what give importance to the Aroes. A bank extending along the whole eastern coast
is rich in the shell-tortoise, two kinds of mother-of-pearl shells, and in pearl oysters,
with the tripang or holothurion. The principal port is Dobbo, near the northwestern
extremity of the chain of islands, in south latitude 5 45 45 , and east
longitude 134° 20', where, in the season, may be seen, 100 small square-rigged vessels
and large native craft with Chinese junks, bringing rice, cotton goods, and necessaries,
with Batavian arrack, to exchange for the produce of the fisheries, and for loories
and cockatoos with birds of paradise, of which these islands furnish the chief supply.
ARRACK ; in Arabic Ar&k, ardent spirit. Most probably the Arabs taught the
Indian islanders, as they did the nations of Europe, the art of distillation. From
Sumatra to the Philippines the one name for spirits is this Arabian one. » The art
might, indeed, have been introduced by the Chinese, who have immemorially possessed
it, but there is no evidence that this was the case. The name for a still or alembic
in Malay and Javanese is Kukusan; from the Javanese kukus, smoke or steam j
but this composed word is no evidence of original invention. The Javanese have
an intoxicating beverage, exclusive of the sap of palms, called br&m, prepared from
the fermentation of rice, but this is a beer and not the produce of distillation. The
fine arrack of Batavia is an invention and manufacture of the Chinese, of which the
materials are boiled rice, molasses, and palm wine.
ARSENIC; is known by a native name, but is not a native product. I t was
probably brought to the islands originally from Siam and Burma, of which it is a
product. Orpiment, or the sulphuret, goes under the name of Y arangan, or barangan,
and the epithet putih or “ white” is added for the white oxide. Warangan is derived
from Warang, which means the process of applying a compound, of which orpiment
is a main ingredient, to a kris blade in order to preserve it. Arsenic is the only
poison used by the Indian islanders for assassination, but even this very rarely, the
kris being the means generally had recourse to,
ARTOCARPUS. Of this genus of plants three are cultivated in the Indian
i s l a n d s — the bread-fruit, the jack, and the champada. The bread-fruit, Artocarpus
integrifolia, is known to the Malays by the three different native names of sukun,
kluwi, and tambul, and is probably an indigenous plant. As an article of food, however,
it is held in no esteem, and the varieties cultivated are greatly inferior to that
of the South Sea Islands. The jack, Artocarpus incisa, is extensively cultivated
throughout the Archipelago, and its name, Bangka, extends all the way to the
Philippines. Rumphius justly concludes that it is only a corruption of the Tamil or
Malaylam word Jaka, which we have ourselves adopted with less change. The
jack fruit grows occasionally to the weight of 70 lbs., and is then a good load for a
woman going to market. It is rather an article of food than a fruit. The tree
attains the height of 40 or 50 feet, and its yellow close-grained timber is a handsome
fancy wood. ,
The Champada is a smaller fruit than the jack, but more delicate m flavour, and
far more esteemed. I t is exclusively a native of the Archipelago, and chiefly of
Sumatra and the peninsula.
AS AH AiT. The native name is Asaan, and it most probably means “ place of
hope,” from the Sanscrit word Asa, hope, in frequent use with the Malays. I t is the
name of a river and Malay state on the north-eastern side of Sumatra. The river has
its source in a mountain range and plateau called Tubah, in the country of the Bataks,
and falls into the. Straits of Malacca in north latitude 3° R 30", and east longitude
99° 52'. At its mouth it is about 1600 yards wide, but seven miles further up, where
it receives a tributary called the Silau (dazzling), it narrows to one-third of this
breadth. Fronting its embouchure there is an extensive mud flat, and at low water
spring tides, the depth in the channel of the river itself does not exceed two fathoms.
The lower portion of the country is part of the extensive alluvial plain which runs
along nearly the whole eastern side of Sumatra, and is covered with a tangled and
almost impenetrable forest, containing the usual wild animals of the island. The
ruling people of Asahan are Malays, but much mixed with the nation of the Bataks.
