1st 185 Very wet.
2d 68 Cloudy and showers.
3d 50 Cloudy.
4th 12 Fine.
5th 10 Fine.
6th
8 Very fine.
7th 8 Very fine.
8th 10 Fine.
9th 36 Showery.
10th 30 Showery.
11th 260 Heavy rain all night, and dark.
12th 56 Showery.
13th 44 Showery; some moonlight.
14th 4 Fine; moonlight.
15th 24 Rain; moonlight.
16th 6 Showers; moonlight.
17th 6 Showers; moonlight.
18th 1 Showers; moonlight.
Total 1,386
It thus appears that on twenty-six nights I collected 1,386
moths, but that more than 800 of them were collected on four very
wet and dark nights. My success here led me to hope that, by
similar arrangements, I might on every island be able to obtain an
abundance of these insects; but, strange to say, during the six
succeeding years, I was never once able to make any collections at
all approaching those at Sarawak. The reason for this I can pretty
well understand to be owing to the absence of some one or other
essential condition that were here all combined. Sometimes the
dry season was the hindrance; more frequently residence in a town
or village not close to virgin forest, and surrounded by other
houses whose lights were a counter-attraction; still more
frequently residence in a dark palm-thatched house, with a lofty
roof, in whose recesses every moth was lost the instant it
entered. This last was the greatest drawback, and the real reason
why I never again was able to make a collection of moths; for I
never afterwards lived in a solitary jungle-house with a low
boarded and whitewashed verandah, so constructed as to prevent
insects at once escaping into the upper part of the house, quite
out of reach.
After my long experience, my numerous failures, and my one success,
I feel sure that if any party of naturalists ever make a yacht-voyage
to explore the Malayan Archipelago, or any other tropical region,
making entomology one of their chief pursuits, it would well repay
them to carry a small framed verandah, or a verandah-shaped tent
of white canvas, to set up in every favourable situation, as a means
of making a collection of nocturnal Lepidoptera, and also of obtaining
rare specimens of Coleoptera and other insects. I make the suggestion
here, because no one would suspect the enormous difference in results
that such an apparatus would produce; and because I consider it one
of the curiosities of a collector's experience, to have found out
that some such apparatus is required.
When I returned to Singapore I took with me the Malay lad named
Ali, who subsequently accompanied me all over the Archipelago.
Charles Allen preferred staying at the Mission-house, and
afterwards obtained employment in Sarawak and in Singapore, until
he again joined me four years later at Amboyna in the Moluccas.
CHAPTER VI.
BORNEO - THE DYAKS.
THE manners and customs of the aborigines of Borneo have been
described in great detail, and with much fuller information than I
possess, in the writings of Sir James Brooke, Messrs. Low, St. John,
Johnson Brooke, and many others. I do not propose to go over the
ground again, but shall confine myself to a sketch, from personal
observation, of the general character of the Dyaks, and of such
physical, moral, and social characteristics as have been less
frequently noticed.
The Dyak is closely allied to the Malay, and more remotely to the
Siamese, Chinese, and other Mongol races. All these are characterised
by a reddish-brown or yellowish-brown skin of various shades, by jet-
black straight hair, by the scanty or deficient beard, by the rather
small and broad nose, and high cheekbones; but none of the Malayan
races have the oblique eyes which are characteristic of the more
typical Mongols. The average stature of the Dyaks is rather more than
that of the Malays, while it is considerably under that of most
Europeans. Their forms are well proportioned, their feet and hands
small, and they rarely or never attain the bulk of body so often seen
in Malays and Chinese.
I am inclined to rank the Dyaks above the Malays in mental capacity,
while in moral character they are undoubtedly superior to them. They
are simple and honest, and become the prey of the Malay and Chinese
trailers, who cheat and plunder them continually. They are more
lively, more talkative, less secretive, and less suspicious than the
Malay, and are therefore pleasanter companions. The Malay boys have
little inclination for active sports and games, which form quite a
feature in the life of the Dyak youths, who, besides outdoor games of
skill and strength, possess a variety of indoor amusements. One wet
day, in a Dyak house, when a number of boys and young men were about
me, I thought to amuse them with something new, and showed them how
to make "cat's cradle" with a piece of string. Greatly to my
surprise, they knew all about it, and more than I did; for, after
Charles and I had gone through all the changes we could make, one of
the boys took it off my hand, and made several new figures which
quite puzzled me. They then showed me a number of other tricks with
pieces of string, which seemed a favourite amusement with them.
Even these apparently trifling matters may assist us to form a truer
estimate of the Dyaks' character and social condition. We learn
thereby, that these people have passed beyond that first stage of
savage life in which the struggle for existence absorbs all of the
faculties, and in which every thought and idea is connected with war
or hunting, or the provision for their immediate necessities. These
amusements indicate a capability of civilization, an aptitude to
enjoy other than mere sensual pleasures, which night be taken
advantage of to elevate their whole intellectual and social life.
The moral character of the Dyaks is undoubtedly high - a statement
which will seem strange to those who have heard of them only as
head-hunters and pirates.
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