856 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



[May I, 1883. 



pri\ate letter to him. Now the only way to account for this 

 is differenue of climate, temperature high, aud hiyh smuUs 

 from the neiylibouring Chinese villages. 



The plain truth of the matter is this: — To catch the rainy 

 season it was necessary to ilescend from the mountain top 

 3,500 feet above the sea to a clearing only about 1.200 

 feet elevation. Added to this, the neat little shaded well we 

 had cut for our people tliere was in a filthy state and 

 the « ater unfit to drink or even wash in, all the accumu- 

 lated dirt from the Chinese and Malay compounds being 

 washed down into their drinking water. Millions of mos- 

 ipiitoes of the riug-tail variety disputed our right to camp 

 at these diggings aud simply mobbed a poor fellow at 

 certain hours of the twenty-four, kt'epiug up a perpetual 

 tune on (heir litlle musical instrument (a cross between 

 the Scotch bagpipe and a Jew's harp). Any way they harped 

 on the same >ilW string all night aud drove their poisonous 

 probosccs (if u(.' may use the expression) into every part 

 of our unfortunate bodies covered or uucovered. It took 

 the bloodthirsty little vagabonds some time to fiml your 

 humble servant, because they evidently mistook me for a 

 Chinaman, and jumped at the conclusion that I smoked to- 

 bacco aud that of doubtful quality, little dreamiug. deluded 

 little insects (God bless them!), that I was fresh from the 

 hill, with blood in good order and offered no obstacle to their 

 taking me in the flank or even entering in a body by the 

 door or window made of Bertam leaves and without the 

 tear of being smoked out (the writer only indulging in a 

 meditative smoke of one cheroot after breakfast and one 

 after dinner). However the mosquitoes remained outside for 

 several days, thank goodness, though they '* made for me" 

 properly every time I went out for a walk or to speak to the 

 Chinese or Malays in the evening. 



The JMalays seemed to get the lion's share of their atten- 

 tion, and scratched themselves into ugly sores all over their 

 bodies, and their blood not being very rich harbours the poi- 

 sonous bite and festers into deep-seated ulcers : they com- 

 plain bitterly of the " Namoo" or mosquito. Partly owing 

 to their bodies itching and perhaps through a bad night's 

 rest, the Malays worked very carelessly in the clearing, en- 

 gaged as they were in lining for holes 10 by 10 forLiherian 

 coft"ee. One of them would creep along at a snail's pace 

 with the Uniug I'ope until he reached the pl^ce to stop and 

 stretch the line, whereupon he immediately produced a 

 cigarette aud squatting down on his hind legs bt-gan to 

 smoke, looking as though he did n't care to call the Queen 

 his aunt — so contented aud happy a cuss. 



I made a rough calculation that from the smallest boy to 

 the most ancient individual they smoked about twenty 

 cigarettes on an average. It was several days before I 

 could check the bad haliit, but now the Malays seldom 

 smoke in my presence. Yet the cigarette may always be 

 seen lurking behind the ear of every Malay man or boy 

 ready when the "Tuau" (master) is not looking. Hut 

 with all the faults of the Blalays I love them well. Ti ey 

 are a much better people than generally represented 

 to be by people who do not know them well. I 

 shall therefore devote a whole Irttor t" thm iu this series 

 in reply and as a counterblast to a letter written from 

 Pernk si)me time ago, andwhith, being 50 ?fH^)'7/p, disgusted 

 and annoyed the majority of the Europeans in Perak, es- 

 pecially old settlers who have had Malay servants for years 

 and where mutual love and respect exist. 



The Hill-BIalays are very clever at running up a shanty 

 in the jungle, and the one I occasionally live in is very 

 snug, made entirely of jungle sticks aud plaited leaves of 

 the Bertam. Heavy rain descended but none came iu. The 

 floor is made of bamboo and strips of bark, and uot a nail 

 is used in the whole construction, rattan cane always being 

 used as a substitute for nails, iu other words strongly lied. 



Their own huts are of the same pattern, built 

 on piles diiveu into the gi'ound. The floor of a 

 Malay hut is rather more open to enable them to smoke 

 ad Uhitinn aud spit as much as they like, and emjity tlieir 

 rice water away without the trouble of opening the door. 

 For protection from wild animals at night (tigers have 

 often entered houses aud cairied off human beings and 

 domestic animals and do so still hi maini parts of the 

 peninsula) the an-angement of an elevated floor is safe 

 and secure, and, as before remarked, they prefer an open 

 floi.v to let the rubbish go throvigh to climbing up and 

 down the staii's or wooden ladder. 



