excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is
those who have been in one best know, but all who have
ever given way to violent passions, or even indulged in
violent and exciting exercises, may form a very good. idea.
It is a delirious intoxication, a temporary madness that
absorbs every thought and every energy. And can we
wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught, brooding Malay
preferring such a death, looked upon as almost honourable,
to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to
escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless
clutches of the hangman and the disgrace of a public
execution, when he has taken the law into his own hands,
and too hastily revenged himself upon his enemy ? In
either case he chooses rather to “ amok.”
The great staples of the trade of Lombock as well as
of Bali are rice and coffee ; the former grown on the plains,
the latter on the hills. The rice is exported very largely
to other islands of the Archipelago, to Singapore, and even
to China, and there are generally one or more vessels
loading in the port. It is brought into Ampanam on
pack-horses, and almost every day a string of these would
come into Mr. Carter’s yard. The only money the natives
will take for their rice is Chinese copper cash, twelve
hundred of which go to a dollar. Every morning two
large sacks of this money had to be counted out into
convenient sums for payment. From Bali quantities of
dried beef and ox-tongues are exported,»and from Lombock
a good many ducks and ponies. The ducks are a peculiar
breed, which have very long flat bodies, and walk erect
almost like penguins. They are generally of a pale reddish
ash colour, and are kept in large flocks. They are very
cheap and are largely consumed by the crews of the rice
ships, by whom they are called Baly-soldiers, but are
more generally known elsewhere as penguin-ducks.
My Portuguese bird-stuffer Fernandez now insisted on
breaking his agreement and returning to Singapore; partly
from home-sickness, but more I believe from the idea that
his life was not worth many months’ purchase among such
bloodthirsty and uncivilized peoples. I t was a considerable
loss to me, as I had paid him full three times the
usual wages for three months in advance, half of which was
occupied in the voyage and the rest in a place where I could
have done without him,'owing to there being so few insects
that I could devote my own time to shooting and skinning.
A few days after Fernandez had left, a small schooner
came in bound for Macassar, to which place I took a passage.
As a fitting conclusion to my sketch of these
interesting islands, I will narrate an anecdote which I
heard of the present Rajah; and which, whether altogether
true or not, well illustrates, native character, and will serve
as a means of introducing some details of the manners and
customs of the country to which I have not yet alluded.
iji O