登陆注册
5370200000175

第175章

During our stay here we were all very busy. Our captain was daily superintending the completion of his two small praus. All day long native boats were coming with fish, cocoa-nuts, parrots and lories, earthen pans, sirip leaf, wooden bowls, and trays, &c. &e., which every one of the fifty inhabitants of our prau seemed to be buying on his own account, till all available and most unavailable space of our vessel was occupied with these miscellaneous articles: for every man on board a prau considers himself at liberty to trade, and to carry with him whatever he can afford to buy.

Money is unknown and valueless here--knives, cloth, and arrack forming the only medium of exchange, with tobacco for small coin.

Every transaction is the subject of a special bargain, and the cause of much talking. It is absolutely necessary to offer very little, as the natives are never satisfied till you add a little more. They are then far better pleased than if you had given them twice the amount at first and refused to increase it.

I, too, was doing a little business, having persuaded some of the natives to collect insects for me; and when they really found that I gave them most fragrant tobacco for worthless black and green beetles, I soon had scores of visitors, men, women, and children, bringing bamboos full of creeping things, which, alas! too frequently had eaten each other into fragments during the tedium of a day's confinement. Of one grand new beetle, glittering with ruby and emerald tints, I got a large quantity, having first detected one of its wing-cases ornamenting the outside of a native's tobacco pouch. It was quite a new species, and had not been found elsewhere than on this little island. It is one of the Buprestidae, and has been named Cyphogastra calepyga.

Each morning after an early breakfast I wandered by myself into the forest, where I found delightful occupation in capturing the large and handsome butterflies, which were tolerably abundant, and most of them new to me; for I was now upon the confines of the Moluccas and New Guinea,--a region the productions of which were then among the most precious and rare in the cabinets of Europe. Here my eyes were feasted for the first time with splendid scarlet lories on the wing, as well as by the sight of that most imperial butterfly, the "Priamus "of collectors, or a closely allied species, but flying so high that I did not succeed in capturing a specimen. One of them was brought me in a bamboo, bored up with a lot of beetles, and of course torn to pieces. The principal drawback of the place for a collector is the want of good paths, and the dreadfully rugged character of the surface, requiring the attention to be so continually directed to securing a footing, as to make it very difficult to capture active winged things, who pass out of reach while one is glancing to see that the next step may not plunge one into a chasm or over a precipice. Another inconvenience is that there are no running streams, the rock being of so porous a nature that the surface-water everywhere penetrates its fissures; at least such is the character of the neighbourhood we visited, the only water being small springs trickling out close to the sea-beach.

In the forests of Ke, arboreal Liliaceae and Pandanaceae abound, and give a character to the vegetation in the more exposed rocky places. Flowers were scarce, and there were not many orchids, but I noticed the fine white butterfly-orchis, Phalaenopsis grandiflora, or a species closely allied to it. The freshness and vigour of the vegetation was very pleasing, and on such an arid rocky surface was a sure indication of a perpetually humid climate. Tall clean trunks, many of them buttressed, and immense trees of the fig family, with aerial roots stretching out and interlacing and matted together for fifty or a hundred feet above the ground, were the characteristic features; and there was an absence of thorny shrubs and prickly rattans, which would have made these wilds very pleasant to roam in, had it not been for the sharp honeycombed rocks already alluded to. In damp places a fine undergrowth of broadleaved herbaceous plants was found, about which swarmed little green lizards, with tails of the most "heavenly blue," twisting in and out among the stalks and foliage so actively that I often caught glimpses of their tails only, when they startled me by their resemblance to small snakes.

Almost the only sounds in these primeval woods proceeded from two birds, the red lories, who utter shrill screams like most of the parrot tribe, and the large green nutmeg-pigeon, whose voice is either a loud and deep boom, like two notes struck upon a very large gong, or sometimes a harsh toad-like croak, altogether peculiar and remarkable. Only two quadrupeds are said by the natives to inhabit the island--a wild pig and a Cuscus, or Eastern opossum, of neither of which could I obtain specimens.

