MOISKEY or APE. I do not believe tbere is any genuine name to express the
Quadrumanes or four-handed family of animals in any tongue of the Archipelago.
In the different languages, each species has its own proper name, and the family
is referred to generally by the name of the most familiar species, as k&r& in
Malay, and katek in Javanese. In Malay, there are names or synonyms for, at
least, nine different species, and in Javanese for at least twelve, one or two of the
last, as palgusa, being taken from the Sanscrit. The distribution of this family over
the Archipelago is singular. In Sumatra and Borneo, there are for each ten species :
in Celebes four; in Singapore and Banca three each; in Java four; in Bali two, and in
Lomboe only one. In Mindano, Luzon, and the other large islands of the Philippine
Archipelago, there are several species. East of Celebes no ape is found, the family
being entirely wanting even in the large islands of Gilolo, Ceram, Timur and New
Guinea. I t is not less remarkable, that the greater number of species differ from
each other in the different islands. Thus the four species of Java are not to be found
in Sumatra, nor any of the ten of Sumatra in Java, although these islands lie within a few
miles of each other. On the other hand, a few of the species of Sumatra and Borneo, as
the orang-utan, the most manlike of all apes, agree, although these islands are 500 miles
apart. I t is probable that in the Malay and Philippine islands, there are, in all, not
fewer than 50 distinct species, from the size of a cat to that of a child of ten years of age.
MONSOON. This is a corruption of the Arabic word musim, “ season,” which
the Portuguese received from their first instructors in Indian navigation, the Arabs
and other Mahometan navigators, and which they corrupted into mu§&0, whence the
form of our own term. The word in the sense of the Indian periodical winds
occurs in De Barros, who wrote his history in the middle of the 16th century. Thus,
when he is giving an account of the famine which took place in Malacca immediately
after its capture, he ascribes it to the supplies of corn from Java being intercepted by
the fleets of the expelled Malays, and by the impossibility of the Portuguese ships
going for them themselves in consequence of the monsoon (mujSo) being adverse,
that is, the south-east monsoon prevailing.
The word musim is in use among all the maritime nations of the Archipelago,
but only as a synonym for the Sanscrit words kutika and masa, “ time” or “ season.”
To complete the sense, the words east or west, timur and barat in Malay, or wetan
and kulon in Javanese, must be added. There is a peculiar idiom of the Malay
language connected with the monsoons, which requires a short explanation. The
Malays call all countries west of their own, “ countries above the wind,” and their
own and all places east of it, “ countries below the wind,” the Malay words being
atas angin and bawa angin. The expression is really equivalent to “ windward”
and “ leeward,” the west representing the first and the east the last. The origin
of the phrase admits of no explanation, unless it have reference to the most important
of the two monsoons, the western, that which brought to the Malayan countries
the traders of India. I t is at least as old as the 16th century, and no doubt, a great
deal older. De Barros describes it, but mistaking east for west, he gives an explanation
of the phrase which is necessarily erroneous. “ For,” says he, “ before the foundation
of Malacca, which by its position ought to be the Saba of Ptolemy, it was at
Qingapura that the navigators of the western seas of India and the eastern seas of
Siam, China, Champa, Camboja, and of the many thousand islands which lie to the
eastward, assembled. These two different quarters (the east and the west), the
natives of the country (the Malays) call Dybanangim (dibawa-angin), and Atazangim
(atas-angin) which mean below the wind and above the wind, that is, the west and
the east. For as the chief parties that navigate these seas proceed from two great
gulphs, that of Bengal and tbat which extends towards the land of China reaching
to a high northern latitude, it i3 in reason to call the one high and the other low.”
Decade 2, Book 6, Chap. 1. De Barros adds, by way of confirmation, that the expression
may also have reference to the rising and setting of the sun in the east and west, and
that it is consequently equivalent to the Levante and Ponente, or orient and Occident
of European nations, a plausible theory founded, however, on a mis-statement of facts.
The monsoons which blow over the Malayan Archipelago, are not two, but in
reality four in number; namely, the north-east and south-west to the north, and
the south-east and north-west to the south of the equator. To the two first are
subject, the northern part of Sumatra, of Borneo and of Celebes, with the whole
Malay Peninsula, and all the Philippine islands. The chief countries subject to
the two last, are the southern parts of Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes, with all the
islands, from Java to New Guinea inclusive, south of the equator.
