ll 
 
 ADVENTURES 
 
 JNTffE 
 
 TROPICS

 
 BETEL- NUT ISLAND 
 
 Personal (frperiences anb #6r>entures 
 in tfye Eastern (Tropics 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN T. BRIGHTON 
 
 ' The arrowy betel-palm with Ita golden egg-like nuto.' 
 
 Cruite of the Marches 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 56, PATERNOSTER Row; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; AND 
 164, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1888
 
 ' Towards the close of his life, as he one day watched from his 
 rustic seat his daughter's little ones scampering round the garden in 
 the morning sunshine, wild with glee, his words were : " Attend to 
 the happiness of children. Mankind are always happier for having 
 been happy, and a happy childhood is the last remembrance which 
 clings to us in old age. I have always regretted that I had no 
 recollections." ' 
 
 REID'S Life of Sydney Smith. 
 
 ' These hours were seed to all my after good ; 
 My infant gladness, through eye, ear, and touch, 
 Took easily as warmth a various food 
 To nourish the sweet skill of loving much.'
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 records, consisting chiefly of recollections 
 -^- of my youthful experiences and adventures 
 in the Eastern Tropics, originally appeared, for the 
 most part, in the Sunday at Home and the Leisure 
 Hour. In preparing them for their present publi- 
 cation I have had the great advantage of their 
 revision by my patriarchal friend Alexander Eodyk, 
 Esq., who for forty years held important office in 
 H. M. Supreme Court of (what is now known as) 
 the Straits Settlements ; who, like myself, was born 
 at Penang, who has been my life-long friend, and 
 who tenderly nursed me in the critical illness I 
 have described in Chapter II. I have also to 
 acknowledge my obligations to J. B. King, Esq. 
 M.D., for twelve years civil surgeon on the island, 
 who has favoured me with many interesting 
 suggestions, by which my narrative has been made 
 more complete and satisfactory ; also to Messrs.
 
 2 PREFATORY NOTE, 
 
 Partridge & Co. for permission to incorporate an 
 article (Chapter V.) which appeared in the Welcome. 
 
 I have also been much assisted in the preparation 
 of the chapter entitled ' Courts . of Justice in 
 British India,' by T. D. Beighton, Esq., Civil and 
 Sessions Judge at Dacca, Bengal. 
 
 Betel-nut Island is about fifteen miles long 
 and nine broad. This is the English equivalent 
 for the native name, Pulo Penang, of what is 
 known in legal and official documents as ' Prince 
 of Wales' Island,' in the 'Straits of Malacca, com- 
 mercially and commonly called Penang. Geolo- 
 gically it consists of black granite, with tracts 
 of rich alluvial soil. The population, including 
 Province Wellesley, in 1881 was 190,597 ; the total 
 value of imports and exports in 1885, 35,558,929. 
 
 JOHN T. BEIGHTON.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAOB 
 
 i. THE DIAMOND RING .... 9 
 
 ii. THE NEGLECTED TRACT . . . . .19 
 
 in. MY CANNIBAL FKIEND .... 26 
 
 iv. THK RESCUED ORPHAN . ... 37 
 
 v. A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHIKAMAN . . 44 
 
 vi. TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES . . . .61 
 
 vn. THE CAT-O'-NINE-TAILS .... 74 
 
 vin. THE PIRATE FIGHT . . . . .82 
 
 ix. ANSWERS TO PRAYER .... 94 
 
 x. THE PRINTING PRESS ..... 104 
 
 xi. BETEL-NUT ISLAND EN FTK . . . 117 
 
 xn. A DESSERT IN THE STRAITS .... 126 
 
 xin. FASTS AND FESTIVALS 
 
 1. HINDU ..... 139 
 
 2. MOHAMMEDAN .... 147 
 
 3. CHINESE 162
 
 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 xiv. COURTS OF JUSTICE IN BRITISH INDIA 
 
 1. METHODS OF PROCEDURE . . . 173 
 
 2. LAWS OF EVIDENCE . . . 185 
 
 3. SAMPLES OF CRIMINAL CASES . . 196 
 
 4. NOTICES OF SOME NATIVE OFFICIALS . 216
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND FROM THE NORTH. 
 
 From the Admiralty Chart. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PULO PENANG ..... Frontispiece 
 
 THE BETEL-NUT ..... Title 
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND FROM THE NORTH ... 5 
 
 MAP OF PENANQ AND PROVINCE WELLESLEY . 8 
 
 THE ARECA (OR BETEL-NUT) PALM ... 12 
 
 FACSIMILE OF A LETTER IN MALAY . . 32 
 
 BATTAK CHRISTIAN STUDENTS ... 35 
 
 TENDRIL AND PITCHER OF NEPENTHES . . 71 
 
 THK GODDESS KALI . 142
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN FANATICS .... 151 
 
 A CHINESE LANTERN-BEARER .... 169 
 
 THK INVEIGLEB . . . . . 201 
 
 THK STBANGLKR . 203
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND.
 
 MAP OF PULO PENANO. 
 
 From the Admiralty Chart
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 (0?e Dtamonb 
 
 A OUT one hundred years ago ' (1785) Francis 
 Light, the master of an East Indiaman, who 
 had become acquainted with the then Eajah of Ked- 
 dak, 1 and married his daughter, received from him, 
 as a marriage portion, Pulo Penang, in the Straits 
 of Malacca. These words mean the ' island of betel- 
 nuts ' (areca palm) ; but it should be observed that 
 the word pulo is only applied to islands the insu- 
 larity of which can be traced by the eye from some 
 one point of the island. At that time the island 
 was covered with dense forests and occupied chiefly 
 by elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses and snakes, and 
 on its shores stood a few miserable huts for 
 
 1 In this and such words as Perak, Battak, and Sarawak, the 
 accent is on the last syllable but one, and the final k is only breathed. 
 It in hence common to substitute h for k. 
 
 B
 
 10 BETEL-NUT ISLAND, 
 
 fishermen. Under the new governor it soon began 
 to prosper, and it has now a population, including 
 Province Wellesley, of 190,597 (1881), and has 
 become an emporium of important trade. 
 
 Of its beauty I can hardly trust myself to write. 
 A physician l who had travelled far and long begins 
 his chapter on it thus ' " See Naples and die ! " 
 says the Italian poet, in his wild enthusiasm for 
 that city what would he say of this island the 
 Eden of the world ? On this lovely spot of earth 
 the dream of endless spring is realised. I have 
 never met with any one who after spending a few 
 days in this beautiful oasis did not wish to spend 
 the rest of his life in the delicious tranquillity and 
 repose which this climate affords. Here is the 
 calm loving face of Nature presenting the image of 
 tranquil happiness the sky always without a cloud, 
 the sea never agitated, but smiling and basking in 
 a continual calm.' 
 
 There it lies before my mind's eye, this beautiful 
 home in which I was born and spent my boyhood, 
 with its silvery sea, its snowy beach, its stately 
 palm-groves, its towering-hills, its umbrageous 
 dales, its thousand hues of green and gold glisten- 
 ing beneath a cloudless sky. Who that has seen 
 its waterfall can ever forget it? Combine black 
 
 1 Dr. Yvan, Six Months among the Malays.
 
 THE DIAMOND RING. II 
 
 rock with the whitest spray, the gayest flowers 
 with the deepest green, bright sunshine with dark 
 shadows, the noisy rush and resistless downpour 
 of turbulent waters with the gentle flowing of a 
 clear and cold stream, and put them all in relations 
 of matchless picturesqueness, and the reader can 
 imagine the scene. Eetracing his steps, he reaches 
 the foot of ' the great hill,' and, ascending it, after 
 a climb of nearly three thousand feet he arrives at 
 the summit. 1 
 
 Now let him look around. A glance shows him 
 that this is an island, and properly called piilo. 
 Turning to the north-west, he beholds an un- 
 bounded sea, dotted by Malay prahus and Chinese 
 junks, and it may be with here and there a British 
 ship or steamer. To his right he will see the lake- 
 like channel which divides the island from the 
 Malayan mainland, and there in the distant 
 horizon are lofty mountains. Immediately below 
 are the eastern plains, with their rice fields and 
 wondrous fruit-trees, and verandahed villas, ending 
 in the town with its miniature fort, and beyond it 
 the deep and glassy roadstead, with sloops at 
 anchor. On the eastern plain are the plantations 
 of coffee and sugar, and nearer, on the hill slopes, 
 of nutmegs (now, I fear, all dead) and cloves, the 
 
 1 The highest point is, I believe, something over 2,700 feet.
 
 12 
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 last being the finest in the world. The intervals 
 on all sides are filled with masses of foliage of 
 every hue of green. And as rain on the average 
 falls on every other day, 1 let 
 him understand that the 
 brighter the sunshine, the 
 penetrating light only the 
 more distinctly discloses the 
 richness of these hues. No- 
 thing in the world can exceed 
 the verdure of the foliage in 
 the scene before him. But 
 this is not all. Dr. Yvan is 
 right when he speaks of tran- 
 quillity and security. There 
 are many beautiful scenes 
 marred by the possibilities 
 of desolation and death. But 
 here there are no perils of 
 tornado or earthquake, no 
 withering hot winds, and 
 scarcely ever a destructive 
 storm. A resident of twenty- 
 five years says he never saw a vessel driven 
 on the shore or a large tree blown down. It 
 
 THE BETEL-NUT PALM. 
 
 1 The annual rainfall is from 100 to 120 inches ; in London 
 it is 35.
 
 THE DIAMOND RING. 13 
 
 is the chosen home of smiling and perennial 
 peace. 
 
 On yonder mainland, immediately opposite the 
 harbour, and divided from the island by the channel 
 about two miles in width, is Province Wellesley, 
 also ceded to Britain by the Eajah of Keddak, and for 
 this and the island England was to pay an annual 
 income of about 2,000. Adjoining it on the north 
 is his ancient kingdom consisting now of a terri- 
 tory 150 miles long, and about 25 broad, backed by 
 granite mountains (abounding with tin, and in 
 which gold is found), rising to some 6,000 feet. 
 The present dynasty has occupied the throne for 
 nearly three hundred years. When the treaty by 
 which Penang was ceded was made with the Eajah, 
 it was stipulated that England should stand by 
 him and his successors against Siam, the hereditary 
 foe of Keddak. The Siamese had on several occa- 
 sions overrun the country, and there had been an 
 agreement made that the Eajah of Keddak should 
 every three years acknowledge his subjection, by 
 forwarding to the King of Siam the bunga mas, or 
 flower of gold. This sign of submission became 
 very galling to the proud prince and his people, 
 and was constantly being refused, and thus gave 
 occasion for raids by the troops of Siam. 
 
 The animosity was intensified by the antagonisms
 
 14 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 of religion. The people of Keddak were originally 
 pagans, and pagans of the lowest type fetish- wor- 
 shippers, with whom religion is simply a gloomy 
 and miserable superstition. But when the wave of 
 Mohammedan conquest reached, in the twelfth 
 century, the Eastern Archipelago, the Malayan 
 tribes were universally overwhelmed by it, and thus 
 Keddak has become devoted to Islam. But the 
 men of Siam are Buddhists, and Buddhism with 
 its definite beliefs and humane precepts has almost 
 always successfully maintained its ground against 
 the assaults of Mohammedanism ; and thus war 
 with Siam meant with the men of Keddak war 
 with the accursed enemies of God and the prophet. 
 
 The following translation of a letter from the 
 brother of the general commanding the Keddak 
 army in one of these campaigns, addressed to his 
 mother, sheltered at Penang, is interesting as indi- 
 cating this feeling, strong even to fanaticism, and 
 also as curious evidence of the continued existence 
 among Malay Moslems of the powerful elements of 
 their original superstition. 
 
 ' I, Mohammed Snarnee, make known at the feet 
 of my beloved mother, that her letter came to 
 hand, and I understood the whole of its contents. 
 At present our circumstances are cheering, and we 
 are all well in Keddak, and my only anxiety is on
 
 THE DIAMOND RING. 15 
 
 your account, my mother. By the assistance of 
 God and the Apostle, we have gained a victory over 
 the infidels under the curse of God. While we were 
 attacking a stockade of the accursed infidels, and 
 going backwards and forwards, unexpectedly was 
 seen walking hi the air a beautiful green horse. 
 Then all the generals exclaimed with a loud voice, 
 saying, " Behold, all ye people of Islam, the green 
 horse come to assist us." The green horse then 
 soared over the camp of the Siamese (accursed 
 infidels), but no man was upon him. Then, by>the 
 almighty power of God, the horse suddenly vanished 
 from the eyes of all, and there appeared thousands 
 of soldiers attacking the camp of the infidels. Then 
 all the people of Islam shouted with a great shout 
 and rushed into the camp. The infidels fled, and 
 by the assistance of God and the Apostle we gamed 
 a triumph, and now all is at rest. This I make 
 known to you on the llth day of the month. I wish 
 to send you some rice, but the white people will 
 not allow it to pass.' 
 
 In one of the frequent conflicts with Siam, the 
 then reigning Rajah was so hard pressed that he 
 was compelled to find refuge under the British flag. 
 I have named the miniature fort on the island. It 
 lies at its eastern extremity, with its green slopes, 
 its broad ditch, its pierced ramparts, and a few
 
 1 6 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 guns with pyramids of shot here and there, and 
 some sixty or eighty soldiers ; so tiny as to seem 
 almost a toy, but such power lies in it and all that 
 it represents, that it is far-reaching in its influence 
 as a ' punishment to evil-doers, and a praise to 
 them that do well.' There the royal fugitive 
 landed, and, received and guarded by British 
 sepoys, he was escorted to the house and ' com- 
 pound ' adjoining our own. And thus it came to 
 pass that he and my father became friendly neigh- 
 bours. Nor was this all. There were several 
 English residents, official and mercantile, who not 
 only pitied the fugitive in his misfortunes, but 
 regarded him as ungenerously and even unjustly 
 dealt with by the British authorities in India. 
 
 Our frequent collisions with Burmah rendered it 
 politic that we should be on good terms with the 
 adjoining kingdom of Siam, especially as the nations 
 were alike in religious faith, and moreover, we were 
 preparing to negotiate with Siam treaties of friend- 
 ship and commerce. Hence not only did we with- 
 hold from the kingdom of Keddak all material and 
 moral aid, but even (as the letter already cited 
 indicates) blockaded its coast, so as to prevent the 
 importation of supplies of food and of the munitions 
 of war. The Rajah thus in effect became our 
 prisoner, and to compel submission and peace with
 
 THE DIAMOND RING. 17 
 
 Siam, he was removed under vehement protest, to 
 a more distant residence from his country, and 
 finally died with a broken heart, an exile from his 
 throne and people, his second son slain in combat, 
 and his firstborn son a captive in Siam. Eventually, 
 however, the remonstrances and appeals of the 
 friends of Keddak prevailed, and for many years 
 there has been a good understanding with Siam, 
 and friendship with England so much so that hi 
 the late war with Perak, the British forces were 
 accompanied by a detachment from the adjoining 
 state of Keddak. 
 
 In the temporary palace of this unhappy king I 
 became a constant visitor and was admitted to its 
 most secluded chambers. The little white boy 
 the only son of his true and kind and active friend 
 became his favourite companion, was caressed 
 by his wives, and treated with marked respect by 
 the native court. Of all the dramatic dances before 
 the king the boy must be a spectator, hi all the 
 feasts a guest, in all the games a playmate ; and 
 when the parting came, amid much lamentation, 
 the sorrowing man, turning to his little favourite 
 and taking from his own finger a diamond ring, 
 put it into the boy's hand, and bade his mother, as 
 soon as he might be trusted with it, to have it 
 worn by him in remembrance of the love and good
 
 1 8 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 wishes of his royal friend. This ring of massive 
 and pure gold, with two circlets of small diamonds, 
 one sixteen in number, and the other ten, round a 
 central and raised diamond of larger size, the whole 
 set in silver associated with the earliest incidents 
 of my life which I can recollect, I wear with un- 
 abated interest, and intend to hand down to future 
 generations, as the silent witness of a pathetic 
 history, the enduring memorial of a remarkable 
 friendship, and the pleasant token of the peace 
 and prosperity which subsequently brightened 
 the fortunes of the ancient kingdom of Keddak, 
 whose speech is the acknowledged classic of the 
 Malayan people.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 Cfye TTeglecteb (Tract. 
 
 PENANG lies in latitude 5 16' north of the 
 equator. Although the morning and even- 
 ing breezes are as constant as the rising and setting 
 of the sun, and soft zephyrs seem to be ever 
 breathing over the seas and the hills, the rays 
 of the sun are vertical, causing the tempera- 
 ture on the plains (notwithstanding these compen- 
 sations) to range in 'the shade from 80 to 90. 
 It will be obvious, therefore, that for some hours of 
 every day it is dangerous to be exposed to the sun. 
 It must not, however, be inferred that the climate 
 is unhealthy. Now that sunlight and heat have 
 well permeated the soil, malaria may be said to be 
 extinguished, and there is no necessary reason for 
 even Europeans suffering from the climate. A 
 physician already referred to, who had charge here 
 of six hospitals for twelve years, declares that he 
 never saw occasion for the use of lancet or leech, 
 or knew of any European who died from the effects
 
 20 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 of the climate itself. Of course there must be care- 
 ful attention to the precautions required in the 
 tropics. 
 
 But, with true boy-nature, in spite of all warn- 
 ings and prohibitions, it was my delight in holiday 
 times to be out the whole day. And at last the 
 terrible penalty came. I received a sunstroke, 
 and was brought home utterly unconscious, or, as 
 it was often described, ' like a log of wood,' and 
 thus lay for days, to awake in a state of wild 
 delirium. My condition may be imagined when I 
 say that my scalp was five times covered with 
 caustic, that I was bled by the lancet six times, 
 besides leeches, and ordinary blisters, and drams 
 of physic. Never was human life more awfully 
 shaken over the mouth of the grave. Such was 
 the effect that when, on slowly recovering, I was 
 first seen by an intimate friend of the household, 
 so ghastly was the sight that she fainted away. 
 Surely, thought all the dear ones around the 
 couch, this life, thus marvellously preserved, will 
 begin its new era by consecration to the Eternal 
 Father of our mercies. 
 
 As soon as able to be removed, the sick lad was 
 carried to one of the peaks of the hills already 
 referred to. How vividly he can recall every 
 incident and scene of that memorable journey!
 
 THE NEGLECTED TRACT. 21 
 
 The cot on which he lay, the four ' coolies ' who 
 bore him, the delicious shade of the dense woods, 
 the air cooling with every step of the ascent, 
 reaching the plantations of spice trees ; the clove, 
 with its leathery, shining leaves, purple berries, 
 and brown buds (a fragile-looking evergreen, but 
 known sometimes to bear fruit, or rather flower, 
 the clove of commerce, for a hundred and fifty 
 years) ; the handsome nutmeg, with rich, laurel- 
 like leaves, blossoms like the lily of the valley, and 
 yellow fruit, with bursting rind exposing to view 
 the brown kernel nut, coated with its thick, blood- 
 red, flaky mace; and finally the Convalescent 
 Bungalow, having a huge domed black rock in 
 front, and precipitous slopes around, covered with 
 mighty ferns, splendid orchids, aromatic shrubs, 
 wild pineapples, and creeping and climbing plants, 
 weaving with their gay flowers garlands of fantastic 
 beauty. How many stricken and sinking men have 
 blessed God for those hills ! The thermometer here 
 often stands at 62, and averages about 70, so that 
 the idea of ice became comprehensible by the sight 
 of frozen oil, and cold could be imagined, as natives 
 shivered in the dark, dewy evenings, and wrapped 
 themselves in blankets. Often did I see this as I 
 approached them with my bladder lantern filled 
 with fireflies caught in my twilight gambols.
 
 22 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Health soon came back, and with it hours of wan- 
 dering amid the scenes of luxuriant life. I never 
 tired of cutting feathery bamboos, chasing butter- 
 flies of golden colours, and moths of every size 
 and hue, watching kingfishers at the frequent 
 pools and springs, searching for nests of birds of 
 brilliant plumage, setting scorpions to fight (the 
 island is famous for them) ; and especially was I 
 delighted by the antics of monkeys and baboons 
 bounding from branch to branch of the leviathan 
 trees, grinning, chattering, quarrelling, and throw- 
 ing nuts about. One day I remember I saw a 
 monkey shot. What a human cry did it raise 
 when struck, and even more terribly human did it 
 look as it tried, in falling, to catch bough after 
 bough, and at length lay at our feet, moaning and 
 bleeding from the mouth a sight that even now 
 makes my heart ache. 
 
 Shall I confess it? No pastime in those days 
 was so unfailing in interest as amateur cookery. 
 To find a shady nook by a tiny rill, and put 
 together three boulders, and gather sticks and 
 leaves, and set them alight (kindling the fire by 
 flint and steel, and keeping it up, was the chief 
 trouble), fill a small earthen pot with rice and 
 water from the brook, and watch the boiling, and 
 stir the contents, and skim off the bubbling scum,
 
 THE NEGLECTED TRACT. 23 
 
 and at the same time bake on heated stones some 
 wild plantains, and when ready serve the rice and 
 fruit on plantain leaves to any guest I could invite, 
 old or young, black or white this was a daily and 
 triumphant joy ! 
 
 But was there to be no recollection of the danger 
 just passed, and of the merciful God who had 
 wrought deliverance, no thanksgivings, and reso- 
 lutions, and prayers ? In the devout hope that 
 there would be all this, a fond father had sent up 
 with his petted lad a few narrative tracts (pub- 
 lished by the Eeligious Tract Society), thinking 
 that the hour might come when, resting from the 
 rambles and gambols of renewed health, there 
 would be inclination for some such reading. Never 
 were prayers more fervent offered than for his 
 recovery, and that the recovery might be full of 
 spiritual blessing. Even the many Mohammedan 
 friends of the household gathered at the tombs of 
 eminent saints, with offerings of rice and fruit, to 
 present and beseech intercessions for the preserva- 
 tion of the threatened life. Were none of the 
 ' fervent ' prayers to prove ' effectual ' ? The 
 tracts were never read by him for whom they 
 were intended. So far from this, as soon as they 
 were found, they were consigned to a neglected 
 drawer in a rickety table in one of the rooms of
 
 24 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 the bungalow, and utterly forgotten. There they 
 remained when the youth, now fully restored, left 
 for his home on the plains. 
 
 But while I was on the heights enjoying the 
 unspeakable delights of rapid convalescence, down 
 below there was stricken to his bed by jungle fever 
 a young Artillery officer, who occupied quarters in 
 the little fort. He was from Ireland, and had pro- 
 bably received religious instruction in his early 
 youth. But here, in the alluring climate, he be- 
 came the gayest of the gay, and soon passed into 
 the wildest extravagance of folly and sin. I 
 believe I am writing the simple truth when I 
 describe him as of violent temper, profane, and 
 dissipated. Arrested by raging fever, he, too, was 
 brought to the brink of the grave. And he, too, 
 was delivered, and carried to the Convalescent 
 Bungalow. And here in his hours of quiet ease, 
 seeking occupation, he lighted upon the neglected 
 tracts, was spiritually aroused, sent for the 
 thoughtful father whose name he found with them, 
 and under his guidance found rest and joy in 
 Christ. On his return it was soon seen that he 
 was as truly changed as was Saul, the blasphemer 
 and persecutor, when he became the consecrated 
 servant of the Lord who called to him. The last I 
 can remember of the young lieutenant was that he
 
 THE NEGLECTED TRACT. 2$ 
 
 purposed selling his commission, and becoming a 
 minister of the Church of England ; but he died 
 soon after from heat apoplexy at Madras. 
 
