CELEBES, THE MOLUCCAS, ETC. 381 



four hours every day, picking up what I can, and generally 

 getting some little new or rare or beautiful thing to reward 

 me. This is the land of the two-horned rhinoceros, the ele- 

 phant, the tiger, and the tapir; but they all make themselves 

 very scarce, and beyond their tracks and their dung, and once 

 hearing a rhinoceros bark not far off, I am not aware of 

 their existence. This, too, is the very land of monkeys ; they 

 swarm about the villages and plantations, long-tailed and 

 short-tailed, and with no tail at all, white, black, and grey ; 

 they are eternally racing about the tree-tops, and gambolling 

 in the most amusing manner. The way they jump is amazing. 

 They throw themselves recklessly through the air, apparently 

 sure, with one or other of their four hands, to catch hold 

 of something. I estimated one jump by a long-tailed white 

 monkey, at thirty feet horizontal, and sixty feet vertical, from 

 a high tree on to a lower one; he fell through, however, so 

 great was his impetus, on to a lower branch, and then, with- 

 out a moment's stop, scampered away from tree to tree, evi- 

 dently quite pleased with his own pluck. When I startle a 

 band, and one leader takes a leap like this, it is amusing to 

 watch the others — some afraid and hesitating on the brink 

 till at last they pluck up courage, take a run at it, and often 

 roll over in the air with their desperate efforts. Then there 

 are the long-armed apes, who never walk or run upon the 

 trees, but travel altogether by their long arms, swinging them- 

 selves from bough to bough in the easiest and most graceful 

 manner possible. 



" But I must leave the monkeys and turn to the men, who 

 will interest you more, though there is nothing very remark- 

 able in them. They are Malays, speaking a curious, half- 

 unintelligible Malay dialect — Mohammedans, but retaining 

 many pagan customs and superstitions. They are very 

 ignorant, very lazy, and live almost absolutely on rice alone, 

 thriving upon it, however, just as the Irish do, or did, upon 

 potatoes. They were a bad lot a few years ago, but the 

 Dutch have brought them into order by their admirable sys- 

 tem of supervision and government. By the bye, I hope you 

 have read Mr. Mooney's book on Java. It is well worth 