MONTRADOK. This is the name of the chief town of the Chinese gold-diggers
of the western coast of Borneo. I t is situated about 45 miles north of the equator,
and about 25 from the coast, and in a wide plain within the territory of the decayed
Malay chief of the principality of Matan. The Chinese of Montradok are settlers
from the Chinese province of Canton, a rude but industrious people, all issuing
from the labouring classes of society. Coming without their families, they intermarry
with the Aboriginal inhabitants, and hence the population of Montradok is a
mixed one. The manners, religion and dress of the parent country are preserved
by them unchanged, and they preserve also the oral language of their province, few
of them acquiring any knowledge of Malay. The washing of gold and occasionally
of diamonds, with the raising of food for the miners, are their chief occupations.
Of their number nothing is really known. They themselves estimate it at 110,000,
but probably with exaggeration. Nothing is known of the manner or time of their
first settlement, but probably the latter is of no very remote date. Since the restoration
of their possessions in the Archipelago to the Dutch, they have brought the
Chinese of Montradok under their authority, but this has been followed by several
rebellions, making the conquest of more than doubtful advantage.
MORTAI or MORTY. This is the name of an oblong island about 60 miles in
length, and 15 in its greatest breadth, lying off the northern end of the large island
of Gilolo or Halmahera in the Molucca sea. Its length is from north to south, and
lies between 1° 40', and 2° 44', north latitude, its northern cape being in longitude
128° 29'. The land of Mortai is described as high and forest-clad, abounding in
deer and wild hogs, but of its human inhabitants nothing is recorded.
MORTIER or MOTIR. This is the name of one of the five true Moluccas,
the smallest, and lying about 45 miles north of the equator. Like the others, it is
a volcanic cone, but since the extirpation of the clove trees from the group to which
it belongs in 1650, it has become of no importance.
MUSIC. There is no word for Music th a t I am aware of in any language of
the Archipelago. In Malay the term buni-bunikn, a derivate from buni “ sound,”
is occasionally used to express it, but its real meaning is “ musical instruments,”
the cause and effect being confounded. In Javanese the word tâmbang is sometimes
employed for it, but the true meaning of this word is “ song.” In both languages the
Sanscrit word lagu is used, but this really signifies, “ air” or “ time.” Fine musical ears
. often occur among all the nations and tribes of the Archipelago, and in this respect
they are favourably distinguished from the Hindus, and still more from the discordant
Chinese. They are all passionate lovers of their own music and capable of
acquiring considerable skill in European. Like all rude nations, their music is
composed^ in a single common enharmonic time, the sounds produced by their instruments
being the same as those by the black keys of the harpsichord. They have
wind and stringed instruments and instruments of percussion.
Of the first of these, the most singular is a sort of gigantic Æolian pipe, frequently
referred to in the poetry of the Malays under the name of buluh-pârindu, literally
“ the languishing bamboo,” and occasionally of buluh-ribut, or “ the bamboo of the
storm. ’ By far the best account of i t has been given by Mr. Logan, in the
narrative of his journey into the interior of the Malay Peninsula. It is as follows :
“ On our right there was a succession of neat cottages, amongst coco-nut trees, forming
the village of Kandang. On nearing one of these, our ears were saluted by the
most melodious sounds, some soft and liquid, like the notes of a flute, and others
full like the tones of an organ. These sounds were sometimes interrupted or even
single, but presently, they would swell into a grand burst of mingled melody. I
can hardly express the feelings of astonishment with which I paused to listen to
and look for the source of music so wild and ravishing in such a spot. It seemed
to proceed from a grove of trees at a little distance, but I could see neither musician
nor instrument, and the sounds varied so much in their strength, and their origin
seemed now at one place, and now at another, as if they sometimes came from midair,
and sometimes swelled from amidst the dark foliage, or hovered faint and fitful
around it. On drawing nearer to the grove of trees, my companions (Malays), pointed
out a slender bamboo which rose above the branches of the trees, and from which
they said the music proceeded, and when the notes had died away in the distance,
our ears were suddenly penetrated by a crash of grand and thrilling tones which
seemed to grow out of the air that surrounded us, instead of pursuing us. A brisk
breeze which soon followed, agitating the dark and heavy leaves of the fronds of
u