Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Part 29

The forest trees are much like those of the adjacent islands. There are no very large animals, those peculiar to Celebes being the tailless baboon and the "pig-deer," which has tusks and curving horns.

Parts of the interior of Celebes still remain unexplored and are said to be inhabited by cannibals and head-hunters.

Maca.s.sar is the capital and chief city. It is situated in the southern part of the southwestern peninsula, and in commerce ranks next to the largest cities of Java. Its trade totals upward of three million dollars annually.

The princ.i.p.al exports of the island are coffee, rice, nutmegs, cloves, dammer, copal, rattan, copra, tobacco, trepang, and tortoise-sh.e.l.l; coffee greatly outranking all the other products.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV

BORNEO AND PAPUA

Hot, damp, and swampy along the coast lowlands; rugged and fairly pleasant in the high plateau lands--that is Borneo, an island as large as the State of Texas. Borneo has a great future, however, when a race of civilized people can be found who can inhabit it, for it is even more unhealthful than Sumatra.

But the wealth is there--diamonds that are rather poor in color, gold, copper, iron, coal, and petroleum. That is a good list, and it remains only to find a people who can live there and make the great wealth of the island available to the world. Perhaps it may be the j.a.panese--less likely the Chinese, for they are content to trade with the natives.

Possibly it may be the Filipinos--for some of the Filipinos, especially the Moros, are the descendants of Borneo peoples.

Safe it is to say that the native tribes will not accomplish this result, for they are among the most debased and disgusting savages on the face of the earth. Many of these tribes are Malays governed by chiefs, or dattoes. Some of the tribes near the coast carry on a crude sort of farming, which is encouraged by the Chinese merchants who buy their produce. Some of the interior tribes just live, being both lazy and vicious. For food, there is an abundance of bananas and meat. As to the meat, it makes little or no difference about the kind; any animal whose flesh has become putrid is relished.

The most interesting natives of Borneo, however, are the Dyaks, the people from whom the Moros of the Philippine Islands are descended. They are perhaps the most intelligent, but certainly the most troublesome peoples. They are best known as the "head-hunters" of Borneo. Among themselves, the one who has killed the greatest number of people is the greatest man of the tribe, and the heads of his victims are the testimony to his greatness. So the head-hunters kill just for the pleasure of killing, and the heads of their victims are kept as trophies. Not all Dyak tribes are head-hunters, however.

When they are not off on head-hunting expeditions, the Dyaks are very industrious farmers. They are fond of ornaments. The men of some of the tribes wear richly embroidered jackets; the women may wear waists made of fine rattan strung with metal beads and ornaments. They may even wear crowns of burnished metal; at all events, they are certain to wear earrings of astonishing size--perhaps three or four inches across and made of solid bra.s.s. To hold these pieces of native jewelry the lobes of the ears, after they have been pierced, are stretched until they form loops two inches or more in length.

The men also are fond of earrings and similar ornaments, but a real Dyak swell does not consider himself properly in style until his front teeth are filed away so that they are notched and shut together like the teeth of a steel trap. Moreover, he cannot hope to obtain a wife unless he has at least one head as a trophy.

In hunting, the Dyak often makes use of the blow-gun. This weapon, for short distances, is about as sure and true as a rifle. It is a wooden tube four or five feet in length, the bore of which is made very straight and smooth. The arrow, or dart, fits the bore of the tube. To make sure of the game the tip of the dart is dipped in a most deadly poison; so that, if it merely breaks the skin of the animal at which it is shot, it makes a wound that is quickly fatal.

Unlike most of the natives of the tropical Indies, instead of living in villages, the Dyaks frequently live in communal houses. Sometimes twenty or more families live in the same house, which is not unlike the communal houses of the American Indian, except that it is surrounded by a broad veranda.

Hunting honey in the forests is one of the native sports. The forests of certain parts of Borneo seem to be alive with wild bees. As a result, honey and wax are very abundant. The honey-bear gets a good share of the wild honey, for his s.h.a.ggy hide is proof against the stings of the bees.