 But were the prayers for the sick boy not 
 answered ? Let the reader judge. Soon after 
 the return of the officer, he and a brother in arms, 
 and the boy's father, the faithful friend of both, were 
 sitting together one evening on a lawn, while the boy 
 was running about among the flowers and shrubs 
 which surrounded them. They were speaking of 
 the evil of ski and , the love of Christ, and the 
 confessions and declarations of the young officer 
 were overheard by him, entered his very heart, 
 and that evening when he got home he sought his 
 beloved mother, and with tears besought her to 
 help him to pray. How well he remembers her 
 prayer at his side, and that he afterwards knelt 
 alone and uttered aloud, as descriptive of his own 
 state and expressing his desires, the prayer in 
 Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the 
 Soul, entitled, ' The meditations of a sinner who 
 begins to be awakened.' 
 
 ' In the morning sow thy seed, and in the even- 
 ing withhold not thine hand : for thou knowest not 
 whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether 
 they both shall be alike good' (Eccles. xi. 6).
 
 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Cannibal 5rienb. 
 
 I HAVE spoken of Penang as an emporium of trade. 
 Its soil and that of the opposite province is so 
 rich and varied that there is no tropical produce 
 which cannot be raised in abundance. Among its 
 productions may be specified rice, pepper, coffee, 
 sugar, tapioca, cloves, nutmegs, cotton, twelve kinds 
 of bamboo, twenty-two of ratan, one hundred and 
 twenty-eight of trees for building and other useful 
 purposes, besides barks and juices for tanning and 
 colouring, while the fruits are so numerous and 
 superb, that the island may well be called the 
 finest orchard in the world. Besides this, being 
 the first port reached from India proper, in sailing 
 to the Archipelago and China, it is a centre at 
 which traders of all the surrounding regions meet 
 with their multifarious merchandise. Hence, Sir 
 George Leith (quoted in Thornton's Gazetteer) 
 remarks : ' There is not probably in any part of the 
 world so small a space in which so many different
 
 MY CANNIBAL FRIEND. 2/ 
 
 people are assembled together, or so great a variety 
 of languages spoken.' As soon, therefore, as the 
 visitor lands he finds himself amid a motley 
 assemblage, and hears a very Babel of tongues. 
 Brown Malays, yellow Chinamen, black Madrassees, 
 dusky Klings (Tamilians), curly-headed negroes, 
 swarthy Arabians, pale-faced Bugis (from Celebes), 
 are about him, with here and there the Eurasian 
 and the Circassian. 
 
 Born in the midst of them, speaking Malay better 
 than English, and taught in the common free 
 school, I was welcomed everywhere and formed 
 intimacies many and various. My nurse, a dear 
 old woman who had been servant in the household 
 of the eminent Dr. Milne of Malacca, worshipped 
 her troublesome protege, excused every fault, shel- 
 tered him from punishment, pleaded for every 
 indulgence. Can I ever forget her climbing for a 
 ball that had lodged on the top of an almirah 
 (wardrobe), falling and bringing down upon her 
 the entire fabric, and lying senseless on the ground 
 with a bleeding wound on her forehead, and my 
 cries of woe and torrents of tears as I knelt down 
 and passionately kissed her ? And there was the 
 Parsi convict, a fair man of broad forehead, with 
 letters branded on it which I believe formed the 
 word ' murder,' who had in a paroxysm of fury
 
 28 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 knocked down and killed his brother. He was the 
 keeper of the Mission Chapel washing its floor, 
 trimming the lamps, weeding the walks around 
 faithful to every duty, but of few words and yet 
 fewer smiles. He would speak to me of his home 
 at Bombay, and repeat verses of prayer to the 
 rising and setting sun, and tell me of the divinity 
 there is in fire and flame. One night he came 
 sobbing to my mother's window, and entreated 
 forgiveness for his faults, and she bade him ask 
 forgiveness of God, pleased to find such deep con- 
 cern in the impassive man. The next morning he 
 was missing, and after much search was found 
 in an outhouse dead, with the chapel-key in his 
 breast, and a cup of poison at his side ! 
 
 But of all my friendships the dearest and longest 
 was with a Battak slave. The Battaks are an 
 aboriginal race occupying the mountainous region 
 of Central Sumatra. While all the surrounding 
 Malayan tribes have become Mohammedan, and 
 thus come more or less within the frontiers of 
 civilisation, they have retained their gloomy super- 
 stitions and savage customs. There is no doubt of 
 their cannibalism. Madame Pfeiffer is, I believe, 
 the only European visitor who came back from 
 them. Again and again have Eoman Catholic and 
 Protestant missionaries been murdered and eaten
 
 MY CANNIBAL FRIEND. 29 
 
 by them. Considering that they are in many 
 respects, and particularly in the possession of a 
 written language, very superior to ordinary savages, 
 their cannibalism is most extraordinary. Usually 
 when they leave their own country they embrace 
 the Mohammedan faith, but seldom become so 
 absorbed in the general population as to lose their 
 distinctive appearance. 
 
 It happened more than a generation ago that 
 two boys of this race were at play on the white 
 sand of the Sumatran beach. They were running 
 to and fro, digging holes, heaping shells, and 
 hunting crabs. One of them had already tasted 
 human flesh. The story would not have been 
 believed, had the reports of Madame Pfeiffer not 
 confirmed it. It was his own grandfather that he 
 had feasted upon. When the old man seemed 
 helpless, the sons carried him from his hut, placed 
 him on the spreading branches of a tree and then 
 violently shook the tree. Had he been able to keep 
 his hold he would have been spared, but, too feeble 
 to do this, he fell to the ground, and then amid 
 cries of ' The fruit is ripe ! ' the sons stabbed him to 
 the heart, severed the limbs, baked them, steeped 
 them in a pungent sauce, and devoured them. It 
 is evident that with this tribe cannibalism exists 
 in its most repulsive form. Some races eat human
 
 30 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 flesh because of the scarcity of animal food, and 
 some to enjoy to the fullest the sense of triumph 
 over a fallen foe, and others with the hope of thus 
 appropriating the strength and courage of a brave 
 chieftain, and others again, as a means of paying 
 honour to the distinguished dead ; l but with the 
 Battaks the hideous practice arises from hereditary 
 and passionate preference for the flesh of their 
 kind to that of every other food. While the boys 
 were thus at play a pirate prahu stealthily ap- 
 proached them. The men watched for the right 
 moment, and suddenly leaping on shore, seized the 
 lads, dragged them to the boat, carried them to 
 Singapore, and there sold them as slaves. The 
 master was an Englishman, but he ruled them 
 with a rod of iron. They resolved on escape, and 
 an opportunity at length arrived. 
 
 Business brought their master to Penang, and 
 the boys accompanied him. On the last night of 
 his stay, they dropped quietly down the ship's side, 
 and, heedless of sharks and alligators, swam to the 
 shore, ran to the hills, and hid themselves in the 
 thick jungle. The ship out of sight, they left their 
 hiding-place, sought out the well-known missionary, 
 and implored his protection and offered to serve 
 
 1 See Sir Walter Raleigh's account of the Arawaks, referred to 
 by Latham.
 
 MY CANNIBAL FRIEND. I 
 
 him. They were purchased from the master, and 
 were made happy in the new home. One of them, 
 Tim, soon after died, but the other, Tom, showed 
 himself an apt scholar, was put in a printing-office, 
 became the constant attendant of his master, and 
 eventually declared himself a disciple of Christ. 
 This lad was my chosen friend and companion. 
 There is no face I can recall more readily, and no 
 voice whose accents are more familiar to my memory. 
 When we were together he was not committed 
 to his new faith. There were two other religions 
 struggling to secure him. I was admitted to his 
 fullest confidence, and knew all that passed. On 
 the one side was a Burmese priest frequently visit- 
 ing him, who plied him with rude pictures, and 
 by appeals to his fears through stories of the jungle 
 demons ; and on the other, a Mohammedan hadji 
 (pilgrim to Mecca), who read with him chapters of 
 the Kuran, and told tales of the prowess of the 
 prophet, and the spread of Islam. My friend used 
 to whisper to me of the working of charms and 
 incantations intended to captivate him, and the yet 
 more potent allurements of a promised Moslem 
 bride. Threats too were uttered even of assassin- 
 ation, and deadly fetishes buried at the threshold 
 of the hut he occupied. At length the religion of 
 ' Allah and his prophet ' seemed to prevail, and he
 
 32 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 was received by circumcision into the number of 
 'the faithful.' 
 
 But ' the truth as it is in Jesus ' was in his 
 heart, and soon after, in remorseful distress, amid 
 a crowd of angry onlookers and at peril of life, he 
 made his public profession of Christ, and was 
 baptized. The following is a facsimile and a literal 
 translation of the letter sent to me, conveying the 
 joyous news. Every word of it is his own : 
 
 - 
 
 ^^V*^ 
 
 MALAY LETTER IN ARABIC CHARACTERS.
 
 MY CANNIBAL FRIEND. 33 
 
 ' This sincere and affectionate letter proceeding 
 from my very heart is from me, Thomas John Ince, 
 who dwelling at Piilo Penang, am sheltered under 
 the wings of Tuhan Padre Beighton. I pray that 
 by the blessing of the Lord of all hosts, this letter 
 may reach the presence of my gracious friend Baba 
 John, who is now sojourning in England, under 
 the protection, blessing, and mercy of God Most 
 High. I now inform you that your prayers for me 
 are accomplished, and by the grace and mercy of 
 God Most Glorious, light has shone into my heart, 
 and the true way revealed to me. Now I have laid 
 fast hold of the true faith as revealed in the Holy 
 Gospel of the great Lord Jesus Christ. At this 
 time I feel most intense solicitude respecting my 
 friend : not for a moment do I forget you ; but what 
 can I do or what can I say, as the distance is great, 
 and I have no means of visiting you ? The Lord 
 has not opened a way for me to go and see you ; 
 but still my earnest prayer is that the Lord may 
 grant you a long life and peace and tranquillity, 
 raise you to high honour and usefulness, constantly 
 increase your knowledge, abundantly bless you, and 
 at last raise you to the highest bliss on a throne 
 of everlasting duration in heaven, where no changes 
 will take place throughout eternal ages. Such is 
 the fervent desire of my heart day and night. This 
 I now make known to you. I pray you not to 
 forget me.' 
 
 Who could have supposed that this is the letter
 
 34 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 of a man who was by birth a savage and a cannibal ? 
 Can we, in view of such a history, believe that there 
 is only a link missing in a common ancestor between 
 man, even in the lowest type, and the chimpanzee 
 or orang-utan? 
 
 But the story is not finished. The baptised 
 convert became a teacher in the Mission Orphan 
 School, and there tenderly watching over the little 
 ones, would often lead them in song with his 
 tuneful voice, and speak of Him who said of them, 
 and all like them, black or white, ' Suffer the little 
 children to come unto Me.' Sometimes he might 
 have been seen standing in a group of men, telling 
 of his eventful history, and of the hope and peace 
 he had found in 'the Lamb of God.' Skilled in 
 rhythm, he learnt to put the story of the gospel 
 into simple verse, and this was printed and widely 
 circulated. And finally, when life was ended and 
 a place found for all that was mortal of him among 
 those ' who sleep in Jesus,' the memoirs of his life 
 were prepared and published, and the Malayan 
 people can still read in their own language of the 
 Battak slave who became the servant of Christ, 
 and is now ' for ever with the Lord.' 
 
 Since the original publication of this chapter, 
 I have had the joy of learning of the work and
 
 MY CANNIBAL FRIEND. 
 
 35 
 
 success of the Ehenish Missionary Society amongst 
 the Battaks. My beloved friend has proved there- 
 fore 'the first-fruits' of a glorious harvest. The 
 
 UATTAK CHRISTIAN STUDENTS. 
 
 field was abandoned by our American brethren 
 after the martyrdom of their agents ; but in 1862 
 the Rhenish Society extended their Sumatra Mission 
 to these much-dreaded people, and its Secretary 
 reports to me (September, 1887) : ' We have now 
 15 European missionaries there, about 75 native 
 paid assistants, and double that number unpaid,
 
 36 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 3 ordained native pastors, 11,000 baptized, some 
 of the churches already self-supporting, and the 
 work growing, by God's grace, every year.' The 
 Religious Tract Society makes grants towards the 
 cost of printing books for the Mission.
 
 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Cfye tfescucb (Drpfyan. 
 
 AONG the specialities of the little island are 
 pony palanquins. In ordinary conceptions 
 of this Eastern vehicle ' bearers ' are associated 
 with them. And in India proper, to travel by 
 palanquin is to lie in an oblong box, and be carried 
 by a pole, longitudinally fixed through the upper 
 part of it, on the shoulders of men. But here a 
 race of sturdy and lively ponies from Acheen and 
 Deli takes the place of ' bearers,' and you enter a 
 palanquin, not to lie down to be carried, but to sit 
 face to face with your friend, and be briskly drawn 
 by a smart little horse. But how is it managed ? 
 Not by a coachman on his box, but by a black 
 groom who runs at its side, with his right hand on 
 the reins, and a whip in his left, and thinks nothing 
 of a trot without halt of three or four miles. My 
 story takes us to the attap hut of one of these 
 grooms. They are almost always Madras men and 
 Hindus. The hut is occupied by the groom and his
 
 38 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 wife and two children, a daughter and a son. The 
 man is fairly well-to-do, and the wife is zealous in 
 her religion. 
 
 There was an idolj]in the hut, and every day 
 before it cow-dung was burnt an offering supposed 
 to be of peculiar sacredness and efficacy. But the 
 daughter, Luchmee (named after a goddess), was 
 allowed to go to the Mission Girls' School, and 
 there she learned of the true God, and the wicked- 
 ness of idolatry. Hers was an earnest nature, and 
 she began to neglect presenting the usual offering 
 to the idol. The mother observed it, and one 
 morning she bade her bring it and burn it at the 
 shrine. The girl obeyed. But when the mother took 
 her hand and said, ' Now kneel with me,' the girl 
 sobbed and said, ' Mother, I cannot. This is not 
 God. I can only worship the true God, who made 
 the heavens, and the earth, and me.' The mother 
 was enraged, stamped on the ground hi her fury, 
 vociferously demanded obedience, but in vain. She 
 then seized a hatchet and shouted, ' Bow down, or 
 I will cleave your head ! ' 
 
 The girl rushed from the hut, ran to the Mission 
 House, and there lay concealed under a bed. The 
 mother followed, loudly demanding her child, 
 threatening to appeal to the magistrate, and 
 watched the house for hours, in the hope of seeing
 
 THE RESCUED ORPHAN. 39 
 
 and seizing her. Evening arrived, and the mother, 
 remembering that her husband would soon be home 
 for his evening meal, returned to the hut. He was 
 there. Finding the rice not ready, he became 
 angry, and she, replying to his upbraidings by 
 petulant complaints of her daughter, provoked 
 him into ungovernable rage, and suddenly seizing 
 the hatchet with which the woman had threatened 
 her child, he struck her dead. He was tried for 
 the murder, and executed. 
 
 Luchmee and her brother were now orphans. 
 But both were pitifully regarded by the ' Father of 
 the fatherless,' and by Him the hearts of His ser- 
 vants, some in India and others in England, were 
 moved, and the children found a home in the 
 Orphan School, and both grew up to be disciples 
 of Christ. One is now a respectable gentleman in 
 Her Majesty's service, bringing up his family in the 
 fear of God, and zealously seeking to extend His 
 kingdom, and the other has passed away to its 
 bliss and glory in the heavenly world. 
 
 But the orphan to whom reference is specially 
 intended in the heading of this chapter was not of 
 Hindu lineage, but the child of Malayan and 
 Mohammedan parents. The power of the belief in 
 Kismet (or fate) which prevails in the East, and 
 specially among Moslems, is well known. I remem-
 
 4O BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 ber one evening watching some officers at a game of 
 quoits in a field in the country, when suddenly the 
 alarm gun at the fort was fired. Everyone mounted 
 his pony, some riding to the fort, and others to 
 collect and conduct to it a ' company ' of Sepoys. 
 But as we rode we soon saw the cause of the alarm. 
 The native town was on fire, and the sky red with 
 the reflection of the flames. Arrived at the out- 
 skirts of the circle of the conflagration, we found 
 the people standing about gazing on the destruc- 
 tion of their homes and all that they contained, 
 and quietly saying, ' Alas, alas ! It is Kismet.' It 
 was left to British tars to drag timbers out of the 
 flames, and officers were actually using their canes 
 to compel the owners to remove such property as 
 was rescued. 
 
 I have spoken of the island as producing sugar- 
 cane. A tall, graceful reed it is, nearly two inches 
 thick, growing to the height of sixteen or eighteen 
 feet, with long green leaves springing from knots 
 about eighteen inches from each other, curving 
 downwards, and at the summit, from the midst of 
 them, rises a handsome lilac flower. Near one of 
 these plantations stood a native hut, and as my 
 father was passing by to visit the district school, 
 he thought he heard sounds like the moaning of a 
 child in pain. The door of the hut was shut, and
 
 THE RESCUED ORPHAN. 41 
 
 there was no one to be seen anywhere. He opened 
 the door, and there found, on some leaves spread 
 on the ground, an infant girl who seemed to be 
 dying. Nothing else was there not a mat or 
 stool, jar or cup, grain of rice or drop of water. 
 The child was breathing feebly, the eyes fixed and 
 the jaw fallen, and the little hands stiffening in 
 death. He immediately called for help, and learned 
 the story. Alas ! it was the common one. The 
 father and mother had died of fever, and been 
 buried. Everything they possessed had been 
 carried away by the neighbours, and the sick 
 child left to die ! It was Kismet. But as she 
 was slowly passing away there was an Eye that 
 pitied, and hence came the hand of help. The 
 dying child was soon brought to our house. Can 
 those who saw her then ever forget the scene ? 
 There she lay on the couch watched with weeping 
 eyes by eager children, tenderly nursed by their 
 mother, who cooled her fevered limbs and poured 
 milk into her parched mouth, till at length the 
 little one looked back the smiles of the faces 
 around, and cried for food. 
 
 The young life was saved. She was put among 
 the girls of the Orphan School, learned to read 
 and write, and sew, and sing, and pray, and after- 
 wards became the teacher of the school. Some
 
 42 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 years afterwards the pitiful lady who had thus 
 ministered to the dying child received from her the 
 following letter, written in a ' hand ' that would 
 become any accomplished lady : 
 
 ' MOST EVER DEAR MADAM, 
 
 ' As Mrs. is going to write, I enclose 
 
 you a few lines to return many, many, many thanks 
 for the parcel you kindly sent me, with which the 
 children and myself are very much pleased ; and 
 oh, dear madam, how glad I was to hear that you 
 are still remembering me ! and may I never forget 
 all the kindness which was shown by you, dear 
 madam ! I always pray to the Lord daily for the 
 help of His Holy Spirit, to teach and guide me in 
 the one true and only way of happiness, and to 
 keep me from sinning against Him. May the Lord 
 bless me and these dear children in this world and 
 in the world to come ! A great many of the 
 Chinese men have been baptised in the mission 
 chapel, and a woman and five of the girls ; and I 
 trust that God will help them by His Holy Spirit 
 daily to keep close to Him who is their Lord and 
 Saviour. May the Lord bless you, my dear madam, 
 now and for evermore ! 
 
 ' I remain, yours ever truly, 
 
 ' ORPHAN E K .'
 
 THE RESCUED ORPHAN. 43 
 
 ' Custom,' says Lord Bacon, ' is the principal 
 magistrate of man's life. Certainly, custom is 
 most perfect when it beginneth in young years ; 
 this we call education, which is in effect but an 
 early custom.' Another wise man, speaking with 
 Divine authority, says, ' Train up a child in the 
 way he should go, and when he is old he will not 
 depart from it.' ' These words,' saith the Lord our 
 God, ' which I command thee this day, shall be in 
 thine heart : and thou shalt teach them diligently 
 unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when 
 thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walke.st 
 by the way, and when thou liest down, and when 
 thou risest up.'
 
 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 $ (5oob TDorb for tfye (Chinaman. 
 
 WHAT a queer-looking and odd-mannered 
 individual the Chinaman is ! And some- 
 how he never ceases to be this to you ! I was born 
 in the midst of thousands of Chinamen, and spent 
 my boyhood in constant intercourse with them. I 
 was not as much at home with them as with Malays, 
 because, although I could read some Chinese words, 
 and helped that hero of patient industry, Samuel 
 Dyer, in making punches and matrices for Chinese 
 type, I never could speak the language, whereas 
 Malay I knew as well as English. Many of my 
 schoolfellows too were Chinese boys, and one of 
 them I knew too well, for I unwittingly stabbed 
 him on the cheek with my penknife, and was mer- 
 cilessly punished for what was purely an accident. 
 And yet even now I never see a Chinaman without 
 smiling at the oddity of his look and ways. The 
 yellow skin (sometimes made more yellow by paint), 
 with jet-black eyes; the squat nose, with high
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 45 
 
 cheek-bones ; the slanting eyes, with eyebrows turn- 
 ing up at the outer ends, or shaved clean off; the 
 scanty moustache, with tonsured fore- scalp and 
 coarse strong black hair behind it, gathered into a 
 plaited tail and hanging by its appended cord to 
 the very ground! 
 
 As to Chinese manners and customs, they would 
 not be so singular were they not like our own hi 
 the main idea, but exactly contrary in their method. 
 When Chinamen meet they shake hands, but each 
 man shakes his own hands. To pay respect they 
 move their hats or caps, but it is not to take them 
 off, but put them on. They have visiting-cards, 
 but they consist of ornamented sheets of paper 
 with the family genealogy upon them. They have 
 surnames, but these precede the personal names. 
 They have seats of honour, but they are on the left ; 
 while, when mounting a horse, they get up on the 
 right side. They have wedding dresses and mourn- 
 ing dresses, but the first must not be, and the 
 second must be, white. They go to parties in 
 fashionable shoes not, however, thin pumps, but 
 with the thickest soles, polished, not with blacking, 
 but whiting. They use implements in eating, not 
 knives and forks, but two sticks 'chop' sticks 
 ('chop' meaning 'quick'), and they begin din- 
 ner with dessert, and end with joints. They have
 
 46 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 a copious language, but no alphabet ; innumerable 
 books, but the beginning of each is where we end. 
 When boys repeat their lessons to their teachers 
 they do not face them, but turn their faces away 
 and ' back the book,' lest they should get glimpses 
 of the page. They have a complete calendar, but 
 dates begin with the year and end with the day. 
 Sailors launch their ships sideways, and in boxing 
 the compass begin, not with N. and S., but with 
 E. and W. The men as well as boys fly kites and 
 play at shuttlecock, but for battledores they sub- 
 stitute the soles of their shoes. They carry lanterns 
 in the brightest moonlight, and fan themselves in 
 all states of the weather, and in all circumstances, 
 so that officers have been seen waving their fans as 
 they enter the field of battle. 
 
