THE AEU ISLANDS. 3G9 



We encountered the Malay language for the first time at 

 Dobbo, and since no one there, except the missionaries, who 

 spoke Dutch, understood any European language, it was fortu- 

 nate that our navigating officer, Staff-Commander Tizard, had 

 learnt the language when engaged in surveying in the China 

 Seas and on the coast of Borneo. He arranged for guides and 

 started us with a small stock of the language. 



It is the easiest in the world to pick up a little of. There is 

 no grammar, and anyone who has got a Malay dictionary can 

 talk Malay. " I go," " I shall go," " I went," are aU expressed by 

 the same word in Malay, and one is irritated on discovering how 

 thoroughly satisfactory such a simple arrangement is, to reflect 

 on the endless complications of verbs and their inflexions in so 

 many other languages and on the time which one has wasted 

 over them. 



I made several excursions on shore with one or more guides. 

 One whom I generally took with me was a very active fellow, 

 and I soon found him too quick for me in the close hot forest. 

 I have always found it a bad plan to let native guides suppose 

 that one is easily tired and unable to keep up with them, so I 

 adopted an expedient with the man which has served me in 

 good stead on other occasions, and which can be recommended 

 to naturalists. Soon after I got on shore I examined a large 

 stone with care and interest, turning it over once or twice, and 

 then gave it him to carry, and when he had this ballast in addi- 

 tion to my vasculum, I found that I could keep on pretty good 

 terms with him. In the evening, when we reached the boat, I 

 conveyed the stone on board the ship with due solemnity and 

 threw it overboard. 



I was amused at the manner in which my guides met a heavy 



storm of rain. They had of course no umbrellas, but did not 



wish to get their clothes, which consisted merely of two cloths, 



one worn round the shoulders and the other round the loins, 



wet. They simply stripped naked, rolled their clothes up tight 



inside a large Pandanus leaf, and so walked along with me till 



the rain was over, when they shook themselves dry and put their 



clothes on again. Meanwhile my clothes were wet through and 



had to dry on me. 



B B 



