t 



130 A NJTUnAlJST'S WANDEIiJNOS 



native name sigiiiJies— is the most prke<], and fetches nUoiit 

 tl\'o gninetts for 125 Amsterdam [umiifls. Tlie greater part of 

 this goes to the European market, to be madt? into varnishes 

 principally, and is pardiased at the coast by the Chinese 

 traflera, w1h> in torn carry it to Batavia and Singapore to 

 resell it A much inferior sort called stone-dammar * got 

 from Vatka ei&mia, d.ho one of the Diiiterocarpea^y is worth about 

 (i£?. only per 125 Amsterdam pounds, and is purehasod at 

 the coast by the Bug is from Celebes and the Bawean men 

 from near Borneo, to be used by tlie native pniii-bnildf*rs to 

 till up seams and leaks. The thick, closer tough bark of the 

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

 can be strip|)ed off in immense sheets, it is greatly used 

 .instead of phmks 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 pohomi 

 itanfff or money trees, ^rhe pepper (calamitously, he kohls,) 

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

 desire, but must be pLmted and tended. The damuuir 

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

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

 an unclaimed itohone tnouj. He has not sutiicient interest iu 

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

 as his forefathei'S 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 l>e found only 

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

 proceeds to clear otf from under it the surrouniling vegetation, 

 and to make several deep hacks or distinctive marks as the 

 jiign of apprt*priation. It is then safe ; for it is in their code 

 (►f 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 t^- 

 morri)w be the lucky finder of perhaps several richer trees, 

 may in like manner be robWd. There exists also the 

 inherited superstitions dread of some unknown evil to follow ; 

 for perchance the finder has hedged his pr<jperty by the 

 sanctity of a spell, the violation of whieh, will, sf>oner or 