 Now these eccentricities may amuse us, but, 
 though a thoughtful observer says, 'You cannot 
 love a man in whom there is nothing to laugh at,' 
 we do not, as a rule, get to love Chinamen. In 
 fact, there are many things we know about them 
 which make them unamiable. And yet these are 
 really exaggerations of good and valuable qualities. 
 Their ingenuity becomes cunning, their industry 
 hardness, their thrift niggardliness, their self-reli- 
 ance vainglory, their passiveness cruelty, their 
 filial reverence superstition. No one seems to think
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHIXAMAN. 47 
 
 of loving a Chinaman. We laugh at him, we 
 employ him, we respect him, we pity him, but we 
 do not love him. We associate nothing great or 
 noble, gentle or tender, graceful or beautiful with 
 him. Multitudes shrink from him, and even hate 
 and persecute him. 
 
 Now, I am anxious to show that there is another 
 side of the Chinaman which ought to be looked at, 
 and also how this side of him may be made to show 
 itself. As to the latter my counsel is very simple 
 and ordinary Omnia vincit amor. 
 
 'Men might be better if we better deemed 
 Of them.' 
 
 ' Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; 
 and the greatest of these is love.' 
 
 Be kind to the Chinaman ; show him plainly 
 that you have love for him, and instead of the 
 selfish and hard man, who is ever scheming how 
 to overreach you, you may rely upon securing 
 grateful fidelity and affectionate service. Of course 
 there are exceptional cases, and these occur every- 
 where. Kindness does not always ensure thank- 
 fulness and affection. For instance, as a rule, live 
 where you may, good masters have good servants. 
 But the late Dr. Boaz, of Calcutta, used to tell 
 a very unpleasant story about one of his servants. 
 I forget how it was exactly that he met with the
 
 48 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 boy, but he found him an orphan, friendless, 
 utterly destitute, but, nevertheless, bright-looking 
 and apparently strong and capable. The lad 
 begged with tears to be allowed to serve him. The 
 doctor was moved, and made him his ' bearer,' or, 
 as they say in China, even of a sexagenarian ser- 
 vant, his ' boy.' He had him suitably clothed, 
 fed him well, and had him taught not only how to 
 do his work, but to read and write and cipher. He 
 became generally intelligent and useful, and the 
 good doctor thought that the lad regarded him 
 with grateful affection. The boy was'attacked with 
 cholera, and his master, with characteristic kind- 
 ness, personally watched over him and nursed him 
 day and night, and thus saved his life. Surely, 
 then, he thought, he had bound the boy to himself 
 for faithful, if not affectionate, service. After his 
 recovery, and when strong enough to resume his 
 duties, the lad one day appeared at the door of his 
 master's study, made his salaam, and said, 
 
 ' Sahib, I am about to leave your service.' 
 
 The doctor stared at him, 'and replied, ' Why ? 
 I have no wish to dismiss you. You suit me, and 
 will soon do very well.' 
 
 'I know that, sahib,' was the instant rejoinder; 
 ' but still, I want another place.' 
 
 ' You cannot mean this, surely ? ' said the
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 49 
 
 doctor. ' Don't you remember the plight you were in 
 when I took you into my service, and can you forget 
 how I have from that time been your friend, and 
 how, only lately, I took care of you in your fearful 
 illness and saved your life?' 
 
 'Yes, sahib,' was the reply, 'and that is my 
 very reason for wanting another place. You would 
 never have taken all this trouble about me if I 
 were not a very valuable servant, and I am sure, 
 therefore, that I must be fit for a better place and 
 much higher wages than I have here.' 
 
 Say what you please about the Chinaman, but I 
 never heard any such story as this about him. 
 Treat him kindly, and he will be ' good and faith- 
 ful ' to you. 
 
 Let me put on record some illustrations of this, 
 My first story shall be about well-to-do people 
 Chinamen of means and position. A friend of mine 
 had been induced to venture his all, and more than 
 his all (for he resorted to loan upon mortgage), in 
 purchasing some two thousand acres of uncleared 
 forest land, and turning the estate into a sugar 
 plantation. At that date, sugar-planting was, in 
 that part of the world, a speculative novelty. The 
 speculation ultimately resulted in absolute failure. 
 To save himself from utter ruin, the estate, with 
 all the plant, had to be immediately sold, and
 
 5O BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 realised at least something more than half the 
 money spent upon it. He was an official in the 
 local supreme court, and had been patient and 
 courteous in his dealings with Chinese who had 
 business in the court; and when his troubles be- 
 came public, some dozen of the chief Chinese 
 merchants and traders banded themselves to help 
 him. They gravelled by land and water to the 
 public auction, boldly kept up the biddings, and 
 the worthy fellows succeeded in securing for my 
 friend the highest possible price, and thus enabled 
 him to weather the storm. Now these Chinamen 
 had nothing to gain and much to risk in their 
 venture, and it was done, not for one of themselves, 
 but for a European, one who would in many parts 
 of their own country have been kicked out as a 
 ' foreign devil.' Can we say, in view of this, that 
 Chinamen are radically callous and invariably 
 selfish ? 
 
 Speaking on this point, on one occasion, to the 
 Eev. Griffith John, of Hankow, and asking him 
 whether he had become able really to love China- 
 men, he said, ' I suppose you will agree with me 
 that in the hardships and mishaps of travelling in 
 a foreign country you can test with some certainty 
 the character of your companions. Well then, I have 
 often known Chinamen readily give up their choice
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 51 
 
 bits of food for my sake ; and when I have been sur- 
 rounded by an angry mob, which was crying out 
 against me, and hurling sticks and stones at me, my 
 native Christian attendants, unarmed though we all 
 were, have promptly gathered around me, and shel- 
 tered me by their own persons from the ferocious 
 crowd.' Are such men to be classed with poltroons, 
 and denounced as having become Christians simply 
 for what they might get of the ' loaves and fishes'? 
 And this reminds me of the wonderful develop- 
 ment among the Chinese converts of the great 
 Christian duty of money-giving. When the empire 
 was opened for missionary enterprise, it was con- 
 fidently expected that, as the people were so 
 distressingly poor, converts would no doubt be 
 plentiful that they would all be 'rice Christians.' 
 As to Chinamen contributing money for the 
 support and spread of Christian work, he must be 
 foolishly sanguine who expected it from such close- 
 listed misers. I have before me the current report 
 of one of our great missionary societies, and I find 
 that its roll of communicants in China comprises 
 13,234 names, and that the ' local contributions ' 
 for the year amount to 4,560! No doubt a portion 
 of this large sum represents European benevolence, 
 but only 150 of it is credited to Hong-kong, 
 where European residents are numerous.
 
 52 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Take one of the chief stations, and we read of 
 one large district : ' The Christians are mostly 
 very poor and illiterate; but they are entirely 
 independent of foreign funds for the support of the 
 minister of the church, and are earnestly en- 
 deavouring to convey the knowledge of the Gospel 
 to their neighbours.' And again : ' The native 
 pastors have shown a noble spirit of enterprise. 
 The Pho-lam pastor gave up his time and strength 
 with so much self-abnegation that it was discovered 
 that his personal affairs were suffering, and there- 
 fore, to show sympathy with him in his losses and 
 expenses, it was decided to give him a little help.' 
 Of another district it is reported : ' Although this 
 church supports its preacher, meets all incidental 
 expenses, contributes to the school, and pays half 
 the salary of an evangelist, we called upon it to make 
 a further effort for next year, and accept the 
 additional burden of renting a mission school at 
 Tsai-tin, where there is a good opening for evange- 
 listic work. The response was very gratifying, 
 though the members, for the most part, are poor 
 people.' 
 
 There is nothing, however, so forceful as indi- 
 vidual instances. Look, then, at the following 
 statement relating to the important city of Tien-tsin. 
 After announcing that the church had undertaken
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 53 
 
 ' to support a travelling preacher,' the report 
 proceeds, ' Their choice fell unanimously upon a 
 man who many years ago was an agent of the 
 society, but who soon gave it up, choosing, like Paul, 
 to be above all suspicion ?.s to his motives for 
 preaching the Gospel. Since then he has been a 
 voluntary labourer, going up and down the country 
 proclaiming everywhere the forgiveness of sins in 
 the name of Jesus, and has been the means of 
 planting the Gospel in several villages. A man 
 with the use only of one eye, and of most unpre- 
 possessing appearance, uncouth in dress and 
 speech, and naturally of a most stubborn temper, 
 he is possessed of a warm heart full of love to 
 Christ and the souls of men, and though belonging 
 to the illiterate class, has, by diligence, acquired 
 an extensive acquaintance with the Word of God, 
 which is more to him than his daily food. The 
 only fear which was entertained in selecting Chang 
 Yung Ts'ing was that in his love of freedom he 
 might refuse even to become the servant of the 
 native church ; but on a friendly invitation being 
 addressed to him, he came to Tien-tsin and ac- 
 cepted the call, agreeing to meet all his travelling 
 expenses and support himself on the modest sum 
 of se\en and a half dollars a month.' 
 
 But to return to my personal experiences. I was,
 
 54 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 in the olden days, a great favourite with the civil 
 surgeon of my island home in the Far East. He 
 often sent his black pony for me, that I might 
 spend a few days with him at his bungalow. And 
 he was consulting- surgeon to our ' poor-house,' an 
 establishment supported by public charity for the 
 maintenance and relief of the necessitous sick of 
 all classes of the native population. On one oc- 
 casion, while I was with him, a Chinaman was sent 
 to him from the ' poor-house,' in a most pitiable 
 state of poverty and misery. The man kept him- 
 self alive by collecting manure, which he sold to 
 gardeners. He was short, bony, pinched, and 
 withered, his face not only as ugly as a Chinaman's 
 face can be, but made actually repulsive by a string 
 of grey, fleshy growths which hung from his nose 
 over his mouth ! I have since been informed that 
 such abnormal excrescences are by no means un- 
 common among the Chinese. In this case not 
 only did they obstruct the poor fellow's breathing, 
 but when he ate he had to lift the pendulous 
 growths with one hand while he fed himself with 
 the other ! No wonder he was a walking skeleton ! 
 My kind-hearted friend, after a careful examina- 
 tion, assured him that he could perfectly cure 
 him. The process was at once commenced, and, 
 I believe, partly by knife and partly by acids, the
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 55 
 
 day arrived when every excrescence was gone, and 
 the man's nose became actually an improved 
 edition of the snub article characteristic of the 
 Chinese face ! My friend was as clever with the 
 sketcher's pencil as he was with the surgeon's 
 knife, and I have accordingly a vivid recollection 
 of the transformation effected, through the portraits 
 he drew of the man's features as they originally 
 were and as they finally became. But who can 
 picture the worshipful regard and the overflowing 
 gratitude of the transfigured patient ? The doctor 
 became his god. He would fall at his feet and 
 kiss them. The sodden face became radiant with 
 thankful joy. He no longer shunned his fellow- 
 men and slunk about as one apologising for being 
 in existence. Not only could he breathe and eat 
 freely, but he seemed to have become able to 
 respect himself, and walk about as claiming the 
 respect of others. He immediately took to fishing 
 and gardening, and never was there a catch of fine 
 prawns but the docter must have the best of them, 
 or a yield of choice fruits but the doctor must have 
 the pick of it. Never have I since seen such ex- 
 uberance and constancy of adoring affection and 
 grateful devotedness. 
 
 Such an instance explains the extraordinary 
 success of hospital work in China, as it is conducted
 
 56 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 by British and American missionaries. The 
 doctors must be, however, genuine missionary 
 doctors, for, as an eminent authority remarks, 
 ' Medical missions are a blessing or otherwise 
 according to the spirit in which they are worked.' 
 If they are rightly worked, ' the very highest 
 results,' and in an abundant measure, may be 
 fully expected. The confidence of the Chinese in 
 the ' foreign doctor ' has now become unbounded, 
 and especially in reference to surgical cases, so that 
 even when the malady is purely one for medical 
 treatment, there is a positive cry for the use of the 
 ' knife ! ' From fifteen to twenty thousand patients 
 are treated in the course of the year at many of 
 the missionary hospitals patients travelling even 
 600 miles to get a bed in the wards. Men who have 
 been for years totally blind or deaf come with the 
 expectation of perfect recovery ; and sometimes the 
 doctor is sent for when a man is dead, with the 
 belief that while the body is yet warm life may be 
 revived. Medical schools also exist in connection 
 with the hospitals, and the Chinese navy is being 
 thus supplied with native doctors. 
 
 Particular instances are more impressive than 
 general statements as to the evangelistic aspect of 
 the work, and I therefore give a case corresponding 
 in its features with that I have described, and in
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 57 
 
 the words of the missionary doctor himself : ' One 
 of our helpers is a striking instance, I think, of a 
 man born again born from above. His name is 
 Yang Ming, and he conies from the province of Shan- 
 tung. He came to us some two years ago, suffering 
 from an enormous tumour of the scalp Elephant- 
 iasis Arabum. It had existed from childhood. He 
 could do no work, could get very little sleep, and 
 latterly suffered much pain from pressure of the 
 tumour on the upper part of the spine. He had 
 received no sort of education, and with his peculiar 
 deformity had a very repulsive and animal-like 
 appearance. Speaking his local patois, it was 
 difficult to understand him, and he seemed scarcely 
 capable of taking in an idea. Well, the tumour 
 was removed in three operations, at intervals of 
 a month or so, it being unwise, from the large base 
 of the tumour, and the great loss of blood, to remove 
 it at one sitting. He necessarily remained in the 
 wards for a long time, and when he was quite well 
 we offered to engage him as a helper in the wards. 
 He had undergone not only a physical, but an 
 intellectual and spiritual change of a very marked 
 kind. His soul of the possession of which he was 
 not aware when he came is clearly alive in him, 
 and his mind, so long torpid, has awoke to con- 
 sciousness. It is now a pleasure to hear him speak 
 
 E
 
 58 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 about spiritual things, and to see how he has been 
 taught of the Spirit of God. Of course he makes 
 many mistakes, and often gets out of his depth ; but 
 what young believer does not ? ' 
 
 These notices would be incomplete as respects 
 their purpose without some reference to the bene- 
 volent institutions in China which are strictly 
 indigenous. Space allows only of bare allusion to 
 them, and even this to but a few out of the many. 
 Looking at the subject broadly, it is right to say, 
 as is commonly said, that Christianity is the 
 parent-force of the charitable institutions of our 
 world. Certainly so, when we think of them in 
 their number, their variety, their enduring pros- 
 perity, and the spirit in which they are adminis- 
 tered. How much does our race owe to the 
 teachings of the prophetic times : ' He hath shown 
 thee, man, what is good ; and what doth the 
 Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love 
 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ! ' and 
 again, to the apostolic declaration, ' Pure religion 
 and undefiled before God and the Father is this : 
 To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 
 and to keep himself unspotted from the world ; ' and 
 above all, to the sublime life and example of Him 
 who ' became poor,' and ' went about doing good,' 
 and spake the parable of the Good Samaritan, and
 
 A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHINAMAN. 59 
 
 promised ' eternal life ' to those who feed the 
 hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, 
 and minister to the sick and the imprisoned, and 
 who finally laid down His life to save the lost. 
 
 But it ought not to be forgotten that the ancient 
 sage, whose influence in China is paramount, 
 taught his disciples to ' treat others according to 
 the treatment which they themselves would desire 
 at their hands.' It ought also to be known that 
 year by year lectures are required by the Govern- 
 ment to be delivered in all parts of the empire on 
 ' Union and concord among Kindred,' ' Concord 
 and Agreement among Neighbours,' on ' Mutual 
 Forbearance' and 'Eeconciling Animosities.' Is it 
 sufficiently known that in various parts of the 
 country stand buildings by the roadside and the 
 canal-side, erected by neighbouring philanthropists, 
 in which supplies of tea are gratuitously provided 
 for any traveller who may be passing by ? That, 
 on the whole, the people are contented, law-abiding, 
 good-humoured, excessively polite, and reverential 
 to their parents and to the aged, is no doubt 
 generally understood ; but it ought now to be quite 
 as well known that from time immemorial syste- 
 matic operations of charities like our own have 
 been in existence. There are numerous cities in 
 which will be found some, if not all, such charitable
 
 60 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 institutions as dispensaries, almshouses, leper- 
 houses, asylums for the blind, and homes for 
 foundlings. Look at one of these, ' The Hall of 
 United Benevolence,' at Shanghai. It has existed 
 for ages, and, I believe, still flourishes. It has, in 
 different parts of that great city, its schools for 
 children, hospitals for the sick, homes for the aged 
 and the infirm, almshouses for widows, and asylums 
 for foundling boys and girls, while also befriending 
 the necessitous poor generally, by providing food 
 and clothing, distributing coffins, and taking 
 charge of their graves. 
 
 True, there are very black shadows on the bright 
 picture which, in justice, we have drawn ; but 
 where is the nation, however virtuous and exalted, 
 that has not its shady side, and that, too, very 
 shady ? If the Chinese, without Christianity, can 
 be what they are, what will China be when it is 
 Christian China ? ' For brass,' says the great 
 and good Father of all, ' I will bring gold, and 
 for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, 
 and for stones iron.'
 
 6i 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 (Tigers, Snakes, anb Sites. 
 
 r I ^HE tiger I knew in the days of my youth, in 
 -L the Eastern Tropics, was the Malayan 
 tiger. There is now (October, 1887) a very fine 
 specimen in the lion-house at the Zoological 
 Gardens, and a glance will show that he is smaller 
 than his relatives and neighbours from India, and 
 also darker in colour, especially as to the black 
 streaks on his skin, and has a larger number 
 of these streaks on his face. The face is there- 
 fore, though less in size, more sinister and savage. 
 The Malayan tiger is less tameable than the Indian 
 tiger ; I never knew or heard of a Malayan tiger, 
 even when obtained before a month old, that was 
 really tamed. 
 
 It is very different with the tigers of India. 
 Get one very young, and take real pains to train 
 him, and you may expect to succeed. Few Euro- 
 peans have the patience and skill which natives 
 show in the process. What delightful stories are
 
 62 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 told of the tamed tigers of India ! It was at one 
 time much more common than now for fakirs or 
 mendicant ascetics to lead about tame tigers. 
 Some of them get a tiger to become as obedient 
 and companionable as a dog entering his master's 
 hut at pleasure, or freely roaming around it, and 
 returning to it at his call. Instances have been 
 known of the master and his strange companion 
 walking in the streets of a town without any re- 
 straining leash, the people looking on without 
 alarm, but careful to follow the advice of Confucius 
 as to dealing with the gods : ' Kespect them, but 
 keep them at a distance.' 
 
 In the guide to the Zoological Gardens, London, 
 we are told of a pair of adult tigers presented by 
 his Highness the Guicowar of Baroda, which were 
 habitually led about in the streets by their keepers, 
 and that Sir James Outram had a tiger living at 
 large in his quarters, and accompanying him in 
 his excursions. We are told in the Penny Cydo- 
 padia (vol. xxiv., p. 439) of a very handsome 
 tigress which was quite at home and harmless on 
 board the ship which brought her from Calcutta to 
 the Tower of London, but turned savage and dan- 
 gerous on arriving in London and being stared at 
 by strangers, and continued so surly that it was 
 with great reluctance that her former keeper was
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. 63 
 
 allowed to enter her den ; but ' as the tigress 
 recognised her old friend, she fawned on him and 
 manifested the most extravagant signs of pleasure ; 
 and when at last he left her, she cried and whined 
 for the remainder of the day.' 
 
 But most important of all is the testimony of 
 the well-known G. P. Sanderson, in his book on 
 the Wild Beasts of India, p. 282 : ' Tiger cubs are 
 very handsome little beasts, and exceedingly good- 
 tempered ; but it is essential that they should be 
 taken very young, before they have any knowledge 
 of jungle-life, or fear of man, or they cannot be 
 tamed. A month is the outside age for taking 
 them. They show much attachment to their 
 master, following him everywhere, lying under 
 his chair, and sniffing loudly with pleasure when 
 noticed. A pair I gave to His Highness the young 
 Maharajah of Mysore were kept loose until eight 
 months old, and used to play with each other or 
 their keepers, and with a tame bear, very prettily. 
 My experience of tame tigers is that they are 
 neither treacherous nor likely to show any sudden 
 savageness, if well fed. I had one of considerable 
 size that used to be loose in my room at night, and 
 though I pillowed and thumped it when it would 
 show its affection for me by jumping on the bed as 
 soon as I was asleep, it never showed any resentment.'
 
 64 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 My experience as to the Malayan tiger is very 
 different. I had a great deal to do with one that 
 was being ' tamed ; ' but our acquaintance ended 
 very unpleasantly. It was not a month old when 
 caught, and it became the property of a merchant 
 friend, whom I often visited. It seemed amiable 
 enough, thus differing from many Malayan 
 tiger-cubs, which snarl and snap at you from their 
 very birth. It was well fed, treated with great 
 kindness, and honoured with the confidence of all 
 about it, wandering at its ' own sweet will ' in my 
 friend's house and grounds. I used to run about 
 with it, and play with it as with a dog. But as it 
 grew it took to tiger tempers and ways. First it 
 slyly attacked fowls and ducks, and killed them. 
 One day, as its master was having his afternoon 
 siesta, it observed his hand hanging downwards, 
 and, quietly and slowly approaching him, began 
 gently to lick the back of it, but on drawing blood 
 with his rough tongue, became so eager as to make 
 a wound, and thus, fortunately before any serious 
 mischief was done, awoke the sleeper, who found 
 his hand covered with blood. Not long after, the 
 crisis came. Though still pretending to be friends 
 with me, so that, notwithstanding what I knew of 
 its tricks, I had no fear of it, as I was sitting at 
 table with my father and its master, regaling on
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. 65 
 
 sweetmeats, and did not know that the tiger was 
 near, it suddenly loudly growled, rushed (the 
 tiger does not, like the lion, spring) at my left foot, 
 and pulled me from my chair. Happily the shock 
 was the only harm it did me, for it was imme- 
 diately seized, and never again released from 
 its chain. Soon after it was put in a cage, sent 
 on board a man-of-war, and brought to the Tower 
 of London, where, some years after, I had the 
 honour of renewing my acquaintance with a now 
 perfect specimen of his race. 
 
 Tigers have long ceased to be inhabitants of 
 Pulo Penang. They are only visitors, when they 
 appear swimming across the narrow strait which 
 separates Penang from the Malayan peninsula. 
 But at Singapore, lying at the other extremity of 
 the Malacca Straits, Chinese and other labourers 
 are continually seized by tigers. 
 
