50 BATCRIAN. [chap. xxiv. 



the mixture of the Portuguese or Brazilian with the Indian 

 produces the " Mameluco," who is not unfrequently lighter 

 than either parent, and always lighter than the Indian. 

 The women at Batchian, although generally fairer than 

 the men, are coarse in features, and very far inferior in 

 Leauty to the mixed Dutch-lNIalay girls, or even to many 

 pure Malays. 



The part of the village in which I resided was a grove of 

 cocoa-nut trees, and at night, when the dead leaves were 

 sometimes collected together and burnt, the effect was most 

 magnificent — the tall stems, the fine crowns of foliage, and 

 the immense fruit-clusters, being brilliantly illuminated 

 against a dark sky, and appearing like a fairy palace sup- 

 ported on a hundred columns, and groined over with leafy 

 arches. The cocoa-nut tree, when well grown, is certainly 

 the prince of palms both for beauty and utility. 



During my very first walk into the forest at Batchian, I 

 had seen sitting on a leaf out of reach, an immense butter- 

 fly of a dark colour marked with white and yellow spots. 

 I cordd not capture it as it flew away high up into the 

 forest, but I at once saw that it was a female of a new 

 species of Ornithoptera or "bird-winged butterfly," the 

 pride of the Eastern tropics. I was very anxious to get 

 it and to find the male, which in this genus is always of 

 extreme beauty. During the two succeeding months I 

 only saw it once again, and shortly afterwards I saw the 



