ENGANO 136 ENGANO
i i o f tw <i^eo'iUe^ i )n °f 1i3 t ^ * 6“06' Considering, however, that the elephant does
that the individ l f • Borneo than those named, there is room to suspect
that the individuals found in these may be the descendants of those which were found
in the domesticated state on the first arrival of Europeans in the island, and which
were seen and described by Pigafetta, in 1521.
The learned and indefatigable Netherland naturalists of India have lately made an
unexpected discovery respecting the elephant of Borneo. They have found it to be a
species distinct both from the African and Asiatic, and hence have given it the name
? ■!lma enslf approaches nearest in form to the Asiatic elephant, but
differs from it very materially. The ribbon-formed ridges on the crown of the teeth
are larger and more prominent. The dorsal vertebrae, instead of 19, amount to 20;
but the sacral vertebrae, instead of being five, amount to four only; while, instead of
V 20. Whether the elephant of the Malay peninsula be the same
IS* J • Sumai ra“’. «* 'Vlth thf common Asiatic, or whether either, is a point which has not been ascertained. it be different from
„ elePhaIlt of Sumatra and of the peninsula are, like the Asiatic species, and
as the African once was, amenable to domestication. In the northern states of the
Malay peninsula they are, in fact, domesticated and employed as beasts of burden ■
and m Sumatra, they were once tamed and used by the kings of Achin for parade!
Prom both countries they are occasionally caught, tamed, and exported by the
ielingas to the Coromandel coast. I have no doubt, also, that in old times they
were exported to Java; for they are abundant in the nearest part of Sumatra to
that island, the country of the Lampungs. For the purposes of court ceremonies or
for war the elephant was found by the Europeans, on their first arrival in the
Archipelago, in places where they no longer exist. Thus, at the capture of Malacca,
the king and his son, each on their elephants carrying a wooden tower, charged the
Portuguese, and m the pursuit of the fugitive king after the capture, mention is made
by the Portuguese historians of the taking of seven elephants. And when the
companions of Magellan touched at Borneo, and visited the king, in 1521, Pigafetta
informs us that he himself and his associates were conveyed from the river side to
the palace on caparisoned elephants.
I t seems highly probable that the natives of the Asiatic Archipelago were ignorant
of the art of tammg the elephant until instructed by the Hindus. This is to be
interred, not only from the prevalence of Sanscrit names for the elephant itself, but from
matters connected with its domestication. The usual name in Malay is the Sanscrit
one, gajah; and indeed, it was long before I myself found out that it had a native one.
This is beram, although now obsolete. The Sanscrit name, gajah, prevails all over the
Archipelago,—even where the elephant is known only by repute. Thus, in the
lagala of the Philippines, we find it in the corrupt form of gaya, and in the Bisava of
the same group, as garya. In the language of Java, an island in which the «/in.,1
could only be an exotic, it has no fewer than seven names, all Sanscrit, although
some of them be only epithets. Among the terms connected with the domestication
of the elephant that are taken from the Sanscrit, are the elephant driver, or attendant
gab , -gaja, literally, “ elephant groom,” balanggu, the fetters, and kusa, the driving!
crook. The names of the tusks, of the decoy elephant, and of the elephant trap are
however, pure Malay. * ’
ENGANO. The most southerly, and one of the largest, of the chain of islands
along the western coast of Sumatra, and reckoned to be, in all, no fewer
than 300 in number. The origin of the name is uncertain, but is probably from the
Portuguese word, engafio, fraud or deception, which, joined to the Malay word pulo
as usual in such cases would make I Deception Island.” The western end of Engano
is m south latitude 5 21', and its east end in longitude 102° 7' 15". Along with some
small islands near it, it is computed to have an area of 400 geographical square miles
It is surrounded and girdled by a coral reef, on which a hfavy O T f f i
landing difficult The sod is red clay, most probably the produce of the decompo
sition of sandstone. I t does not appear to contain any mountain of considerable
elevation; but the whole land is of sufficient height to be visible at sea, at the
distance of seven or eight leagues. As usual, it is covered with large timber On
the south-east side of the island there is a safe harbour, formed by a bay fronted by
four islets. The inhabitants of Engano are of the genuine Malayan race, but in I
very rude state. Their chief subsistence is the coco-nut, yams, and the banana, with
fish. They have no knowledge of any textile material, going naked, with the exception
of a shred of prepared bark or dried banana-leaf at the waist; and no knowledge
ERA 137 EISH
of iron, their weapon being a spear tipped with fish-bone. They have canoes, however,
which are capable of accommodating five or six men. Of the language of
Engano, we have no specimens. I t is, however, wholly unintelligible to the Malays,
and will probably be found to be a peculiar and distinct tongue. The people appear
to be the rudest of all the inhabitants of the chain of islands to which it belongs,
attributable, no doubt, to its distance from the mainland of Sumatra, twenty leagues,
its coral-fortified shore and its sterility of soil. Here, indeed, we find the true unmixed
Malayan race, the same from which has sprung up the civilisation of Java and
Sumatra, in a much lower condition than tribes of the Polynesian race in the islands
of the Pacific.
