helpers were changed as we passed from one district of the island into another.
Nothing could exceed the vigilance with which they watched us. We might
separate into as many divisions as there were men, and yet each of us would
still retain his native convoy. We could neither tire them down, nor run
away from them. When, by chance, we suddenly changed our course, we
still found them before us. And though this was the result of a jealous and
exclusive system, yet they managed to give it the appearance of being done
through respect for us.
I was curious to obtain some information regarding the domestic life of
the natives, and frequently entered their huts unawares, in the hope of finding
them at their avocations within. In most eases I found the huts deserted,
but in some others caught the merest glimpses of Lew Chew life, in its more
humble aspects. Near the castle, while our convoy was passing around a
village, I slipped into one of the alleys and entered a bamboo enclosure,
within which were five neat dwellings. The mats were let down before the
doors, but the people were all hidden behind screens and in lofts under the
thatch, for on looking in I found no one but a child and an old man, who
immediately knelt down and knocked his forehead on the floor before me.
In another hut, in a village on the plain, I found an old woman and a.
girl of about twelve years of age, both of whom fell on their knees, and held
up their hands with an expression which was at once imploring and reverential.
A few words of friendly greeting, though in English, encouraged
them, and I should no doubt have been able to inspect the interior of the
hut, had not one of the spies come up at that moment and driven them
away.
In the rich rice plains to which we descended we found sugar-cane for
the first time, sorghum, or millet, and three varieties of the grain known in
the United States as “ broom-corn.” The road struck out into the swampy
rice fields, and we made for a green headland covered with pines. A village,
almost completely buried in bowers and arcades of bamboo, lay at its foot.
As we were about entering, we came upon two curious stones planted in the
earth. The largest was about four feet high, and from its peculiar form
struck me at once as a lingam, or emblem of the Phallic worship. The
same idea occurred to Mr. Heine, who made a sketch of it. I t was a very
hard dark-colored stone resembling porphyry, and the only thing we could
learn from the natives respecting it was, that they called it “ ishee.” There
is no trace of this feature of the Hindoo religion existing either in Japan,
China, or Lew Chew. The discovery of this stone, if it should prove to be
a Phallic emblem, is therefore exceedingly curious. In the course of the
afternoon we found two more, one of which was prostrate and broken. In
conjunction with these remains, the face of the hill behind, for a distance of
two miles, is almost entirely covered with excavated tombs, resembling the
simpler forms of the rock tombs of Egypt and Syria. Our native conductors,
when interrogated respecting them, called them “ the houses of the
devil’s men,” and seemed amused at our taking notice of them. This fact,
in a country where ancestral tombs are considered sacred, as among the
Chinese, seems to point to the existence of another race on the island, in
anoient times—a race who may have received the worship of the Lingam
from Java, or other islands where memorials of it exist.
After an unavailing attempt to shoot a couple of herons in a rice field,
we kept a course nearly due north, passing through several beautiful villages.
The houses were surrounded with banana trees, and the alleys completely
overarched with bamboo. In one of the houses I found a woman weaving
grass-oloth in a loom of primitive construction. She ceased from work as I
approached the door, but commenced again, in obedience to my gestures.
The shuttle was a little longer than the breadth of the stuff, and thrown hy
hand. At the foot of the hill, Dr. Lynah found a piece of lignite, which
resembles coal, but is unfortunately no indication of its presence. We had
a long and toilsome ascent up a barren hill which brought us again upon a
cultivated upland. There were three or four cattle grazing here, the first
we had noticed since leaving Napha. We saw a horse now and then, but this
animal appeared to be scarce. The dividing ridge between the bays was
about three miles in advance, and though the afternoon was nigh spent, and
the whole party was considerably fatigued, we determined to get sight of
Barrow’s Bay before encamping. At last we reached a large village on the
western slope of the ridge. I t was surrounded with plantations of banana,
and a tall pine grove towered over it. Through a deep road gate, cut in
the crest of the hill, a fine picture of Barrow’s Bay and the mountains
beyond presented itself to our view. The southern shore of the hay was
about three miles distant, and a singular range of rocks, rising in detached
square masses like the walls and towers of a ruined city, intervened. The
landscape was more richly wooded than those on the southern bay, and the
outlines of the hills were rounder and more gently undulating. We seemed
to have reached a region of a different geological character. We were
about to pitch our tent at this place, when the native officers gave us to
understand that there was a Gung-gud a short distance further, and urged
us so strongly to go on that we shouldered our muskets and haversacks and
started again. But we had a rough tramp of nearly three miles further,
and finally came, with bruised feet and aching shoulders, upon the last
descent to Barrow’s Bay. Picturesque crags studded the hillside, and a
large village, completely covered with thickets of banana and bamboo, lay
before us. Over it towered a tall crag, rent through the centre and surmounted
with a square rock, like a ruined tower. We threaded the village
by shaded alleys, and at the further end, on a spot commanding a fine view
of the bay, found a handsome Gung-gud, in an enclosure planted with trees.
A dignitary of some kind welcomed us, and we were at once served with