ROTTI, is the name of a small island lying off the western end of Timnr, and
distant from it about twenty miles. Its length is about 60 miles, its greatest breadth
about 38, and its area 492 geographical square miles. The surface of the island is
rugged, rocky, full of fastnesses, and easily defensible against an enemy, but scantily
supplied with water. The objects of culture are, a small quantity of rice, maiz,
millet, yams, and sweet potatoes, with the lontar-palm for its sugar. The principal
domestic animals are the horse and buffalo, the first considered a superior breed.
The only articles of export are horses and the sugar of the lontar or Borassus
flabelliformis. The inhabitants of Rotti are distinguished from those of Timur and
of the neighbouring island of Savoe, by a darker complexion, more prominent
features, and lank instead of frizzled hair. Their houses, instead of being like those
of Timur, built on the ground, are raised on tall posts, in the Malay manner, and
under them they bury their dead. A few of the inhabitants have been converted to
Christianity, the rest remaining pagans. Their language is peculiar, with an intermixture
of Timurean, Malay, and Javanese words. The whole island is divided into
petty independent states, of which no fewer than fifteen are enumerated,—an order
of society seemingly arising from the physical aspect of the country. Rotti forms
a dependency of the Netherland government of Coepang in Timur.
RUHBOWE (correctly RAMBATT), is the name of a very small inland Malay state
of the Peninsula of Malacca, lying between Salangor to the north, and Malacca to the
west. The Malay population is computed not to exceed 9000, divided into eight
tribes or sukus, each ruled by elective chiefs called batin, who form a council of
government presided over by a chief, also elective, with the title of Pangulu,
literally “ headman.” Rumbowe, besides its Malay inhabitants, has several wild
tribes, such as the Udai, the Jakun, and the Sakai, but no negritos.
RUMPE (GEORGE EVER ART)); Latinised RUMPHIUS. The celebrated author
of the “ Hortus Amboinense ” was, like several other persons who acquired distinction
in the Indian service of the Dutch, a German, having been a native of Solms, in
He3se CasseL He was born about the year 1626, and educated as a physician at
Hanau. At the age of twenty-eight he proceeded to India, and arriving at Batavia,
entered the civil, or rather mercantile service of the East India Company, in which
he attained the rank of a senior merchant, being stationed at Amboyna, where he
passed the remainder of his life. At the age of forty-two, when contemplating a
return to Europe, he was struck blind by gutta serena, yet continued in that state to
prosecute his researches in natural history. He died at Amboyna in 1693, at the
age of sixty-seven. The naturalists of the French Expedition of D’Entrecasteaux are
stated to have discovered his tomb, after the neglect of a century. Yet the English,
after occupying the island twice over for several years, and making diligent search,
were unable to find it. The first literary performance of Rumphius was a 'civil
history of the Moluccas, still in manuscript, and of which there exist several copies
besides the two in the Dutch archives, one of them deposited by myself in the
Library of the Advocates in Edinburgh. His great work, the “ Herbarium Am-
boinense,” was not published until forty-eight years after his death, when it was
rescued from the Dutch archives by Burman, and the original, which was in Latin,
printed along with a Dutch translation. Rumphius’ account of plants contains many
which are not peculiar to the little island of Amboyna, and embraces their names
and synonyms, their botanical description, their flowering seasons, their habitats,
their uses, and the modes of culture of such as are objects of cultivation. He is
stated not to have been a professed botanist, but having received a medical education,
which necessarily included a certain acquaintance with plants, he was probably as much
so as most of his cotemporaries in an age when botany hardly existed as a science.
Rumphius was evidently a man of talents, sound sense, and indefatigable industry.
Much of his information was obtained through the natives of the country, and
his work affords ample evidence of his familiarity with their language. I t was he
that taught the natives of Amboyna the improved process for preparing sago, which
is still followed by them, and for which his name is still remembered.
RUPAT. The name of a considerable island, divided from the mainland of
Sumatra by a very narrow strait, and lying nearly opposite to the town of Malacca,
the straits here not exceeding twenty-five miles broad. The island is, for the most
part, a sheer jungle, having a few Malay fishermen on its coast, with some of the
wild unconverted people of the same race, called Sakai in the interior.
S.
