Dames, such as bâkâl, lurah, patingih, and pângulu,—the two last signifying, respectively,
the highest or most elevated, and the head-man. The head-man has his assistant,
and a scribe or accountant, with a priest, complete the office-bearers. The actual village,
which might more correctly be called a township, with its houses and orchards,
are the private property of the several occupants, and not held collectively, as in some
of the Hindu countries. The adjacent corn-lands alone are subject to the land-tax,
whether the whole rent has been absorbed under that name or a part of it still
remains as the private property of the cultivator.
YISCAYA (NTJEVA). The name of a province of the island of Luzon. See
Nueva Viscaya.
VOLCANOS. The Indian islands contain the largest volcanic region in the
world. The band of this formation begins with Sumatra, passing through a considerable
portion of the central part of it. I t embraces the whole of Java, and all the islands
east of it as far as Ombay, in longitude 125°. From this it takes a course north of
east, and presents itself in the Banda Islands. It thus extends in an easterly direc-
tion over 30 of longitude. The band, if it really be the same, then takes a northwesterly
course, and shows itself in the Moluccas, or true Clove Islands, and
again, at the extremity of the northern peninsula of Celebes, opposite to them.
We have it next in the most southerly of the Philippines, and it passes through the
whole of this Archipelago to the Babuyanes Islands, over 13° of latitude. With
the exception of a part of Sumatra, there is no volcanic formation in the Malay
Archipelago, north of 6° south latitude. Thus the Peninsula, Borneo, and the
greater part of Sumatra, and Celebes, with the great island of New Guinea, are
non-volcanic. The Philippines embrace the plutonic and sedimentary formations as
well as the volcanic.
-fhe number of extinct volcanos in the two Archipelagos is very great, and even
the active oneB are numerous. Of the last, there are in Sumatra five, in Java twenty
in the islands immediately east of it about seven ; in the Banda and Molucca Islands
three, and m the Philippines at least ten. There is no record, that I am aware of, of any
destructive eruption in Sumatra, and although there have been several minor eruptions
in Java of late years, the last great one in that island took place as long ago as
the year 1586. This was from the mountain Ringgit (puppet), a peak only 4200 feet
i \ °f the sea. _ (See Ringoit). In the Javanese chronicles an eruption is
stated to have taken place in Java, without naming the mountain, as early as 1273 of
Saka, or 1351 of our time. In the Moluccas the eruptions have been numerous since
the arrival of Europeans. In the Philippines, also, there have been some very
destructive ones, but hardly on so great a scale as that of Ringgit in Java, or Tomboro
m Sumbawa. One of these took place in 1645, in the province of Cagayan, when a
whole mountain sunk into the earth, carrying with it an entire village and its
inhabitants. The succession of earthquakes which accompanied it is said to have
lasted during two months, and although the city of Manilla be at least two hundred
miles distant from Cagayan, every stone building in it was levelled to the ground
with the exception of the churches of the Augustins and Jesuits, and 600 of thé
inhabitants perished under the ruins.
w .
The name of a considerable island off the north-western end of New
Guinea. It lies between five miles and seventy-five miles south of the equator, and
stretches as_ far east as longitude 131 16'. Its area has been estimated at 960
geographical square miles. Waigioe is mountainous in the interior, with a low and
marshy coast._ The officers of the French discovery-ship Coquille gave to th e highest
pe k of the island the name of the Cone de Beuffle, and made it 480 toisés, or 1516
feet above the level of the sea. The climate appears to be moist and hot. The
innabitants of the coast are represented as a cross between the Malay and Papuan
negro and most probably those of the interior are pure Papuan. The bread of the
of rice iTunkÎown the “ “ Scouring islands, is sago, and the culture
WAJU. The name of a tribe of the Bugis nation of Celebes. See T uw aju
WAR. The most frequent name for this in both Malay and Javanese is pârang,
or abbreviated, prang; but the Javanese has also two native words peculiar to itself
j urit and laga, with the Sanscrit one yuda. The chief force of the agricultural nations
is an infantry, but the people of Java, Bali, and Lomboc have also a cavalry, mounted
on ponies, seldom thirteen hands high, and therefore little formidable. To the
maritime tribes the prau is what the horse and the camel united are to the Arabs
and Tartars, and their armies, in fact, are fleets. An army in the Malayan countries
is, as in all rude Btates of society, a mob composed of the followers and retainers of
the chiefs, every adult being supposed to be a soldier. The words for an army are
Sanscrit, bala and balatantra, which signify “ a host,” or “ the people.” Between a
fleet and an army there is no distinction. Both are expressed in Malay by the word
angkatan, which literally means a lifting or rising. For a soldier, the Javanese have
the derivative word prajurit, fromjurit, war, but,this signifies only a warrior. They have
also the Sanscrit chatriya, and the Malays, with some corruption, have adopted the
first of these. For a soldier by profession they have adopted the Portuguese
soldado. For military exercise, after the European manner, the term is baris, which
literally signifies “ a row or line.”
