Î ? à Jeh° i or,a‘.Bintang, continued to foster piracy and
of three centuries^ P of SmgaPore and Rhio,-that is, for upwards
TIÎ? ,na.me of a river and district of the north-western coast of
the b a n k sX t h i ^ 6-8° ^ east lonSitude 113° 3' 15". The country on
included in ^ t i abound m iron and antimony ore, while it is
fifth t n X R® °°al-fieI ? ’ which are said to extend from the river of Borneo in the
nf !nn m Bajang m the second degree of north latitude. The river of Bintulu is
f e p t h o f t r ^ r e ' t h ’r l ’ “ kT “1’ £ b&r 0n wbicb ueprn or no more than 4 cubits, and at high of not ah ovaat f^rnm w 7a ter thse re mis, a
°f V0 Camph^ heeÿ-wax° wood-?i], damar, 3
for the purpose. T h e s e ^ r X c ^
t a d m i n e s T a v r i o t t Torked! ^ * " °0m " * T te a“tim0ny aad
9 ^ P -^A D IS E , the Burung-dewata and Mannk-dewata of the Indian
» anders. Burung is “ a bird or fowl ” in Malay ; and manuk, a Z d that has had a
tthnee nHmfodduus.T nTThhee wwoo rdd , Tof® c otMur“seg, “si gJma™flens e"seb-i rDde wofa ttah ies Mgod Ss,a”n oscf rwit hfoicrh t hthe eg oEdusr oo-f
nenol na?® ls’ no doubt> a paraphrase. These appellations were given, not by the
I K É ? ° f, tb e C0Untr/ es, m which th e birds o f Paradise are indigenous, b u t by th e
o , Î L j Tai “ traders who conducted the commercial intercourse between the
one w [n P ArohiPelag° before the arrival of Europeans In
diw many langnages of New Guinea, the chief country of the birds of Para-
t«h.ae na?tuerya’ili^st L? eosrseo n, i.e3 yca tlhleed b Mesat mknboefwonre .s pecies of the family, we are uinnfoowrmneedd Dbvy
insfold dif erent sPecies °f birds of Paradise have been described by naturalists who
rnstead of ascribing any divine attributes to them, place them in the rather obscene
arnily of crows. All these species are prepared for the market by the natives of the
It Birds ofUp«mrr ^ thr neSroes of New Guinea and the islands near
Malacca in 1 Î l R T f t l r i®®“ found by the Portuguese on their conquest of
for tb ? ™ I t I B l S i that emporium by the Malay and Javanese merchants
aSrrriivva^l imn tthhee MW o!l uccas in the Asatm aeU y e6aVr,e notSr ’t hteh ebyeg imnnuisntg boaf vteh es feoelûlo wthienmg oBn utth tehier
ten vearaCCX nr given by Pigafetta, who was at the Moluccas
i f a L w Portuguese had reached them. His description, taken from the
publication of the original manuscript published in 1800, is as follows : « They gave us
also for the king of Spam, two most beautiful dead birds. These birds are about the
size of thrushes. They have a small head and a long bill ; legs fine as a writing quill
a palm long. They have no wings, but in their stead, long feathers of various fofours
thosf of tb “ eS‘ ! resembles that of the thrush. All the feathers, except
those of the wings, are of a dark colour (scuro). Thev never fly, except when the
ÎthX?v rfal leXh bvofil ondrm Ua3+t a (burtuhn®gS®-d biwiradtsa )c,a mthea tf riosm, ‘tbhierd tse rorfe sGtroida.l’ p” araIdti sies, parnod
of fir0I^r ^1S account> that the birds of Paradise sent by the king of Tidor one
of the five Moluccas, to Charles the Fifth, was not the great emerald bird with which
e are most familiar, but one of those which are natives of the Moluccas. At present
w X T i 11 emP°0rmm or these birds to the East is the Aroe Islands ; and to thé
^ Celebes™ SmSaPore> bemg bought to the two last by the praus of the Bugis
BIRDS’-NESTS. The esculent nests of the Hirundo esculenta, the Lawit of the
Javanese, a small dark-coloured swallow, with a greenish hue on the back, a bluish one
bv fb6 rani nf Wh.lte mark: The nest consists of a marine fucus elaborated
In Malay the nest is called Sarang-burung, of which our own name is
liteial translation; and the Javanese name, expressed by one word, Susuh is
Mafovaand PhT ? he ,s wall<7 producing the esculent nest is found ¿1 over ’the
Malay and Philippine Archipelagos, wherever there are caves to afford it shelter and
protection, and these, as usual, are most frequent in the limestone formation But
Java and Borneo seem to be their chief resort. The celebrated caves of Karang-
bolong (hollow rocks) situated in the province of Baglen in Java, and on the shore of
tb ! f X l“ Sea’ “ ay be ^ an example. The entrance into these caves is at
the sea level, and at the foot of limestone rocks several hundred feet in height, in one
place 200 perpendicular feet before coming to the first ledge. The “ out^ ° ^ tb®
caves are about 18 feet broad and 30 high, while within they expand to breadths of
from 60 to 114 feet and to heights of from 420 to 480, the sea penetrating them to
the extent of one fourth of their length, and in rough weather rendering them mac-
The descent of the collectors to the caves is effected by narrow ratan
ladders’ usually about 74 feet in length, attached at top to a stout tree. Within the
caves there are bamboo scaffoldings, in order to reach at the nests, which are detached
from the sides by the hand, and from the roofs by hooks attached t o l °nS poles.
