He Was
A Malay, Wearing Only A Handkerchief And Sarong, A Gossiping, Careless
Fellow, Who Jumped Off Whenever He Had A Chance Of A Talk, And Left Us
To Ourselves.
He drove with a stick with a curved spike at the end of
it, which, when the elephant was bad, was hooked into the membranous
"flapper," always evoking the uprearing and brandishing of the
proboscis, and a sound of ungentle expostulation, which could be heard
a mile off.
He sat on the head of the beast, sometimes cross-legged,
and sometimes with his legs behind the huge ear covers. Mr. Maxwell
assured me that he would not send me into a region without a European
unless it were perfectly safe, which I fully believed, any doubts as to
my safety, if I had any, being closely connected with my steed.
This mode of riding is not comfortable. One sits facing forward with
the feet dangling over the edge of the basket.* This edge soon produces
a sharp ache or cramp, and when one tries to get relief by leaning back
on anything, the awkward, rolling motion is so painful, that one
reverts to the former position till it again becomes intolerable. Then
the elephant had not been loaded "with brains," and his pack was as
troublesome as the straw shoes of the Japanese horses. It was always
slipping forward or backward, and as I was heavier than the Malay lad,
I was always slipping down and trying to wriggle myself up on the great
ridge which was the creature's backbone, and always failing, and the
mahout was always stopping and pulling the rattan ropes which bound the
whole arrangement together, but never succeeding in improving it.
[*See Frontispiece.]
Before we had traveled two hours, the great bulk of the elephant,
without any warning, gently subsided behind, and then as gently in
front, the huge, ugly legs being extended in front of him, and the man
signed to me to get off, which I did by getting on his head and letting
myself down by a rattan rope upon the driver, who made a step of his
back, for even when "kneeling," as this queer attitude is called, a
good ladder is needed for comfortable getting off and on. While the
whole arrangement of baskets was being re-rigged, I clambered into a
Malay dwelling of the poorer class, and was courteously received and
regaled with bananas and buffalo milk. Hospitality is one of the Malay
virtues. This house is composed of a front hut and a back hut with a
communication. Like all others it is raised to a good height on posts.
The uprights are of palm, and the elastic, gridiron floor of split
laths of the invaluable nibong palm (oncosperma filamentosum). The
sides are made of neatly split reeds, and the roof, as in all houses,
of the dried leaves of the nipah palm (nipa fruticans) stretched over a
high ridge pole and steep rafters of bamboo. I could not see that a
single nail had been used in the house. The whole of it is lashed
together with rattan. The furniture consists entirely of mats, which
cover a part of the floor, and are used both for sitting on and
sleeping on, and a few small, hard, circular bolsters with embroidered
ends. A musket, a spear, some fishing-rods, and a buffalo yoke hung
against the wall of the reception room. In the back room, the province
of the women and children, there were an iron pot, a cluster of
bananas, and two calabashes. The women wore only sarongs, and the
children nothing. The men, who were not much clothed, were lounging on
the mats.
The Malays are passionately fond of pets, and are said to have much
skill in taming birds and animals. Doubtless their low voices and
gentle, supple movements never shock the timid sensitiveness of brutes.
Besides this, Malay children yield a very ready obedience to their
elders, and are encouraged to invite the confidence of birds and
beasts, rather than to torment them. They catch birds by means of
bird-lime made of gutta, by horse-hair nooses, and by imitating their
call. In this small house there were bamboo cages containing twenty
birds, most of them talking minas and green-feathered small pigeons.
They came out of their cages when called, and perched in rows on the
arms of the men. I don't know whether the mina can learn many words,
but it imitates the human voice so wonderfully that in Hawaii when it
spoke English I was quite deceived by it. These minas articulated so
humanly that I did know whether a bird or a Malay spoke. There were
four love-birds in an exquisitely made bamboo cage, lovely little
creatures with red beaks and blue and green plumage. The children catch
small grasshoppers for their birds with a shovel-shaped instrument of
open rattan work. When I add that there were some homely domestic fowls
and a nearly tailless cat, I think I have catalogued the visible
possessions of this family, with the exception of a bamboo cradle with
a small brown inmate hanging from the rafters, and a small shed, used,
I believe, for storing rice.
The open floor, while it gives air and ventilation, has also its
disadvantages, for solid and liquid refuse is thrown through it so
conveniently that the ground under the house is apt to contain stagnant
pools and heaps of decomposing matter, and men lying asleep on mats on
these gridirons have sometimes been stabbed with a kris inserted
between the bars from below by an enemy seeking revenge.
I must not, however, give the impression that the Malays are a dirty
people. They wash their clothes frequently, and bathe as often as is
possible. They try to build their houses near water, and use small
bathing-sheds.
I went into another house, rather poorer than the former, and, with a
touching hospitality, they made signs to me to know if I would like a
cocoa-nut.
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