all the principal supports of straight posts, to have two or
three of them chosen as crooked as possible. I had often
noticed these crooked posts in houses, but imputed it to
the scarcity of good straight, timber, till one day I met
some men carrying home a post shaped something like a
dog’s hind leg, and inquired of my native boy what they
were going to do with such a piece of wood. “ To make a
post for a house,” said he. “ But why don’t they get a
' straight one, there are plenty here?” said I. “ Oh,” replied
he, they prefer some like that in a house, because
then it won’t fall,” evidently imputing the effect to some
occult property of crooked timber. A little consideration
and a diagram will, however, show, that the effect imputed
to. the crooked post may be really produced by it. A true
square changes its figure readily into a rhomboid or oblique
figure, but when one or two of the uprights are bent or
sloping, and placed so as to Oppose each other, the effect of
a strut is produced, though in a rude and clumsy manner.
Just before I had left jVTamajam the people had sown a
considerable quantity of maize, which appears above
ground in two or three days, and in favourable seasons,
ripens in less than two months. Owing to a week’s premature
rains the ground was all flooded when I returned,
and the plants just coming into ear were yellow and dead.
Not a grain would be obtained by the whole village,- but
luckily it is only a luxury, not a necessary of life. The
rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in order to sow
rice on all the flat lands between us and the town. The
plough used is a rude wooden instrument with a very
short single handle, a tolerably well-shaped coulter, and
the point formed of a piece of hard palm-wood fastened
in with wedges. One or two buffaloes draw it at a
NATIVE WOODEN PLOUGH.
very slow pace. The seed is sown broadcast, and a rude
wooden harrow is used to smooth the surface.
By the beginning of December the regular wet season
had set in. Westerly winds and driving rains sometimes
continued for days together; the fields for miles around
were under water, and the ducks and buffaloes enjoyed
themselves amazingly. All along the road to Macassar,
ploughing was daily going on in the mud and water,
v o l . I. a A