Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dyaks in Borneo, or the Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living on the banks of
clear streams, clean in their persons and their houses, with abundance of wholesome food,
and exhibiting its effect in healthy skins and beauty of form and feature! There is in fact al-
most as much difference between the various races of savage as of civilized peoples, and we
may safely affirm that the better specimens of the former are much superior to the lower ex-
amples of the latter class.
One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine, which is the fermented sap from
the flower stems of the cocoa-nut. It is really a very nice drink, more like cyder than beer,
though quite as intoxicating as the latter. Young cocoa-nuts are also very abundant, so that
anywhere in the island it is only necessary to go a few yards to find a delicious beverage by
climbing up a tree for it. It is the water of the young fruit that is drunk, before the pulp has
hardened; it is then more abundant, clear, and refreshing, and the thin coating of gelatinous
pulp is thought a great luxury. The water of full-grown cocoa-nuts is always thrown away as
undrinkable, although it is delicious in comparison with that of the old dry nuts which alone
we obtain in this country. The cocoa-nut pulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so scarce,
except at particular seasons, that one soon learns to appreciate anything of a fruity nature.
Many persons in Europe are under the impression that fruits of delicious flavour abound
in the tropical forests, and they will no doubt be surprised to learn that the truly wild fruits
of this grand and luxuriant archipelago, the vegetation of which will vie with that of any part
of the world, are in almost every island inferior in abundance and quality to those of Britain.
Wild strawberries and raspberries are found in some places, but they are such poor tasteless
things as to be hardly worth eating, and there is nothing to compare with our blackberries
and whortleberries. The kanary-nut may be considered equal to a hazel-nut, but I have met
with nothing else superior to our crabs, our haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and acorns; fruits
which would be highly esteemed by the natives of these islands, and would form an import-
ant part of their sustenance. All the fine tropical fruits are as much cultivated productions as
our apples, peaches, and plums, and their wild prototypes, when found, are generally either
tasteless or uneatable.
The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan villages of East Ceram
and Goram, amused me much by their strange ideas concerning the Russian war. They be-
lieve that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were abso-
lutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism! And they can hardly be convinced that
such is not the case, and that had it not been for the assistance of France and England, the
poor Sultan would have fared ill. Another of their notions is, that the Turks are the largest
and strongest people in the world—in fact a race of giants; that they eat enormous quantities
