136 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



native name signifies — is the most prized, and fetches about 

 two guineas for 125 Amsterdam pounds. The greater part of 

 this goes to the European market, to be made into varnishes 

 principally, and is purchased at the coast by the Chinese 

 traders, who in turn carry it to Batavia and Singapore to- 

 resell it. A much inferior sort called "stone-dammar'' got 

 from Vatiea eximia, also one of the Bipterocarpese, is worth about 

 2s. Qd. only per 125 Amsterdam pounds, and is purchased at 

 the coast by the Bugis from Celebes and the Bawean men 

 from near Borneo, to be used by the native prau-builders to 

 fill up seams and leaks. The thick, close, tough bark of the 

 tree, however, is a much more valuable commodity, for, as it 

 can be stripped off in immense sheets, it is greatly used 

 instead of planks or the more open bamboo wickerwork, as 

 sides for their houses, and is an excellent substitute. 



The native distinguishes his pepper shrubs and his dammar 

 trees from all other sorts by the expressive title of pohone 

 vang, or money trees. The pepper (calamitously, he holds,) 

 does not grow wild in the forest in any way suitable to his 

 desire, but must be planted and tended. The dammar 

 requires no such care ; and as he roams the forest, to his eager 

 eye no tree, shrub, or herb has the slightest interest if it is not 

 an. unclaimed pohone wang. He has not sufScient interest in 

 those who are to come after him two generations hence — just 

 as his forefathers before him had none — to plant a dammar- 

 yielding arboretum; he prefers to spend days in hunting the 

 forest in their quest. 



When he has fallen on such a prize — now to be found onty 

 in the dense forest far from any dwelling-place — he at once 

 proceeds to clear off from under it the surrounding vegetation, 

 and to make several deep hacks or distinctive marks as the 

 sign of appropriation. It is then safe ; for it is in their code 

 of honour to respect such a tree, not from any high moral 

 principle, but from the more interested reason — lest, if to-day 

 he robs his neighbour's dammar, he himself, who may to- 

 morrow be the lucky finder of perhaps several richer trees, 

 may in like manner be robbed. There exists also the 

 inherited superstitious dread of some unknown evil to follow ; 

 for perchance the finder has hedged his property by the 

 satictity of a spell, the violation of which, will, sooner or 