t C c are three periods for making the collection-Apnl, August, and December
The nest-gatherers are persons bred to their dangerous calling, and before the
commencement of the first gathering, plays are acted m masks, and tbare j faa®^g
on the flesh of buffaloes and goats to invoke the aid of the lady queenof the south
(Sai ratu kidul), an imaginary being, without whose aid the woik of robbing the
nests would not prosper. Afte^ the crop has been taken, the caves - e “ icalty
sealed against human ingress. The whole annual gathering, which is effected^at little
cost, amounts to from 50 to 60 piculs yearly, or on an average to 7370i. This which
is worth at Batavia about 18,0001., forms a convenient and unobjectionable branch pf
the revenue of the Netherland government, smce it is paid by strangers in the
indulgence of a harmless folly. . . . .
Esculent swallows’ nests are by no means confined,
the sea-coasts, for we find them in caves m the interior both of Java and Borneo, and
no doubt they exist also in other islands. On the north-western side of Bo in«»,.and
not far from the banks of the river Baram, birds -nest caves are found 140 miles
from the sea by the course of the river. They consist of three cba“ bar8’ °ne
which is reckoned to be no less than 200 fathoms in length. These are the
property of the powerful tribe of the Kayan, and like those of Karang-bolong are
carefully guarded.
BISATA or VIS AT A : the name of one of the principal nations ot the Fhiiip-
pines, of their language, and of the islands peopled by them. The Bisaya Islands
include those lying between the two great islands of Luzon and Mindano, as Panay,
Neeros Gebu, Leyte, and Samar. The name was given to them from the practice of
painting or probably tattooing their persons, which obtained among their inhabitants
when they were first seen by the Spaniards, the word bisaya signifying m their
language I to paint.” The Bisaya language is divided into several dialects, differing
so much from each other that the parties speaking them are umntelligible to each
other I t is spoken by about a million of the inhabitants of the Spanish Philippines,
and is therefore, after the Tagala, the most current of their languages. But it is
besides supposed to extend to the Sulu Islands.
BLORA. A district of Java, on the river Solo the largest stream of the island.
I t contains some of the most extensive and most conveniently situated teak lorests.
South latitude 7° 10', and east longitude 111° 30'.
BOAT or VESSEL. The generic name for a boat or vessel, large or small, is
Prau, a word almost naturalised in the European languages. It belongs equally to
the Malay and Javanese languages, and from these has been very widely spread to
others, extending as a synonym to the principal Philippine tongues The usual
name for a canoe or skiff, both in Malay and Javanese, is sampan. The large vessels
w h i c h the natives of the Archipelago used in war and trade were called by them
iung which is the word corrupted junk, that Europeans apply to the large vessels of
the Chinese of which the proper name is wangkang. For a square-rigged vessel or
s h i p the natives have borrowed the word kapal from the Telugu or Telinga^ Names
vary with the forms of vessels, and the uses to which they are p u t; and these again
differ with nations or tribes so as to be innumerable.
BOELEKUMBA The name of a district a t the extremity of the south-western
peninsula of Celebes, conquered by the Dutch from the Macassar nation. The
mountain of Lompu-batang, which is within it, is supposed to be the highest land m
Celebes, and reaches to 8000 feet.
BOEROE, in the Dutch orthography, or more shortly and perhaps correctly,
BURU, is the name of an island in the Molucca Sea. In Malay and Javanese buru
means “ to chase or pursue,” and also “ to hunt,” and with the usual word pulo prefixed,
the name may be translated “ hunting island.” The Dutch establishment on the
eastern side of this island is in south latitude 3° 22' 30/7, and east longitude 128 11.
The area of Boeroe is calculated at 2625 square geographical miles, and therefore it