1869.] The Malay Archipelago. 177 



Nothing seems to have escaped his observation. The peculiar 

 ways of the Chinese trader of Singapore amused him exceedingly. 



" The shopkeeper is very good-natured ; he will show you every- 

 thing he has, and does not seem to mind if you buy nothing. He 

 bates a little, but not so much as the Klings, who almost always ask 

 twice what they are willing to take. If you buy a few things of him, 

 he will speak to you afterwards every time you pass his shop, asking 

 you to walk in and sit down, or take a cup of tea, and you wonder 

 how he can get a living where so many sell the same trifling 

 articles." * 



We have met with something like this spu-it in small continental 

 towns. Then come the habits of the animal next below man in 

 anatomical structure which he captured — the Orang-Utan. For 

 that creature, by the way, he showed less sympathy than might 

 have been expected in a Darwinian, for he appears to us to have 

 shot it somewhat wantonly. The Dyak music made a great im- 

 pression upon him, but we cannot say that we admire his taste 

 in that respect. The association of art with savage life struck 

 him as being sometimes very remarkable. At Dorey, in New 

 Guinea, he found the worst savages whom he anywhere met with, 

 and after describing their habits, he says : " If these people are 

 not savages, where shall we find any ? Yet they have all a decided 

 love for the fine arts, and spend their leisure time in executing 

 works whose good taste and elegance would be admired in our 

 Schools of Design ! " f This is the first step towards human cultm-e, 

 and it carries our minds back involuntarily to those periods in 

 human history when rude outlines of animals, now extinct, were 

 carved on knife and axe handles ; but there are in those wonderful 

 eastern islands traces of a civilization far difierent fi'om this. In 

 Java there exist vast piles of ruined temples, covering miles of 

 ground ; and in one spot " traces of nearly 400 temjjles have been 

 found," t whilst " the ruins of forts, palaces, baths, aqueducts, and 

 temples can be everywhere traced." 



The numerous and beautiful tropical plants, with their luscious 

 fruits and varied uses, and all the denizens of the animal kingdom, 

 come under the author's notice, as we have already seen ; especially 

 interesting is the account of the exquisite birds of Paradise, to obtain 

 which he sacrificed health, strength, and almost life itself. Nor 

 are the grander phenomena of nature, such as earthquakes and 

 volcanoes, overlooked in the naturalist's zeal. Of those he speaks 

 without exaggeration, whilst he seeks at the same time to convey to 

 the reader's mind the stupendous changes which the occult forces of 

 nature have brought about upon the earth's surface ; and to them 

 he largely attributes the physical configuration of the land, and the 



* Wallace, vol. i., p. 33. t Vol. ii., p. 325. J Vol. i., p. 166. 



