194 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS ■ 



fixed in small saucers held in the hands. The seriousness, 

 however, of the performance was enlivened by the introduction 

 of a comical element. Closely imitating in an exaggerated 

 manner all the motions of the dancer, but affecting to keep 

 in his rear and out of sight, was another dancer simulating the 

 fool, who was quite ignored as if entirely unperceived by the 

 principal performer, but at whose remarks, gestures, and 

 grimaces, all the people laughed heartily. Here we had the 

 simple elements of the theatrical performance — an embryo 

 play with two performers. 



When one asks a Passumah man whence his forefathers 

 came in the Ttmpo-dulu, in the days of yore, the reply is 

 often either from Dewa, or from the sun, or from Alexander 

 the Great (Sekander Alam) ; but to most of them the matter 

 is -shrouded in mystery. Hearinir, however, of a chief of 

 a distant village specially learned in these matters, I sent 

 for him to come to visit me. He was the son of a very high 

 chief in their independent days, and as such, the history of 

 the Passumah Lands had been instilled into him from a boy, 

 as part of the education that belonged to his rank. I found 

 him wonderfully versed in all the old ways and customs of 

 the Passumah people, and my only regret is that I had not 

 then the knowledge on which to found many questions which 

 I should now like to know replies to. I wrote down from his 

 lips many of their strange ceremonial formulas, which are 

 difficult to find nowadays save inscribed on some old bamboo 

 or lontar-leaf, which may have happily survived the ravages of 

 the boring beetle and the frequent village fires. Not the 

 least curious was his account of the creation : How different 

 sorts of birds, with curious but not meaningless names, pro- 

 duced eggs from which in the fulness of time escaped the 

 solid earth and the sky, the moon, the stars and the sun ; then 

 the grass plains and the forests, the sandy shore and the coral ; 

 how the sky wept and there came the rains and the deep sea ; 

 how then the Dewas were, and the hierarchy of good gods and 

 the company of evil spirits ; how the Dewas reproduced and 

 marriage was ; Adam married with Uwo (Eve ?), the earth 

 married with the sky, and the mist with the clouds and Allah 

 gave conception to all things. 



The Passumah people are a tall strong race, with well and 



