THE BEAD-HUNTERS OF CELEBES. 



99 



Cauto 8aj8 : They have no temples, but pray look- 

 ing up to the skies with their heads raised," which he 

 regards as conclusive evidence that " they had a 

 knowledge of the true God." According to the rec- 

 ords of the Macass^ar people,* the Mohammedan re- 

 ligion was first taught them by a native of Menaag- 

 kaban, a province on the plateau in the interior of 

 Sumatra, north of the present city of Padang. This 

 occurred just before the arrival of the Portuguese in 

 1525, and the native aimals say that the doctrine of 

 the false Prophet and of Christianitj were pre- 

 sented to the prince of Macassar at the same time, 

 and that his advisers pressed him to accept Moham- 

 medanism, because " God would not allow error to 

 aiTive before tmth." 



In the interior live a people called by the coast 

 tribes Turaju, who are represented as head-huntere, 



* The B&r]j kings of Macassar boasted that they dm ended from the 

 Tormannrong:, who, according to their legends, had this miraculous his- 

 tory as given in Pinkerton's " Voyages," vol. ii., p. 216. In the earliest 

 tim^ it happened that a heantiful woman, adorned with a chain of 

 gold, descended from heaven, and was acknowledged l>y the Macassars 

 as their queen. Upon hearing of the appearance on earth of this celes- 

 tial beauty, the King of Bantam made a long %'05'age tit that land, and 

 sought her liand in marriage, though he had hefor© wedded a princess 

 of Bon tain. His suit was granted, and a son was begotten m this mar- 

 riage, who was two or three years old before he was l>orn, so that he 

 conld both walk and talk imniediatclj after his l»irth, but he was very 

 much distorted in shape. When he was grown up, he broke the chain 

 of gold which his mother had brought from heaven into two pieces, 

 after which she, together with her husband, vanished in a moment, 

 taking with her one half the cham, and leaving the other half and the 

 empire to her son. This chain, which the Macassars say is sometimes 

 heavy and sometimes light, at one time dark colored and at another 

 bright, was ever afterward one of the regalia of the kings until it waa 

 lost in a great revolution. 