 But Penang continues to be the home of 
 pythons and other snakes. It is, in fact, cele- 
 brated for its cloves, ' Penang lawyers ' (walking- 
 sticks), centipedes, scorpions, and pythons. The 
 term python is not so familiar as boa-constrictor. 
 Both belong to the' family of Boidce, which 
 kill their prey by constriction, and not by venom, 
 and are, in fact, without any venom. The boas, 
 sometimes called ' the true boas,' are found only
 
 66 BETEL-NUT ISLAND, 
 
 in the tropical regions of the New World, while 
 the python belongs to the East. Both of them 
 have, near the end of the tail, under the 
 skin, rudimentary feet, formed of several small 
 bones, indicated externally by two horny spurs. 
 I believe that in structure the chief difference 
 is in the shields above and below the face, or, 
 more accurately, the lips of the python are deeply 
 pitted, while those of the boa are smooth. As to 
 habits, the boa is fond of circling itself in the 
 branches of trees, while the python prefers terra 
 firma, especially when stony, and hence is called 
 the rock-snake. Pulo Penang, as I have said, is 
 famous for its pythons ; and, indeed, the East- 
 ern Archipelago generally abounds with snakes of 
 all sizes and colours, as was shown by the large 
 collection of preserved snakes in the part of the 
 Indian and Colonial Exhibition allotted to this 
 region of the globe. There is now at the Zoo a 
 very large python from Penang, lodged there eleven 
 years ago, which is in perfect health and condition, 
 measuring about twenty-six feet in length, and one 
 foot in diameter at its thickest part. She is known 
 as the reticulated python, and is, I believe, the 
 largest snake in the collection. Another member 
 of the family killed on the island was forty feet 
 long!
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. 67 
 
 I need not say that the prevailing feeling about 
 snakes is not simply one of dread (which may be 
 justified), but partakes of disgust, and horror, and 
 hatred. I do not hesitate to pronounce this both 
 foolish and sinful. We need not be as much afraid 
 of snakes as we are (allowing fear to be reasonable, 
 because of the uncertainty as to the snakes, which 
 may be venomous or non-venomous), inasmuch as 
 by far the larger number of them not only do not 
 seek to hurt us, but have not the power to do so. 
 On the other hand, they are very useful, destroying 
 the vermin, which would otherwise ruin crops in 
 the East, and make famine general and constant, 
 and also rendering tracts of country which 
 would be saturated with malaria through the 
 putrefaction of animal bodies habitable by man. 
 And yet, so prevalent is the feeling of abhorrence 
 of snakes, that there are multitudes whose first 
 and resolute impulse is to kill the slow-worm (or 
 blind- worm, wrongly so called) and common grass 
 or ringed snake of our own country, as merci- 
 lessly as they would the poisonous viper or cobra. 
 Both the first-mentioned are perfectly innocuous, 
 and may be made interesting pets. Keep a slow- 
 worm in your garden, and you will never be 
 plagued with slugs. 
 
 I do not remember ever having any feeling about
 
 68 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 snakes except those of interest and curiosity. I 
 was always on the look-out for them in our streams 
 and swamps, and never was there a young python 
 caught but it was brought to be examined by my 
 father, in the hope that he would buy it, and let 
 me feed it and play with it. Sometimes (but very 
 seldom) venomous snakes appeared near the house, 
 and these, though killed, we were taught to kill 
 reluctantly, and only because they could do us, 
 through some accidental interference on our part, 
 deadly mischief. 
 
 I recollect an exciting scene in connection with 
 one presumed to be venomous. Our bath-room 
 was an out-house, in which was a well. Early one 
 morning, screams were heard from it, and on 
 running to it, I found that my sisters, when about 
 to bathe, had caught sight of a snake about four 
 feet long coiled in the rafters of the attap (palm- 
 leaf) roof. They quickly retreated, and the ser- 
 vants gathered round with stout sticks to drive 
 the monster from his hold, and beat him to death. 
 As usual, no one asked whether it was venomous 
 or not. The creature, very dull to see, hear, or 
 think, made no effort to escape. Amid the con- 
 fusion and noise it remained motionless. If it 
 must be killed, why not despatch it where it was ? 
 No one of all the crowd had sense or courage
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. 69 
 
 enough to do this. No; it must be driven from 
 its hold, and battered on the ground. I went off 
 to find my father, but failed. It took no small 
 amount of howling and beating of sticks together 
 on the part of the brave assailants to make the 
 stupid creature know that it was in peril ; but at 
 last it uncoiled itself, and, quickly reaching the 
 ground, made such ugly twists and hiss-like 
 sounds, and moved its forked tongue about so 
 actively, that the gallant army precipitately fled 
 with shouts of fright ! Amid the tumult, it soon 
 reached a hedge, and thence made for the grass, 
 and though, after a bit, the valiant besiegers 
 recovered themselves and gave chase, it glided so 
 swiftly and silently that it was soon out of sight, 
 and escaped without receiving a blow. And well 
 that it was so ; for when my father inquired into 
 the details, he pronounced it a snake that could 
 have done no man any harm, and only wanted to 
 do us service by devouring the rats and other 
 vermin. 
 
 I come now to the real pests of the Tropics. You 
 may be twelve years there without seeing a snake, 
 noxious or harmless, and your whole lifetime with- 
 out seeing or hearing a tiger hi its wilds ; but the 
 flying insects meet you everywhere, and sometimes 
 all but worry you to death. There are also in this
 
 70 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 beautiful island the finest centipedes and scor- 
 pions in the world. I have several magnifi- 
 cent specimens among my bottles of preserved 
 fellow-islanders. Scorpions seldom come into our 
 houses ; but the centipede is a frequent visitor ; 
 and I remember my father suffering severely and 
 for many weeks from the bite of one. 
 
 Pulo Penang is also famous for other flying 
 creatures besides insects and birds. I can only 
 remember two and these are very notable the 
 flying lemur, or colugo, and the flying dragon, or 
 lizard. But I will not describe them, as I never 
 had any adventure with either. 
 
 But the flies ! Millions upon millions ! Flies 
 for hot hours, and flies for cool ones; flies when 
 it is dry, and flies when it is wet ; flies for the day, 
 and flies for the night ; flies when you eat, and 
 flies when you sleep. Nay, in some places you 
 may know the hour of the day by the insects 
 which swarm about you swarm to buzz, bite, 
 and bleed, and suck, and poison. I will not 
 describe them ; but I should like to write with 
 some particularity about a plant which is always 
 suggested to me when I think of the insect 
 plagues of the Tropics. I was born in the land 
 of the pitcher-plant, known botanically as Nepen- 
 thes. It is, perhaps, the most curious plant in the
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. j\ 
 
 world. Of course the common ones are small ; but 
 in Borneo they are tree-like, and the pitcher of the 
 
 THE PITCHER PLANT. 
 
 Nepenthes rajah will hold two quarts of water. 
 The tendril from the end of the leaf by which the 
 pitchers are suspended is sometimes as thick as a
 
 72 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 finger, and twenty inches long. There is one de- 
 scribed by Mr. Wallace, in his Malayan Archi- 
 pelago (vol. i., p. 127) the Nepenthes Edwardsiana, 
 with a stem twenty feet and the pitcher twenty 
 inches long. In Pulo Penang the plants are 
 creepers, climbing over shrubs and stunted trees. 
 My readers will find several specimens in Kew 
 Gardens, growing in suspended pots, and hanging 
 down from them. The common pitchers are light 
 green in colour ; but many are variously tinted, 
 and mottled with red and purple. Sometimes the 
 green is lost in the regal purple. 
 
 The tendril hanging from the mid-rib of the leaf 
 is wonderful for the manifold functions it has to 
 fulfil. First it has to form the pitcher. While 
 this is only a baby the lid is closed. When the 
 pitcher is sufficiently grown, and half-full of the 
 water secreted there by the tendril, the lid opens ; it 
 will be found not only that the tendril has perfectly 
 formed the pitcher and the lid, but has supplied 
 it with water, lined the edge with honey, and 
 coloured the surface with specks of red or purple. 
 And what is all this for? The colours attract 
 insects, the honey lures them into the pitcher, and 
 searching downwards for more, they drop into the 
 water and are drowned. But why catch and 
 drown these flies ? The water in time absorbs
 
 TIGERS, SNAKES, AND FLIES. 73 
 
 their substance, and leaves only wings and legs, 
 and this water, impregnated with animal matter, 
 feeds the pitcher and the plant. Some think it is 
 only used to promote the growth and development 
 of the pitcher ; but the general opinion is that this 
 wonderful tendril sucks the enriched liquid into the 
 plant itself, so that it thrives and grows on animal 
 food. Who, then, can tell the blessings which such 
 plants bring to men amid the worrying torments of 
 the multitudinous flies which possess the Eastern 
 Tropics ! But for the apparent cruelty which 
 regulates the ' balance of life ' in nature, the 
 earth would be uninhabitable.
 
 74 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 (D)e Cat-o'-THne-dails. 
 
 THE story related in this chapter has chiefly to 
 do with the little fort standing close to the 
 jetty, or landing-place, of the island. How vividly 
 can I recall every feature of this miniature fortress ! 
 The glacis, the moat, the drawbridges, the ram- 
 parts, the guns, the piles of shot, the flagstaff, the 
 semaphore, and the barracks. These were occupied 
 by a battery of artillerymen, while the rooms over 
 the entrance-gates were officers' quarters, assigned 
 to the two bachelor lieutenants of the company. At 
 the time to which my story belongs, I was intimate 
 with one of them, and often spent a night within 
 the gates. 
 
 The other quarters were in the occupation of 
 
 Lieutenant B , whom I specially remember 
 
 because of his bugle, on which he was an accom- 
 plished player. He was in appearance more elegant 
 than manly, but a thoroughly loveable fellow, and 
 one amid the many suitors for the hand of
 
 THE CAT-O'-NINE-TAILS. 75 
 
 the charming daughter of Colonel G , com- 
 manding officer of the Sepoy regiment quartered 
 on the island, at some distance from the fort. 
 
 Lieutenant B was lucky enough to be the 
 
 chosen bridegroom. So fond was the young lady 
 of her good and good-looking lover, that she was 
 willing to join him as wife in the circumscribed 
 and humble dwelling which he occupied in the fort. 
 How happy they were in the business of adjusting 
 and furnishing these few and little rooms ! The 
 wedding-day was fixed, and our small community 
 was astir in the expectation of the coming merry- 
 making. 
 
 Man proposes, but God disposes. The lieutenant 
 had a bitter enemy. He was one of the artillery- 
 men in the barracks a big, blustering, insolent 
 blackguard, continually sentenced to extra drills 
 and solitary confinement. I cannot remember 
 why this man directed his sulky resentment 
 towards this officer rather than the other ; 
 but just when everything was ready for the mar- 
 riage, the rascal was discovered by the lieu- 
 tenant under his bed, with a loaded carbine in 
 his hand. The lieutenant immediately rushed 
 out of his bedroom, locking the door after him, 
 and gave the alarm. The man was speedily seized 
 and manacled, and soon after tried by court-
 
 76 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 martial. The evidence was regarded as indicating 
 that the prisoner's purpose was not murder, but 
 such an act of outrage as would stamp him as 
 dangerous, and ensure his instant embarkation for 
 England. The sentence of the court was dismissal 
 from the army, after receiving 300 lashes. 
 
 It is 6 a.m. ; the morning-gun has just been fired. 
 The Sepoy regiment from ' the lines ' is drawn up 
 in a square on the esplanade lying between the 
 fort and the town. The men of the artillery corps 
 march out of the fort across the drawbridge, and 
 take their places, in two lines deep, on each side of 
 a gun on its carriage, so fixed that all of them and 
 all the Sepoys in the square can command a side- 
 view of the carriage. At the rear of the artillery- 
 men as they marched out of the fort walked the 
 prisoner, in the charge of four comrades armed with 
 carbines. He is stripped, and his arms are ex- 
 tended and bound to one of the wheels of the 
 gun-carriage. On his left side are standing, in 
 two lines, some twelve drummers belonging to the 
 Sepoy regiment, each with his drumstick, but 
 changed, for the time being, into a cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 A sergeant slowly walks from drummer to drum- 
 mer, inspecting each and the whip hi his hand. 
 Have our readers ever seen a cat-o'-nine-tails ? It 
 consists of nine separate pieces of whipcord, six-
 
 THE CAT-G'-NINE-TAILS. 77 
 
 teen inches in length, with three knots at the end 
 of each piece, and fastened to a drumstick; and 
 it is wielded by drummers, because accustomed, 
 through practice on their drums, to the effective 
 use of their wrists and arms. About the gun are 
 stationed some sergeants, the regimental surgeon, 
 and the officer in command. One of the sergeants 
 counts the strokes, another sees that no drummer 
 shirks his duty, and the doctor watches the pri- 
 soner, and, if need be, at intervals feels his pulse, 
 ready to cry ' Halt ' if the effects become perilous. 
 
 I was there, and saw everything from the begin- 
 ning to the end. I cannot say how many of the 300 
 lashes were actually inflicted ; but I know that, to 
 ensure vigour throughout, each drummer in his turn 
 gave only ten or twelve strokes. Such, however, 
 was the fortitude of this iron-built man, that no 
 sound was heard from him during his agony ; and 
 when the brutal punishment was over, he poured 
 out a volley of blasphemous oaths, and walked, 
 with his jacket thrown over his back, between two 
 orderlies, to the Military Hospital, which was some 
 four hundred yards from the spot. What became 
 of him afterwards I do not think I ever knew. 
 
 But one result of the shocking sight remains to 
 be told. Lieutenant B - was so horrified by it, 
 and realised so poignantly that he was the innocent
 
 78 BETEL-NUJ ISLAND. 
 
 occasion of it, that he became ill on the ground, 
 was supported as he returned to his quarters, was 
 struck with malignant fever, and in a few days 
 died ! I was with my father at his funeral and 
 who, indeed, was absent? 
 
 Again it is 6 a.m., and again are the English 
 artillerymen and the Sepoys from their ' lines ' on 
 the march. But with measured steps, arms re- 
 versed, and accompanied by the penetrating melody 
 of the Dead March in Saul. Never was our little 
 community so deeply and universally moved. The 
 dear fellow so young, so comely, so amiable, so 
 near to wedlock ! The heartbroken maiden, and 
 her stricken aged father and mother ! I can dis- 
 tinctly recall the father, as he followed the bier, 
 with bowed head, as chief mourner. There was 
 not a heart that did not overflow with bitter grief 
 for the smitten bridegroom, and with pitiful sym- 
 pathy for the weeping bride. 
 
 Why do I place these painful particulars on 
 record ? First of all, to contrast the present with 
 the past, and illustrate how the grand law of pro- 
 gress is at work in public opinion and natural 
 feeling. We now wonder that our forefathers could 
 not only permit, but even urge the severe punish- 
 ments of their times. Nor have we to go back 
 so very far to reach worthy people who con-
 
 THE CAT-0 '-NINE-TAILS. 79 
 
 tended for them. There were officers who spoke 
 in favour of army flogging in the last debates on 
 the subject in Parliament ; and I know there are 
 still among us veterans who maintain that neces- 
 sary discipline in the army and navy cannot be 
 maintained without the lash. Hence it is that in 
 the time of active service flogging is still lawful. 1 
 
 Such a scene as that I have described is no 
 longer possible. The enormity of the punishment, 
 the scandalous publicity, the irretrievable degrada- 
 tion, the indurating desperateness, and the shock, 
 and disgust, and dishonour inflicted on the com- 
 pelled attendants these, happily, are gone for 
 ever. But military flagellation of the kind de- 
 scribed was only the last remnant of the many 
 atrocities of lawful punishment at one time com- 
 mon. It is not a hundred years since ' the hanging 
 sermon ' used to be preached in the chapel of 
 Newgate. The prisoner was placed alone in a 
 raised pew in front of the pulpit, with the coffin 
 before him in which he was to be buried the next 
 morning, and the entire sermon was addressed to 
 him personally, and in it all the circumstances 
 were detailed which added special enormity to his 
 crime, and pictures drawn of the dire penalties, 
 
 1 In the recent Burmese War a Madras Sepoy was sentenced to 
 fifty lashes.
 
 8O BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 present and future, which had thus become his 
 due. Lords and ladies paid their guinea each for 
 a seat in the gallery, from which they could best 
 appreciate the eloquence of the sermon, andjmost 
 clearly watch the terrors and agonies of the con- 
 demned prisoner, who sometimes fell from his seat 
 in a dead faint. 
 
 Little more than a hundred years 1 have passed 
 away since the outrageous spectacle which dese- 
 crated the beauties of Eichmond Hill. A man who 
 had murdered his brother in the then village of 
 Eichmond was brought on a hurdle from Newgate, 
 with a crowd around it rapidly growing, as the pro- 
 cession journeyed on the highway, till, when it 
 reached the field below the celebrated terrace, 
 thousands upon thousands were gathered on the 
 hillside. In that field, on a spot easily identified, 
 and in full view of this enormous crowd, the 
 trembling wretch was hung, and when dead the 
 body was dismembered under the gallows by the 
 official surgeon, and portions of it passed from 
 hand to hand in the multitude ; and a young 
 woman was heard to boast that she had had the 
 heart of the poor wretch in her hand ! 
 
 As recently as 1886, a saintly patriarch ' de- 
 scended from the Huguenots ' was carried to his 
 
 1 See Crisp's Richmond and its Inhabitants from the Olden Times.
 
 THE CAT-0' -NINE-TAILS, 8 1 
 
 tomb, who had himself seen a woman on the gal- 
 lows at Newgate for stealing a loaf of bread ! Such 
 awful facts as these must not be forgotten. They 
 are full of significance. They explain some of the 
 anomalies and abuses of the times to which they 
 belong. By them we may judge of the intelligence 
 and morality of the general community. They are 
 symptoms of the public opinion and feeling which 
 caused the cruelties of slavery and the atrocities 
 of the slave trade, the unhesitating massacre of 
 aboriginal tribes, and delight in war. Let us 
 thank God that the barbarous laws and disgrace- 
 ful traditions of centuries have for ever passed 
 away !
 
 82 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 <Ef?e Pirate 5tgl)t. 
 
 ON one occasion when I entered the hut of my 
 Battah friend (described in Chapter III.), I 
 found with him a professional astrologer and necro- 
 mancer. I cannot be sure whether he was the 
 Burmese priest to whom I have referred. If not, 
 both carried about books containing pictures rudely 
 drawn and highly coloured. As I entered, my 
 friend said to me : ' There is a man who will tell 
 you what has been the chief event in your past, 
 and what will be the chief event in your future, life ; 
 try him ! ' I readily consented, and the man held 
 towards me a book much longer than it was broad, 
 with the edges of its leaves upward, and giving me 
 a wooden pin, told me to put it among the leaves 
 wherever I liked. He muttered a prayer as I did 
 this, and said the picture which I touched would 
 denote the chief event of my past life. The book 
 opened at a representation of a ball of fire, from 
 which were drawn lines like burning rays of light.
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 83 
 
 He said, ' You have been struck by the sun, and will 
 carry the effects of it with you throughout your life.' 
 The book was then closed, and I was told to put 
 the pin in again as before, the fortune-teller again 
 muttering a prayer. The book opened at a picture 
 in which was seen a huge bird of gorgeous plumage, 
 flying from the lower left-hand corner of the picture 
 towards a daub at the right-hand upper corner, 
 which I was told represented a strip of land with 
 a seashore in front, and some trees and houses 
 behind. There was the indication of my future. 
 I should soon leave the place of my birth for a 
 distant country, and that would become my home. 
 Let me say that at that time there was no arrange- 
 ment whatever for my departure for England. 
 It had of course, been thought of, and sometimes 
 talked about, but the difficulties in the way were 
 very formidable and peculiar. The man might 
 have learnt of the actual past, and naturally con- 
 jectured what the future would be, but it has always 
 seemed to me strange that I should have opened 
 his book at the two pictures I have described. 
 
 Soon after, however, and very unexpectedly, it 
 was determined that I should go to England. So 
 suddenly was the decision reached, that I arrived 
 in England before any letter had been delivered 
 announcing that I was on the way. It arose from
 
 84 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 the circumstance that a kind friend, to whose charge 
 two nieces had been assigned through the death of 
 his sister and her husband, felt it to be his duty to 
 take them home, and he offered to include me in 
 his charge. 
 
 I am now referring to the last days of the mono- 
 poly of the East India Company. The ships by 
 which passengers to and from India sailed were 
 the famous East Indiamen, and it was customary 
 for passengers from the Straits of Malacca to meet 
 the Indiamen on their return from China to Eng- 
 land at some point in their direct route. And 
 accordingly we sailed from Penang (December, 1833) 
 in a brig belonging to the friend already referred 
 to, and named after his sister, the Harriet, of about 
 180 tons, and commanded by a captain who was, 
 like myself, a native of the island. The meeting- 
 place fixed upon was North Island, lying at the 
 southern extremity of Sumatra, and close to the 
 Straits of Sunda. 
 
 On our way we touched at Malacca and at Singa- 
 pore. Was the manner of our arrival at Singapore 
 an intended warning ? There are several entrances 
 to the harbour. The owner of the brig wished to 
 proceed by the nearest route, and this from the 
 point we had reached was practical for boats only. 
 A boat was accordingly lowered, with four Lascars
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 85 
 
 to row, a few biscuits and oranges, a couple of 
 muskets and a flask of gunpowder. At my earnest 
 solicitation I was included in the party. We 
 started in the afternoon, but soon a squall came 
 on and the tide turned, and we were carried out 
 to sea. All night we were vainly struggling with 
 the elements, wet, hungry, the rowers utterly ex- 
 hausted, firing our muskets occasionally as signs 
 of distress, but with trepidation, lest these should 
 only bring upon us the orang laut (men of the sea, 
 or pirates) ; till in the morning, discovered by the 
 crew of a Chinese junk, we were, to our inexpres- 
 sible joy, picked up, and finally brought into the 
 harbour, to find there our brig anchored, and our 
 friends in alarm and distress about us. 
 
 At Singapore I visited some family friends, and 
 managed among them to catch the measles. The 
 vessel was consequently detained somewhat longer 
 than was intended ; and during the detention one 
 of our passengers suggested that as we might have 
 to wait for the Indiaman, a good supply of gun- 
 powder would be useful, to kill time as well as birds. 
 I believe on investigation it was found that there 
 was no powder on board. Muskets, blunderbusses, 
 cutlasses were in abundance, and ' Quakers ' 
 (wooden blocks cut and painted so as to look like 
 guns, and called thus because they were useless for
 
 86 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 fighting), showed themselves conspicuously at the 
 port-holes, and I think there were four six-pounder 
 guns as well as a swivel-gun. Malay pirates had 
 never as yet attacked a vessel carrying the British 
 ensign, and hence, I presume, the carelessness as to 
 a supply of gunpowder. However, the mistake was 
 rectified and some twenty canisters of powder were 
 here shipped. 
 