ERA. The only people of the Asiatic Archipelago who possessed an era before the
conversions to Mahommedanism and the advent of the Portuguese, were the Javanese
and the Balinese. This era was not a native one, but derived from the Hindus of
Southern India,—that of Saka or Salivana, which commences with the 78th year of
Christ. It is still in use in Bali, but only nominally so in Java. Down to the year
of our time, 1633, or for 155 years after the last Hindu dynasty, it seems to have been
preserved in Java with its solar or sidereal reckoning, but in that year, lunar time
was adopted, and as no intercalation is practised, the Javanese era and that of Salivana
no longer correspond. Thus the year of 1820 of Christ was the year of Salivana
1742, but of Java, 1747. By the Javanese this era is called Saka-warsa and Saka-
kala, terms which are Sanscrit, and signify year and time of Saka,—that is, of
Salivana, a personage made in their story to be the first foreign sovereign of Java,
under the appellation of Aji Saka, or “ King Saka.” There is no evidence to show
that the Malays had any era, native or foreign, before their adoption of the Hejira.
They seem, however, to have had a solar year, and, like the Chinese, to have reckoned
in it by the reigns of their kings, the number of years of each reign being always
specified in their annals. Thus, although the Malays of Malacca did not adopt the
religion of Mahommed until the year of Christ, 1276, we find them alleging themselves
to have founded Singapore in 1160, and giving various intermediate dates, which they
could only have arrived at by reckoning backwards, with the duration of their princes’
reigns as their guide, unless, indeed, which is not improbable, tbat the era alluded to
was that of Salivana, borrowed from Java. The chronology of the Bugis of Celebes
appears to have been of the same nature.
F.
FARIA T SOUSA. This Portuguese writer was born in 1590, and died in 1649,
The work which connects him with the history of the Asiatic Archipelago is his • l l " f “-1I fSll 18 the Portuguese history of India from its commencemeni
m 1497, to its virtual termination in 1649. This work is posthumous, and written in
Spanish. It is a hasty compilation, of which neither the facts nor reasonings are
reliable; and the authoris, m every way, greatly inferior to the earlier historians-
^ IT a ,. 9a®ta& .e(ia—who lived nearer the most important events,
and had better sources of information. There is an English translation of the “ Asia
Portuguesa, dedicated to the Princess of Modena, second wife of James the Second.
FIRE-ARMS. See Abms.
FISH and FISHERIES. There are assuredly no seas in the world more abundant
in esculent fish than those of the Asiatic Archipelago, and a few of them are ol
excellent flavour. The fish of rivers and lakes, although, perhaps, less abundant and
i l p u - r qUallty’ are,° f lmPortance in some of the islands, particularly in those oi
™d glT S : * constitutes the chief animal aliment of all the inhabitants,
the 1 ° j sea-c°ast who are by profession fishermen. In most oi
and Tso the h 1 same word expresses both fish and flesh. The greatest plenty offish,
the m l i t f r a n d qUd • 7 f V in the comParatively shallow seas, bordering
ck s e ^ rth e vnfranf A y “ 3 the least abundant in the deep seas
Malav Peninsula ^ fisheries are those of the eastern coast of the
a n d jf a lT th e c n a s tlf n of Malacca, of the northern coast of Java,
The varietv fith Borneo and Celebes, with those of the Philippine Islands.
respecting the Tch hvnl be judged b? the fact Previously mentioned
8 E 5 £ 5 & S £ of *he f M * of Celebes. The learned Dr. Bleeker, the
fewer than 10ft coWf*«* h 1 C1? ^ ^-r^s .and Sciences, has named and described no
P e ongmg to that island, and yet expresses himself satisfied