SACRIFICE. In Malay and Javanese the Word sAmMlih signifies “ to sacrifice
with religious rites,” and sfimb&lihan, a derivative from it, is a “ sacrifice or immo-
latipn.” These words, which are native, are now used for the slaughter of animals
with the forms of the Mahommedan religion, but what kind of sacrifice they referred
to before conversion to this faith, it is difficult to conjecture. It cannot have
been the self-sacrifice of the widow or concubine on the funeral-pile of the husband,
mi a I® W? , y a different name,—bela, signifying “ expiation or atonement.”
m e Arabic word for a sacrifice or atonement,—kurban, is occasionally employed.
SADDLE. Although the horse was unknown to the inhabitants of the Philippines
before it was introduced by the Spaniards, the people of Java, Celebes,
and the interior of several parts of Sumatra, with Bali, Lomboc, and Sumbawa,
had been m possession of it immemorially, using it, however, only for the saddle,
in Javanese the name for the saddle is a native one,—kakapa, while that in Malay
is palana, which is Persian, with the frequent use of sela, a corruption of the
Portuguese silla. The bridle, always a snaffle or plain single bit, is called in
Javanese kfindale, and in Malay kakang, abbreviated kang. At present, at least, the
stu-rup, although unknown, as is believed, to the Greeks and Romans, is in use
among all the islanders, but except in the language of the Sundas of Java, I can
iscover no name for it. The Sun da one is sanggawadi, a compound word, which
literally signifies “ guard-fear,” from which there may be ground to suspect that it is
? ;re° introduction. The women of Java, it may be noticed, ride on horseback
with the same seat as the men.
SAFFLOWER; the Carthamus tinctorius of botanists. This plant, which has
a geographical distribution, extending from the South of Europe and Egypt to the
equator, isweli known m the Malayan Archipelago, being cultivated for the colouring
matter of its flowers, but not for the oil of its seeds. Bali is the place in which it is
chiefly grown, and from whence it is distributed, as an article of trade, to other parts
, name by wbich it is universally known, kasumba, is
bansorit; and the Malays, to distinguish it from arnotto, the Bixa orellana, add the
T p w L o mi” n!f6’ glvmg t° the latter that of kling, or the safflower of
i ehngana. There can, therefore, be little doubt of its being an exotic, and introduced,
like indigo, by the Hindus; but when, or how, is unknown.
S^ , i n Japanese, and all the other languages of the Archipelago, sagu,
X i e of°+be f a- 7% 0f the languages of the Moluccas. I t is, probably, the
% ma °r 7 r li. 7 sPecies of the genus of palms producing it has
e u lW e d of whaT ' 7 ? tb6re ara supposed to be five, the most frequently
b am b a n o rsL T ^W are ^ H V K B or Metroxylon pamban 01 bagus lgevis. All the species much resemble each other, andsa gaoll, yaniedld t hane
mmeedduuUllaa.! WSagSo tSie e°sf a Mre fo*un Wd in eWv°e°rdy pbaer“t So f at hme eMrea lasyba*nU ’A crcohnifpfeiilSagnog aan d¡ §Ph£il i“p.
ofTmSsh or W m can°' Whf eJT tbe7 f a genial soil for them, and this soil consists
tffia/aSimi hog composed of decayed land vegetables, near the sea, but excluding
tho M i y, e n7 abundant m the eastern parts of the Malay Archipelago,
Phffinffines MT d islands, with New Guinea and Borneo, and in the
From tW S c fa ’ * 7 7 ’ tbey are more or less the bread of the inhabitants.
fhe° Malay Pemnl™3’ y ^ t0 W be6n intr°duCed * * S" a and
+ h ^ 6 aagos. dlf er from a11 otber Palms in two important particulars. They propagate SEESfe1 **si* Sft! * “4 P” «a Sy S ffi perpetual Z the f t * °f, the8e * * * * * * * a sago plantation once formed is
thought w i tW m h re Cul‘1Va*ed m ama11 Patcbes> and a man and his family are
square fathoms whRh 7 7 7 5 ? to tb ® management of a plantation o f 100
COntT 7 ° treeS- The trees are cut do™ immediately
who has given^>v far^l? h 7 7 ab°Ut tbe age of 15 “ When,” says Mr. Logan,
that has fver been mihli h d <7 i 7 accouut of the culture and manufacture
be a constant Im-vMt h16 \ P lantati°n M* once arrived at maturity, there will
ssuucccecsesisosni oofn nfelww pnlaWnts frr om tlh e* t7im en athtuorsael fmirsotd pel aonft egdr ohwavteh bseegcuunr etso eax tceonndt itnhueeidr
B B 2