 I ought to remark that, at the date to which my 
 story belongs, very little was known of the for- 
 midable piratical fleets of Borneo and the Sulu 
 Islands. They seldom ventured into the tracks of 
 European vessels. What these fleets were and 
 what ravages they could commit, may be learnt 
 from the dearly-bought experiences of the first 
 Eajah Brooke, of Sarawak. The boats were from 
 eighty to a hundred feet long, the planks not fas- 
 tened with nails, but laced together by rattans, and 
 caulked with bark which swells when wet. Hence, 
 when pursued, the crews could on reaching land 
 quickly unlace the planks, carry them on their 
 shoulders into the jungle, and with like quickness 
 put them together again when the danger was past. 
 Some of the boats were covered with flat roofs of 
 bamboo, and others had a barricade of wooden logs 
 at the bow. Sixty or eighty men were in each boat, 
 and with their paddles skimmed through the water
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 8/ 
 
 noiselessly and at such a rate that only steamers 
 could catch them. Often they carried a large gun 
 in the bow, and three or four small brass ones at the 
 sides, and from twenty to thirty muskets. A fleet 
 consisted of from ten to thirty such prahus. Fre- 
 quently they ascended rivers, and at night, falling 
 suddenly on villages, threw logs of burning wood 
 and bunches of burning chillies under the huts, 
 which stand on naked poles accompanying the 
 suffocating smoke with showers of spears. The 
 men were destroyed, but the women and children 
 were captured to be sold as slaves, and all the 
 property worth removing was carried away. When 
 they attacked at sea, they approached at first in 
 dead silence, but when near with the sound of a 
 drum in the leading boat the drum of defiance 
 slowly beaten, and at the moment of attack they 
 broke out into furious yells. When they boarded 
 a vessel, it was with spears and swords and krises 
 (wavy daggers), and generally in a few minutes the 
 crew were slaughtered and the vessel taken. 
 
 On the 22nd December, some days after leaving 
 Singapore, at 4 a.m. we weighed anchor, but in 
 the evening our vessel was in a narrow strait, 
 having on our right Pulo Buru, and on the left 
 Middleburgh Shoal, so called possibly from a vessel 
 of that name having been there wrecked. The
 
 88 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 tide was against us, and there was no breeze. The 
 sea too was perilously shallow only about five 
 fathoms deep in our course and, indeed, through- 
 out one half of the Eastern Archipelago it is never 
 more than fifty fathoms deep. The captain ac- 
 cordingly deemed it desirable to drop anchor for 
 the night. Our crew consisted of about a dozen 
 Manilla Lascars, two half-caste apprentices, with 
 the captain and mate. The passengers were my 
 friend and his two nieces, another Penang mer- 
 chant, whose brother was our mate, and myself. 
 
 Next morning, about nine o'clock, three prahus 
 were seen doubling the farthermost point of the 
 island. We had not long weighed anchor, and the 
 breeze was very light. The boats did not make 
 direct for us, but hugged the shore, and yet were 
 evidently getting nearer and nearer to us. We 
 soon found that as they approached the crews 
 were raising at the bow of each boat a barricade, 
 and a small gun was finally discerned at the top 
 of each. Suspicion had somehow been awakened 
 from the first few minutes after the discovery of 
 the boats. Pulo Bum is, I believe, uninhabited. 
 The boats were large and crowded. What were 
 they doing there ? Why did they hug the shore, 
 while plainly intending to approach us? The 
 barricades and guns settled the question. Here
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 89 
 
 were some hundred men, at least, of the ruthless 
 and determined robbers of these seas, bent on 
 securing our ship and possessing her cargo. To do 
 this they would not scruple to destroy every one 
 on board. Escape seemed impossible. It was 
 resolved to sell our lives dearly. One gun was 
 removed to the stern. On our starboard were two ; 
 on the port one ; on the bow our swivel. The stern 
 gun was loaded with shell, and the others with 
 grape. The canisters were broken ; and at the 
 foot of the companion-ladder I helped to fill the 
 canvas bags and make the cartridges. 
 
 It was evident that the enemy intended approach- 
 ing us at the stern. Doubtless they did not like 
 the look of the ' Quakers,' and steadily kept their 
 barricades towards us. They pulled cautiously, 
 but at last were within speaking distance. Very 
 distinctly could we hear the tum-tum-tum of their 
 drum proclaiming defiance to us, and a means 
 of inspiration to themselves. The mate shouted, 
 ' What do you want ? ' A burst of uproarious and 
 scornful laughter was the reply. Another shout 
 from us, ' Pull back, or we fire,' was followed by 
 another peal of defiant laughter. Immediately the 
 stern gun was fired. It had evidently not been 
 seen, being partially masked by the jolly-boat which 
 hung there. The shell fell among the paddles, and
 
 90 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 made splinters of them. Our foes were confounded, 
 and pulled back a few strokes. Then, crying out 
 to each other, they advanced again and fired the 
 three small guns which were at their bows. We 
 replied by a ' broadside ' of grape. And thus the 
 conflict continued. On their part advance followed 
 by retreat ; from us shell and grape. But, alas ! 
 there was no more breeze than barely sufficient to 
 turn the ship's side upon them. At any period five 
 minutes of resolute pulling would have brought 
 them on our deck, and five minutes more would 
 have seen us all in the agonies of death. 
 
 The miscreants continued to hover near us until, 
 I believe, two or three o'clock in the afternoon. 
 It was evident that they hoped to exhaust our 
 powder. And the powder was fast disappearing. 
 We had done them but little harm. Some paddles 
 broken, some men wounded, some bodies of the 
 dead or dying thrown out of the boats this was 
 all we had done. But they had no leader worth 
 the name. 
 
 With one brave plucky English rascal among them 
 to cry, ' On, on ! ' the whole matter would have 
 been settled in fifteen minutes. As for ourselves, 
 there was no wind to take us away, and we were 
 fast reaching the end of our powder. What was 
 to be done ? Let us try stratagem. It was plain
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 91 
 
 they were cowards ; let us, defenceless though we 
 really were, put on a brave face, screw up our 
 courage, and do a daring thing. Let us turn the 
 vessel round and bear down upon them ! This was, 
 after some debate, agreed to. Oh, how slowly did 
 our brig obey her helm ! How gradually did the 
 surrounding objects change their places the island, 
 which had been on our right, now on our left, and 
 the boats behind now in front ! What a protracted 
 season it was of suspense and agony ! Would not 
 our destruction be thus made certain ? Were we 
 not inviting it ? This was doubtless to each of us 
 the most awful crisis of his life. I can distinctly 
 recall the pallid faces, knit brows, and quivering 
 lips of the officers and passengers, and how the 
 Manilla man at the wheel trembled in his every 
 limb. As for myself, in the excitement I lost all 
 thought of danger, but now and then momentarily 
 pictured the horror and distress at home when the 
 news should arrive of our slaughter my father 
 sobbing, my mother paralysed, my sisters weeping, 
 ' Tom ' and the family servants crying aloud. I 
 have no recollection of any religious emotion 
 during these minutes of overwhelming anxiety. It 
 was a desperate venture would it be escape and 
 life, or bloody fight and miserable death ? 
 
 No sooner was the vessel round, than the villains
 
 92 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 pulled away with all their might and main ! The 
 fright was now theirs. It was our turn to shout, 
 and shout we did again and again ! 
 
 It was afterwards ascertained that these prahus 
 were at Singapore when we were there, that the 
 crafty occupants knew there was no powder on 
 board, left beforehand to waylay us in intricate 
 navigation, were surprised by our firing, and on 
 our bearing down upon them concluded that this 
 was not the ship they expected ; and when we were 
 gone remained waiting for days, in hope of at 
 length seeing the proper vessel. 1 
 
 We arrived at North Island on the 31st December. 
 The interval of waiting was much longer than was 
 expected. I remember that our stock of provisions 
 ran low, and our water was exhausted, that with 
 everyone armed we ventured to land on the Suma- 
 tran beach to get fowls and water, that we suffered 
 no stranger to come on board, fresh painted our 
 veteran ' Quakers,' and to every inquiry answered 
 that it was a Kapal jaga jaga (a guardship). Not 
 till the 7th of January did our hearts begin to beat 
 quietly again, for then the H.E.I.C.'s teak-built 
 ship Vansittart arrived, and the passengers were at 
 
 1 My readers are probably aware of the severe measures by which 
 piracy in these seas was put down, but they should also know of 
 the wonderful successes of missionaries in their work amongst the 
 descendants of the pirates.
 
 THE PIRATE FIGHT. 93 
 
 once removed to a secure home in the noble and 
 stately vessel. Soon after we touched at Angler 
 Point, and took on board a much larger company 
 of passengers, in the form of ' Java sparrows ' and 
 monkeys, scarcely one of the latter, however, living 
 through the cold weather of the Cape. Frequently 
 did my thoughts return to the scene at Pulo Buru ; 
 and from it I have certainly gathered practical 
 lessons for life, and I hope impulses to thanksgiving 
 and consecration. 
 
 ' The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom 
 shall I fear ? The Lord is the strength of my life ; 
 of whom shall I be afraid ? When the wicked, even 
 my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up 
 my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host 
 should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. 
 . . . And now shall my head be lifted up above 
 mine enemies round about me: therefore will I 
 offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I will sing, 
 yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.'
 
 94 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 to Prater. 
 
 ONE of the tenderest of the ties that bound me 
 to the days of my boyhood in the East was 
 broken on the 22nd of March, 1880. I stood on 
 that day in a small group of affectionate mourners 
 on the heights of the cemetery at Hastings, and 
 committed to the grave the remains of George 
 Felix Gottlieb one who had taken me into his 
 arms soon after my birth, and been from before 
 that date to the end of his long life (he died in his 
 eighty-third year) the nearest and dearest of 
 family friends. My island home was his chosen 
 residence for the greater part of his life, and 
 there had he mingled with us in all our house- 
 hold joys and sorrows. Noble and beautiful was 
 the face, crowned with snowy locks, of the dear 
 old man. when I welcomed him back to England, 
 with hearty embraces, in the year 1867 ; and 
 never did we weary in talking over, whenever we 
 met, the scenes and events of the times long past.
 
 ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 95 
 
 He was specially remarkable for the mingling in 
 himself of characteristics in contrast, and even 
 antagonism, to one another. He was thrifty, and 
 yet very generous ; humorous, yet very devout ; 
 enthusiastic in his belief in a special Providence, 
 but not the less always resolute and energetic in 
 action ; of imperious will and stern command, and 
 yet as gentle as a child, tender as a woman, and 
 loving like unto the angels. 
 
 Though during the latter period of his life in the 
 East he lived on shore, and occupied magisterial 
 offices, he was by early choice, and for many long 
 years afterwards, a sailor. Throughout these 
 years and to the end of life he profoundly be- 
 lieved himself to be in the direct and special 
 keeping of God. He never hesitated in believing 
 that no sparrow falls to the ground without some- 
 thing in its death of both the thought and act of 
 God, nor in accepting as literal and absolute truth 
 that the very hairs of our head are all numbered 
 by Him. Similarly he was, by strong conviction 
 and constant habit, a man of prayer. He admitted 
 that there were serious difficulties in reconciling 
 the efficacy of prayer with the laws of nature and 
 the freedom of the human will ; but not the less 
 was he firmly assured that quite as much in 
 secular as hi spiritual things it will not be the
 
 96 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 same with us whether we pray or do not pray. 
 The following were favourite passages of the Bible 
 with him : ' Delight thyself also in the Lord, and 
 He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' ' It 
 shall come to pass that before they call I will 
 answer, and while they are yet speaking I will 
 hear.' ' I called upon the Lord in distress ; the 
 Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.' 
 And so was the verse : 
 
 ' Wrestling prayer can wonders do, 
 Bring relief in deepest straits ; 
 Prayer can force a passage through 
 Iron bars and brazen gates.' 
 
 With such faith in prayer and love of it, no won- 
 der that the daily meeting for prayer in Hastings 
 was to him one of the chief joys of life during the 
 years of his retirement and leisure. 
 
 The faith and prayerfulness of this eminent ser- 
 vant of God were honoured by Him in a remark- 
 able way. I do not wish to be understood as 
 encouraging the expectation of miraculous inter- 
 position in answer to prayer ; but I think we are 
 warranted in believing that profound trust in God, 
 constant and intimate fellowship with Him, and 
 the habit of intense and confident devotion, may 
 receive from Him signal tokens of His gracious 
 favour. With no other comment, I place among
 
 ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 97 
 
 these records the following detailed statements 
 from my saintly and revered friend. One of them 
 was printed by him for private circulation. 
 
 ' About fifty years ago, I commanded an East 
 India country ship of about 750 tons, bound from 
 Penang to China, with a cargo of tin, betel-nut, 
 and spices from the Straits of Malacca. Between 
 Penang and Singapore, we had some heavy squalls 
 and rough weather, and the ship began to leak. I 
 thought very little of it ; but my officers, as I after- 
 wards found, were afraid of going on in the ship. 
 On arriving at Singapore, the second officer came 
 to me with a very demure countenance, and said 
 he had just heard that a relative of his had died 
 at Malacca, and he should feel very much obliged 
 to me if I would allow him to leave the ship and 
 return thither. Not for a moment supposing he 
 was deceiving me, I allowed him to leave. After 
 breakfast, the chief officer came to me, saying 
 there was a little business of some importance in 
 the town that he would like to attend to, if I would 
 kindly allow him to go on shore for half-an-hour. 
 I, being still quite unsuspicious, allowed him to go. 
 
 * I waited anxiously for him till four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, and felt very angry when I found that 
 I had been thus cruelly forsaken. 
 
 ' After we had passed through the Straits of
 
 98 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Singapore, and got out into the China Sea, the 
 ship began to leak fast, and from at first keeping 
 one pump going, I found two were necessary. After 
 getting over towards the coast of Luzon, the 
 weather became stormy, with constant darkness 
 and rain, so that we did not get a sight of the sun 
 for several days, and I became very anxious, know- 
 ing we could not be far from coral reefs. I could 
 get no sight for the chronometer longitude. I then 
 thought how thankful I should be if I could only 
 get the meridian altitude of the sun for the lati- 
 tude, which might enable me to reach Manilla ; 
 but there was no break in the clouds ; the whole 
 heavens were of a dark leaden colour. 
 
 ' One day, a little before noon, I went down into 
 my cabin, and prayed as those pray who are in 
 dire need, that the sun might shine out, if only for 
 ten minutes. Both pumps were going night and 
 day, my crew were exhausted, and I knew that we 
 could not be far from dangerous reefs. "Out of 
 the depths I cried unto the Lord," and He heard 
 me, for lo ! a rift in the clouds, and the sun shone 
 out, and just for ten minutes only. I thus obtained 
 the latitude, and found that we were exactly oppo- 
 site to the Bay of Manilla; it was then blowing 
 very hard, and by putting a little more sail on I 
 got into the bay, and anchored the same evening.
 
 ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 99 
 
 ' Whilst at anchor there, I found the ship leaked 
 very little, which made me suppose the leak must 
 be somewhere about the bends, or probably just 
 above the load water-line. I employed caulkers 
 from the shore, and had the ship caulked all 
 round, which detained us in port six or eight 
 days, during which tune the crew were all well 
 rested and refreshed. I put to sea again, hoping 
 the ship would now leak very little ; but when we 
 got again into the China Sea, and the ship was 
 labouring hard, I found her leak almost as much 
 as before, which obliged us to pump her out with 
 both pumps, every hour, day and night, all the 
 way to China, where we arrived safely about the 
 latter end of November. I was thankful indeed 
 that through the kind and merciful care of our 
 prayer-hearing God we did arrive hi safety. Had 
 we fallen in with a " typhoon," which in these 
 months are frequent, it is more than probable that 
 the ship would have foundered, and every one on 
 board perished. " So He bringeth them unto their 
 desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the 
 Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful 
 works to the children of men ! " 
 
 The second instance : 
 
 ' Many years ago, when I was a young man, I 
 commanded a brig, sailing out of Calcutta. She
 
 IOO BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 was laden with rice, and bound for the Straits of 
 Malacca, was deep, and sailed very badly. 
 
 'I got down pretty well as far as the Seyer 
 Islands ; here the south-west monsoon had set in 
 very strongly, with a heavy sea (it was about the 
 latter end of May), and I found I could not weather 
 the western point of the island, as the wind was 
 blowing right on shore. We were beating about 
 here for some days, trying to get off the land, 
 but every day getting nearer to it. We could 
 make no offing, generally standing to the north- 
 west during the night, and tacking or wearing to 
 the southward in the morning. 
 
 ' There is no watch in country ships, as in the 
 British merchant service, but all hands on deck, 
 day and night. The squalls were so frequent and 
 severe, accompanied with heavy rain, that we had 
 to take in all sail, and lower the topsails on the 
 cap to each of them. 
 
 ' The crew were in this way completely fagged 
 out in making and shortening sail, with wet 
 clothes on day and night ; for as soon as the 
 clothes were dried on their backs, another squall 
 would come and drench them again. Consequently 
 they had no sleep night or day, except the little 
 they might catch whilst lying on the wet deck 
 between the squalls.
 
 ANSWERS TO PRAYER, IQI 
 
 ' After knocking about in this manner for some 
 days, gradually getting nearer and nearer to the 
 shore and the rocks, and finding I was not able to 
 beat off, the vessel making much lee- way, and the 
 crew being now almost worn out, I thought I 
 would give them a whole night's rest. In the 
 evening, therefore, shortly after sunset, I ordered 
 all sail to be taken in and furled, and the anchor 
 let go. We were then probably six or seven miles 
 off the rocks, in twenty fathoms of water. I 
 veered out a good scope of chain cable, and made 
 everything, as I thought, snug and safe for the 
 night, putting the deep-sea lead over the side, to 
 ascertain that she was holding on. In the morn- 
 ing I was astonished to find we were still nearer to 
 the rocks than we had been the evening before, 
 although at anchor all night. I ordered the 
 anchor to be hove up, put sail on the vessel, and 
 laid her head off to the north-west. To my great 
 surprise, when the anchor came up, I found the 
 fluke that had been in the ground perfectly bright 
 something like polished steel (a thing I had 
 never before seen, although I had been many years 
 at sea). 
 
 ' It appears the sookanies (steersmen) who had 
 to keep the anchor- watch at night, must have 
 gone to sleep, and the vessel had, no doubt,
 
 102 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 dragged her anchor, in the squalls, through sand 
 and gravel a great part of the night, and this 
 had polished the fluke. From the nature of the 
 ground, it was evident I could not trust to the 
 anchor. 
 
 ' There appeared to me no chance of escaping 
 wreck, unless by a change of wind to take us off 
 the shore, which at this time of the year was the 
 most improbable thing to occur, and there was not 
 the least appearance of it. I called the chief mate, 
 and desired him to look out a little while, as I 
 was going below. I went down to my cabin, and 
 there, on my knees, I prayed more fervently, I 
 think, than I had ever before done in my life, 
 begging of God the Father, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, if it should please Him, to give us a 
 change of wind that might enable us to get off 
 the shore. 
 
 ' Whilst I was still on my knees, the chief 
 mate called out down the hatchway, " Here's a 
 fair wind, sir ! The wind is blowing right off the 
 land ! " 
 
 ' My feelings at that moment may be imagined, 
 but cannot be expressed.' 
 
 My old friend, in virtue of his office, had had to 
 take part as an agent in the ungracious treatment
 
 ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 103 
 
 of the unfortunate kings of Ke'ddak, referred to in 
 Chapter I. It was to him an unpleasant duty ; for 
 he sympathised with the residents generally, both 
 European and native, in regretting the attitude 
 assumed by the Government. Captain Sherard 
 Osborne (afterwards Admiral) puts the case 
 forcibly in his Quedah ; or, My Journal in Malayan 
 Waters, showing how British interests, which in- 
 duced us, when accepting territory from the King 
 of Keddak, to regard him as an independent sove- 
 reign, caused us to declare and treat him as the 
 vassal of Siam, when we had to seek favour from 
 its king. The treaty indicated in Chapter I. does 
 not, however, expressly stipulate for as much as 
 is there stated, though it was generally so inter- 
 preted and understood. Readers interested in the 
 subject are referred to Osborne's book, and to the 
 treaties with Keddak, and afterwards with Siam, 
 which will be found in Hertslet's Commercial 
 Treaties.
 
 104 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 f?e Printing Press. 
 
 A the beginning of the present century, a gar- 
 dener and his household removed from a 
 village in one of the Midland shires to its county 
 town. He was a man of remarkable intelligence, 
 and, though in humble circumstances, belonged k to 
 an ancient family which received a grant of arms 
 in 1675 from Charles II. Through serious reverses 
 (caused by the exhaustion of certain lead mines) 
 its representatives eventually sank to such poverty 
 and obscurity that the family was declared in the 
 county records to be extinct. Traditions of the old 
 prosperity and influence were, however, never lost. 
 There was but one son, and it is with him that our 
 story has to do. Considering the social circum- 
 stances of his boyhood, and that the household had 
 no association with any of the religious commu- 
 nities of the town, there is a good deal in the 
 future development of his life to show, as D'Aubigne 
 expresses it, that ' God is in history.'
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. IO5 
 
 The bright and comely look of the lad attracted 
 the affectionate notice of a Unitarian minister in 
 the town, by whom he was put to school, where he 
 distinguished himself by an extraordinary memory. 
 While quite young, a complete change was wrought 
 in his religious belief and character by a sermon he 
 heard from an Evangelical minister on the words, 
 ' The unsearchable riches of Christ,' and coming 
 under the full influence of the truth thus indicated, 
 he rapidly grew into a life of consecration. Mean- 
 while he had been apprenticed to a printer and 
 bookseller, and was thus prepared for the special 
 work to which he was subsequently devoted. 
 
 In the pursuit of his calling he removed to 
 London, where, by a singular combination of cir- 
 cumstances, a long but secretly cherished desire to 
 be a missionary to the heathen found expression, 
 and ended in the acceptance of his services by the 
 London Missionary Society, a course of theological 
 training under Dr. Bogue of Gosport, and his finally 
 sailing at a season of storms and shipwrecks for 
 the Straits of Malacca. Thus did it come to pass 
 that a printing-press was set up, and tracts were 
 issued and distributed in thousands for the mental 
 and moral good of the numerous tribes which speak 
 the Malayan language. Here laboured my father 
 (to whom such frequent reference has been made
 
 IO6 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 in preceding chapters) for twenty-six years without 
 intermission, and here he died through the en- 
 feebling effects of such toil in a tropical climate. 
 
 Around this printing-press are gathered the most 
 interesting elements of his usefulness. Not that 
 his service was limited to it. He prepared books 
 and tracts, but also trained readers for them. For 
 a number of years he must have had about two 
 hundred children in regular attendance at the 
 schools in various parts of the island, established 
 by him, and under his daily supervision. Un- 
 happily, they were for the most part taught by 
 Mohammedan masters, but still the books used were 
 Christian books, and many thousands must thus 
 have acquired knowledge of the chief truths of the 
 Bible. The schools were liberally supported by 
 the Government, on condition of receiving in re- 
 turn supplies of servants for the numerous offices 
 belonging to it. For these boys, with the masters 
 and as many parents as could be induced to attend, 
 he conducted religious services in Malay every 
 Sunday morning, and also in the evening, when not 
 occupied in preaching to an English congregation. 
 
 What was done by this press was done chiefly 
 through the co-operation of the Keligious Tract 
 Society, which never had a more admiring and 
 active agent ; the paper and the woodcuts came
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. 107 
 
 almost entirely from Paternoster Bow, and by these 
 means, from his printing-office, tracts, original and 
 translated, issued in a perpetual stream, including a 
 very idiomatic rendering of The Pilgrim's Progress, 
 with several woodcuts. 1 He also translated and 
 printed at the expense of the late Mr. Isaac Crewd- 
 son, a portion of Baxter's Saint's Rest, and at the 
 expense of the Prayer-Book and Homily Society 
 the Psalter and Morning and Evening Prayers of 
 the Church of England. One of his translations 
 consisted of the section in Bishop Porteus's Lec- 
 tures on the Evidences of Christianity, in which 
 he compares Christianity with Mohammedanism; 
 and this occasioned such a ferment among the 
 people that they appealed, with their ' Scribes and 
 Pharisees ' at their head, to the governor, who was 
 compelled to summon the missionaries to a con- 
 ference, which ended, however, in no interference 
 with their work. 
 
