THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 589, 26 October 1869, Page 4

THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO.

(By Ax.7r.ed R. Wallace.) Bee Hunters. — The bees- wax is a still more important and valuable product formed by the wild bees (Apis dorsata), which build huge honeycombs, suspended in the open air from the under-side of the lofty branches of the highest trees. These are of a semicircular form, and often three or four feet in diameter, I once saw the natives take a bees' nest, and a very interesting sight it was. In the valley where I used to collect insects, I one day Sciw three or four Timorese men and boys under a high tree, and, looking up, saw on a very lofty horizontal branch three bees' combs. The tree was straight and smooth-barked and without a branch, till at seventy or eighty feet from the ground it gave out the limb which the bees had chosen for their home. As the men were evidently looking after the bees, I waited to watch their operations, One of them first produced a long piece of wood, apparently the stem of a small tree or creeper, which he had brought with him, and began splitting it through in several directions, which showed that it was very tough and stringy. He then wrapped it in palm leaves, which were secured by twisting a slender creeper round them. He then fastened his cloth tightly round his loins, and producing another cloth wrapped it round his head, neck, and body, and tied it firmly round his neck, leaving his face, arms, and legs completely bare. Slung to his girdle he carried a long thin coil of cord ; and while he had been making these preparations one of his companions had cut a strong creeper or bush-rope eight or ten yards long, to one end of which the wood torch was fastened, and lighted at the bottom, emitting a steady stream of smoke. Just above the torch a chopping knife was fastened by a short cord. The bee-hunter now took hold of the bush-rope just above the torch, and passed the other end round the trunk of the tree, holding one end in each hand. Jerking it up the tree a little above his head he set his foot against the trunk, and leaning back began walking up it. It was wonderful to see the skill with which he took advantage of the slightest irregularities of the bark or obliquity of the stem to aid his ascent, jerking the stiff creeper a few feet higher when he had found a firm hold for his bare foot. It almost made me giddy to look him as he rapidly got vp — thirty, forty, fifty feet above ground ; and I kept wondering how he could possibly mount the next few feet of straight smooth trunk. Still, however, he kept on with as much coolness and apparent certainty as if he were going up aladder, till he got within ten or fifteen feet of the bees. Then he stopped a moment and took care to swing the torch (which hung just at his feet) a little towards these dangerous insects, so as to send up the stream of smoke between him and them. Still going on, in a minute more he brought himself under the limb,. and in a manner quite unintelligible to me, seeing that both hands were occupied in supporthimself by the creeper, managed to get upon it. By this time the bees began to be alarmed, and formed a dense buzzing swarm over him, but he brought the torch up closer to him, and cooly brushed away those that settled on his arms or legs. Then stretching himself along the limb, he crept towards the nearest comb and swung the torch just under it, The moment the smoke touched it, its colour changed in a most curious way from black to white, the myriads of. bees that had covered it flying off and forming a dense cloud above and around. The man then lay at full length along the limb, and brushed off the remaining bees with his hand, and then drawing his knife cut off the comb at one slice close to the tree, and attaching the thin cord to it let it down to his companion below. • He was all this time enveloped in a crowd of angry bees, and how he bore their stings so coolly and went on with his work at that giddy height so deliberately, was more than I could understand. The bees were evidently not stupified by the smoke, or driven away far by it, and it was impossible that the small stream from the torch could protect bis whole body when at work. There were three other combs on the same tree, and all were successively taken, and, furnished the whole party, with a luscious feast of honey, and young bees as well as a valuable lot of wax. Lombook. — The men are exceedingly jealous and very strict with their wives. A married woman may not accept a cigar or a sirih leaf from a stranger under pain of death. I was informed that some years ago one oFthe English traders had a Balinese woman of good family .living with him — the connection being considered quite honourable by the natives. During some festival the girl offended against the law by accepting a flower or some such trifle from another man. This was reported to the Rajah (to some of whose wives the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Englishman's house ordering him to give the woman up,as she must be " krissed." In vain he begged and prayed, and offered to pay any fine the Rajah might impose, and finally refused to give her up unless he was forced to do so. This the Rajah did not wish to resort to, as he no doubt thought he was acting as much for the Englishman's honour as for his own ; so he appearred to let the matter drop. But some time afterwards he sent one of his followers to the ho ii se, who beckoned the woman ' to the door, and then saying. "The Rajah sends you this," stabbed her to the heart. More serious infidelity is punished still more cruelly, the woman and her paramour being tied back to back and thrown into the sea, where some large crocodiles are always on the watch to devour the bodies. One such execution took place while I was at Ampanam, but 1 took a long walk into the country to be out of the way till it was all over, thus missiug the oportunity of having a horrible narrative to enliven my somewhat tedious story. Celebes. — Not a single person in the village could speak more than a few words of Malay, and hardly any of the people appeared to have seen a European before. One most disagreeable result of this was, that I excited terror alike in man and beast. Wherever I went, dogs barked, children screamed, women ran away, men stared as though 1 were some strange and terrible monster. Even the packhorses on the roads and paths would start aside when I appeared, and rush into the jungle ; and as to those horrid, ugly brutes, the buffaloes, they never could be approached by me ; not for fear of my own but others' safety, They woi\ld feb

stick out their necks and stare at me, and then on a nearer view break loose from halters or tethers, and rush away helterskelter as if a demon were after them, without any regard for what might be in their way. Wheuever I met buffaloes carrying packs along a pathway, or being driven home to the village, I had to turn aside into the jungle and hide myself till they had passed, to avoid a catastrophe which would increase the dislike with which I was already regarded. Every day about noon the buffaloes were brought into the village and were tethered in the shade around the houses ; and then I had to creep about like a thief by back ways, for no one could tell what mischief they might do to children and houses were I to walk among them. If I came suddenly upon a well where women were drawing water or children bathing, a sudden flight waß the certain result ; which things, occurring day after day, were very unpleasant to a person who does not like to be disliked, and who had never been accustomed to be treated as an ogre.