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

326 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.strangers, or made to keep themselves so much secluded asamong the Malay races ; the children were more merry and hadthe " nigger grin," while the noisy confusion of tongues amongthe men, and their excitement on very ordinary occasions, arealtogether removed from the general taciturnity and reserve ofthe Malay.The language of the Ke jieople consists of words of one, two,or three sj^llables in about equal i^roportions, and has manyaspirated and a few guttural sounds. The diiferent villageshave slight differences of dialect, but they are mutually intelligible,and, except in words that have evidently been introducedduring a long-continued commercial intercourse, seem tohave no affinity whatever witli the Malay languages.Jan. Qth.—The small boats being finished, we sailed for Aruat 4 P.M., and as we left the shores of Ke had a fine view of itsrugged and mountainous character; ranges of hills, three orfour thousand feet liigh, stretching southwards as far as the eyecould reach, everywhere covered with a lofty, dense, and unbrokenforest. We had very light winds, and it therefore tookus thirty liours to make the passage of sixty miles to the low, orflat, but equally forest-covered Aru Islands, where we anchoredin the harbour of Dobbo at nine in the evening of the next day."'^My first voyage in a prau being thus satisfactorily terminated,I must, before taking leave of it for some months, bear testimonyto the merits of the queer old-world A'essel. Setting aside allideas of danger, which is probably, after all, not moi-e than inany other craft, I must declare that I have never, either beforeor since, made a twenty days' voyage so pleasantly, or perhaps,more correctly speaking, with so little discomfort. This I attributechiefly to having my small cabin on deck, and entirelyto myself, to having my own servants to wait upon me, and tothe absence of all tliose marine-store smells of paint, pitch, tallow,and new cordage, which are to me insupportable. Something isalso to be put down to freedom from all restraint of dress, hoursof meals, etc., and to the civility and obliging disposition of thecaptain. I had agreed to have my meals with him, but wheneverI wished it I had them in my own berth, and at what hours Ifelt inclined. The crew were all civil and good-tempered, andwith very little discipline everything went on smoothlj^, and tlievessel was kept very clean and in pretty good order, so that onthe whole I was much delighted with the trip, and was inclinedto rate the luxuries of the semi-barbarous prau as surpas.singthose of the most magnificent screw-steamer, that highestproduct of our civilization.C-