 But this was an unusual occurrence. There 
 never was a more amiable controversialist. Here 
 is an illustration from one of his letters : ' I have 
 just been travelling for a week among the Malays 
 in Province Wellesley. For some time I had been 
 sending over Scriptures and tracts, and learnt that 
 the people were examining them. A few months 
 
 1 A copy of this is now in the Library of the Society.
 
 108 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 ago, I received a reply to some of the tracts, and 
 sent an answer which cost me much labour. 
 When I went over I saw the man with whom I had 
 been corresponding. He is high-priest of the place, 
 and has great influence. His confidential friend 
 told me that when he received my reply, he was 
 reading it till midnight, sometimes sitting, and 
 sometimes reclining on his mat. I preached the 
 gospel to him and a large congregation of his 
 people, and now and then there was a general 
 burst of applause as I spoke, the priest himself 
 joining, saying, ' All very good.' I was speaking 
 of the excellency of Christ, and His superiority to 
 all other prophets ; that He died for sinners, and 
 rose in triumph from the grave, etc. I found the 
 priest had put all the books into circulation which 
 I had sent, and urged the people to read and 
 examine them. He assured me he would distribute 
 all I sent, adding that he is now writing a book for 
 me to answer, and that, to use his own words, 
 " While I have life I will not let you go, but get 
 to your heart's core, and know all you can tell me 
 about the gospel." He had prepared coffee, rice, 
 and fowls, for my dinner at his house ; after dinner 
 I took up my quarters in an empty house, and the 
 people visited me till midnight to ask questions, 
 till at last I could talk no longer.'
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. 109 
 
 Eemarkable proof of my father's popularity, 
 notwithstanding his bold and zealous teaching, was 
 given when it became known that his removal from 
 the island was contemplated. Besides an earnest 
 petition for his continuance, signed by twenty 
 natives of influence, who declared that ' we now 
 believe and know that Christ, " the Son of God," 
 came into the world and died for mankind,' 
 another was prepared and forwarded with the 
 same prayer, which was signed by no fewer than 
 fifty-six of the leading native merchants, traders, 
 Government officials, and also a Sheik. 
 
 My father's knowledge of the native language 
 was very remarkable. One of his colleagues writes, 
 ' He spoke the Malay language with the same ease 
 with which he spoke his native tongue ; so that he 
 was never at a loss in communicating his thoughts. 
 My impression is that it was a matter of indiffer- 
 ence to him whether he expressed his thoughts in 
 Malay or in English.' So perfect was his mastery 
 of the tongue that the most learned of the local 
 native literati praised his Malay composition in the 
 highest terms, and independent chiefs of neigh- 
 bouring tribes sent messengers hundreds of miles 
 by sea or land to obtain his books or tracts. 
 
 In the work I have described I was his constant 
 companion. He taught me how to handle the com-
 
 IIO BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 positor's stick, and how to print, and to stitch, and 
 cut the edges, and do the rough binding that was 
 needed. When he attended the assizes I was with 
 him, and often after some trial that had caused 
 much excitement, he would publish a sheet contain- 
 ing comments and warnings. I have one before 
 me with a woodcut at its head supplied by the 
 Tract Society. In the distribution of tracts at the 
 festivals I was almost always at his side. As a man 
 he was subject to gusts of stormy anger, but withal 
 so tender and affectionate ! I have seen him, on 
 discerning at one of the Mohammedan festivals 
 (the Mohurrum) that his tracts had been used to 
 stiffen the tinsel-paper of the mimic shrine, tear 
 down the decorations and fling them about with 
 loud denunciation of the wickedness of thus de- 
 secrating religious literature, pointing out, to the 
 shame of the offenders, that the sacred name of 
 Allah was everywhere to be found on the dis- 
 honoured pages. On the other hand, how well do 
 I remember the pet names for his children, his 
 mingling with outplay and laughter, and how every 
 Sunday morning each of us visited him in his study, 
 to receive one of the pretty little books that came 
 from Paternoster Eow ! After this visit he would 
 lead us to the grassy plot in front of the house, 
 and there we distributed his alms, accompanied by
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. HI 
 
 pictured tracts, to a crowd of the blind and halt 
 and palsied and leprous and lunatic, who gathered 
 every Sunday from every part of the island to 
 receive his blessing. No one was more observant 
 of John Wesley's advice : ' Get all you can, save all 
 you can, give all you can.' He regarded it as a 
 ' means of grace ' for men that they should con- 
 tribute to the Mission funds ; he spared no self- 
 denial that he might personally contribute ; and I 
 do not believe there ever was a local object of 
 charity which appealed in vain to his purse. When 
 I read his original will I found that on the death 
 of his first colleague, who soon followed his wife 
 to the grave, my father at once adopted as a 
 daughter the orphan child that was left, and 
 directed by will that she should share equally in 
 everything with his own children. 
 
 What pathetic recollections crowd upon me as 
 I recall my companionship with him in his work ! 
 the visits to his schools, attendance at ceremonials 
 of public interest, evening walks among the people, 
 visits in acceptance of hospitalities from distin- 
 guished natives, journeys by land and water, perils 
 through exposure to the sun and from the nearness 
 of wild beasts, and sometimes from the anger of 
 chiefs and their officials when rebuked for oppres- 
 sion or vice. How humorous, too, were his sayings
 
 112 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 and doings in this companionship ! Can I ever 
 forget our parting ? I had to leave my island home 
 with the first streaks of the morning light, and he 
 brought me the night before to the house of a friend 
 close to the jetty from which we should embark. 
 How he lingered and lingered, and at last pressed 
 me to his bosom and rushed away with sobs that 
 yet echo in my ears ! And, unknown to me till long 
 afterwards, he was at dawn the next day near the 
 spot of embarkation, and watched with streaming 
 eyes his boy in the boat as it started and carried 
 him away for ever from his sight. Years had 
 passed when at the same spot he greeted a friend 
 from the old country, and heard from him with a 
 thrilling joy that ended in a flood of tears that his 
 son had become the avowed servant of his father's 
 God. How humble too, was he, and unpretentious, 
 and though in constant intercourse with the highest 
 functionaries of the locality, ever cherishing the 
 spirit of the apostolic law, ' Mind not high things, 
 but condescend to men of low estate.' ' When I am 
 buried,' he said, in written directions found after 
 his death, ' let there be, in any address that may 
 be spoken, no allusion to myself or my labours, for 
 I wish to be regarded simply as a sinner saved by 
 grace.' And the last sentence that could be heard 
 in his dying hours was, ' I am a poor sinner, very
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. 113 
 
 near the eternal world ; but, my Saviour, re- 
 member me now Thou art in Thy kingdom.' 
 
 At his side was my mother a woman of Israeli- 
 tish descent, who had removed to London from a 
 southern county, and there became known to him 
 as a devoted teacher in a Sunday-school. One of 
 the most important branches of her Christian ser- 
 vice sprang out of a tract. Among my father's 
 labours and influence in reference to Europeans 
 was an effort made by him to rouse the conscience 
 of many among them who formed alliances, with- 
 out the sanction of marriage, with native women, 
 and became fathers of Eurasian children. An 
 anonymous pamphlet was printed and put mysteri- 
 ously into circulation, which was I think entitled 
 Bachelor's Buttons, in which he described the 
 melancholy condition in which these children, 
 despised alike by Europeans and natives, were left 
 by their fathers when they returned to Europe. 
 The result was an appeal to my mother to take 
 some girls thus circumstanced into her family ; 
 and this led to her being habitually employed in 
 education. She was thus in several instances the 
 means of blessings inestimably precious. Some 
 illustrations of the gracious work in her orphan- 
 school have been presented in the preceding 
 chapters. But not the less was she a presence of
 
 114 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 power in the chamber of the sick, among the wives 
 of European soldiers, and wherever there was 
 trouble. To the end of her long life she received 
 testimonies of the important services she had ren- 
 dered in her various departments of Christian work. 
 Her power of ready sympathy was perhaps the 
 chief element in her qualifications for usefulness. 
 No one, whatever his or her history, circumstances, 
 needs, anxieties or sins, but found her quick to 
 realise the condition, and become tenderly in- 
 terested, and able to give counsel and help. 
 
 The last years of her life (and they numbered 
 eighty- seven) were spent by her in unceasing 
 devotion, and a more appropriate and beautiful 
 ending to such a life there could not have been. 
 It was so entirely without pain and any sense of 
 death, that one can imagine that it was just such 
 a ' translation ' as was originally designed for man 
 in his innocence. For the comfort of those who 
 suffer from bondage through the fear of death, let 
 me cite a brief description of the last hours. ' In 
 the morning of her last day among us her son called 
 to see her on his way for his daily visit to town, 
 and she was not only without pain or uneasiness, 
 but in good spirits to playfulness, speaking to him 
 in Malay, and saying as he left her, Salamat jalan, 
 " Blessed be your journey." Throughout the day
 
 THE PRINTING PRESS. 115 
 
 she was unusually bright, with all her faculties 
 busy, and speaking about everybody and everything. 
 When he returned they again had a talk, but find- 
 ing that she had had no sleep since he left her, he 
 said, " Now, dear mother, you must be quite still, 
 and go to sleep. We will pull the blind down and 
 leave you, and you must talk no more." She said, 
 "Very well, dear, if you think so." But after he 
 had said his " good-bye " and was just at the door 
 of the room, she called out, " I can't go to sleep 
 without prayer," so he knelt down, and with her 
 hand in his, thanked God for all the years of 
 " goodness and mercy," and prayed for the con- 
 tinuance of " the peace which passeth understand- 
 ing." This was the last transaction between mother 
 and son in this world. Throughout the evening she 
 seemed to be in gentle repose. About eight o'clock 
 an attending friend said "good-night " before going 
 home. The instant reply was, "But can't you do 
 something to help me to pray before you go ? " So 
 she repeated some passages of Scripture, and again 
 there was prayer. At nine her usual companion, 
 leaving her in charge of the night nurse, said her 
 " good-night," and placed her head in the position 
 she found most comfortable for sleep. But the 
 reply was, "I can't go to sleep without prayer." 
 Her friend repeated the twenty-third Psalm and a
 
 Il6 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 hymn, and prayed, and to the hymn she responded 
 in a distinct "Amen." Six minutes after she 
 passed, without being observed to be dying, into the 
 blessed rest of those who " sleep in Jesus." 
 
 ' " Like a shadow thrown 
 Softly and lightly from a passing cloud, 
 Death fell upon her.'"
 
 ii; 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 25etel-nut Jslartb en 5ete. 
 
 ow different would my life have been without 
 - - -L. my reminiscences of the grandeur and 
 beauty and love and joy which belong to the island 
 in which I was ' brought up ' ! Often do I long 
 to moor in its harbour, stand on the ramparts of 
 its tiny citadel, visit the shops of its commercial 
 street, enter the church in which I was a chorister, 
 and the free school in which I learnt my first 
 lessons, and the Court House near, so full to me of 
 tragic memories, and wander among the roads 
 crowded now with residences, and away to the 
 paddy-fields, and fruit trees, and fountains, and 
 hills ! 
 
 I would fain have been there on the 27th and 
 28th June in the year of Her Majesty's Jubilee. 
 The festivities were ushered in during the previous 
 week, when the juveniles had their sports and 
 entertainments, extending from Thursday to Satur- 
 day ; and few men could have been more deeply
 
 Il8 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 interested than myself one of the few survivors of 
 the schoolfellows of my time in watching the 
 athletic achievements of the Penang Free School. 
 But Monday the 27th was the ' great day of the 
 feast.' 
 
 The good people, of all nationalities and religions 
 and occupations, were wakened that morning, at 
 the first streaks of dawn, by the booming of 
 cannon firing a royal salute in celebration of the 
 memorable anniversary. How often have I heard 
 the guns of that fort miles and miles away from it ! 
 I remember that my first lesson about the com- 
 parative velocities of light and sound was learnt on 
 the Government Hill, whence we watched the firing 
 of the evening gun, and saw the flash long before 
 we heard the sound of the explosion. There is 
 something very inspiriting in a rapid and continued 
 salute of guns. No doubt throughout the entire 
 community, European and Oriental, there was a 
 thrill of pleasant excitement, and men and women 
 and children put on their best clothes, and with 
 beaming faces and lively curiosity, ate, drank, and 
 chatted, and went forth to see and hear all that 
 was doing. The Mohammedans, Chinese, and 
 Hindus held meetings in the morning to give final 
 touches, and sign their names, to their several 
 manifestoes. The Christians, at eight o'clock,
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND EN FETE. 119 
 
 gathered in their respective places of worship for 
 choral services of thanksgiving. 
 
 Pulo Penang from the hour of its annexation has 
 been prominently identified with loyalty to the 
 British throne. It was named Prince of Wales' 
 Island, and as such it appears in all official and 
 legal documents. The then Prince of Wales was 
 George, afterwards George IV., and accordingly 
 the chief town of the island is called George Town. 
 And, following the fashion, the church was dedicated 
 to St. George, the patron saint and champion of 
 England. Very appropriately therefore was there 
 held in this handsome building a service both 
 beautiful and impressive. The singing of the 
 National Anthem was accompanied by the emphatic 
 announcement of the colonial chaplain, that ' Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty the Queen desires to render 
 thanks to Almighty God for many mercies vouch- 
 safed during her reign, and for the loyalty of her 
 faithful subjects throughout her dominions.' A 
 service similarly characterised was held by the 
 Roman Catholics, who have grown, since the days 
 of my boyhood, into a strong and influential com- 
 munity in the island. 
 
 The scene now shifts to the Town Hall. A plat- 
 form has been erected in front of it, and on it are 
 gathered the chief representatives of civil, military,
 
 120 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 and social power. Here is the Eesident Councillor 
 whose authority is supreme in the absence of the 
 Governor of the Straits Settlements dressed in 
 his Civil Service uniform ; his honour the Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, in his judge's gown; the 
 magistrates in College gowns, hoods, and caps ; the 
 Dutch Consul General in his official garb ; the 
 officers and men of the South Lancashire regiment, 
 in their bright coats and helmets ; European 
 civilians, in the best attire they can command ; and 
 ladies adorned with all the colours, from ' grave 
 to gay, from lively to severe.' And here they re- 
 mained for some three hours under the blazing sun ! 
 But these are not all. Here are Chinese, in Man- 
 darin dress; Malays of high rank, in picturesque 
 bajus and sarongs ; Mohammedan magnates, in 
 coloured robes ; and Hindus, draped in dazzling 
 white. 
 
 Procession follows procession, filing past the 
 platform : each with its loyal and complimentary 
 address. First comes that of the European subjects 
 of Her Majesty, assuring Her Majesty of their 
 ' continued loyalty and devotion,' and subscribing 
 themselves ' with deepest respect and veneration ' 
 Her Majesty's ' most faithful subjects and dutiful 
 servants.' This is read by the Chairman of the 
 Chamber of Commerce, and acknowledged by the
 
 BETEL- NUT ISLAND EN FETE. 12 1 
 
 Resident Councillor as representing the feeling ' of 
 this important and flourishing port.' Then is read 
 the address of the Foreign Consuls, by the Consul 
 General for Holland, who appears on behalf of 
 Consular agents for the Netherlands, France, 
 Germany, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Siam, 
 and the United States. This is followed by a con- 
 gratulatory address from European subjects born 
 in this and other British Colonies. 
 
 And now come a series of specially interesting 
 congratulations. The Chinese community is first 
 on the scene, from whom four addresses emanate, 
 representing severally, the ' Celestials ' in their 
 entirety ; the hill planters at the back of the island, 
 numbering over a thousand signatories ; the mem- 
 bers of the trade confederacy, known as the Tan 
 Seng Ong Kongsee ; and the sworn members of two 
 Chinese secret societies. The spokesman on behalf 
 of the general community described as ' British- 
 born subjects of Chinese descent, and subjects of 
 the Emperor of China, under the protection of Her 
 Majesty,' is a notable gentleman. Mr. Koh Seang 
 Tat is the son of a deceased Chinese interpreter in 
 the Supreme Court. He was educated where I was, 
 primarily, in the Free School, and has used the 
 opportunities of mental and moral improvement 
 since afforded to him to the greatest advantage.
 
 122 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Accumulating some capital by his thrift in sub- 
 ordinate office in the same Court, he started a shop 
 for the sale of European goods and fancy articles ; 
 and as the result of his enterprise and industry and 
 character, he was admitted into English society, 
 visited England, where he was well received, and he 
 is now a man of wealth, and, by Her Majesty's 
 appointment, a Justice of the Peace. Two of the 
 four Chinese addresses are now before me. Both 
 are remarkable for their devout references to 
 Almighty God ; and in the one read by Mr. Koh 
 Seang Tat, there is a characteristic comparison of 
 Her Majesty with ' the most illustrious Empresses 
 of China, Thye Hooi and Loo Oo, who flourished a 
 thousand years ago, and whose names are sacred 
 and proverbial in every Chinese family.' 
 
 The Chinese are followed by the Hindus. Two 
 addresses are read one signed by seventy-one 
 traders, who describe themselves as the Chitty 
 Community, and the other by fifty-seven mer- 
 chants and officials, as generally representing the 
 Hindu community. The latter is singularly elo- 
 quent and devout in its character, expressing ' our 
 gratitude, in common with our fellow-subjects in 
 all portions of your Majesty's widespread do- 
 minions, that it has pleased Providence to spare 
 for so long a period a Sovereign whose rule has
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND EN FETE. 123 
 
 been so signally just, benevolent, and sympathetic 
 towards all who have been confided to her care ; ' 
 and ending by declaring that 'it is our fervent 
 prayer that the Almighty God may long spare you 
 to knit together in unity the multitudinous peoples 
 of your Empire, whereon the sun never sets, and 
 to continue to reign supreme in the hearts of your 
 subjects.' 
 
 The proceedings terminate by the arrival and 
 march past of the Mohammedan procession, when 
 there is read, in the Malay language, the address 
 of this very large portion of the population, which 
 is of Malayan race, by Tunku (i.e., Lord, a desig- 
 nation indicative of royal blood) Sayid Arafin, and 
 a reply given by the Councillor in the same lan- 
 guage. 
 
 But there are yet gayer scenes with which the 
 day of rejoicing is to close. The whole island and 
 the adjoining territories of the peninsula, severed 
 from it by a narrow strait, are astir. The sea 
 around is crowded with boats, and the country 
 roads with carts ; thousands upon thousands are 
 entering the town, and congregate at eligible spots 
 for the expected sights. They have not long to 
 wait. The sun sets at about six, and there is no 
 long twilight to follow. One, and another, and 
 another edifice becomes brilliant with its illumina-
 
 124 BEJ EL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 tions. Old St. George's Church is soon bright in 
 its glory. Mr. Koh Seang Tat's house rivals the 
 church in its tasteful decorations. The Penang 
 Club is also conspicuous in its adornments. The 
 shops in Beach Street, and the private residences 
 throughout the town are more or less beautifully 
 lighted. At nine o'clock the fireworks begin. The 
 Town Hall is packed with the Chinese, the platform 
 in front full of Europeans, and the esplanade and 
 roads leading to it thronged with the tens of thou- 
 sands who have gathered from north, south, east, 
 and west. Eockets and Boman candles are enthu- 
 siastically appreciated by the multitude, while the 
 set pieces elicit but scant applause. The last 
 piece, however, thrills all with delight. The 
 Queen appears in her radiant robes of regal splen- 
 dour, and underneath are the loyal words, ' Long 
 live the Queen and Empress of India ! ' 
 
 Space will not allow details of the festivities of 
 the following Tuesday, when native athletic sports 
 in the morning were succeeded in the afternoon by 
 European athletics, and a picnic entertainment on 
 board a steamship in the harbour ; and in the even- 
 ing the illuminations of Monday were successfully 
 repeated, and night closed with two balls, at both 
 of which the Besident Councillor appeared, and 
 ' dancing was kept up with great spirit till far
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND EK FETE. 125 
 
 into the morning,' and terminated in the enthu- 
 siastic singing once more of ' God save the Queen.' 
 
 I cannot, however, refrain from recording that 
 the Jubilee festivities of the week closed on Wed- 
 nesday afternoon by a sumptuous entertainment, 
 provided at his mansion by the Eesident Councillor, 
 for Sunday School children, who, with their teachers, 
 were carried across in the two Government steam- 
 launches, whose picturesque names deserve to be 
 registered in this chronicle of Jubilee Day at the 
 Island of Betel-nuts Alert and Seabird. 
 
 May I not feel proud of my little island home, 
 and thankfully see in the feeling and language of 
 its native population in their Jubilee manifesta- 
 tions some of the results of the many long years 
 of zealous labour in which my departed father 
 sought to bless the people he so much loved? 
 During the twenty-five years of his service, he 
 had under his daily visitation and superintendence 
 some six or seven schools, averaging thirty boys in 
 each ; and thousands must, therefore, have passed 
 through these schools, in which only Christian 
 books were in use; and doubtless the present 
 generation and all future generations will be 
 more or less influenced by the persistent teachings 
 of those bygone times.
 
 126 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 # Dessert in tfye Straits. 
 
 IEEMEMBEE a story told everywhere in India of 
 a Bara Padre Sahib (bishop), that when he 
 rose, at a public dinner of compliment and welcome 
 on his arrival at Calcutta, to return thanks for the 
 toast in his honour, he said, ' Gentlemen, never in 
 my life have I seen so superb and delicious a 
 dessert as is now spread before us ; but pardon me 
 for declaring that I would give it all for one 
 English gooseberry.' I, at any rate, would not 
 have pardoned the worthy bishop. The English 
 gooseberry can, I understand, be so cultured as to 
 be the most perfect specimen of its kind in the 
 world, but even then, to my taste, it is a useful 
 vegetable rather than a toothsome fruit ; but 
 perhaps its very insignificance and disagreeableness 
 adds to the glory of the patriotism which prompted 
 the speech! 
 
 I never saw a dessert in the ' City of Palaces,' 
 but can easily imagine that, even with the com-
 
 A DESSEKT IN THE STKAITS. \2J 
 
 paratively limited and inferior fruits of India 
 proper, the table on which the bishop looked must 
 have presented a charming scene. But if any one 
 wants to be fascinated by the sight and taste of 
 fruit, let him go to Betel-nut Island, where all the 
 celebrated productions of Malayasian fruit-trees 
 may be seen served in picturesque garniture at 
 the private dinner -tables of the European or 
 Chinese merchant. 
 
