Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
form, and colour, but having an almost identical pattern of pale spots. I also found a single
specimen of a most curious species with very long antennæ. But my finest discovery here
was the Cicindela gloriosa, which I found on mossy stones just rising above the water. After
obtaining my first specimen of this elegant insect, I used to walk up the stream, watching
carefully every moss-covered rock and stone. It was rather shy, and would often lead me a
long chase from stone to stone, becoming invisible every time it settled on the damp moss,
owing to its rich velvety green colour. On some days I could only catch a few glimpses of it,
on others I got a single specimen, and on a few occasions two, but never without a more or
less active pursuit. This and several other species I never saw but in this one ravine.
Among the people here I saw specimens of several types, which, with the peculiarities of
the languages, gives me some notion of their probable origin. A striking illustration of the
low state of civilization of these people till quite recently, is to be found in the great di-
versity of their languages. Villages three or four miles apart have separate dialects, and each
group of three or four such villages has a distinct language quite unintelligible to all the rest;
so that, till the recent introduction of Malay by the Missionaries, there must have been a bar
to all free communication. These languages offer many peculiarities. They contain a
Celebes-Malay element and a Papuan element, along with some radical peculiarities found
also in the languages of the Siau and Sanguir islands further north, and therefore probably
derived from the Philippine Islands. Physical characters correspond. There are some of the
less civilized tribes which have semi-Papuan features and hair, while in some villages the
true Celebes or Bugis physiognomy prevails. The plateau of Tondáno is chiefly inhabited by
people nearly as white as the Chinese, and with very pleasing semi-European features. The
people of Siau and Sanguir much resemble these, and I believe them to be perhaps immig-
rants from some of the islands of North Polynesia. The Papuan type will represent the rem-
nant of the aborigines, while those of the Bugis character show the extension northward of
the superior Malay races.
As I was wasting valuable time at Panghu owing to the bad weather and the illness of my
hunters, I returned to Menado after a stay of three weeks. Here I had a little touch of fever,
and what with drying and packing away my collections and getting fresh servants, it was a
fortnight before I was again ready to start. I now went eastward over an undulating country
skirting the great volcano of Klábat, to a village called Lempías, situated close to the extens-
ive forest that covers the lower slopes of that mountain. My baggage was carried from vil-
lage to village by relays of men, and as each change involved some delay, I did not reach
my destination (a distance of eighteen miles) till sunset. I was wet through, and had to wait
