piece. The chief men of each village came to visit me,
clothed in robes of silk and flowered satin, though their
houses and their daily fare are no better than those of the
other inhabitants. What a contrast between these people
and such savages as the best tribes of hill Dyaks in Borneo,
or the Indians of the Uaupes in South America, living 011
the banks of clear streams, clean in their persons and
their houses, with abundance of wholesome food, and
exhibiting its effect in healthy skins and beauty of form
and feature ! There is in fact almost as much difference
between the various races of savage as of civilized peoples,
and we may safely affirm that the better specimens of
the former are much superior to the lower examples of
the latter class.
One of the few luxuries of Matabello is the palm wine,
which is the fermented sap from the flower stems of the
cocoa-nut. It is really a very nice drink, more like cyder
than beer, though quite as intoxicating as the latter.
Young cocoa-nuts are also very abundant, so that anywhere
in the island it is only necessary to go a few yards to f i n d
a delicious beverage by climbing up a tree for it. It is
the water of the young fruit that is drunk, before the
pulp has hardened; it is then more abundant, clear, and
refreshing, and the thin coating of gelatinous pulp is
thought a great luxury. The water of full-grown cocoa-
nuts is always thrown away as undrinkable, although it
is delicious in comparison with that of the old dry nut*
[which alone we obtain in this country. The cocoa-nut
bulp I did not like at first; but fruits are so scarce, except
L particular seasons, that one soon learns to appreciate
Anything of a fruity nature.
Many persons in Europe are under the impression that
[fruits of delicious flavour abound in the tropical forests,
¡and they will no doubt be surprised to learn that the
truly wild fruits of this grand and luxuriant archipelago,
the vegetation of which will vie with that of any part of
the world, are in almost every island inferior in abundance
and quality to those of Britain. Wild strawberries and
raspberries are found in some places, but they are such
Spoor tasteless things as to be hardly worth eating, and
there is nothing to compare with our blackberries and
¡whortleberries. The kanary-nut may be considered equal
to a hazel-nut, but I have met with nothing else superior
to our crabs, our haws, beech-nuts, wild plums, and
acorns; fruits which would be highly esteemed by the
[natives of these islands, and would form an important
¡part of their sustenance. All the fine tropical fruits are
[as much cultivated productions as our apples, peaches,
; and plums, and their wild prototypes, when found, are
j generally either tasteless or uneatable.
The people of Matabello, like those of most of the
Mahometan villages of East Ceram and Gorarn, amused