 Let me endeavour to picture for my readers 
 what is ever vividly present to my imagination as 
 one of the brightest fairy-like scenes of my youthful 
 days. The dining-room is spacious and lofty, with 
 large doors on every side opening on a verandah. 
 The cool evening breeze is softly blowing from the 
 sea. The short twilight time is nearly over, and 
 candles are everywhere burning gently and brightly. 
 Servants in liveries blue, white, crimson, and 
 golden, are moving noiselessly about. Around a 
 long and broad table are seated in comfortable 
 undress some twenty civilians, officers, and well-to- 
 do merchants. Behind each chair, standing on a 
 gay Persian carpet of its own, is a crystal hookah, 
 with its stem and pipe of red and gold, and its fire 
 bowl of glistening silver, and each smoker is slowly 
 imbibing, through the ' hubble-bubble ' of water, 
 the fumes of prepared tobacco (I refer to the days
 
 128 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 when the cheroot had not superseded the ancient 
 and picturesque hookah). But look at the table, 
 with its three tall fruit-stands and their encircling 
 dishes, all filled with the varied, beautiful, fragrant, 
 and luscious fruits of a country universally pro- 
 nounced ' the finest orchard in the world.' Each 
 cluster of fruit nestles in its dish, amid the leaves 
 in which it grew to its perfection. Let us look at 
 each, but only for a moment at such as are well 
 known in other lands. 
 
 For instance, how pretty are those oranges, some 
 of loose and some of tight jackets, fresh plucked 
 from the Vale of Tempe at the foot of Mount 
 Erskine, looking so radiant amid their shining 
 leaves. Not far from them are their kindred 
 pumeloes, or shaddocks, as they are called in the 
 West Indies, because introduced by a Captain 
 Shaddock, who has thus immortalised himself in 
 this pleasantly acid fruit. Here, too, is the pine- 
 apple, which, sweet though it is, notwithstanding 
 the meagre culture it receives in its home, does not 
 reach in size or flavour the petted pineapple of the 
 English hothouse. I need not write of the plan- 
 tain, or, as it is elsewhere more frequently called, 
 the banana, except to say that the Malays tell us 
 there are some sixty varieties, from the pisang mas 
 (golden plantain) to the pisang pangjang (long
 
 A DESSERT IN THE STRAITS. 129 
 
 plantain) the one being about the size of our 
 little finger, and the other often longer than from 
 the top of the middle finger to the elbow. Nor of 
 the pomegranate, with its tough yellow and pink 
 rind and tiny white and pink seeds. 
 
 The custard apple is now sometimes found in 
 the window of a city fruiterer ; but, as it is rarely 
 tasted, I may remark that it consists of a white 
 succulent substance, which is eaten with a teaspoon, 
 and is in flavour as well as in appearance not 
 unlike the custard so daintily made by the English 
 cook. I will only mention water-melons, which are 
 very plentiful, and the guava, with a flavour so 
 well known in the form of jelly, and the rarer 
 guava cheese, whose red pulp is sometimes mixed 
 by Englishmen, who emulate the patriotism 
 of the bishop whose speech has been quoted, with 
 cream, so as to pass as make-believe strawberries. 
 I could say much about the mango, which, of 
 course, is on the table, and which by many is 
 deemed unrivalled in one or two of its varieties 
 among the fruits of the East; but this also is a 
 well-known fruit, and is frequently tasted as a 
 preserve. 
 
 Let us now look more closely at the specialities 
 of this dessert. There is the rambutan, modestly 
 peeping in its gleaming scarlet coat amid its leaves
 
 130 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 of deep green, one of the prettiest dishes on the 
 table. It is covered with soft spines like hair, and 
 hence its name, which means ' hairy fruit.' Tearing 
 off the cover, there is found a tiny titbit, with a 
 flavour which is a rich and pleasant acid. Mark 
 next that fruit of pear-like shape, but with a very 
 fine skin of pinkish red, covering a pulp of stainless 
 white, and lying amid its pointed leaves of dark 
 green. It has a fragrance like that of the rose, so 
 that one variety is distinguished as ' the rose-water 
 jambu.' It is delicious, and more substantial than 
 most of the finest fruits of our island. Sometimes 
 it is served with its blossom a unique and beau- 
 tiful thing, with numerous stamens of the brightest 
 pink, on each one of which sits, as the legend has it, 
 a tiny fairy. Close by is the yellow duku, about 
 the size of a small orange, full of white trans- 
 parent pulp, lying in sections, tasting very much 
 like the best-flavoured mango, a choice, refreshing, 
 and wholesome fruit. 
 
 And now we reach the climax: 'the pride,' says 
 Marsden, who is still a regnant authority on all 
 Malayan matters, ' of the Malay islands, and per- 
 haps the most delicate fruit of the world.' * In his 
 Malay Dictionary, he describes it as ' a delicate 
 and exquisite fruit peculiar to the Malayan coun- 
 
 1 History of Sumatra, p. 81.
 
 A DESSERT IN THE STRAITS. 131 
 
 tries.' Large dishes filled with it'.lie here and there 
 on the table : about the size and roundness of the 
 orange, but with a thick, soft rind, of rich dusky 
 red, enclosing a juicy pulp of snowy whiteness, 
 lying in grooves, with one or more kernels in it, 
 which is removed to the mouth by a fork, and then 
 immediately dissolves as a delicate syrup of an 
 indescribably exquisite flavour. It is withal the 
 most innocent of fruits, may be partaken in large 
 quantities without satiety, and is often prescribed 
 ad libitum to fever patients. This is the mangosteen, 
 to produce one fruit of which an English nobleman 
 is said to have expended nearly a thousand pounds, 
 for his attempts had to be repeated year by year 
 for a considerable period. 
 
 There is one fruit not to be seen on the table I 
 have endeavoured to picture, of which, nevertheless, 
 I must write. The reader may well ask, ' Why is 
 it not there ? ' Because, strange to say, its odour 
 is indescribably offensive. By some it is likened to 
 that of garlic, by others to assafcetida, but perhaps 
 it is most like the smell of bricks when baking in a 
 kiln ; and yet it is not only the favourite fruit of 
 the natives, who can almost live on it, but Euro- 
 peans who have become accustomed to the odour 
 declare it to be the monarch of all fruits. Certainly, 
 in the luxuriance of its lusciousness, it surpasses all
 
 132 BETEL-NUT ISLAND 
 
 Malayan fruits. . I refer to the durian. The tree 
 is massive and lofty, the leaves narrow, long, and 
 pointed, the blossoms and fruit grow on the stem 
 and larger branches. When ripe, the fruit is about 
 the size and shape of a cocoanut with its husk on, 
 but it is covered with sharp spikes, so that should 
 it fall from over-ripeness upon a passer-by, it may 
 inflict a serious wound. When ready to be eaten 
 the colour is a bright yellow, and the fruit splits in 
 its natural divisions, revealing in the cells a stout 
 yellow pulp of exuberant richness, with seeds in it. 
 There are some Europeans who seem to be almost 
 intoxicated with its delights. I knew a Scotch 
 merchant, who had on his country estate at Glugar 
 a Durian tree so magnificent in appearance and 
 produce as to be known all over the island as the 
 Durian Gajah, or Elephant Durian. The fruit was 
 remarkable for the smallness of its seeds and the 
 abundance of its pulp, and it was his habit when 
 the tree was in its glory to invite parties of gentle- 
 men to his country house to feast upon the fruit. 
 It no doubt added to the piquancy of this treat 
 that the pulp had to be extracted with their fingers. 
 This is the place for some reference to the tree 
 and fruit which gave to our island its original and 
 common name the Betel-nut (Areca Catechu). 
 This is described by Dr. Eoxburgh as the most
 
 A DESSEKT IN THE STRAITS. 133 
 
 beautiful palm in India, and Dr. Hooker wrote of 
 it : ' The cultivated Areca raises its graceful head 
 and feathery crown, like an arrow shot down from 
 heaven, in luxuriance and beauty, above the verdant 
 slopes.' 1 The reference to the ' arrow ' is no doubt 
 suggested from the straightness and smoothness of 
 the stem, which varies in height from thirty to fifty 
 feet, and is usually of the same circumference 
 throughout about fifteen inches (the books say 
 twenty). The island appears to have been origin- 
 ally covered with this most graceful of palms, 
 which grew wild on it, as on many other islands of 
 the Malayan seas. The crowning leaves are from 
 three to three-and-half feet long, and are widest at 
 the point, where they are commonly split, and flutter 
 like ribbons. The famous nut grows in large 
 clusters from the stem, just below the leaves, and 
 when ripe is of a reddish yellow colour, with a firm, 
 fibrous rind covering the matured kernel, which is 
 very hard, of pear-shape, and about the size of a 
 large chesnut. 
 
 Do my readers know that at least fifty millions 
 of people chew this nut, and use it as habitually 
 and more abundantly than the most intemperate 
 devotee his snuff or tobacco? There are multitudes 
 of both sexes who begin the practice in childhood, 
 
 1 Johnaton'u Uhemittry of Common Life, Vol. n., p. 121.
 
 134 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 and are scarcely ever during the day without betel- 
 nut in their mouths. Many would rather sacrifice 
 meat and drink than the betel ; and during the 
 great Mohammedan fast of Eamadan, no depriva- 
 tion, between the hours of sunrise and sunset, is so 
 irksome as that of the betel. The nut is not used 
 by itself. It is cut into little pieces by a special 
 instrument, stowed in an oblong box or casket 
 (sometimes of silver or gold) , containing three com- 
 partments ; one for the nut (penang) , another for 
 the leaf of the betel pepper (serih), and the third 
 for quicklime, made from burnt shells (chunam), 
 and these three ingredients are combined to produce 
 a bolus ; a fresh one being put into the mouth every 
 hour. Old men and women also carry with them 
 a narrow metallic pestle and mortar, by which the 
 mixture is reduced to a paste, so as to suit it to 
 toothless gums. 
 
 This combination is said to make the nut milder ; 
 but the mixture is still hot, acrid and bitter, stain- 
 ing the saliva (which is usually swallowed) and lips 
 with a deep red colour, and blackening the teeth. 
 While increasing the flow of saliva it diminishes 
 perspiration. Its votaries will tell you that it 
 cleans the gums, fastens the teeth, gives a pleasant 
 odour to the breath, and actually that it cools the 
 mouth. Johnston (already quoted) declares that in
 
 A DESSERT IN THE STXAITS. 135 
 
 damp and fever-breeding districts its use is ' really 
 very conducive to health.' There is, I believe, no 
 doubt about its counteracting influence in the case 
 of opium poisoning. In England the nut, in its 
 baked powdered state, is, I understand, extensively 
 used in the preparation of the choicest tooth 
 powder. 
 
 The betel-nut casket, and betel-nut chewing, 
 figure amongst the Malays in all ceremonials, 
 public and domestic. The casket-bearer is one of 
 the important attendants of royalty. Immediately 
 after saluting one another, two people on meeting, 
 offer to each other a pinch out of the casket or bag. 
 Not to offer or not to accept, would be not only a 
 breach of politeness, but endanger an old friendship. 
 And a man of high rank would regard the approach 
 and speech of an inferior who had not first chewed 
 betel as an intended insult. l 
 
 Some of my readers may be interested in the two 
 following recipes. 
 
 HOW TO BOIL RICE. 
 
 The chief point is so to boil rice as not to lose in 
 the water its nutritious properties. As it is usually 
 cooked, there is more water with it than the grains 
 
 1 Marsden's Hittory of Sumatra, p. 244.
 
 136 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 can absorb, and, in consequence, the goodness is 
 left in the water, so that when cold it becomes a 
 thick starch, which is so much taken out of the 
 feeding properties of the rice. Eice is, therefore, 
 only properly boiled when no water is left, but all of 
 it has been absorbed by the grains in the boiling. 
 
 There are two modes of cooking for effecting this. 
 In the one case the rice is put into cold water, in a 
 saucepan without a cover, slowly caused to boil, 
 and then kept boiling for fifteen minutes. In the 
 other process it is put into water already boiling, 
 and kept boiling for from fifteen to twenty minutes. 
 The various kinds of rice differ as to the time they 
 require to become soft ; but the rice is sufficiently 
 boiled when on squeezing two or three of the grains 
 between the finger and thumb no hardness is found 
 in them. On no account should it be boiled till it 
 becomes a pulpy mass. The grains should not be 
 wet, but nevertheless fully swollen with all the 
 water they can absorb. 
 
 On the whole, perhaps, the best recipe is this : 
 Take out of the rice all the discoloured grains, and 
 then wash it twice or three times, and let it soak in 
 water for an hour. This will clean the rice, take 
 the raw taste away, and soften it for boiling. 
 Then drop the rice in rather less than three times 
 its bulk of boiling water, and boil for fifteen minutes.
 
 A DESSERT IN THE STRAITS. 137 
 
 While boiling, stir it occasionally, or shake the 
 saucepan, to prevent lumpiness and burning, and 
 remove any scum that may rise. Throw into it 
 some salt when it has been boiling for ten minutes. 
 When done there should be no water left. Empty 
 the rice into a large colander, and take it to the 
 tap and let cold water run through it for about a 
 minute (this solidifies while it separates the grains), 
 and then return it to the saucepan, and keep it near 
 the fire till it is quite dry, and the grains are 
 distinct from each other. 
 
 Rice thus prepared has flavour, and is nourishing. 
 It is not only useful for curries, but can be used as 
 a vegetable. It is very nice with fish, especially if 
 dried, and meat stews, and fruit stews, and with 
 gravies and syrups generally. Its most delicious 
 form is that of pillau. I was born in one of the 
 finest rice countries in the world, and give in this 
 recipe the results of long experience. 
 
 INDIAN PILLAU IN ITS SIMPLEST PREPARATION. 
 
 I. INGREDIENTS REQUIRED 
 
 A small turkey, or a large plump fowl or rabbit, or 
 four pounds of neck or loin of mutton, with fat 
 removed, or four pounds of cod or turbot. One 
 pound of good rice, after being washed and soaked
 
 138 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 for an hour, and then dried. One ounce coriander 
 seed, twenty-four peppercorns, twelve cloves, a pinch 
 or two of grated nutmeg pounded in a mortar, and 
 tied in a muslin bag (instead of cloves and nutmeg, 
 twelve allspice may be used) . Six small sliced onions, 
 or, if preferred, quarter of a pound of sultanas. 
 Some use both in the same pillau. To many the 
 richness in the stock from the . meat suffices ; but 
 most would probably like added to it half a pint 
 of cream, or two ounces of melted salt butter. Salt 
 and pepper to taste and two teaspoonfuls of saffron 
 for colouring. 
 
 II. HOW TO USE THEM 
 
 Put the meat, the bag of seasoning, and the 
 onions, with three pints of water, into a stewpan, 
 and boil slowly for three-quarters of an hour. 
 Throw in the rice, and cream and saffron, and boil 
 twenty minutes. If fish is used, the rice and 
 seasoning, and other ingredients, should be put 
 together in the stewpan, and the whole boiled twenty 
 minutes. Drain the whole in a colander, and put 
 it by the fire, till the rice is dry and fully swollen. 
 Then remove the muslin bag, put the meat on a 
 hot dish, cover it with the rice, and garnish with 
 two or more hard boiled eggs, and a few cloves. 
 
 Serve hot.
 
 139 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Sasts anb 5estipals. 
 
 I. HINDU. 
 
 READING recently an elaborate description of 
 the Hindu festival in honour of Eama, the 
 hero of the celebrated Sanscrit poem entitled Eama- 
 yana, I was set musing on the many festivals which 
 interested me to fascination in the days of my 
 boyhood in the East. My recollections are so real, 
 and contain so much that seems to me to deserve 
 record, that I hope others will be interested in a 
 few stories belonging to my personal knowledge 
 and experience of these festivals. Of the Eama 
 festival I have no remembrance although the 
 romantic history of Prince Eama and his wife Sita, 
 and of the doings of the wicked giant Eavana, who 
 stole her from her husband, and of the monkey- 
 general Hanuman, and his monkey army and their 
 miraculous bridge, by whose means the giant was 
 defeated and slain, and the virtuous wife restored, 
 were as familiar to me as the fairy tales of the
 
 140 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 North are familiar to the girls and boys of England. 
 I believe the reason for my never being at this 
 festival is that its celebration is not universal, but 
 limited to certain places and possibly classes in 
 India proper. 
 
 It is a very remarkable fact that though Eama 
 (an incarnation, like the favourite Krishna, of 
 Vishnu) and Sita ( an incarnation of Luchmi) are 
 very popular personages in the Hindu pantheon, 
 neither is represented by an image, and for neither 
 does there, I believe, exist a temple throughout 
 India. The public reading or reciting of the Eama- 
 yana is regarded as the worship appropriate to 
 them accompanied as it is by the rapturous ad- 
 miration and applause of those who crowd to hear 
 the story. Perhaps because of this extraordinary 
 feature of the Eama worship its practical spi- 
 rituality as compared with the worship offered to 
 other deities, the festival is not celebrated by the 
 castes which migrated to Ultra-Gangetic regions. 
 
 The Hindu festival with which I was most 
 familiar is of a very different type. Everybody 
 who knows anything of Hinduism knows of its 
 Divine Triad. Brahma is the Creator, whose wor- 
 ship is among the orthodox Hindus practically 
 extinct, but is revived by the Hindu reformers of 
 the Brahmo Somaj. Vishnu is the Preserver,
 
 fASTS AND FESTIVALS. 141 
 
 whose best known form is that of Juggernath (Lord 
 of the world), with whose worship, as Dr. Hunter 
 has pointed out, because the image is representa- 
 tive of the Preserver (who turns with horror from 
 even the death of a fly), the mutilations and 
 suicides of which exaggerated accounts have been 
 given, are utterly irreconcilable. Siva is the 
 Destroyer with whom, as more intensely pos- 
 sessed of the terrible powers described by the 
 epithet, is associated his wife Kali (also known as 
 Durga and Bhowani). It is also well-known that, 
 speaking broadly, Hindus are either worshippers of 
 Vishnu or Siva, 1 and carry respective insignia of 
 each in their ornaments and in coloured lines on 
 their foreheads. 
 
 It was with the yearly festival certainly the 
 most important of Hindu celebrations of Kali, 
 commonly known as the Durga puja (worship), that 
 I was most familiar. The first notification of its 
 arrival was noise noise increasing in vehemence 
 as night approached, caused by the beating of 
 drums and metallic plates, and by loud and frenzied 
 shouts, especially of the cry, Hari bol ! Hari bol ! 
 I believe very often the sounds are so tumultuous 
 
 1 I include in this generalization the Saktat, who, as worshippers 
 of Kali, are identified with the principle represented by Siva. There 
 are far more who thus honour the wife rather than the husband.
 
 142 
 
 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 and even alarming, that permission has to be 
 previously obtained from the local authorities for 
 license to indulge in the tremendous clamour 
 
 THE GODDESS KALI. 
 
 which characterizes the festival. Another feature 
 was the plentiful use of red clay and sand, in the 
 houses, on the roads, on the faces and breasts of 
 the celebrants, and freely cast upon the gathering
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS, 143 
 
 crowds, whether votaries or not red, I suppose, 
 as emblematic of blood, on which Kali feeds. 
 
 With these general features of the arrival of this 
 celebration, there appear images in clay of the 
 goddess, the one particularly in which she figures 
 with snakes coiled about her coal-black body, and 
 a huge necklet of human skulls, with a drawn 
 scimitar in one of her four hands, and the head of 
 a slaughtered giant in another, dancing in ex- 
 ultation because of this slaughter, and with her 
 tongue protruding, to denote her surprise at finding 
 herself in her sacred orgy inadvertently stamping 
 on the prostrate form of her husband, Siva. These 
 images are multiplied in all directions, and placed 
 in temporary shrines in or near the houses of the 
 well-to-do votaries of the goddess. Before them 
 festive offerings, sometimes of slain animals, but 
 especially of flowers and butter, are made, and at 
 night dances performed amid the blaze of flaming 
 torches, and to the sound it may be of European 
 music. At one period it -was, alas ! common for 
 English officials, civil and military, to be seen at 
 the evening rejoicings. At the end of the festivals, 
 the images are carried in procession amid inde- 
 scribable revelry and uproar to the sea, river-side, 
 or a tank, and submerged in the waters. I re- 
 member how I engaged the friendly services of a
 
 144 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Brahmin schoolfellow to save for me at least a part 
 of one of these images, and that he succeeded in 
 securing the head of the unfortunate giant, which 
 I carefully packed in a box and brought to England 
 as a magnificent trophy. 
 
 But to me the great sight of the festival was the 
 Churruck puja, or swinging worship, now, like 
 Suttee, 1 put down by the strong arm of British 
 authority. I had reason for being deeply inter- 
 ested in one of these scenes. Our saice (horse- 
 keeper), when he had his only son, an infant, 
 dangerously ill, had, I know, registered a vow that, 
 if the [child's life were preserved, he would do 
 honour to 'the gods by swinging at the Churruck 
 puja. The child recovered, but I had forgotten the 
 vow. When the festival arrived, I accompanied 
 my father as usual when he went to the open fields, 
 on which the swinging poles were erected, to speak 
 and give tracts to the crowds that would be 
 gathered. My readers have probably seen repre- 
 sentations of these poles. They are fixed upright 
 in the ground, and are some thirty feet high, and 
 across the top of each is a horizontal beam, moving 
 on a swivel, with a rope at one end, to which the 
 
 1 See article in the Calcutta Review, January, 1886, on ' Obsolete 
 Crime in Bengal." Eight hundred and thirty-nine cases of Suttee 
 were reported in the year 1818.
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS, 145 
 
 devotee is attached, and another at the other end 
 hanging to the ground, ,by means of which excited 
 groups of men, as they run with the rope hi their 
 hands, turn round and round the beam on its 
 pivot. 
 
 As we approached one of the poles, we observed 
 a band of men besmeared with red ochre, with 
 their hands uplifted, and shouting with all their 
 might, dancing together to the sound of a shrill 
 pipe and a loud turn-turn, and moving towards 
 the foot of the pole. In the midst was our 
 saice, with garlands of flowers round his head and 
 neck and body, vociferating and dancing, and 
 evidently in a state of mad excitement, in part 
 owing, probably, to the free administration of the 
 intoxicating bhang (Indian hemp). Arrived at the 
 foot of the pole, the band of men moved away on 
 each side of him, and he stretched himself prostrate 
 with his face to the ground. And what did we 
 then see ? A Brahmin gathered with his fingers 
 the muscles which cluster a little below the 
 shoulder-blades, and first on one side and then on 
 the other forced through them iron hooks (with 
 sharp moveable caps) fastened to cords, which were 
 tied together at about a foot's distance from the 
 hooks. No cry was heard, nor seemed there to be 
 any shudder or shrinking of the outstretched form.
 
 146 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 The piercing points removed, the man rose, and 
 amid the bellowing multitude, and a storm of dis- 
 cordant sounds from drums and fifes, renewed the 
 dance and the shouting till he reached the sus- 
 pended cord. Then a bag was hung to his side 
 containing flowers, cakes, and living pigeons, the 
 beam was lowered, and the hooks were attached to 
 the rope. This done, the group of men at the 
 other side moved first with slow step, but soon 
 quickly round and round with the other rope in 
 their hands, and the suspended victim swung in 
 mid air, throwing from time to time among the 
 crowds the contents of his bag. 
 
 Never can I forget the sensation when, after 
 some minutes of this gyration, the men that were 
 running halted, and the beam was lowered, and 
 the infant child was handed to the father. With 
 the child in his arms, thus adding to the cruel 
 strain of the hooks, he again swung round and 
 round, though more gently, over the heads of the 
 applauding crowd. 
 