This uew dealing, called "Cecilia" and named after one 



of the daughters of His Excellency Sir- Frederick Weld 

 Governor of the Straits Settlements, is a pretty formation 

 or lay of laud, and I managed to trace three good bridle- 

 patlis through the clearing with the aid of oue of 

 Walker's tracing machines procured by the Perak Go- 

 vernment. These roads improve the appearance of the 

 Cecilia estate immensely. There are a fewacres of flat ground 

 suitable for a site for building a buugalow, outhouses, 

 and sheds for a farmyard, with grass field aud paddock 

 for horses, cows, sheep, pigs, and poultry. The water 

 supply is the difficulty, but this may be conquered by 

 spouting water from a considerable distance from the 

 hiU ranges above, or cutting drains for the same pur- 

 pose to economize galvanized iron spouting, wliich is 

 very expensive aud difficult of transport. 



All flowers grow well here, for we amuse ourselves 

 every evening (stop a bit ! I 'm not quite sure about the 

 kling being amused) making rustic little gardens under 

 the shade of large jungle trees, blentUng some of the 

 rare plants of the forest with domestic flowers, such as 

 the carnation and pink, crotons of kinds, calladiums, 

 both wild and cultivated varieties (incUuling the black 

 one), belfry, and a lovely climber, white and scarlet, cocks- 

 combs of rare beauty, asters, ziuias, begonias, sweet 

 wilham, phlox drumonclii, coleus vaiiegated, and dark 

 purple grows freely, crocuses, pink aud wliite, gladiolas, 

 criuums, scarlet, and liUes, &c. 



Amongst other pretty things collected in the Perak 

 jungles is a large pink or orauge flowering shrub called 

 the ixora, I believe. If this was mentioned in a pre- 

 vious letter, I won't apologize, for repetition can do no 

 harm iu this case. 



Tiger-striped wild ginger, resembling the maranta 

 zebrina common in Ceylon and a plant the Princess of 

 Wales is very fond of, jiulgiug from the photographs of the 

 Princess. 



What should we all do in this world of ours, where we 

 cannot " reject the weeds and keep the floAvers," making a 

 ** heaven on earth," as Tom Moore would have liked, were 

 it not for the pleasures of gardening and reading':' They are 

 certainly the wiiter's two hobbies, but often very very 

 difficult to ride: for instance, when more land is opeued than 

 can be kept in order, the coffee, tea and cinchona nurseries 

 require all the available labour to keep them in order, or 

 heavy loss would be sustained. Flowers and rai'e plants are 

 then called rubbish by some peojile and in dry weather even 

 grudged a drink of water ! Then again, reatling is not 

 always practicable, for what with a row in the kitchen 

 between the cook aad Johnny Ajuo the boy, with Ha 

 Sing the water-carrier throwing in his opinion ; an 

 argument between the kopala or head Chinaman about 

 advances on a road contract, aud the China sawyers kick- 

 ing up another bobbery, whilst the Malays have got a 

 long yam under weigh in a shanty under my nose and at 

 pointed parts of the story yells of laughter rend the aii* and 

 echo among the rocks ; a small gambling party iu the next 

 hut, and in' another corner a difference of opinion be- 

 tween Ha Koon and Ha Toon about a fowl mysteriously 

 disappearing; with opium smokers just turned out when 

 they ought to be turning iu, make up a sum total of the 

 most infernal rows ever heard or f^ver invented to upset the 

 nerves of a European, kept up religiously until the small 

 hours of the morning, when the wi'etches drop off one by 

 oue from sheer exhaustion and go to sleep about the time 

 that people in health should be getting up and going to work. 

 When they do turu out next morning they look as though 

 they wished they had never been born and that living iu 

 this world was a gigantic mistake, mooning along with a 

 stinking old bamboo pipe in the mouth and a big straw hat on 

 the head, wide trousers of blue or black aud sometimes 

 clattering wooden slioes, hea\'y eyehds and geuerally an up- 

 all-night-hat-eaved-in-dissipated-good-for-nothiug-looking- 

 soii-of-a-sea-cook. 



The rains were hea.vy and continuous, and, though slowly, 

 yet surely, the Chinese finislied theii" cleai-iug contract and 

 took up the cutting of the roads traced. 



Meanwhile oue of our klings fell ill of fever, and before 

 quinine could be obtained died. This was a loss to me, 

 for poor Valan was teaching me the Malay language by in- 

 tei-prcting in Malabar or Tamil. After the death of Valan, 

 the other khng, a very old-fashioned indi\adual, bolted with- 

 out his clothes. So we took the liberty of usiug oue of his 

 comboys or sarongs to make a winding-sheet for Valan. 

 Half-a-dozen Malays willingly dug a sLx-foot grave for 

 the deceased cooly and about niid-day earned him to hi 



