CHAPTER XXV.
No Musquitoes at Anger—The Land of the East—A Sketch—Advantages of Anger—Dolce-far-Niente—Island of Java—Batavia—Bantam—Comparison between Anger and Singapore.
A peculiarity about Anger is, that there are no musquitoes there, and very few of the noxious vermin that destroy the romance of tropical climes. It does very well in poetry, to pen, in pretty phrase, the query of your acquaintance with the
"Land of the orange and myrtle;"
but they are more than poetically "emblems of deeds that are done in their clime," and gastric derangement from the former fruit, with cutaneous affections from the sweet-scented vine, are not the only proofs of a change in the properties of the Garden of Eden. "Latet anguis in herba," of the most inviting natural lawn, and of its gayest flowers, truly has the poet said, "the trail of the serpent is over them all." The East is called the "land of the sun," and justly too, for he reigns supreme there, and if you defy his power, soon brings you to your senses, or rather deprives you of them, by a coup de soleil. Evading his beams you seek the covert of a grateful shade, where the spreading palm, with parasol-like leaves, forms romantic shelter, the cocoa-nut in its triple cluster hanging invitingly in its crotch; away high up upon its straight and graceful stem, birds of magnificent plumage are flitting from tree to tree, making the grove vocal with their notes; monkeys, mischievous, but not considered dangerous, dance overhead upon the boughs, and with comic antics provoke a smile. With gentle breezes wafting perfumes such as Gouraud never was gladdened with in his most happy ambrosial dreams, and glimpses of the blue sky, seen partially through the waving foliage, which gently moves with a composing sound, reminding you that "Heaven is above all," you close your eyes, about to sink into the arms of the "twin sister" of that mysterious deity, who bears you thither, when—wiss-s-rattle, crack—down comes a cocoa-nut, denting the ground within two inches from whence you had just jerked your happy head, which had it hit would have transferred you from the arms of one "twin" to the other; and a malicious monkey scampers off chattering and grinning, as if he had performed a feat worthy of his prototype—man!
"Oh know you the land of the orange and myrtle?" where the Thug crawls cautiously with his strangling cord, and the tiger welcomes you with his feline fangs!
But Anger—please pronounce it softly, as if written thus, Anjeer—Anger is not so bad as described in the foregoing sketch; as I have stated, there are no musquitoes there, and you are not much troubled with those bumping, buzzing bugs, who "put out the light, and then put out their light." Lizards crawl over the walls and ceilings, but they are harmless, and catch flies. I do not know how it is, and it may be thought a strange taste, but I rather affection the lizard. His frugal habits, his unobtrusive manners, and that cunning blink of his bright black eyes, have taken away that aversion which is a natural sentiment towards that species of animals "which crawl upon the belly;" and upon the whole, must confess I consider him, despite his ugly tail, a very proper domestic animal; more so than many other gluttonous pets.
Tigers, it is true, are said to prowl about at night, seeking something to devour, but I never encountered one, else I might not have been here to write about them. Crocodiles infest the stream that winds around and about the Malay houses. But they do not appear to hold them in dread, for I have seen men, women, children and crocodiles in the same water, and at the same time. That they, the crocodiles, are not converts to Malthus, is pretty apparent, from the number of tender infants they permit to be added to the census of the Malay population.
Upon the whole, there was something about Anger peculiarly pleasing to me; whether that it had been the "first of Eastern lands" I had trodden upon, or there could have been any thing conducive to the "dolce-far-niente" feeling in its atmosphere, but I felt as if I could have laid back and smoked segars in Mynheer's porch for the remainder of my days—