The cultivated corns are rice and pulses. The sea and rivers are replete with excellent
fish, which form, unless occasionally, the chief animal food of the inhabitants. The
exports consist of pulses, lakka a red dye-wood, bees’-wax, horses, and slaves usually
Bataks, young women selling at 40«., children at 20«., and men at from 12«. to 15«. A
prince of Menangkabo, the supposed original seat of the Malay nation, was the founder
of the present principality of Asahan, and the prince who ruled the country in 1822
was the seventh in descent from him, which in the usual mode of reckoning would
not carry us farther back than 110 years. Many ages before this, according to the
tradition of the natives, a Javanese colony had settled in Asahan, and 70 miles up
the river there are still to be seen the ruins of a fortress which goes by this name,
s Kuta-jawa.
¡ASS. This quadruped is wholly unknown to the inhabitants of the Indian
T islands except by name. It goes in their writings under the name of KAlda, which
I may be a corruption of the Persian Khhr, or possibly of the Indian G&ddah, for it is
I not traceable to any Arabic name.
ASTIiJA, and ASTINAPURA, is the Sanscrit name of the country of the Pandus
f in the poem of the Mahabarat, of which the Javanese have a paraphrase. These have
: transferred the locality from Upper India to tbe province of Pakalongan in their own
island, as they have done to other places other scenes of this poem, and of the
Ramayana. ¿The name of Astina is also familiar in the legendary writings of the Malays.
¡AUSTRALIA. The northern coast of this continent is alone known to the natives
i of the Archipelago, and among these only to the Macassars of Celebes and the gipsy
| Malays, who frequent it yearly for the fishery of the tripang or holothurion. This
I. they seem to have done so for ages, although seen there for the first time by Flinders
I in the beginning of the present century. Of the time when this fishery first com-
I menced there is, of course, no record, but it is certain it could not have been before
■ the first arrival of the Chinese, since these are the only people that consume the
K tripang, and still the only parties who furnish funds for carrying on the fishery.
AYERRHOA. There are two species of this fru it tree cultivated in the
P ' Archipelago ; the blimbing-b&si, or iron blimbing, possibly from the rusty colour of
■ its coat, and the blimbing-manis or sweet blimbing. The first is the Averrhoa blimbi,
B and the second, the Averrhoa carambola of botanists. The fruit of both, growing
i strangely from the trunk of the tree, is acid or sub-acid, and little esteemed.
iAWAR (PULO); vulgarly Pulo Aor or Awar Island (Awar being the name of a
large species of bamboo). It is the most southerly of a chain of islets lying off the
t eastern coast of the Malay peninsula, and distant from it 30 miles. Pulo Awar, a
mass of granite, is about 3 miles long and 1J broad. I t has two peaked mountains,
one 1521 feet and the other 1852 feet high. The inhabitants, amounting to 1400, are
Malays; and, whatever their character in former times, have, since the establishment
of a commercial intercourse with Singapore, become peaceable traders and industrious
fishermen. The only article cultivated by them is the coco-nut palm, which grows
luxuriantly even as high as 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The nuts and then-
expressed oil are exported to Singapore to be exchanged for rice, clothing, and other
necessaries. The island is subject to the Raja of Pahang, himself nominally subject
to the Raja of Jehore. It is the landmark of shipping in taking a departure from
and making the Straits of Malacca. North latitude 2° 30', ea3t longitude 104° 35'.
IAYAR, is the Malay word for water, and sometimes for a river, and consequently
i for a district seated on a river. Adopted by the Javanese it becomes er, and it is
■ most probably the same word that we find corrupted in the language of Celebes into
we, and in Polynesian into wai. Of places having this word combined with another
we have at least a score in our maps and charts, as Ayar-itam, black water or river •
Ayar-dakat, near river; Ayar-basar, great river; Pulo-ayar, water island; and Pulo-we’
which we write Pulo-way, having the same meaning.
B.
|BA . A town of the island of Mindano, in the territory of the Sultan or inde-
| pendent Mahommedan chief. I t is said to be situated on the left bank of a certain
I river, where it joins one which issues from the Lake of Ligassin, When the united
I streams take a north-western diversion, disemboguing in the Bay of Bongo, lying on
I the eastern side of the great bay of Llano, on the southern side of the island. The
■ town is in north latitude 5° 1' 40", and east longitude 124° 34'.
R A B I , the hog (Sus). In all likelihood originally a Malay word, b u t introduced
[ into all the advanced languages, even into some, as the Javanese and Sunda, which
nave native terms besides. From Sumatra to the Moluccas it occurs frequently as
na„me M sma11 islands, imposed most probably by Malayan navigators, and from
; some fancied resemblance in form to the animal.