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

XXXI.] ARU ISLANDS.—RESIDENCE IN THE INTERIOR. 343active and more numerous wliite allies, by their power of existingon a kind of food which no other l)ird is able to extract fromits stony shell. The species is the Microglossum aterrimum ofnaturalists.During the two weeks which I spent in this little settlement,I had good opportunities of observing the natives at their ownhome, and living in their usual manner. There is a great monotonyand uniformity in every -day savage life, and it seemed tome a more miserable existence than when it had tlie charm ofnovelty. To begin with the most important fact in the existenceof uncivilized peoples—their food—the Aru men have no regularsupply, no staff of life, such as bread, rice, mandiocca, maize, orsago, which are the daily food of a large pro^Dortion of mankind.They have, however, many sorts of vegetables, plantains, yams,sweet potatoes, and raw sago ;and they chew up vast quantitiesof sugar-cane, as well as betel-nuts, gambir, and tobacco.Those who live on the coast have plenty of fish ; but when inland,as we are here, they only go to the sea occasionally, andthen bring home cockles and other shell-fish by the boatload.Now and then they get wild pig or kangaroo, but too rarely toform anything like a regular part of tlieir diet, which is essentiallyvegetable ; and what is of more importance, as affectingtheir health, green, watery vegetables, imperfectly cooked, andeven these in varying and often insufficient quantities. Tothis diet may be attributed the prevalence of skin diseases, andulcers on the legs and joints. The scurfy skin disease socommon among savages has a close connexion with the poornessand irregularity of tlieir living. The Malays, who are neverwithout their daily rice, are generally free from it ; the hill-Dyaks of Borneo, who grow rice and live well, are clean skinned,while the less industrious and less cleanly tribes, who live for aportion of the year on fruits and vegetables only, are verysubject to tliis malady. It seems clear that in this, as in otherrespects, man is not able to make a beast of himself withimpunity, feeding like the cattle on the herbs and :fruits of theearth, and taking no thouglit of tlie morrow. To maintain hishealth and beauty he must labour to prepare some farinaceousproduct capable of being stored and accumulated, so as to givehim a regular supply of wholesome food. Wlien this is obtained,he may add vegetables, fruits, and meat with advantage.The chief luxury of the Aru people, besides betel and tobacco,is arrack "(Java rum), which the traders bring in great quantitiesand sell very cheap. A day's fishing or rattan cutting will purchaseat least a half-gallon bottle ; and wlien the tripang or birds'nests collected during a season are sold, they get whole boxes,each containing fifteen such bottles, which the inmates of a housewill sit round day and night till they have finished. Tliey themselvestell me that at such bouts they often tear to pieces thehouse they are in, break and destroy everything they can lay theirhands on, and make such an infernal riot as is alarming to behold.