354 CELEBES. [chap. xv. 



through which the wooden plough easily makes its way, 

 the ploughman holding the plough-handle with one hand 

 while a long bamboo in the other serves to guide the 

 buffaloes. These animals require an immense deal of 

 driving to get them on at all ; a continual shower of 

 exclamations is kept up at them, and " Oh ! ah ! gee ! 

 ugh ! " are to be heard in various keys and in an uninter- 

 rupted succession all day long. At night we were favoured 

 with a different kind of concert. The dry ground around 

 my house had become a marsh tenanted by frogs, who 

 kept up a most incredible noise from dusk to dawn. They 

 were somewhat musical too, having a deep vibrating note 

 which at times closely resembles the tuning of two or 

 three bass-viols in an orchestra. In Malacca and Borneo 

 I had heard no such sounds as these, which indicates that 

 the frogs, like most of the animals of Celebes, are of 

 species peculiar to it. 



My kind friend and landlord, Mr. Mesman, was a good 

 specimen of the Macassar-born Dutchman. He was about 

 thirty-five years of age, had a large family, and lived in a 

 spacious house near the town, situated in the midst of a 

 grove of fruit trees, and surrounded by a perfect labyrinth 

 of offices, stables, and native cottages occupied by his 

 numerous servants, slaves, or dependants. He usually 

 rose before the sun, and after a cup of coffee looked after 

 his servants, horses, and dogs, till seven, when a sub- 



