A royal smuggler

by William Dalton

Of course, the ostensible purpose of the journey had been to examine the tin. Strangely enough, however, after traversing hill, dale, and forest for some ten miles, and a careful search in every direction, the precious vein remained non est. The worthy brothers had, they declared, carelessly forgotten to mark the whereabouts. Now, to one who, like Prabu, had given up a day’s profitable occupation in the caves, such a disappointment should have been vexatious; but the worthy captain did but smile and gently chide the brothers, and beg of them to re-discover and well mark the spot by the time he again visited the caves—adding, philosophically, “Allah is great! What is written is written: every day cannot be a fortunate one.” Martin and I, however, felt much chagrined, for we were convinced that the worthy brothers had, for some purpose of their own, been hoaxing us.

“Verily,” said Martin to me, in confidence, “our friend Prabu must be a little daft, or he would not so good-humoredly take a day’s hunt for a ‘mare’s-nest’ for the profitable gathering in the caves.”

“Let us bide our time,” I replied, with more confidence in Prabu, and feeling quite certain that some kind of ruse, although unknown to us, was in preparation to give the honest bee-hunters a quid pro quo.

Well, we had wasted the day in this fruitless search; but as, toward evening, on our return, we entered a dense jungle, the “strong one” called out that we were near the bees’-nests. Upon hearing this, we all felt enlivened; and our three companions began to cut the branches of a palm, in which labor they were assisted by Martin and me. Each having our arms full, followed the “strong one” to the foot of a huge tree, at which we laid our loads. The brothers then, throwing upon the branches cocoa-husks, lighted their torches; then, having repeated a Mahomedan prayer, which concluded with “God, He is God, and Mahomed is His Prophet!” kindled a fire; then, continuing to wave their torches around them—partly to keep off the bees when they should come down, and partly in the belief that it would insure a good hive of wax—awaited the rising of the smoke and flames in sufficient quantities to arouse the insects. By the way, Mr. Spenser St. John, at one time British Consul-General in Borneo, thus describes the manner of taking bees’-nests in that, the largest of the Indian islands:—

“The natives obtain beeswax from the nests built on the tapang-tree, and climb the loftiest heights in search of it upon small sticks, which they drive as they advance up the noble stem, that rises above a hundred feet free of branches, and whose girths vary from fifteen to five-and-twenty feet. Once these pegs are driven in, their outer ends are connected by a stout rattan, which, with the tree, forms a kind of ladder.

“It requires cool and deliberate courage to take a beehive at so great an elevation, where, in case of being attacked by the bees, the almost naked man would fall and be dashed to atoms. They depend upon the flambeaux they carry up with them, as, when the man disturbs the hive, the sparks falling from it cause, it is said, the bees to fly down in chase of them, instead of attacking their real enemy, who then takes the hive and lowers it down by a rattan-string. The bees escape unhurt. This plan does not appear to be as safe as that pursued by the Pakatan Dyaks, who kindle a large fire under it, and, throwing green branches upon it, raise so stifling a smoke that the bees rush forth, and the man, ascending, takes their nest in safety. Both these operations are generally conducted at night, although the second might be, I imagine, practised in safety during the day.”

But to return to my narrative. As the dense smoke now reached the hives, the little insects came forth by thousands; and the two brothers, clambering up the tree, dislodged the nest, finding in it, to their great delight, a wealth of honey and wax, chiefly the latter—which, by the way, constitutes a very valuable and considerable article of commerce in Java, from whence large quantities are annually exported to China and Bengal. As for honey, it is very scarce, and for the following reasons: Bees are not domesticated in Java, nor, indeed, with rare exceptions, in any part of Asia; the wandering habits to which these insects are encouraged at all seasons, by the perpetual succession of flowers, would render domestication very difficult. It being, consequently, unnecessary for them to lay up a store of provision in a climate where there are flowers all the year round, their honey is small in quantity; while, from the quality of the vegetation, it is naturally of much inferior flavor to that of higher latitudes.

Their success in taking this fine hive encouraged them to continue the hunt; and after three more fires, we returned to the village with as many hives, greatly to the delight of the brothers “weak one” and “strong one,” and, I may add, to that of Prabu; for, of the four hives, he claimed and obtained two as his share, a portion of which was awarded between Martin and me.

Upon reaching the house of the head-man, we found it almost impossible to obtain an entrance, in consequence of a crowd of people, who were clamoring for justice upon a poor old woman, whom they had brought before the chief, and accused of killing a man. Forcing our way into the large hall, where the chief was holding his bed of justice, we heard the case; and a very curious one it was, as illustrating the superstitious habits of the people. It appeared that a young man becoming suddenly mad, his friends had taken him immediately to the old lady, who was the acknowledged physician of the village. Well, Mrs. Doctor, having prescribed several spells and incantations, which proved useless, next recommended an infallible cure. The patient’s head, in fact, was to be placed over a pot of ignited sulphur until his senses returned. Accordingly, he was held in this position by several of the stoutest men, who rendered all his struggles to get away vain, until Mrs. Doctor considered he had had a sufficient dose; but that, unfortunately, was not until the great physician, Death, stepped in; whereupon the friends, who had hitherto possessed such faith in their female leech, at once charged her with murder and took her before the chief; who, after patiently hearing the case, very properly exonerated the woman, but ordered her, under penalty of death, never to try that particular prescription again, since experience had proved it not to be one of those legally admissible, inasmuch that it was certain to kill or cure, but one that, sure as fate itself, would kill and not cure; and thus ended the only cause célèbre I ever saw tried in a Javanese village.

The old chief seemed that evening to be in an especially good humor. He congratulated our party for its success in bees’-nesting, and condoled with Prabu upon his disappointment with respect to the tin-mine; but the latter laughed it off, and even refused to be consoled with one of the other two hives: nay, with our permission as far as our share went, he presented the old gentleman with his own two, as a compliment to his betrothed, “the handsome one.” This generosity the chief acknowledged by loading the table (i. e., floor) with all the dainties of a Javanese village, not forgetting flagons of the strong rice-spirit. The latter, however, Prabu scarcely touched; but withal we spent a very jolly evening, and by their countenances I could see that the joviality of our hosts did not decrease when, shortly after, Kati joined us. The captain surprised us all by declaring that, as he had now obtained his cargo of nests and the prahu was ready for sea, he intended to sail at daybreak. On the contrary, they became clamorous in their wishes for his prosperity, and drank so deeply to his speedy return, that Martin and I were not a little rejoiced when we found ourselves once more alone and stretched upon our sleeping-mats.