CHAP, ixiT.] THE CRmSUS BUTTERFLY. 335 



having a much greater variety of savoury dishes than the 

 Malays, Here, they live chiefly on sago aa bread, with 

 a little rice occasionally, and abundance of vegetables and 

 fruit. 



It Is a curious fact that everj^where in the East where 

 the Portuguese have mixed with the native races they 

 have become darker in colour than either of the parent 

 stocks. This is the case almost always with these " Orang 

 Siram" in the Moluccas, and with the Portugaese of 

 Malacca, The revei-se is tlie case in South America, where 

 the mixture of the Portuguese or Brazilian with the Indian 

 produces the " Mameluco/' who is not luifrequently lighter 

 than either parent, and always lighter than the Indiaa 

 The women at Batchian, although generally fairer than 

 the men, are coarse in features, and very far inferior in 

 beauty to the mixed Butch-Malay girls, or even to many 

 pure Malays. 



The part of the tillage in which I resided was a grove of 

 cocoa-nut trees, and at night, when the dead leaves were 

 sometimes collected together and burnt, the effect was most 

 magnificent — ^tho tall stems, the fine crowns of foliage, and 

 the immense fruit-clusters, being brilliantly illuminated 

 against a dark sky, and appearing like a fairy palace sup- 

 ported on a hundred columns, and groined over with leafy 

 arches. The cocoa-mit tree, when well grown, is certainly 

 the prince of palms both for beauty and utility. 



During my very first walk into the forest at Batchian, I 

 had seen sitting on a leaf out of reach, an immense butter- 

 fly of a dark colour marked >vith white and yellow spots. 

 I could not capture it as it flew away high up into ths 

 forest, but I at once saw that it was a female of a new 

 species of Oruithoptera or "bird-winged butterfly/* the 

 pride of the Eastern tropics. I was very anxious to get 

 it and to iind the male, which in tliis genus is always of 

 extreme beauty. During the two succeeding months I 

 only saw it once again, and shortly afterwards I saw the 

 male fl}dng high in the air at the mining village. I had 

 begun to despair of ever getting a specimen, as it seemet^ 

 so rare and wild ; till one day, about the beginning of 

 January. I f mnd a beautiful shrub \Wth large white leafy 

 bracts and yellow flowers, e species of ilussajnda, and saw 