The Dyak hunter has no s.h.a.ggy coating to protect him; so he goes about robbing the bees in a more scientific manner.

The bees seem to prefer the mengalis tree, which has so many angles and hollow places about its trunk that to build the comb is an easy matter.

Not infrequently there may be fifty or more swarms in a single tree.

When a bee-tree is to be robbed, great piles of a certain plant or weed are collected and put in such a position that the smoke will be carried against the nesting-places of the swarms. The piles are then fired. The smoke neither kills the bees nor does it drive them off; it merely stupefies them. When the humming of the bees is hushed, comb and honey are easily removed. A considerable part of the wax is exported, but thousands of tons are wasted.

Hunting in the forests of Borneo has its unpleasant features, for the leeches are almost as numerous as the leaves of the trees. They are big, fat, ugly-looking slugs, but they can stretch their bodies into a small, thin form. When waiting for a victim they lengthen and sway their threadlike bodies to and fro, ready to launch out at the first opportunity. So gently do they commence their work that the p.r.i.c.king sensation is felt only when they are gorged with blood and begin to loosen their hold.

The gathering of edible birds' nests, built by a kind of swallow, is quite an industry, and is confined to the rocky-cliff sections of certain parts of the coast where cover abounds. This species of swallow is smaller than the common swallow and builds its nest either in the dark limestone caverns or in the crevices and nooks of the overhanging cliffs. The chief material used in constructing the nest is a glutinous saliva produced by the bird itself. The Chinese are very fond of the nests, and Chinese merchants buy most of them.

The roofs of some of the caves frequented by these swallows are several hundred feet above their floors, and to reach the nests, scattered over the curved roofs and sides, it is necessary to construct ladders and stages. These are made out of rattan and bamboo and are fastened by pegs driven into the limestone walls. Crawling up on these slender supports with a candle and forked bamboo pole, the native proceeds to detach the nests, which he pa.s.ses to a companion below. When the nests are built in caves and crevices, near the top of cliffs, a swinging ladder is dropped from above.

There are two kinds of nests, the clear yellowish-white ones, and the dark ones. The former bring a price as high as twelve dollars per pound; the latter only one-tenth as much. The best nests are found in the darkest caves.

Bird-nest gathering is a perilous calling, and serious accidents are not infrequent. The nests are gathered two or three times a year.

The northern part of Borneo is British territory, and the British also control the States of Sarawak and Brunei; the rest of the island is a part of the Dutch East Indies. The British are more interested in the minerals and jungle produce, such as gutta-percha, rattan, rubber, and birds' nests, than in the cultivation of plantations. The Dutch, on the other hand, are trying to establish the great plantations there that have made Java famous. Already these are producing great quant.i.ties of sago, tobacco, and sugar.

There are no large cities and only a few ports with good harbors, but German steamships make the rounds of the ports and carry the produce to Singapore, the clearing-house of the East Indies.

Scarcely one hundred and fifty miles north of Australia lies Papua, or New Guinea. Next to Greenland it is the largest island in the world, and in many ways it is the world's wonderland. It was one of the first large bodies of land discovered after the discovery of America, and one of the last to be settled by Europeans. Most likely dry land at one time connected Australia and New Guinea, for the animal and plant life of the two are much the same. Even the Great Barrier Reef that skirts the east coast of Australia extends part-way around New Guinea.

Of all the islands southeast of Asia, New Guinea is the most interesting. It is rich beyond measure with things useful and beautiful. Sugar-cane grows wild from sea to mountain; wild oranges, lemons, and limes can be had for the picking; and land adapted for growing rice, coffee, tobacco, rubber, cocoanuts, and cinchona is plentiful. There are mountain summits clad in everlasting snow, healthful plateaus abounding in delightful scenery, and dank coast plains in which lurks the deadly jungle fever.

Dense forests cover most of the island, but the forest trees of the East Indies are not to be found except here and there in the northwest neck of the island. The famous eucalyptus abounds in the lowland regions; so also does the nipa-palm. Pines, much like the kauri pine of New Zealand, grow in the high plateaus. Most singular of all, in the high mountain regions one may find the alpine plants of Europe, New Zealand, the Antarctic islands, and the Andine heights of South America. Still another strange feature is to be found: while the forest trees are Australian kinds, the plants that make the forests a thicket are the rattans and other jungle plants of India!

