A MALAY MARKET

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 16

A MALAY MARKET

IMPRESSIONS OF SINGAPORE [Written by John Smellib Martin, for the ‘Evening Star.’] Sbjnehow, in. spite of all 1 had read, Singapore was associated iu ray mind almost solely with a high humid temperature, extensive docks, and a sweating, swampy hinterland. Great, then, was my delight on approaching it to find myself among beautiful green mounded islands. We were fortunate to tie up near to a jungly bluff; at least in my view we were fortunate, although it left us at a considerable distance from the town. It was evening when wo got there, and Sunday at that, but coaling commenced immediately. Coal barges swung alongside and staging was lot down from the ship’s side. Light scoops were used. These scoops were filled by men who stood among the coal, or what passed for it, and sent up from hand to hand on a gangway to two men who stood at the shoots. These men emptied the scoops and tossed them back to the fillers at the coal. Meanwhile, coaling was also going on from the quay. I went out, and in an alley beyond the first sheds, stood beside a young engineer officer who superintended the work hero. Before us ran a continual stream of pairs of coolies with a bamboo pole reaching from the shoulder of one to the other. On this pole between the men was slung a coal basket with about 1501 bof coal. Two men stood beside the officer, one representing the shipping company and the other the coal merchant. Their job was to hand out and check tally sticks. Beyond stood weights into which every fifth basket was lowered _ and weighed, the bearers scarcely halting in their stride. Still in their stride the first of the pair of coolies received from a clerk who sat at a table the coins that represented the handling of the basket. Arrived at the ship’s side they ran up a low-set gangway, the polo was slipped , and one of the coolies faced back with it over his shoulder. His fellow emptied out the coal, roslung the empty basket, and tho pair ran off again for another load. For the refreshment of the workers an Indian had brought his tea urns and a brsket of rolls. A glass of tea and a i oil made a meal, sometimes a roll itsolf sufficed. The vendor, who squatted on the ground, had to keep a wary eye upon his goods. No purchase was hurried. Howovei a customer might hasten in his worj:, ho had always time to finger and refingcr the rolls. One follow, after much manoeuvring, tried to sneak off with a roll, and when caught, pretended that he only joked. Outside the area of coaling the stillness of the night was filled with the,, stridulant music of cicadas,

Singapore is unusually cosmopolitan. To see Indians in primitive dress engaged in making elaborate manholes arid reinforced concrete roadways is to put tho old and the new closer than side by side. Malaya is a rainy country, Moat of tho narrow side walks in Singapore aro covered in, and they are separated from the roadway by deep channels. Of course, a white man is not supposed to walk, but he must use his legs and feet occasionally, and when the Indian makes a bed of the sidewalk, as he S 9 often docs, movement by night is sometimes threaded upon difficulty. Tills outdoor habit has its points; but when Into at night I happened to pass through Raffles Placoand saw Indiana with their beds set in the middle of it and themselves out fast asleep. I confess to thinking it strango. Singapore has a very large Chinatown. To walk within its hounds is to walk in China. You have all the trades there before your eyes. I, however, never could understand those roaring blacksmith’s forges wedged in between shops with inflammable goods. You can even find the professional letter writer nt his stall in the street. While I was in Chinatown a funeral came along. The ancient Greeks had 'a saying that ran; Call no man happy until he is dead.” They meant, of course, that you could never tell how a man’s affairs would turn. But the Chinese seem to take for granted that the dead man is really happy. Otherwise, why the music, the bier decked with flowers in red and green, the lanterns, other flowery wreaths held aloft, and the cheerful pace of the procession? Their marriage music is cast in a much lower key, or at least so it seemed to me. The Chinese are strangely rational in some things. Not the least interesting places in Singapore were tho markets. Into one of these buildings when rain was threatening I one day passed. I mention tho rain threat to indicate the slate of the atmosphere. The building might be hexagonal in shape, roofed around the outer ring. Stall owners and buyers were alike representative —Malay, Chinese, Indian, Tamel, Japanese. Men, women, and children were present; but tho women were .either only buyers or the wives of the vendors. There was no white face but my own. The Chinese preponderated, as they usually do in the coastal business areas cast of India.

The market was methodically arranged. Perhaps butcher’s meat was least in evidence, in quantity if not otherwise. But this was only natural within two degrees of the equator. It was, however, sufficiently prominent for tho usual clouds of flies to he in attendance. Ico could be bought at other stalls, but was not used here. Many now varieties of fruits, vegetables, nuts,_ and meats were on view at the various stalls. Here were green thin-skinned coolie or Chinese oranges with a tangerine (flavor, mangoes resembling a drawn-out pear, but containing a large stone and salmoncolored juicy pulp slightly flavored with turpentine. It is not true that the uninitiated requires to eat them in the bath-room—at least not' quite true. There were also pawpaws, which are like fine-fleshed melons, grandillas, bananas very large and very small and medium-sized; durians of evil smell and fame, and other strange fruits. ( Vegetables were well represented, and nuts came into a similar category. Many of these were shelled, the operation being in progress. At one place a young native, bare of body and seated on the . earth, was shelling cocoa-nuts with a hatchet. Another with a similar implement broke nuts still in their shells into two pieces. The latter youth did not seem to relish my presence. Keeping my eye on the hatchet I edged off with as innocent an air as I could muster.

Perhaps I should not have studied the market so thoroughly as I did had not rain begun to appear through the central opening. In order to keep in shelter I continued to prowl around, as the one white face always an object of attention, which was now shown in scowls and again in something approaching a smile. In this aspect a Malay market is a remarkable symbol of life. Here, cooking was in pro-fire-place being a zinc pail with a slit near the foot for draught and the bellows a fan wielded by an Indian lad. Farther off, a poor-caste Indian ground some kind of grain on a concave granite base by means of a granite roller, while a woman of his class poured on water at intervals. There was baked bread, too, particularly loaves in sections of five, each section a miniature Soots loaf. At one side of the market men were

seated eating and drinking. At other stalls men stood and had a snack of strangely concocted viands. One stall sold baked meats, including a strange sausage and gee cakes. Other stalls bad rice and other grain. Fishes were quaint of form, dry and hard, and must have provided very poor nourishment. But I may be wrong in this surmise. They were sold in very small quantities, and were scarce and dear. The fowls were kept in wicker baskets resembling inverted bowls. They are conveyed from place to place in this way, a basket suspended from each end of the bamboo yoke-pole. This was the only section in which I was asked to buy. A common conveyance in Singapore is the ricksha, which is a light cart drawn by a coolie runner. The runners are mostly Chinese. But taxis are also numerous', and cheap to the citizen, Goods are often conveyed in bullock carts. Rubber and tin are the staple industries. Singapore boasts a native village perched on piles above the sea. From it young men and lads como to play at ball with the paddles of their canoes, and incidentally to gather coin. . I sometimes charted a shampan and rowed out to this village, or rather toward it, for I never landed. An old lady’s face when she saw my camera taught me discretion. The inhabitants are said to be descendants of the old sea Gyspies. It was very pleasant to sit in a sampan over the cool water with a Chinese umbrella, considerately lent by the sampan _ man, over one’s head. But several times when steamers passed and were lavish with their wash I wondered exactly how a crocodile bit. Once I wont into a piece of jungle, and there saw many beautiful plants, trees, and bushes. But one such expedition was enough. Neither bird nor butterfly could tempt me again. Even in tie tropics one requires to keep some clothes on one’s back. We passed from Singapore by the east channel in a cold and rooky rain. It was no more to be merely a sweltering market place or entrepot of the tropics.