214 A NATURALIST IN CELEBES ch. ix 



and respectful demeanour of the people, who raised their 

 hats and greeted us with ' Tabeh, tuan ' ^ as they passed, 

 the busy little market-place, and the great church with its 

 huge bell calling the pious and sombre-clad Christian 

 natives to the morning service, were but symbols of the 

 general condition of peace and prosperity of the country on 

 the Tondano lake. 



Almost within the memory of some of the older in- 

 habitants this same country was in a perpetual state of 

 trouble and disorder. 



Let us pause a moment to consider the condition of 

 these people before the advent of the Dutch East Indian 

 Company. The Toiiloiirs were the people of the lake, and 

 most of them lived in pile-dwellings built in the shallower 

 waters of its shores, while the Tombulus, or the ' people of 

 the bamboo,' dwelt in houses grouped together in small ham- 

 lets hidden far away in the recesses of the forests and the 

 mountains. The Toiiloiir houses were protected from the 

 attacks of their enemies by their position on the waters, 

 whilst the houses of the Tombulus were defended by pointed 

 sticks of bamboo stuck in the ground all round the village, 

 and by festoons of thorns wound round the tall piles on 

 which their houses were built. In time of war — and it was 

 nearly always war-time in those days — every man's house 

 was, indeed, his castle, and no one dared to go outside the 

 village unless accompanied by a band of armed companions. 



The houses were large, as they are to the present day 

 in Nanusa, and the compartments in which the ten or 

 more families lived were separated from one another by 

 mats or cloths suspended on ropes stretched across the 

 room. On the east side of the house a spot was set apart 

 for a square altar {temhoan) made of bamboo sticks, and 

 to the corners of this strings adorned with young coco-nut 

 * The universal salutation of the Malays : ' Good morrow, sir.' 



