Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
forest became flooded, the roads filled with mud, and insects and birds were scarcer than
ever. On December 13th, in the afternoon, we had a sharp earthquake shock, which made
the house and furniture shake and rattle for five minutes, and the trees and shrubs wave as if
a gust of wind had passed over them. About the middle of December I removed to the vil-
lage, in order more easily to explore the district to the west of it, and to be near the sea when
I wished to return to Ternate. I obtained the use of a good-sized house in the Campong Sir-
ani (or Christian village), and at Christmas and the New Year had to endure the incessant
gun-firing, drum-beating, and fiddling of the inhabitants.
These people are very fond of music and dancing, and it would astonish a European to
visit one of their assemblies. We enter a gloomy palm-leaf hut, in which two or three very
dim lamps barely render darkness visible. The floor is of black sandy earth, the roof hid in a
smoky impenetrable blackness; two or three benches stand against the walls, and the orches-
tra consists of a fiddle, a fife, a drum, and a triangle. There is plenty of company, consisting
of young men and women, all very neatly dressed in white and black—a true Portuguese
habit. Quadrilles, waltzes, polkas, and mazurkas are danced with great vigour and much
skill. The refreshments are muddy coffee and a few sweetmeats. Dancing is kept up for
hours, and all is conducted with much decorum and propriety. A party of this kind meets
about once a week, the principal inhabitants taking it by turns, and all who please come in
without much ceremony.
It is astonishing how little these people have altered in three hundred years, although in
that time they have changed their language and lost all knowledge of their own nationality.
They are still in manners and appearance almost pure Portuguese, very similar to those with
whom I had become acquainted on the banks of the Amazon. They live very poorly as re-
gards their house and furniture, but preserve a semi-European dress, and have almost all full
suits of black for Sundays. They are nominally Protestants, but Sunday evening is their
grand day for music and dancing. The men are often good hunters; and two or three times a
week, deer or wild pigs are brought to the village, which, with fish and fowls, enables them
to live well. They are almost the only people in the Archipelago who eat the great fruit-eat-
ing bats called by us 'flying foxes.' These ugly creatures are considered a great delicacy,
and are much sought after. At about the beginning of the year they come in large flocks to
eat fruit, and congregate during the day on some small islands in the bay, hanging by thou-
sands on the trees, especially on dead ones. They can then be easily caught or knocked
down with sticks, and are brought home by baskets-full. They require to be carefully pre-
pared, as the skin and fur has a rank and powerful foxy odour; but they are generally cooked
with abundance of spices and condiments, and are really very good eating, something like
