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

XXVI.] BOURU. 297several of the Amboyna species, but by no means so numerousor so beautiful as I had found in that small island. For example,I collected only 210 ditferent kinds of beetles during my twomonths' stay at Bouru, while in tliree weeks at Amboyna, in1857, I found more than 300 species. One of the finest insectsfound at Bouru was a large Cerambyx, of a deep shining chestnutcolour, and witli very long antennae. It varied greatly insize, the largest specimens being three inches long, while thesmallest were only an inch, the antennae varying from one anda half to five inches.One day my boy Ali came home wdth a story of a big snake.He was walking through some high grass, and stepped on somethingwhich he took for a small fallen tree, but it felt cold andyielding to his feet, and far to the right and left there was awaving and rustling of the herbage. He jumped back in affrightand prepared to shoot, but could not get a good view of thecreature, and it passed away, he said, like a tree being draggedalong through the grass. As he had several times already shotlarge snakes, which he declared were all as nothing comparedwith this, I am inclined to believe it must I'eally have been amonster. Such creatures are rather plentiful here, for a manliving close by showed me on his thigh the marks where he hadbeen seized by one close to his house. It was big enough to takethe man's thigh in its mouth, and he would probably have beenkilled and devoured by it had not his ci'ies brought out hisneighbours, who destroyed it with their choppers. As far as Icould make out it was about twenty feet long, but All's wasprobably much larger.It sometimes amuses me to observe how, a few days after Ihave taken possession of it, a native hut seems quite a comfortablehome. My house at Waypoti was a bare shed, mth a largebamboo platform at one side. At one end of this platform, whichwas elevated about three feet, I fixed up my mosquito curtain,and partly enclosed it with a large Scotch plaid, making acomfortable little sleeping apartment. I put up a rude tableon legs buried in the earthen floor, and had my comfortablerattan-chair for a seat. A line across one corner cari'ied mydaily-washed cotton clothing, and on a bamboo shelf was arrangedmy small stock of crockery and hardware. Boxes wereranged against the thatch walls, and hanging shelves, to preservemy collections from ants while drying, were suspendedboth without and within the house. On my table lay books,penknives, scissors, pliers, and pins, with insect and bird labels,all of which were unsolved mysteries to the native mind.Most of the people here had never seen a pin, and the betterinformed took a pride in teaching their more ignorant companionsthe peculiarities and uses of that strange Europeanproduction—a needle with a head, but no eye ! Even paper,which we throw away liourly as rubbish, was to them a curiosity ;and I often saw them picking up little scraps which had been