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

"352 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.to the sea 1 " " Why, they are all packed up in boxes," said I."What did you think became of them?" "They all come tolife again, don't they ? " said he ; and though I tried to joke itoff, and said if they did we should have plenty to eat at sea, hestuck to his opinion, and kept repeating, witli an air of deepconviction, " Yes, they all corne to life again, that's what theydo—they all come to life again."After a little while, — and a good deal of talking among themselves,he began again " I know all about it—oh, yes ! Beforeyou came we had rain every day—^very wet indeed ; now, eversince you have been here, it is fine hot weather. Oh, yes ! Iknow all about it ;you can't deceive me." And so I was setdown as a conjurer, and was unable to repel the charge. Butthe conjurer was completely puzzled by the next question:" What," said the old man, " is the great ship, where the Bugisand Chinamen go to sell their things 1 It is always in the greatsea—its name is Jong ; tell us all about it." In vain I inquiredwhat they knew about it ; they knew nothing but that it wascalled " Jong," and was always in the sea, and was a very greatship, and concluded with, " Perhaps that is j^our country ?Finding that I could not or would not tell them anything about" Jong," there came more regrets that I would not tell them thereal name of my country ;and then a long string of compliments,to the effect that I was a much better sort of a personthan the Bugis and Chinese, who sometimes came to trade withthem, for I gave them things for nothing, and did not try tocheat them. How long would I stop 1 was the next earnestinquiry. Would I stay two or three months ? They would getme plenty of birds and animals, and I might soon finish all thegoods I liad brought, and then, said the old spokesman, " Don'tgo away, but send for more things fi'om Dobbo, and stay here ayear or two." And then again the old story, " Do tell us thename of your country. We know the Bugis men, and theMacassar men, and the Java men, and the China men ; onlyyou, we don't know from what country you come. Ung-lung !it can't be ; I know that is not the name of your country."Seeing no end to this long talk, I said I was tired, and wantedto go to sleep ; so after begging—one a little bit of dry fish forhis supper, and another a little salt to eat with his sago—theywent off very quietly, and I went outside and took a strollround the house by moonlight, thinking of the simple peopleand the strange productions of Aru, and then turned in undermy mosquito curtain, to sleep with a sense of perfect securityin the midst of these good-natured savages.We now had seven or eight days of hot and dry weather,which reduced tlie little river to a succession of shallow poolsconnected by the smallest possible thread of trickling water.If there were a dry season like that of Macassar, the Aru Islandswould he uninhabitable, as there is no part of them much abovea hundred feet high ; and the whole being a mass of porous