“Ah!” said Martin, “that is a capital reason, and it is brave; you can defend yourselves, and not have to go sneaking from port to port, every now and then having to creep in and out the inlets of the coast, to avoid the rogues. I tell you what, Prabu, I hope I shall see them used. I should like to have a good fight with those ugly, pig-tailed men of Fokien, and the Ladrones. Shouldn’t you, Claud?”
“No! Heaven forbid that we should hope to do anything of the kind. If we are attacked, and can’t help ourselves any other way, then it is another matter. Besides, I agreed to go nest-hunting, not pirate-fighting.”
“Why, Claud, any one who did not know you as I do would think you a coward.”
“Never mind that, Martin. While I know what I am myself, I don’t care what ill-natured people may choose to think.”
“Well, well!” said Prabu, interposing, as if he feared we were verging upon a quarrel; “let not my young masters use harsh words to each other, for before the prahu returns to Batavia, both may have their desires. But,” he added, piously, “Allah forbid that we should take the lives of others, except in defense of our own!”
CHAPTER VI.
WE SET OUT ON OUR VOYAGE.
Our voyage along the north coast was very tedious, for the wind slackened towards the evening, and we had no other amusement than watching the doings, as well as we could in the distance, of the fishing tribes and salt manufacturers who inhabit the shore. As, however, it is upon these two arts the Javanese depend in a great degree for their supply of food, and their consequent well-being as a people, it was interesting and instructive to observe how they pursued them.
The fishing-boats proceed to sea with the land-breeze at an early hour of the morning, and return a little after noon, with the sea-breeze. Their mode of taking the fish is by drag-nets, and by traps or snares, consisting of enclosures formed, with much skill and labor, by driving stakes or palisades into the water of several fathoms deep, on banks much frequented by fish, and to which nets are secured. The river-fish are taken, sometimes, by spearing, or by first stupefying them, by throwing into the water a plant called tuba, which possesses a strong narcotic property, by which the fish become intoxicated, and float upon the surface of the water, apparently dead, when they are easily taken by the hand.
As for the salt manufacture, it is chiefly carried on in situations on the flat north coast, where the soil is of a clayey nature, and free from dark loam—both requisite qualities toward the success of the process. The salt-water is admitted through a succession of shallow square compartments, in each of which it receives a certain degree of concentration, until, arriving at the last, the water is completely evaporated; and the salt left behind, requiring no further preparation, is fit for immediate use.
Upon the south coast of the island, however, the shelving nature of the shore, and the porous quality of the soil, will not admit of the practice of this cheap method. The natives have recourse, therefore, to the following very singular process. The sand on the beach being raked, and smoothed into the appearance of ridges and furrows, as if intended for cultivation, the manufacturer, having filled a pair of watering-cans from the surge, runs along the furrows, sprinkling the contents in a shower upon the ridges. In a few minutes the powerful effects of the sun’s rays have dried the sand, which is then scraped together with a kind of hoe, and placed in rude funnels, over which is thrown a given quantity of salt-water, by which a strong brine is immediately obtained. The peasants transmit this brine to their hovels, where it is boiled, in small quantities, over an ordinary fire, and a salt is obtained, which is necessarily impure, in consequence of the haste with which the operation is performed; thus the inferior salt costs fourfold as much as the better product of the north coast.