New Guinea is noted for birds of beautiful plumage, especially birds of paradise, of which there are many kinds. Among the insects is one commonly known as the "praying" mantis. It is related to the gra.s.shopper and is found also in many other parts of the world. In New Guinea the praying mantis is three or four inches long and at first sight seems to be nothing but a broken twig. In various parts of the world it is known as "preacher," "nun," "soothsayer," and "saint." It has received its name from the fact that it rests in a sort of kneeling position, holding its forelegs in a devotional att.i.tude.

Its character, however, is anything but saintly; it is a most vicious wretch that may well be called the tiger of the insect world. The devotional att.i.tude is the position in which it can best seize its insect prey; for when an unsuspecting insect lights on what seems to be a green twig, snap!--those blade-like forelegs armed with sharp spikes come together like scissors, and the unlucky victim is cut to pieces in an instant.

John Chinaman has discovered a use for the praying mantis--a very practical use, too. John and his near-by friends capture a lot of the insects, carry them to a convenient bungalow, turn them loose in a c.o.c.kpit, and bet on the survivor. When the insects are turned loose there is business on hand, for they go to work at once, cutting one another to pieces by the most approved methods of surgical amputation.

The owner of the survivor wins.

The native Papuans much resemble the bushrangers of Australia; they are Negritos, with black skins and woolly hair. There are a few tribes of natives that much resemble the peoples of Samoa and Hawaii; there are also other tribes that resemble the Malays of southeastern Asia.

The Papuan tribes of the coast are about as degraded as the bushrangers of Australia. Some of the tribes are cannibals who have a fondness for sailors that have been wrecked on the sh.o.r.es of New Guinea. They are neither better nor worse than most of the other tribes of islanders.

Like other islanders, too, they are tractable and easily governed by the Europeans who treat them decently. Not very much is known about the tribes in the interior, except that some of them have neither houses nor clothing. They live in the trees, and wear no clothing. They are hardly better off than the troops of monkeys, but unlike them eat raw flesh instead of fruit and nuts.

Missionaries have established schools along the coast settlements, and the native children trained in these schools make amazing progress. They learn to read and write quickly, are neat in dress, and polite in manners. Many of the boys who attend the mission schools are trained to skilled labor on the plantations; some go to the interior as missionary teachers.

A few of the Papuan tribes have reached a condition of barbarism much like that of the Iroquois Indians in New York when the white men found them. They live in houses, some of them four or five hundred feet in length. Perhaps thirty or forty families may occupy a single house. The houses are divided into apartments, each family living separately.

In some of the tribes the men live in a communal house by themselves.

The women live in small huts, two or three together. They cook the food, which they carry to the communal house; they also do all the work required in cultivating the gardens of yams, bananas, and vegetables.

War, hunting, and fishing are the only pursuits of the men.

Three nations, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, have divided New Guinea among them. The Dutch have the eastern half of the island. The British and Germans possess each about one-quarter, British New Guinea being situated opposite to Queensland, Australia. The British own the Solomon Islands to the eastward of New Guinea, also.

The Dutch are laying out plantations and teaching the natives to work them in the same way that they are managed in Java. The British are busy exploring the interior, looking especially to the rich mines in their possession. They have also established a considerable trade in copra, sago, pearl sh.e.l.l, and cocoa-fibre mats. They are planting rubber-trees, for there is no better land in the world for rubber. They have one great advantage, namely, the Fly River, which is navigable six hundred miles from its mouth, and opens a trading route far into the interior. Port Moresby is the trade centre of British New Guinea.

The Germans make their share of the island pay expenses by taxing and licensing the traders who go there to do business, and they manage to get a considerable profit out of it. When they find that a trading company is making too much money they buy the company out and carry on the business themselves; and this is profitable, too.

Although less is known about New Guinea than almost any other part of the earth, enough is known to make it certain that it is one of the most desirable bodies of land in the world.