At least fifty of the
hundred were always talking at once, and that not in the low
measured tones of the apathetically polite Malay, but with loud
voices, shouts, and screaming laughter, in which the women and
children were even more conspicuous than the men.
It was only
while gazing at me that their tongues were moderately quiet,
because their eyes were fully occupied. The black vegetable soil
here overlying the coral rock is very rich, and the sugar-cane
was finer than any I had ever seen. The canes brought to the boat
were often ten and even twelve feet long, and thick in
proportion, with short joints throughout, swelling between the
knots with the, abundance of the rich juice. At Dobbo they get a
high price for it, 1d. to 3d. a stick, and there is an insatiable
demand among the crews of the praus and the Baba fishermen. Here
they eat it continually. They half live on it, and sometimes feed
their pigs with it. Near every house are great heaps of the
refuse cane; and large wicker-baskets to contain this refuse as
it is produced form a regular part of the furniture of a house.
Whatever time of the day you enter, you are sure to find three or
four people with a yard of cane in one hand, a knife in the
other, and a basket between their legs, hacking, paring, chewing,
and basket-filling, with a persevering assiduity which reminds
one of a hungry cow grazing, or of a caterpillar eating up a
leaf.
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