Travels in the East Indian archipelago

by Albert S. Bickmore

THE GOMUTI PALM.

Rice is raised at even as great an elevation as the place we had reached, about four thousand five hundred feet, in what are called kebon kring, “dry gardens.” These are known as tegal lands in Java. The yield is said not to be as large as on the low lands, sawas, by the margin of the lake which are overflowed in the usual manner. The yearly crop in the Minahassa is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand piculs, of which ten to eighteen thousand are exported chiefly to Ternate and Amboina. Tobacco is also cultivated, but only for home consumption. Cocoa is also raised; and this year (1865) forty-four and three-fourth piculs were exported. Like that at Amboina, it is all bought by Chinamen, who send it to Manilla. Cocoa-nuts are also exported to the chief islands eastward. The yield this year is estimated by the officials at four million. There is a great abundance here of the gomuti or sagaru palm-tree, the large petioles of which spread out at the base into broad fibrous sheets that enclose the trunk. Some of the fibres resemble horsehair, but are much stiffer and very brittle, and are gathered by the natives and manufactured into coir, a kind of coarse rope. As the fibres soon break, they project in every direction until the rope becomes extremely rough and difficult to handle. It has the valuable property, however, of being nearly indestructible in water, and the Resident tells me that this coir will probably prove of much value in manufacturing telegraph-cable. The quantity of fibres that could be gathered yearly would be very considerable if there should be any demand for them. Among the flexible, horsehair-like fibres are coarser ones, which the natives use for pens and arrows for their blowpipes, and interwoven with them is a mass of small fibres nearly as soft as cotton, which are used as tinder. The flowering part is cut off with a knife, and the sap which exudes is gathered in a piece of bamboo. In this condition it has a slightly acid and very bitter taste, resembles the thin part of buttermilk, and is a very agreeable and refreshing beverage in such a hot climate. As soon as it is allowed to ferment it becomes tuak, a highly-intoxicating drink, of which the natives are very fond. This palm prefers higher lands than the cocoa-nut, which flourishes well only on the low areas near the level of the sea. It will be readily distinguished from all the other palms of this land by its large leaves and the rough appearance of its trunk. Gomuti is the Malay name for the coir only, the tree itself they call anau. In Amboina the native name for it is nawa, and in other parts of the archipelago it has local names, showing that it is probably an indigenous plant. The soft envelopes of the seeds, which are so numerous that, when ripe, one bunch will frequently be a load for two men, contain a poisonous juice which the natives were accustomed to use on their arrows, and which the Dutch have named “hell-water.”

Besides the fruits already mentioned, there are durians, mangostins, jambus or rose-apples, lansiums, pompelmuses, limes, bread-fruits, bananas, pine-apples, and oranges. The latter are particularly nice, and in one of the kinds the leathery rind is not yellow when the fruit, which is merely a berry, is ripe, but still remains as green as when only half-grown. It is the custom here at the table to peel this fruit with a knife, exactly as we peel an apple.

From Tondano to Kema the road is built in a deep, zigzag ravine, and commences to descend a mile north of the lake. Through the ravine flows a stream which is the outlet of the lake. On the northern side of the plateau where the road begins to descend, this stream is changed into a waterfall, which is known as the waterfall of Tondano. It consists of three falls, but, when seen from the usual point, a short distance north of the lower fall, the upper and middle ones form a boiling rapid, and only the lowest one presents a grand appearance. Where the first and second occur the water shoots down through a deep canal, which has been apparently formed in the rock by the strong current. Having rolled in a foaming mass through this deep canal, the water takes a flying leap down seventy feet into a deep, circular pool, the outer edges of this falling stream breaking up into myriads of sparkling drops, which fall in showers into the dark pool, where they disappear forever.

Here a strange tragedy occurred in the year 1855, when the governor-general from Java was journeying through this land. One of the highest officers on his staff, a gentleman who had previously been governor of the Moluccas, came to this place while the others were resting at Tondano, and committed suicide by plunging headlong into the deep canal above the high fall. Only a short time before, he had dined with the whole company and seemed very cheerful, but here, probably in a moment of unusual despondency, he made the fatal leap.

Continuing in the way that followed this crooked stream, I occasionally beheld the high top of Mount Klabat before me. Several large butterflies flitted to and fro, their rich, velvety blue and green colors seeming almost too bright to be real. At the eighth paal we came to the native village Sawangan, and the chief showed me the burial-place of his people previous to the arrival of Europeans. Most of the monuments consist of three separate stones placed one on another. The lowest is square or oblong, and partly buried in the earth. Its upper surface has been squared off that the second might rest on it more firmly. This is a rectangular-parallelopipedon, one or two feet wide and two-thirds as thick, and from two to three feet high. It is placed on end on the first stone. In its upper end a deep hole has been made, and in this the body of the deceased is placed. It was covered by the third stone of a triangular form when viewed at the end, and made to represent that part of a house above the eaves. It projects a little beyond the perpendicular stone beneath it. On the sides of the roof rude figures of men, women, and children were carved, all with the knees drawn up against the chin and clasped by the arms, the hands being locked together in front below the knees. In many of these the faces of the figures were flat, and holes and lines were cut representing the eyes, nose, and mouth; in others rude busts were placed on the eaves. This burial-place contains the finest monuments of olden times now existing in the Minahassa. Others can be seen at Tomohon, and especially at Kakas, but they are not as highly ornamented as these. At Kakas they are mostly composed of but two stones, one long one set upright in the ground, and another placed over this as a cover to the hole containing the body. At each of these places they are entirely neglected, and many of the images here have already fallen or been broken off. Noticing that a very good one was loose and ready to fall, I remarked to the chief that, if I did not take it, it would certainly soon be lost, and, before he had time to give his assent, I had it under my arm. The missionary at Langowan informed me that originally these graves were beset with such obscene ornaments that one of the Residents felt it his duty to order that they should all be broken off. This fact, and the rude form of the images, led me to think that they ought to be classed with the remarkable temple found near Dorey, on the north coast of New Guinea, and with the nude statues used by the Battas to ornament the graves of their deceased friends.

THE BAMBOO.