- About forty miles southwest of Samarang, on a
mountain called Gunong Prau, an extensive plateau is covered with
ruins.
To reach these temples, four flights of stone steps were
made up the mountain from opposite directions, each flight
consisting of more than a thousand steps. Traces of nearly four
hundred temples have been found here, and many (perhaps all) were
decorated with rich and delicate sculptures. The whole country
between this and Brambanam, a distance of sixty miles, abounds
with ruins, so that fine sculptured images may be seen lying in
the ditches, or built into the walls of enclosures.
In the eastern part of Java, at Kediri and in Malang, there are
equally abundant traces of antiquity, but the buildings
themselves have been mostly destroyed. Sculptured figures,
however, abound; and the ruins of forts, palaces, baths,
aqueducts, and temples, can be everywhere traced. It is
altogether contrary to the plan of this book to describe what I
have not myself seen; but, having been led to mention them, I
felt bound to do something to call attention to these marvellous
works of art. One is overwhelmed by the contemplation of these
innumerable sculptures, worked with delicacy and artistic feeling
in a hard, intractable, trachytic rock, and all found in one
tropical island. What could have been the state of society, what
the amount of population, what the means of subsistence which
rendered such gigantic works possible, will, perhaps, ever remain
a mystery; and it is a wonderful example of the power of
religious ideas in social life, that in the very country where,
five hundred years ago, these grand works were being yearly
executed, the inhabitants now only build rude houses of bamboo
and thatch, and look upon these relics of their forefathers with
ignorant amazement, as the undoubted productions of giants or of
demons. It is much to be regretted that the Dutch Government does
not take vigorous steps for the preservation of these ruins from
the destroying agency of tropical vegetation; and for the
collection of the fine sculptures which are everywhere scattered
over the land.
Wonosalem is situated about a thousand feet above the sea, but
unfortunately it is at a distance from the forest, and is
surrounded by coffee plantations, thickets of bamboo, and coarse
grasses. It was too far to walk back daily to the forest, and in
other directions I could find no collecting ground for insects.
The place was, however, famous for peacocks, and my boy soon shot
several of these magnificent birds, whose flesh we found to be
tender, white, and delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. The
Java peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck
being covered with scale-like green feathers, and the crest of a
different form; but the eyed train is equally large and equally
beautiful. It is a singular fact in geographical distribution
that the peacock should not be found in Sumatra or Borneo, while
the superb Argus, Fire-backed and Ocellated pheasants of those
islands are equally unknown in Java. Exactly parallel is the fact
that in Ceylon and Southern India, where the peacock abounds,
there are none of the splendid Lophophori and other gorgeous
pheasants which inhabit Northern India. It would seem as if the
peacock can admit of no rivals in its domain. Were these birds
rare in their native country, and unknown alive in Europe, they
would assuredly be considered as the true princes of the
feathered tribes, and altogether unrivalled for stateliness and
beauty. As it is, I suppose scarcely anyone if asked to fix upon
the most beautiful bird in the world would name the peacock, any
more than the Papuan savage or the Bugis trader would fix upon
the bird of paradise for the same honour.
Three days after my arrival at Wonosalem, my friend Mr. Ball came
to pay me a visit. He told me that two evenings before, a boy had
been killed and eaten by a tiger close to Modjo-agong. He was
riding on a cart drawn by bullocks, and was coming home about
dusk on the main road; and when not half a mile from the village
a tiger sprang upon him, carried him off into the jungle close
by, and devoured him. Next morning his remains were discovered,
consisting only of a few mangled bones. The Waidono had got
together about seven hundred men, and were in chase of the
animal, which, I afterwards heard, they found and killed. They
only use spears when in pursuit of a tiger in this way. They
surround a large tract of country, and draw gradually together
until the animal is enclosed in a compact ring of armed men. When
he sees there is no escape he generally makes a spring, and is
received on a dozen spears, and almost instantly stabbed to
death. The skin of an animal thus killed is, of course,
worthless, and in this case the skull, which I had begged Mr.
Ball to secure for me, was hacked to pieces to divide the teeth,
which are worn as charms.
After a week at Wonosalem, I returned to the foot of the
mountain, to a village named Djapannan, which was surrounded by
several patches of forest, and seemed altogether pretty well
spited to my pursuits. The chief of the village had prepared two
small bamboo rooms on one side of his own courtyard to
accommodate me, and seemed inclined to assist me as much as he
could. The weather was exceedingly hot and dry, no rain having
fallen for several months, and there was, in consequence, a great
scarcity of insects, and especially of beetles. I therefore
devoted myself chiefly to obtaining a good set of the birds, and
succeeded in making a tolerable collection. All the peacocks we
had hitherto shot had had short or imperfect tails, but I now
obtained two magnificent specimens more than seven feet long, one
of which I preserved entire, while I kept the train only attached
to the tail of two or three others.
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