The staple article of food here is rice. They also raise much cotton from seed imported from our Southern States. Having gathered it from the ripe bolls, they take out the seeds by running it between two wooden or iron cylinders, which are made to revolve by a treadle, and are so near together, that the seeds, which are saved for the next season, cannot pass through. The fibres are very short, compared to the average product raised in our country, but it serves a good purpose here, where they make it into a coarse thread, which they weave by hand into a cloth for kabayas and chilanas.
The marriage rites and laws here are nearly the same as those I have already described at Taba Pananjong, except that the price of a bride here is just that of a buffalo, or about eighty guilders (thirty-two dollars). Unless a young man has a buffalo or other possessions of equal value, therefore, he cannot purchase a wife. Near Baruaiyu there is a peculiar people known as the Rembang people, who live in four or five villages at some distance from the river. They are very willing to learn to read and write their own language, but will not allow themselves to be taught Dutch or Malay. Last night the river rose still higher, and now it has overflowed its banks, which appear much lower than they are between Lamat and Muara Inem. During the day we have had several showers. At 5 P. M. we arrived at Sungi Rotan, the last village on the Lamatang before its confluence with the Musi. It is a small and poor village, the land here being generally too low for rice, and the cocoa-nut palms yielding but little compared to what they do higher up. Farther down toward Palembang they yield still less. This is the limit of the controleur’s district in this direction. It extends but a short distance up the Inem and up the Limatang above Muara Inem, and yet it contains no less that ninety-one thousand souls.
The controleur came here to settle a difficulty between the people of this and a neighboring village. The other party had occupied a portion of the rice-lands belonging to this people, and the trouble had risen to such a pitch, that the government had to interfere, to prevent them from beginning a war. I said to the rajah that, beyond Lamat, I had passed for miles through a beautiful country, and that it seemed to me he would do well to migrate there; but he evidently disliked such a suggestion, and the controleur asked me not to urge him to adopt my view, for fear that he might think the government designed sending him there, and because he and all his people would rather die than go to live in any distant region.
May 8th.—At 6½ A. M. started for Palembang. My own boat, which I sent on directly from Muara Inem, arrived here yesterday a few hours before us, having been three days in coming down the same distance that we have made in two. We soon stopped at the request of one of the boatmen to examine a small bamboo box which he had set in a neighboring bayou for crawfish. Several were found in it. Their eyes seemed to emit flashes of light, and appeared to be spherical jewels of a light-scarlet hue. I found them palatable when roasted. The boatmen also found some Ampullariæ, which they said they were accustomed to eat, and I found them palatable also We soon floated out of the narrow Limatang into the wide and sluggish Musi, and changed our course from north to east. There are great quantities of rattan along the lower part of the Limatang and the Musi, and the natives gather only a small fraction of what they might if they were not so indolent. Last night, at Sungi Rotan, the mosquitoes proved a worse pest than the night before, and they have continued to annoy us all day.
In the afternoon I had a slight attack of fever, almost the only one I have had since I was ill immediately after my arrival in Batavia, a few days more than a year ago. After three large doses of quinine I fell asleep, my boatmen saying that we should not reach Palembang till morning, which entirely agreed with my own wishes, as I did not care to call during the evening on the assistant Resident, whom I had already notified of my coming. When the last dose had disappeared I soon became oblivious to all real things, and was only troubled with the torturing images seen in a fever-dream. While these hideous forms were still before my mind’s eye, I was suddenly aroused by a loud noise, and, while yet half awake, was dazzled by a bright light on the water, and, on looking out, saw that we were near a large house. On the brilliantly-lighted portico above us were festoons of flowers, and, while I was yet gazing in wonder, inspiriting music sprang up and couple after couple whirled by in the mazy waltz. I put my hand up to my head to assure myself that I was not the victim of some hallucination, and my boatmen, apparently perceiving my state of mind, informed me that we had arrived at Palembang, and that a sister of one of the officials had lately been married, and her brother was celebrating the happy occasion by giving a grand “feast,” or, as we should say, a ball.
The bright light, the enlivening music, and the constant hum of happy voices, instantly banished all possibility of my entertaining the thought of remaining for the night in my dark, narrow cabin; and at once, with no other light whatever than that reflected on the water from the bright ballroom, I prepared myself to meet the Resident in full dress. He was greatly surprised to see me at such a late hour, but received me in a most cordial manner, and at once commenced introducing me to the host and hostess, the bride and bridegroom, and all the assembled guests. The chills and burning fever, from which I had been suffering, vanished, and in a moment I found myself transferred from a real purgatory into a perfect paradise.
WOMEN OF PALEMBANG.
PALEMBANG—HIGH WATER.