WAX (BEES’). In Malay and Javanese lilin, but in the latter more frequently
malam. This last word, it is singular enough, is to be found in some of the Papuan
languages of New Guinea, where the negros have had an intercourse with the
Malayan race, but generally there are distinct native words for it in each language.
This is also the case with the bee; but for honey it is curious to find the general
name, madu, to be Sanscrit, the Javanese adding another from the same language,
sakara, or abbreviated, kara, which is properly sugar. Wax has always been
a considerable article of exportation from the Indian Islands, chiefly the produce
of the wilder parts of it. Barbosa names it as one of the chief articles
obtained by the Malay and Javanese traders in Timur and the other islands on
the route to the Spice Islands. I t is always the produce of the forests, for
the bee has never been domesticated in the Malay or Philippine Islands, and in a
region where there are flowers throughout the year, and consequently no inducement
to form a large store, its domestication would probably be difficult. The honey is
always thin, poor, and flavourless, compared to that of more temperate climates.
Although the bees be wild, their hives, once appropriated, are considered as private
property, which other productions of the forest, whether animal or vegetable, are
not, and the ground of this distinction is explained in the following law of the Malays.
After declaring that game and fish are not private property, it says;—“ If, however
a man rob a bee-hive without knowledge of its owner, such owner meeting him
may take the honey from him, and bring him before a magistrate, who shall
further fine him in the sum of half-a-tail. It is true that bees are wild animals, but
their hives afford the owner of the land in which they are a regular and certain
revenue.”
WAY (Pulo). There are three islands of this name in the Malay Archipelago,
—one in the Roads of Achin, one in the Gulf of Siam, and one near the Banda
Islands. The word wai, or we, is probably a corruption of ayar in Malay, or er in
Javanese, “water,” for in this form we find it in the languages of Celebes, and even
in those of the South Sea Islands. If this be true, Pulo Way means simply “water
island.”
WAYANG signifies in Malay and Javanese a scenic figure, and also an actor, or
player, and the drama. The word is probably the same as bayang, a shadow and an
apparition, and most probably taken from it.
WAYANG (GUNUNG). The name of a mountain of Java, between the districts
of Bandong and Sukapura, in the country of the Sundas, an active volcano, and rising
to the height of 6000 feet above the level of the sea. The name signifies “ mountain
of the drama or scenic exhibition.”
WEAVING. The weaving of cloth from some raw material or another seems to
have been immemorially practised by all the more advanced nations of the Malay
and even of the Philippine Archipelago. There is no ground for believing that this
is an art which the inhabitants were taught by strangers, for nearly all the terms
connected with it in the two leading languages, the Malay and Javanese, are native
words, as, to spin, antih; yarn, banang or lawe; warp, lungsen; woof, pakan; to
weave, tfamn; shuttle, turah and balera; loom, pkkakas-tanun (literally weaving
apparatus); distaff, ra a t; bow for clearing cotton, busor; and cloth, kain in Malay
and sinjang in Javanese. The only exceptions are, the name of the principal raw
material now employed, cotton, which is kapas, from the Sanscrit karpasa; and that