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

362 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.fiddles were to be lieard, and the melancholy Malay songssounded not unpleasantly far into the night. Almost every daythere was a cock-light in the street. The spectators make aring, and after the long steel spurs are tied on, and the pooranimals are set down to gash and kill each other, the excitementis immense. Those who have made bets scream and yell andjump frantically, if they think they are going to win or lose. Butin a very few minutes it is all over ; there is a hurrah from thewinners, the owners seize their cocks, the winning bird is caressedand admired, the loser is generally dead or very badlywounded, and his master may often be seen plucking out hisfeathers as he w^alks away, preparing him for the cooking potwhile the poor bird is still alive.A game at foot-ball, which generally took place at sunset,was, however, much more interesting to me. The ball used is arather small one, and is made of rattan, hollow, light, andelastic. The player keeps it dancing a little while on his foot,tlien occasionally on his arm or thigh, till suddenly lie gives ita good blow with the hollow of the foot, and sends it flying liighin the air. Another jilayer runs to meet it, and at its first boundcatches it on his foot and plays in his turn. The ball mustnever be touched with the hand ; but the arm, shoulder, knee,or thigh are used at pleasure to rest the foot. Two or threeplayed veiy skilfully, keeping the ball continually flying about,but the place was too confined to show off" the game to advantage.One evening a quarrel arose from some dispute in thegame, and there was a great row, and it was feared there wouldbe a fight about it—not two men only, but a pai'ty of a dozenor twenty on each side, a regular battle with knives and krisses ;but after a large amount of talk it passed ofi" quietly, and weheard nothing about it afterwards.Most Europeans being gifted by nature with a luxuriantgrowth of hair upon their faces think it disfigures them, andkeep up a continual struggle against her by mowing down everymorning the crop which has sprouted up during the precedingtwenty-four hours. Now the men of Mongolian race are,naturally, just as many of us want to be. They mostly passtheir lives with faces as smooth and beardless as an infant's.But shaving seems an instinct of the human race ; for many ofthese people, having no hair to take ofi" their faces, shave theirheads. Others, however, set resolutely to work to force natureto give them a beard. One of the chief cock-fighters at Dobbowas a Javanese, a sort of master of the ceremonies of the ring,who tied on the spurs and acted as backer-up to one of thecombatants. This man had succeeded, by assiduous cultivation,in raising a pair of moustaches which were a triumph of art,for they each contained about a dozen hairs more than threeinches long, and whicli, being well greased and twisted, weredistinctly visible (when not too far oS) as a black thread liangingdown on each side of his mouth. But the beard to match