同类推荐
  • 樵隐词

    樵隐词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Letters

    Letters

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 幼仪杂箴

    幼仪杂箴

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 居竹轩诗集

    居竹轩诗集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说法集名数经

    佛说法集名数经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 红楼梦(中国古典文学名著典藏)

    红楼梦(中国古典文学名著典藏)

    《红楼梦》以贾宝玉、林黛玉、薛宝钗之间的恋爱婚姻悲剧为主线,以贾、王、史、薛四大家族兴衰沉浮为背景,描写了封建贵族家庭各种错综复杂的矛盾,塑造了一系列贵族、平民以及奴隶出身的女子的悲剧形象,暴露了封建贵族阶级及其统治的腐朽与罪恶,曲折地反映了封建社会必然崩溃、没落的历史趋势。小说全面真实地展现了广阔复杂的社会生活,堪称我国封建社会后期社会生活的百科全书。作品对封建社会的婚姻、道德、文化、教育的腐朽、堕落进行了深刻反思,歌颂了封建贵族的叛逆者和自由美好、违反礼教的爱情,体现出追求个性自由的初步的民主主义思想。
  • 星辰武帝

    星辰武帝

    古武高手苏邪,意外重生到强者如云的异界,恰逢家族遭难,更被未婚妻逼迫入赘!且看苏邪强势崛起,传奇再续,醒掌天下权,醉卧美人膝......
  • 销售工作的第一本心理书

    销售工作的第一本心理书

    本书是销售岗位工作人员的心理指导书。围绕企业销售管理中的问题,借用了心理学中的72个工具进行解析,并对此提供了相应的解决措施。通过常见的销售管理工作中遇到的问题,从多个不同角度找出引起问题的心理效应,然后对其心理知识进行剖析说明,最后给出解决问题的方略,让销售人员学会从心理角度剖析问题,进而提高解决问题的能力。
  • 放养孩子:培养孩子自立自信自强的100个法则

    放养孩子:培养孩子自立自信自强的100个法则

    本书让中国的父母们,走出传统的管理和控制,解放自己同时也解放我们的孩子,给予孩子充分选择的自由,放飞孩子的理想与智慧,让我们的孩子享受到民主的空气,实现真正的权利分享。相信每一个孩子,在正确“放养”的基础下,都能发挥出最大的潜能。
  • 秘境追踪

    秘境追踪

    读王志艳编著的《秘境追踪》,您将目睹传说中外星人创造的奇迹,也将看到人类对自身起源探寻的困惑;您不仅可以领略到大千世界中蕴藏的美妙与诡异,而且还会在思考之余,从心底升起探求世界真谛的渴望。
  • 离星记

    离星记

    恒浩被同伴在背后暗算,但天赐良机,恒浩重生转世为陈家长子,就此还多了个傻白甜妹妹!实力强劲天赋惊人的他也成功的获得一群妹妹的芳心,但这完全不能阻挡他成为武界的“大哥大”!!
  • 自游人

    自游人

    柳平问淡出之后,你想做点什么?你呢?我们再猜好不好!当妖了——只写三个!只能是最想做的三件事!当然了!片刻,两只写满字的手攥成了拳头。我们不打开,直说吧柳平说。直说就直说,说完再打开,一样!紫玉应和着。写作!烹饪!旅行!两人异口同声,翻开手掌,果然都是这几个字,这么个顺序。她们笑了,开心地笑着注视着对方,渐渐地,眼睛湿了。常言道:人生得一知己足矣,她们很幸运,找到了知己,重塑了人生。
  • 云海侠行

    云海侠行

    少年未携佩剑,出门已是江湖。这是一个刀光剑影的江湖,还有一个快意恩仇的故事……
  • 异族录

    异族录

    有时候,坎坷的命运在出生时,便已决定。当逃亡结束时,以为就可以过上平静的日子了。但一个变卦击碎了一切。失去的够多了,不能再这样了。那就站在战场上,握住刀,保护人类剩下的一切。
  • 渎梦

    渎梦

    对于被封在玉瑾中即将成为作弊器的夏瑄来说,她考虑过自己的很多种下场,唯独没想过,尼玛最后竟然还要和宿主谈恋爱?!裴云舒对于那道出现在他绝望生命中的光,一直郑重地将她当做一场极致得梦境,但他没想到自己有一天会爱上这个梦,甚至为了得到她而不择手段。