On Our Way We Passed One Or Two Human Skeletons,
Enclosed Within A Small Bamboo Fence, With The Clothes, Pillow,
Mat, And Betel-Box Of The Unfortunate Individual, Who Had Been
Either Murdered Or Executed.
Returning to the house, we found a
Balinese chief and his followers on a visit.
Those of higher rank
sat on chairs, the others squatted on the floor. The chief very
coolly asked for beer and brandy, and helped himself and his
followers, apparently more out of curiosity than anything else as
regards the beer, for it seemed very distasteful to them, while
they drank the brandy in tumblers with much relish.
Returning to Ampanam, I devoted myself for some days to shooting
the birds of the neighbourhood. The fine fig-trees of the
avenues, where a market was held, were tenanted by superb orioles
(Oriolus broderpii) of a rich orange colour, and peculiar to this
island and the adjacent ones of Sumbawa and Flores. All round the
town were abundance of the curious Tropidorhynchus timoriensis,
allied to the Friar bird of Australia. They are here called
"Quaich-quaich," from their strange loud voice, which seems to
repeat these words in various and not unmelodious intonations.
Every day boys were to be seen walking along the roads and by the
hedges and ditches, catching dragonflies with birdlime. They
carry a slender stick, with a few twigs at the end well annointed,
so that the least touch captures the insect, whose wings are
pulled off before it is consigned to a small basket. The dragon-
flies are so abundant at the time of the rice flowering that
thousands are soon caught in this way. The bodies are fried in
oil with onions and preserved shrimps, or sometimes alone, and
are considered a great delicacy. In Borneo, Celebes, and many
other islands, the larvae of bees and wasps are eaten, either
alive as pulled out of the cells, or fried like the dragonflies.
In the Moluccas the grubs of the palm-beetles (Calandra) are
regularly brought to market in bamboos and sold for food; and
many of the great horned Lamellicorn beetles are slightly roasted
on the embers and eaten whenever met with. The superabundance of
insect life is therefore turned to some account by these
islanders.
Finding that birds were not very numerous, and hearing much of
Labuan Tring at the southern extremity of the bay, where there
was said to be much uncultivated country and plenty of birds as
well as deer and wild pigs, I determined to go there with my two
servants, Ali, the Malay lad from Borneo, and Manuel, a Portuguese
of Malacca accustomed to bird-skinning. I hired a native boat with
outriggers to take us with our small quantity of luggage, on a day's
rowing and tracking along the shore brought us to the place.
I had a note of introduction to an Amboynese Malay, and obtained
the use of part of his house to live and work in. His name was
"Inchi Daud" (Mr. David), and he was very civil; but his
accommodations were limited, and he could only hire me part of
his reception-room.
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