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In-Depth Information
ately became well. And they made a great net of rattans, and entangled their prisoners in it,
and sunk them in the water; and the next day, when they pulled the net up on shore, they
made the drowned men come to life again, and carried them away.
Much more of the same kind was told me, but in so confused and rambling a manner that
I could make nothing out of it, till I inquired how long ago it was that all this happened,
when they told me that after their people were taken away the Bugis came in their praus to
trade in Aru, and to buy tripang and birds' nests. It is not impossible that something similar
to what they related to me really happened when the early Portuguese discoverers first came
to Aru, and has formed the foundation for a continually increasing accumulation of legend
and fable. I have no doubt that to the next generation, or even before, I myself shall be trans-
formed into a magician or a demigod, a worker of miracles, and a being of supernatural
knowledge. They already believe that all the animals I preserve will come to life again; and
to their children it will be related that they actually did so. An unusual spell of fine weather
setting in just at my arrival has made them believe I can control the seasons; and the simple
circumstance of my always walking alone in the forest is a wonder and a mystery to them,
as well as my asking them about birds and animals I have not yet seen, and showing an ac-
quaintance with their forms, colours, and habits. These facts are brought against me when I
disclaim knowledge of what they wish me to tell them. 'You must know,' say they; 'you
know everything: you make the fine weather for your men to shoot; and you know all about
our birds and our animals as well as we do; and you go alone into the forest and are not
afraid.' Therefore every confession of ignorance on my part is thought to be a blind, a mere
excuse to avoid telling them too much. My very writing materials and topics are to them
weird things; and were I to choose to mystify them by a few simple experiments with lens
and magnet, miracles without end would in a few years cluster about me; and future travel-
lers, penetrating to Wanumbai, would hardly believe that a poor English naturalist, who had
resided a few months among them, could have been the original of the supernatural being to
whom so many marvels were attributed.
For some days I had noticed a good deal of excitement, and many strangers came and
went armed with spears and cutlasses, bows and shields. I now found there was war near
us—two neighbouring villages having a quarrel about some matter of local politics that I
could not understand. They told me it was quite a common thing, and that they are rarely
without fighting somewhere near. Individual quarrels are taken up by villages and tribes,
and the non-payment of the stipulated price for a wife is one of the most frequent causes of
bitterness and bloodshed. One of the war shields was brought me to look at. It was made of
rattans and covered with cotton twist, so as to be both light, strong, and very tough. I should
