2891. J W. Doherty — Tlie Butterflies of Stimba and Samhawa, Sfc. 149 



ever seen, (and I have lived among the Turkman, Bedawin and Iliats)^ 

 galloping bare back down the steepest slopes. On foot they are a 

 singularly helpless people, and would rather ride twenty miles than 

 walk one. They are fond of their horses and give them the most ornate 

 names, those of mine being interpreted to me as " Beautiful Flower," 

 " Wind in the Grrass," and " Lightning." No woman is allowed to 

 mount a horse, and I have seen a princess on foot while her attendant 

 slaves were mounted. 



The staple food in Sumba is millet {usukamt, ov uhukanu) and maize,* 

 generally planted alternately, and rice (usuheresu or white grain), which 

 is hard to obtain except on the coast. The wet cultivation of paddy is 

 unknown,t though the late king of Taimanu tried to introduce it at 

 Yawahapi-Lukukatoba. Maize is usually eaten parched. Meat is only 

 eaten on great occasions, and there are scarcely any vegetables. Curi- 

 ously enough, the use of toddy (palm-wine) is unknown, though so com- 

 mon in Flores, Savu, and Roti, and even in the Muhammadan parts of the 

 Celebes. Considering the wealth of the people, and the cheapness 

 of Java rum, the Sumbanese are a sober people, and most of the 

 mountaineers have never tasted spirits. The use of betel is universal. 

 Salt is very scarce and dear. 



The people of Sumba do not probably number less than 100,000, 

 and perhaps much more if Laura and Melolo are really as populous as 

 they are said to be. A small colony of curly-haired Savu people are 

 settled at "Waingapu and Kabaniru, and a similar race at Memboro. 

 Some of the Melolo people are said to resemble the Rotinese in feature. 

 Otherwise, the bulk of the people may be said to be Mongolians re- 

 sembling the Javanese, with a Polynesian aristocracy.^ The former are 



* Maize is probably a recent introduction, but I could hear of no tradition on 

 the subject. A common species of sorghum growing in marshes is called " wild 

 maize." In many of the islands, the word jawa or Javanese is applied to maize, 

 showing whence it came. In Sumba the word is water, but in Savu water-jawa, in 

 Roti mbila, in Timor pela, in the Moluccas milu, in Ende (Flores) simply jawa, in 

 Roka (Flores) hai, in Sambawa baso. The yfovdjawa is applied to anything foreign. 

 Europeans are called " white Javanese," and I was generally known in Sumba as 

 umbu maremba jawa or the King's son from Java. 



t The Do Donggo of the mountains of Sambawa have some of the finest wet 

 paddy fields I have ever seen. Yet they are far inferior in capacity to the Sumbanese, 

 and preserve a curious memento of their recent savage state in an annual three days' 

 pilgrimage to the mountain -tops, where they sleep in the open and live wholly on 

 what game they kill, leaving the villages guarded by the dogs tied up in the houses. 



X Some of the western hill-tribes may belong to a lower race. The Kodi people 

 are said to be of short stature, and to turn the toes inwards in walking, especially 

 the women. To " walk like a Kodi woman " is a staple joke, appealing strongly 

 to the Sumbanese sense of humour. 

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