Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
me. The house was large, airy and very substantially built of hard native timber, squared and
put together in a most workmanlike manner. It was furnished in European style, with hand-
some chandelier lamps, and the chairs and tables all well made by native workmen. As soon
as we entered, madeira and bitters were offered us. Then two handsome boys neatly dressed
in white and with smoothly brushed jet-black hair, handed us each a basin of water and a
clean napkin on a salver. The dinner was excellent. Fowls cooked in various ways, wild pig
roasted stewed and fried, a fricassee of bats, potatoes rice and other vegetables, all served on
good china, with finger glasses and fine napkins, and abundance of good claret and beer,
seemed to me rather curious at the table of a native chief on the mountains of Celebes. Our
host was dressed in a suit of black with patent-leather shoes, and really looked comfortable
and almost gentlemanly in them. He sat at the head of the table and did the honours well,
though he did not talk much. Our conversation was entirely in Malay, as that is the official
language here, and in fact the mother-tongue and only language of the controlleur, who is a
native-born half-breed. The Major's father, who was chief before him, wore, I was in-
formed, a strip of bark as his sole costume, and lived in a rude hut raised on lofty poles, and
abundantly decorated with human heads. Of course we were expected, and our dinner was
prepared in the best style, but I was assured that the chiefs all take a pride in adopting
European customs, and in being able to receive their visitors in a handsome manner.
After dinner and coffee, the Controlleur went on to Tondáno, and I strolled about the vil-
lage waiting for my baggage, which was coming in a bullock-cart and did not arrive till after
midnight. Supper was very similar to dinner, and on retiring I found an elegant little room
with a comfortable bed, gauze curtains with blue and red hangings, and every convenience.
Next morning at sunrise the thermometer in the verandah stood at 69°, which I was told is
about the usual lowest temperature at this place, 2,500 feet above the sea. I had a good
breakfast of coffee, eggs, and fresh bread and butter, which I took in the spacious verandah,
amid the odour of roses, jessamine, and other sweet-scented flowers, which filled the garden
in front; and about eight o'clock left Tomohón with a dozen men carrying my baggage.
