In the vicinity of both of these mountains much gold had been obtained for centuries before Europeans ever came to this region. The idea entertained by the Portuguese, that a part of the gold which reached Jerusalem came from this island and the peninsula, has been the subject of much ridicule, but, nevertheless, there may be considerable evidence in favor of such an hypothesis.
No one region is known in that part of the east that could have furnished all the different articles brought by Solomon’s fleet; and Ophir has therefore been considered the name of an emporium, situated near the entrance of the Red Sea, or, more probably, near the head of the Arabian Sea, at the mouth of the Indus. The names in the Hebrew of the articles thus brought, show that they are all of foreign origin, having been evidently adopted from some other language, and probably from the Sanscrit.[52] The name for peacock appears to have been derived from the word in Tamil, a language spoken on the Malabar coast by the Telingas, or “Klings,” who visited this island and the Malay Peninsula long before the time of Solomon, 1015 to 975 B. C., for the tin used by the Egyptians in making their implements of bronze, as early as 2000 B. C., doubtless came from the Malacca, and the Klings were the people who took it as far toward Egypt as the eastern shore of India. Tin and gold are both obtained in the same manner, namely, by washing alluvial deposits.
Gold is found in small quantities over a very considerable part of the Malay Peninsula. It has always been more highly valued than tin, and it is, therefore, by all means probable that it was an article of commerce, and was exported to India as early as tin, or at least five hundred years before Solomon commenced building his splendid temple.
Gold is also found in the western and southern parts of Borneo, and in some places on Luzon and Magindanao, in the Philippine Archipelago. As we have already noticed, it is found on Bachian, and, in the northern and southern peninsulas of Celebes. It is indeed one of the most widely-distributed metals obtained in the archipelago. It is not only found on many of the islands that are not wholly of volcanic origin, between Asia and Australia, but also from place to place over both of those continents. The quantity obtained here, on Sumatra, is wholly unknown, but, judging from what is used in ornaments, it must be very considerable. It is always bought and sold in the form of “dust,” and has never been coined for money in any part of the archipelago, except at Achin.
CHAPTER XIII.
TO THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS.
February 26th.—At 7 A. M. rode down the edge of the plateau to the bottom of a deep ravine, and then climbed up the opposite ridge. Here we met all the rajahs and their attendants in the vicinity, and again descended to the bottom of a second ravine to the little village of Pisang. As the way was exceedingly rough, I preferred to ride a nice horse the controleur had given me, to being jolted in the carriage. Beyond Pisang our road lay in a narrow valley, and, as the sky was clear and the neighboring hills prevented any breeze from reaching us, we seemed to be at the focus of a great burning lens. In the thick woods on either hand troops of large, black monkeys kept up a hooting or trumpeting, their prolonged cries sounding exactly like a score of amateurs practising on trombones. In some places the din they made was quite deafening. In one place the road passed through a deep cut through strata, composed of sand and conglomerate, which probably once filled the whole valley. From Pisang, which is at an elevation of seventeen hundred feet, we continued to descend until we came to the small valley of Bondyol, which is only seven hundred and forty feet above the sea. On the way we met the controleur superintending the construction of a bridge, for the officials in these small places have to plan buildings and bridges and be at the same time judges, architects, and masons. The residence of this officer was located on a hill rising on one side of the small valley. It was nicely shaded, and commanded a view over the adjoining lowlands, which were all sawas. At this place I saw some of the beautiful little musk-deer of this region—a deer that is only about a foot and a half high, without antlers, and weighs less than a rabbit.
There were more than a dozen monkeys in the backyard. Some of them were of the dog-like species, others with long tails and long limbs. Some of them were extremely restless, while others sat still and looked so grave and dignified as to be more comical than their mischievous companions. There are ten species on this island, none of which are found in Java, while the four species of Java are never seen here, such a limit does the Strait of Sunda form to the faunæ of these two islands, although it is only fifteen miles wide in some places, and islands are nearly midway from either shore. The most remarkable of the apes found on the island is the orang-utan, which lives in the lowlands in the northern and eastern parts of the island. The governor at Padang had a live one that had been sent him from that region. She was more than three feet high and very strong. Escaping one time from the box where she was fastened, she climbed a neighboring shade-tree and commenced breaking off large limbs and placing them in a fork of the tree until she had made herself a nice resting-place. That, however, not being high enough, she climbed up nearly to the top of the tree and then broke all the twigs near her, and thus formed a second couch. She did not sway to and fro continually, as many monkeys do, but used to sit quietly picking off all the foliage within her reach, and then took up another position and demolished the foliage there in the same manner. It is very singular this animal is found on Sumatra and Borneo, and has never been seen on the Malay Peninsula, which almost lies between them.
February 27th.—At 7.30 A. M. started on horseback for Lubu Siképing. At first the road led through the lowland near Bondyol, and then crossing a rapid stream began to ascend a narrow winding valley. My little pony took me up the steep places apparently with as little exertion as if we were ascending a gentle acclivity. Like all the saddle and carriage horses used in the archipelago, he was a stallion, it being considered among all these islands as disgraceful for a man to ride or drive a mare as it would be in our land for a farmer to plough with a yoke of cows. Even geldings are never seen, and, as would naturally be expected, the stallions, unless remarkably well-trained, are very vicious, and, worse than all, extremely capricious, springing, or kicking, or halting, without any provocation, and without giving their rider the slightest warning; but, when they are perfectly trained, they are among the finest saddle-horses in the world, they are so fleet and so sure-footed. In a short time the narrow valley changed into a deep ravine, and the road continued to ascend along one of its steep sides, and became so narrow that I was afraid my horse would lose his footing in the soft clay, and that we should both go down to certain destruction on the rocks that raised their ragged jaws above the spray of the foaming torrent below. A dark forest of primeval, gigantic trees covered the sides of the mountains above us, and crossing a rickety bridge we found many of their huge trunks lying across our path. They had lived to their allotted age and had not fallen by the hand of man. This road has been lately made, and already great fissures in its outer edge show that it is quite ready to slide down the mountain.
Large troops of monkeys have established themselves in this dark gorge, and just when I was in the most dangerous place they made a frightful noise, some trumpeting, some screeching, and some making a prolonged shrill whistling, yet I could only see one or two, though the natives who were building the road assured me that the tops of the trees were full of them. While in this deep ravine I crossed the equator for the third time since I entered the archipelago.