CH. IX JOUBNEY THBOUGH MINAHA8SA 217 



turning wounded and blood-stained, laden with the ghastly 

 spoils of human heads or scalps, and dragging with them 

 piteous httle children in their wake. When we remember 

 that this was the condition of affairs at the commence- 

 ment of the nineteenth century, and that at the present 

 day life and property are quite as secure in the district of 

 Tondano as they are in any civilised country in the world, 

 we may well wonder at the change. 



There are but few Europeans in Tondano besides the 

 Controleur, the missionary, and a few other officials. The 

 inhabitants are nearly all the descendants of the old Tonda- 

 nese who dwelt in savage days in the old pile-dwellings on 

 the lake. They are typical Malays in feature, remarkably 

 fair for Orientals, strong, tall, handsome, and upright. 

 With a curiously sad, but at the same time not unhappy or 

 discontented, look, they are, nevertheless, far more energetic 

 in word and action than the natives of the low-lying dis- 

 tricts of the coast. For two days I enjoyed the hospitality 

 of Mr. Broers, the Controleur, and the hght invigorating 

 breezes of Tondano, and then I left for Kelelonde. 



The canoes that are in common use on the lake are 

 of the most primitive and unstable type. They simply 

 consist of a semi-cyhnder, hollowed out of a tree stem, with 

 the ends fiUed up with mud and grass. These canoes are 

 called hhtto or ballotto by the natives. They are not only 

 extremely easily capsized, but require, even in the calmest 

 weather, constant baling to keep the water out. They are 

 of every size, from the child's blotto of ten or fifteen feet 

 in length to the fisherman's craft of fifty. The rowers 

 stand to their work, balancing themselves and the canoes at 

 every stroke. The paddles are from six to eight feet long, 

 provided with a flat round blade made usually of wanga 

 wood {Metroxylon elatwm) (56). It is really an extraordi- 

 nary thing that a people so advanced in some respects 



