start of us, there was little chance of catchingthem.We were here in the great sago district of East Ceram, whichsupplies most of the surrounding islands with their daily bread,and during our week's delay I had an opportunity of seeing thewhole process of making it, and obtaining some interestingstatistics. The sago tree is a palm, thicker and larger than thecocoa-nut tree, although rarely so tall, and having immensepinnate spiny leaves, which completely cover the trunk till it ismany years old. It has a creeping root-stem like the Nipa palm,and when about ten or fifteen years of age sends up an immenseterminal spike of flowers, after which the tree dies. It grows inswamps, or in swampy hollows on the rocky slopes of hills,where it seems to thrive equally well as when exposed to theinflux of salt or brackish water. The midribs of the immenseleaves form one of the most useful articles in these lands, supplyingthe place of bamboo, to which for many purposes they aresuperior. They are twelve or fifteen feet long, and, when veryfine, as thick in the lower part as a man's leg. They are verylight, consisting entirely of a firm pith covered with a hard thinrind or bark. Entire houses are built of these ; they formadmirable roofing-poles for thatch ; split and well-supported,they do for flooring ; and when chosen of equal size, and peggedtogether side by side to fill up the panels of framed woodenhouses, they have a very neat ajipearance, and make betterwalls and partitions than boards, as they do not shrink, requireno paint or varnish, and are not a quarter the expense. Wiiencai'efuUy split and shaved smooth they are formed into lightboards with pegs of the bark itself, and are the foundation ofthe leaf-covered boxes of Goram. All the insect-boxes I usedin the ^Moluccas were thus made at Amboyna, and when coveredwith stout paper inside and out, are strong, light, and securethe insect-pins remarkably well. The leaflets of tlie sago foldedand tied side by side on the smaller midribs form the "atap"U