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

348 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.ascended ceases to be navigable at tliis point, above which it isa little rocky brook, which quite dries up in the hot season.There was now, however, a fair stream of water in it ; and apath which was partly in and partly by the side of the water,promised well for insects^ as I here saw the magnificent bluebutterfly, Papilio ulysses, as well as several other fine species,flopping lazily along, sometimes resting high up on the foliagewhich drooped over the water, at others settling do^vn on thedamp rock or on the edges of muddy pools. A little way onseveral paths branched ofi" through patches of second-growthforest to cane-fields, gardens, and scattered houses, beyondwhich again the dark wall of verdure striped with tree-trunks,marked out the limits of the primaeval forests. The voices ofmany birds promised good shooting, and on my return I foundthat my boys had already obtained two or three kinds I had notseen before ; and in the evening a native l:)rought me a rare andbeautiful species of ground-thrush (Pitta novse-guineaj) hithertoonly known from Xew Guinea.As I improved my acquaintance with them I became muchinterested in these people, who are a fair samj^le of the truesavage inhabitants of the Aru Islands, tolerably free fromforeign admixture. The house I lived in contained four or fivefamilies, and there were generally from six to a dozen visitorsbesides. They kept up a continual row from morning till night—talking, laughing, shouting, without intermission^not verypleasant, but interesting as a study of national character. Myboy Ali said to me, " '"'Banyak quot bitchara Orang Aru (TheAru people are very strong talkers), never having been accustomedto such eloquence either in his own or any other countryhe had hitherto visited. Of an evening the men, having gotover their first shyness, began to talk to me a little, askingabout my country, ikc, and in return I questioned them aboutany traditions thej" had of their own oi-igin. I had, however,-A'ery little success, for I could not possibly make them under-.stand the simj^le question of wliere the Aru people first camefrom. I put it in every possible way to them, but it was asubject quite beyond their speculations ; they had evidentlynever thought of anything of the kind, and wei-e unable toconceive a thing so remote and so unnecessary to be thoughtabout as their own origin. Finding this hopeless, I asked ifthey knew when the trade with Aru first began, when the Bugisand Chinese and Macassar men first came in their jjraus to buytripang and tortoise-shell, and birds' nests, and Paradise birds?This they compi-ehended, but replied that there had always beenthe same trade as long as they or their fathers recollected, butthat this was the first time a real white man had come amongthem, and, said the\^, " You see how the people come every dayfrom all the villages round to look at you." This was very flattering,and accounted for the great concourse of visitors whichI had at first imagined was accidental. A few years before I