S. Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



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get to the manager’s bungalow by a trolley which was pushed on

rails by a native boy, the ground being too swampy to allow a road

to be built. It was at the Chinese store at the end of the trolley line

that I first made the acquaintance of “ Tuang-ku ”, who, in spite of the

name, which means “ sultan ”, I think was a female. This bird was

remarkable not on account of its rarity or anything like that, but on

account of its linguistic accomplishments, which were really incredible

not to say rather uncanny. It spoke three languages, Malay and Chinese

fluently, English only occasionally. There was a rumour that the

bird once belonged to a sultan in the islands and that it had been

stolen, taken to Singapore, and sold in one of the bird shops. It also

imitated all manner of noises, a Chinese flute, a motor horn, the

screeching of motor-car brakes, the silly giggle of a Chinese “ flapper ”.

It said the word “ Tuang-ku ” in at least six different voices with

an entirely different intonation. It held long conversations in the

voices of several different people, particularly those of an old woman,

a man, and a child, in fact many times I used to think that a party

of natives was outside the bungalow, I went out only to find it was

“ Tuang-ku ”. Every possible whistle it was able to imitate.


Unlike most birds it was not at all shy of airing its accomplish¬

ments, one had only to go up and speak and a long flow of language

followed. I am quite confident that the bird knew what it was saying.

This bird had originally belonged to the owner of the estate, who,

I understand, had given a big price for it, but so loquacious had it

proved to be that it was given to the Chinese storekeeper. I believe

it proved a great attraction at first with the Malays, but like all other

novel things, they soon grew tired of it and “ Tuang-ku ” was taken

from out of the shop and relegated to a dark back room. I believe

it used a very obscene Chinese word. Naturally I was most anxious

to acquire such a bird, but the Chinese owner was not anxious to

part with it. At all events we were invited to the store for dinner

on the Chinese New Year and what a feast it was ! with bird’s-nest

soup, shark’s fins, beche-de-mer, bamboo shoots, chopsuey, and

in fact every delicacy of China ! When the drinks had flowed freely

and everyone was in a good humour, I broached the question of

“ Tuang-ku We pointed out that it was not getting the right food