 I ought to add that, owing to fatal accidents, it 
 was required by the government authorities that 
 the devotees should be protected by a strong band 
 over the hooks and round the chest, and now, 
 happily (as has been stated), this perilous form of 
 fanatical worship has been universally suppressed.
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 147 
 
 But nevertheless, it is right that these personal 
 recollections should indicate how ' their sorrows 
 are multiplied who hasten after another god.' I 
 know that the recollections of these scenes inspired 
 me with passionate desire for missionary service, 
 and this mercifully became the means of my re- 
 solving on a Christian life. 
 
 II, MOHAMMEDAN. 
 
 I PASS now to Mohammedan festivals. The 
 population amid which I lived had a mixed 
 character; and both because the mass of the 
 people were Moslem, and also because of their 
 intrinsic elements, these festivals were to me of 
 far deeper interest than any other. It is not my 
 province to describe all the festivals, nor, indeed, 
 to present the particulars belonging to any one 
 except so far as is necessary to the understanding 
 of my personal connection with it. Two of them 
 stand out very prominently the Ramadan and 
 the Mohwrrum. The first belongs to all Islam, and 
 the second specially to the Shiahs ('Adherents'), 
 the smaller of the two chief of the Mohammedan 
 sects the other being the Sunnies (' Traditionists ').
 
 148 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Of the Ramadan my recollections relate chiefly to 
 the self-righteous vain-glory of our zealous Moslem 
 servants, who would boastfully open their mouths 
 for inspection, in proof of complete abstinence from 
 food, water, and betel-nut ; and the vociferous re- 
 joicings which welcomed the termination of the days 
 of fasting. But the Shiah festival of the Mohurrum 
 is suggestive to me of the most vivid pictures. 
 
 I will try to give a clear notion (which is not 
 easy to get) of the subject of this celebration. At 
 the time of the death of the prophet of Islam there 
 were four ' companions ' of the prophet eligible to 
 be Caliph (' Successor '). Two of them were his 
 fathers-in-law, and the other two sons-in-law. 
 But only one of the latter had children, and he, 
 moreover, was cousin-german to the prophet Ali, 
 a man of universal genius as well as of extra- 
 ordinary courage from his boyhood and this one, 
 therefore, more especially as representing grand- 
 sons of the prophet (Hassan and Housein), is 
 declared by the Shiahs to have been the only 
 rightful heir to the prophet's place and authority, 
 and is, indeed, regarded as actually equal to the 
 prophet himself. It is a fundamental rule that 
 the Caliph must belong to the prophet's tribe the 
 Koreish. Undoubtedly, therefore, the Shereef of 
 Mecca is the legitimate Caliph, and not the Sultan
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 149 
 
 of Turkey. All four belonged to this tribe, and 
 moreover, were connected with the prophet by 
 marriage (Mohammed had seventeen wives) ; but 
 Ali, as relation by blood, and as the father of the 
 sons of Mohammed's daughter Fatima the mother 
 and sons being the only surviving lineal descendants 
 of the prophet fully represented blood relationship 
 with the prophet, and thus certainly had, with his 
 other qualifications, supreme claims to be Caliph 
 and also Iman (semi-inspired teacher), or rather 
 Iman-ul-Mussilmin (chief prophetic teacher of all 
 Moslems), Mohammedanism being without a 
 priesthood. But the other three, through the 
 struggles of faction, preceded Ali as Caliphs and 
 Imans ; and Ali, after his accession, was as- 
 sassinated in a mosque (A.D. 661), and subsequently 
 his two sons, Hassan and Housein, the grandsons 
 of the prophet, were treacherously slain. The 
 Shiahs accordingly (including the whole of the 
 Persians) reject the authority of the three pre- 
 decessors of Ali as that of usurpers, and also all 
 the traditions (Sunna) belonging to their several 
 Caliphates, consisting of expositions, comments, 
 and additions to the Kuran. The Mohurrum 
 is the annual celebration in Memoriam of the 
 violent death of Ali and his two sons but more 
 particularly of the two sons, Hassan and Housein, 
 as the canonized martyrs of Islam.
 
 150 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 When it is remembered that now nearly 1200 
 years have passed away since the tragic events 
 occurred which are thus commemorated, it is 
 something astonishing to see the powerful emotions 
 still excited by the recollections of them. Often 
 these emotions are roused to a pitch which amount 
 to frenzy, and find vent in furious fights with 
 the Moslem dissentients and their supposed sym- 
 pathisers. I often wonder how my father and I, 
 absolutely defenceless as we were, escaped violent 
 handling or vehement execration from the crowds, 
 in turns raging and wailing over the various scenes 
 belonging to the commemoration. 1 I can vividly 
 recall that sometimes I shudcfered and sought 
 flight as I looked upon the representation of the 
 murderers of the martyrs as demons from hell 
 men whose naked bodies were made densely black 
 by charcoal and oil, with streaks of red paint on 
 their faces, dancing in circles, howling, and yelling, 
 and beating time, each with two short and stout 
 sticks in his hands. I remember, too, on the 
 other hand, rows of young men, solemn and tear- 
 ful, draped in white muslin, arranged in successive 
 
 1 It is well known, too, that no Musalmans are more intensely 
 zealous than those of the Malayan race. A large proportion of 
 the Hadjis or pilgrims to Mecca is supplied by it. Some Malays 
 (men and women) perform the pilgrimage twice and even oftener in 
 their lives.
 
 MOHAMMEDAN FANATICS AT THE MOHURRUM FESTIVAL.
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 153 
 
 files, walking in slow procession, one apart, 
 moving backwards, with his face towards the 
 others, plaintively reciting verses descriptive of 
 the martyrdom, and his monotone broken at in- 
 tervals with refrains (chiefly consisting simply of 
 the two names, Hassan ! Housein !) from the rest 
 in sounds of wailing, accompanied by the simul- 
 taneous rising and falling of their arms, and the 
 rattling of metallic castanets. I know it was 
 sometimes hard to keep ourselves from tears as 
 we saw and heard them. 
 
 Then there were here and there the gorgeous 
 but ephemeral tabuts structures of bamboo-paper 
 and tinsel, representing the tombs of the martyrs 
 carried about the streets each evening, and at 
 the end of the festival publicly destroyed. Near to 
 the mosque would be ornamented sheds open to 
 the streets, with white-robed and turbaned moollahs 
 (mosque officials), seated under canopies, reciting 
 narratives and eulogies of the martyred dead. 
 Passing from these to the spacious open court of 
 the chief mosque, we repeatedly became witnesses 
 of scenes which have filled my mind with weird 
 memories, in which astonishment, horror, and 
 admiration are mingled. 
 
 Turning to our left as we passed through the 
 entrance gate of the yard, we came to a small 
 
 L
 
 154 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 charcoal fire with five or six large tambourines 
 lying near to it, and a number of roughly-made 
 iron daggers, skewers, and swords. Soon after 
 our arrival a man appeared, somewhat advanced 
 in life, stirred the burning embers, and put the 
 ends and edges of the implements into the fire, 
 and then taking up a tambourine, placed himself 
 opposite the fire in a kneeling posture, swaying him- 
 self to and fro upon his heels, beating his drum, 
 and vociferating La Illah Ilallah. He was followed, 
 one by one, by six or seven men (whose Sheikh he 
 was), in the prime of life, sparingly clad, of strong 
 build and resolute look. Each as he arrived took 
 up a tambourine, and placed himself at the side of 
 the Sheikh, so as eventually to form a half-circle, 
 with the fire before them, in the same attitude as 
 the leader, striking his drum and shouting in 
 concert with him. The beating becomes more and 
 more violent, and the shouts, Ya Allah! quicker 
 and louder, till the sweat falls heavily from each 
 to the ground, and the whole soul of each is 
 evidently absorbed in passionate and well-nigh 
 maddened enthusiasm. The few sight-seeing 
 stragglers who come after us soon grow into a 
 crowd of eager spectators, arranging themselves 
 around, and as the performers increase in their 
 excitement, become themselves so intensely moved
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 155 
 
 as to echo back their shouts. Suddenly one of the 
 band throws down his drum, rushes to the other 
 side of the fire, seizes one of the daggers, to- 
 wards one end of which is a circular hollow ball, 
 formed of rings, and whirling himself round and 
 round, he plunges it to the ball into his abdomen ! 
 Soon after another follows him into the open space 
 between the fire and the crowd, and seizing the 
 skewers, runs one through his throat from the 
 front, a second through his mouth from cheek to 
 cheek, and a third through the fleshy part of one 
 arm, and a fourth through the other arm. The 
 drums, if possible, beat louder, and the cries 
 become quicker and stronger, as the men run from 
 side to side, and show themselves and their wounds 
 to the people. This is followed by the rising of 
 three men, one of whom seizes the sword from the 
 fire. This is held by two of them, with the edge 
 uppermost, at one end by the hilt, and at the 
 other the point, with a bundle of rags, while the 
 third man raises himself, stands with bare feet on 
 the edge of the sword, ^sometimes lifting them 
 alternately up and down, keeping his balance by 
 touching the heads of those who carry him on the 
 sword. When this is over, the Sheikh or head 
 dervish follows, aod seizing a piece of red-hot 
 flaming charcoal, throws it into his mouth, and
 
 156 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 crunches it into powder, and, if I am not mistaken, 
 swallows the whole. 
 
 I should hardly venture to put these scenes 
 upon record, lest I should be charged to use part 
 of the famous antithesis of Sheridan with going to 
 my ' imagination for facts,' were there not already 
 published a complete confirmation by the high 
 authority of Mr. Laurence Oliphant in The Land of 
 Gilead (p. 426). My only doubt is as to whether 
 the scenes belong to the Mohurrum or Ramadan ; 
 their fanaticism savours of the first, but the 
 orthodoxy of the sect to which the performers 
 belong (described by Oliphant) points to the 
 second. 
 
 Mr. Oliphant appears to have seen more of a 
 like kind, but I only describe what I can re- 
 member. The most extraordinary part of the 
 facts is that not only were the men apparently 
 uninjured, but not a drop of blood was to be seen 
 either on their flesh or on the implements used, 
 nor any sign of swelling or inflammation about the 
 wounds inflicted. Each, however, had the marks 
 upon him of former inflictions, appearing like in- 
 durated or cicatrised flesh. Mr. Oliphant quotes a 
 surgeon who went with him to the sight at 
 Damascus, and who had for some years examined 
 the men during their performances, as declaring
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 157 
 
 that he was utterly at a loss for any explanation, 
 and never ceased to wonder that there was neither 
 death nor permanent injury, and never even an 
 effusion of blood. It should be borne in mind that 
 tenacity of life is often found to exist in special 
 proportion to the perils which threaten it. This is 
 often noticed in reference to infant life; so of 
 savages. A case is given in Gates' Matabele Land 
 (p. 209), of a man who had been ' hacked with axes 
 and left for dead.' When Dr. Gates (now deceased) 
 went with a lantern to look at him, he found ' a 
 hole at the base of the skull, perhaps two inches 
 long, and an inch-and-a-half wide,' and it 'pene- 
 trated into the substance of the brain, so that a 
 mouse could have sat in it.' ' I poured,' he says, 
 ' some arnica and water into the hole, and when he 
 lifted up his head, a perfect stream of it ran down 
 his back.' The man ' enjoyed his supper,' started 
 in the morning on a long journey, and was seen 
 again the following year, ' apparently in perfect 
 health.' As to the absence of blood, may this not 
 be traceable to the weapons being heated, and 
 therefore singeing the wounds as they are made ? 
 Mr. Oliphant does not, however, refer to the imple- 
 ments seen by him as heated. I am quite sure on 
 this point, as it respects the scenes belonging to 
 my experience.
 
 158 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 An article in the Daily News of Dec. 28, 1883, en- 
 titled A Visit to the Holy City of Kainvan, written 
 by an English lady, describes a similar scene : 
 
 * By degrees the devotees rose from the carpet, 
 and stood along the wall of the room opposite to 
 us. They then began to sway from side to side, 
 keeping time to the music; then as the music 
 became louder they swayed more and more, side- 
 way and forwards, at last bending down on one 
 knee and rapidly rising again. 
 
 ' At last one of them began to roll his head 
 round and round on his breast. Upon this the 
 lesser priests brought him forward on to the 
 matting, and removed the fez, turban, and white 
 cap, leaving his head bare. The head was shaved, 
 with the exception of a long, thick bunch of hair 
 in the centre, which sometimes hung down to the 
 waist. With this the prophet will lift them up 
 into paradise; The music played louder and 
 louder, and they all began to groan or rather, I 
 should say, to howl until the noise was almost 
 insupportable. Then one after the other became 
 seized with the delirium, rolling their heads and 
 eyes in a manner that almost frightened me. 
 Then the assistant priests removed the garments 
 from their shoulders, and the brazier was handed 
 from one to another, over which they held their
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 159 
 
 heads to inhale its fumes. Each man then knelt 
 before the high priest, who prayed into each ear 
 in succession. A number of swords were then 
 brought forward. They consist of broad blades 
 of steel; instead of handles, these swords were 
 fitted into round blocks .of wood, about six baches 
 hi diameter and two niches thick. The devotees 
 seized them with both hands at the handle and 
 point, and began to raise them over their heads 
 and bring them down with all their force against 
 their waists. Several then knelt down, and placed 
 the points of the swords against the muscles of 
 the shoulder near the neck. The priests then 
 drove the points into the flesh with small wooden 
 mallets, so as to project through the skin on the 
 other side. They then walked about with the 
 swords hanging down from their skin. Very little 
 blood flowed from these wounds, which were not 
 inflicted in dangerous places. A quantity of pieces 
 of sharp broken glass and crockery were then pro- 
 duced, and the devotees commenced to eat them. 
 These pieces of glass were about the size of an 
 ordinary hen's eggs, and consisted of broken lamps 
 or vessels of any description. These they crushed 
 up with their teeth and swallowed them, some- 
 times lying and rolling over on the floor in agonies 
 of pain. A French officer handed me one of these
 
 160 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 pieces of glass, which resembled a piece of a 
 broken wine glass. The noise and confusion be- 
 came deafening, and the worshippers had evidently 
 lost all control over themselves. I then saw a 
 man appear at the door with a large branch of 
 prickly pear. He was carrying it on his shoulders. 
 It was at once torn in pieces, and the large oval 
 leaves covered with thorns an inch long thrown on 
 the ground. The priests then pressed the backs of 
 the devotees down upon the leaves with some force, 
 and in this manner their backs were covered with 
 spines, which were picked out by the high priest. 
 Some commenced to eat the leaves, with the 
 thorns upon them. The pain these men suffered 
 must have been intense, the perspiration stood on 
 their foreheads, and tears streamed down their 
 faces, but they never ceased to shout and call upon 
 the name of Allah. So occupied were they that 
 they did not seem to notice us, though, as they 
 strode about the room, I had to shrink back to the 
 wall to keep from contact with them.' 
 
 I have spoken of the feelings induced by these 
 extraordinary spectacles as comprising admiration 
 in them. I knew even then this much that all 
 this was done in the name of Allah, and as the 
 outcome of consecration, however fanatical, to Him 
 and His service ! Mr. Oliphant gives details on
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS, l6l 
 
 this aspect of the subject of deep interest. The 
 men I saw were doubtless dervishes of the order he 
 describes numbering some ten thousand found 
 in all parts of the Moslem world, and gathering 
 disciples from every class and sect. The founder, 
 Sheikh Said Ahmed el Bedaur, lived two hundred 
 years ago, and lies buried in Egypt ; but though he 
 organised the order, the power ascribed to the 
 miraculous interpositions of God existed, it is 
 affirmed, for ages before him, but is only bestowed 
 where there is intense consecration of the will in 
 the exercises of prayer, the practice of virtue, and 
 the cultivation of spiritual purity. There is also 
 in use an elixir, which is said to give healing pro- 
 perties to saliva, so that when applied to wounds 
 which bleed, it stops the flow of blood, and also in 
 other ways prevents ill effects. The power, it is 
 declared, is given for the glory of God and His 
 prophet, and unless there be the consecration 
 required, any attempt to perform ' the miracles ' 
 must prove fatal. No one can be surprised that 
 scenes of the kind described are among the most 
 vivid of my recollections, and I hope I can add 
 that there has come from them something of moral 
 influence on my life. What means of good and 
 evil lie in the living pictures retained by memory 
 of the scenes and events of youth !
 
 1 62 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 III. CHINESE. 
 
 I HAVE often thought that of all pagans the 
 Chinese stand in the front rank as to the 
 realisation of the immortality of man. The 
 majority of them are Buddhists, and, of course, 
 Buddhism acknowledges this great truth ; but it 
 so teaches it as certainly to obscure the idea of 
 conscious personal immortality. There is con- 
 siderable confusion, and even contradiction, in its 
 various theories about the state of Nirvana ; but it 
 appears to me that among the Chinese the uni- 
 versal prevalence of ancestral worship corrects the 
 notion of Nirvana as a condition in which person- 
 ality and identity are lost. Although every other 
 sign of religious faith may be wanting, I presume 
 there is no Chinese family that has not somewhere 
 in its possession one or more sacred tablets, on 
 which are inscribed the names of its ancestors, and 
 to this tablet occasionally, if not habitually, offer- 
 ings of a religious kind are made. 
 
 It is not, perhaps, so well known that the 
 Chinese Government not only zealously encour- 
 ages the worship of the individual spirits of de- 
 ceased men and women who have won distinction 
 by public character or service, but actually, by
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 163 
 
 formal decree, deifies them, and ordains temples to 
 be erected, and offerings to be presented to them. In 
 fact, Dr. Edkins' Religion in China, 1878, 1 states 
 that it is a common belief that the emperor has 
 power to appoint to posts of authority in the un- 
 seen world the spirits of the dead, just as he thus 
 honours living men in his earthly empire. No 
 doubt the future life is to the Chinese made a 
 realm of dark and shifting shadows by the hetero- 
 geneous teachings and customs which prevail ; but 
 I cannot but believe that, notwithstanding, there 
 is among them something that may be regarded as 
 a positive belief in the existence of the soul after 
 its separation from the body, and that this belief 
 is more distinct and practical than is to be found 
 anywhere else in heathendom. 
 
 Freely admitted, because of my presumed inno- 
 cent youthfulness, among all classes of the native 
 communities found at Penang, I well remember 
 the ancestral tablets, and the candles and sticks 
 of incense which burned before them, and the cups 
 of rice and of spirit presented by the head of the 
 family on his knees. Once I was present at a 
 very remarkable funeral scene. The father of the 
 household had died, and, dressed in his best 
 clothes, the body was placed in its huge coffin. 
 
 1 Lyall s Asiatic Studiet, p. 140.
 
 164 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 No doubt the form of the Chinese coffin is familiar 
 to most of my readers. Sometimes two or three 
 of them are piled one above the other outside a 
 Chinaman's house, on the right or left of the en- 
 trance of the house. I recollect my father saying 
 that at first he often thought this circumstance a 
 remarkable indication of the Chinaman's desire to 
 have his mortality always before him, as a motive 
 to prompt action and a virtuous life. Each coffin 
 thus located was, he thought, a solemn memento 
 mori to the various members of the family for 
 whom the coffins were intended. But inquiry 
 divulged the characteristic, and very mundane 
 fact, that coffins, being expensive articles, being 
 from four to six inches in thickness, were bought 
 when it happened, from various circumstances, 
 that they could be got at a cheap rate. These 
 coffins, therefore, instead of being means of moral 
 teaching, were simply the signs of clever bar- 
 gaining ! 
 
 I saw the dead man, at last, in the coffin he had 
 long before bought. On his left side stood a relative 
 who seemed to be master of the ceremonies. On 
 the right, arrayed in grey sackcloth, were the 
 widow and fatherless children, standing in a row, 
 with the mother at one end and the youngest child 
 at the other. There was no loud and boisterous
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 165 
 
 lamentation, but quiet weeping, with an occasional 
 moan from the widow. As they thus stood at the 
 bier, the man on the left placed on each side and 
 at the head and feet of the deceased father, copper 
 coins, his long pipe and its pouch filled with 
 tobacco, and packets of uncooked rice and other 
 food. He then took up from the floor, where lay 
 a bundle of canes of different lengths, the longest, 
 and, addressing the dead man, said, as he put this 
 cane on one side of the body, ' Here (naming the 
 deceased) is your wife (naming her), who has loved 
 you so long, and will be with you wherever you 
 may go.' The poor widow, I remember, uttered 
 her name aloud as the man put the cane in the 
 coffin. He then took a shorter cane, and repeating 
 the name of the eldest child as the mother men- 
 tioned it, said, as he put the cane at his side, 
 ' Here is your eldest child.' Then came a son, 
 and he was spoken of as his constant companion 
 and comfort, and so on with the third and fourth 
 to the last. The heavy lid was then placed on the 
 coffin, and the bearers came in, fastened their stout 
 cords around it, and by poles under them and 
 across the top lifted the bier, and bore it away. 
 The coffin was preceded by a tiny gilded pavilion, 
 in which was carried the ancestral tablet, and by 
 some men beating gongs, and others firing crackers,
 
 1 66 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 and others, again, dropping square pieces of paper, 
 with strips of silver or gold leaf pasted upon them, 
 the latter to be turned into coin in the world of 
 spirits, and thus made available for the deceased 
 man's service, and the gong and cracker sounds to 
 alarm and drive away the demons that hover about 
 the dead that they may catch the spirit, which is 
 near, or at least disturb its peace. The procession 
 moved rapidly, all seemingly going at a trot, the 
 bearers being relieved from time to time. 
 
 I did not go with them to the Chinese burying- 
 place ; but I knew it well, spread on the hillside, 
 and its tombs shaped like the last letter of the 
 Greek alphabet, i, and had often seen there the 
 relatives of the buried, with candles, and incense, 
 and flowers, and rice, as gifts to their dead. 
 These visits were periodical ; but twice, I think, 
 every year, there was a general visit for the benefit 
 and honour of the dead. The tombs . are then 
 swept and repaired, and streamers of white and 
 red paper affixed, to show that this duty has been 
 fulfilled. Keturning to the scene in the house, I 
 ought to remark that I have never heard from any 
 one else of a like ceremony among the Chinese ; 
 and I imagine that perhaps an explanation for it 
 may be found in the circumstance that the widow 
 was a Malay woman (Chinese women do not leave
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 167 
 
 their country), and the language spoken through- 
 out was Malay, i Possibly the ceremony was the 
 outcome of the combination of the Mohammedan 
 teaching on immortality with the Chinese rite of 
 ancestral worship. It is to me a pleasant memory 
 a relief as I think of death in its hopelessness 
 among the heathen. 
 
 Once a year I believe in the month of August 
 there was a Chinese ' All Souls' Day.' I can 
 recall the proceedings at these times, to the very 
 faces of the priests, and the look of the dishes set 
 on the tables. First came dramatic performances, 
 which usually take place on a stage erected in front 
 of a temple, and are designed for the amusement 
 of the gods, who are roused to attention by gongs 
 and crackers preceding the play. The gorgeous 
 dresses and decorated swinging girdles, the fiercely- 
 painted faces of the warriors, the clashing of arms 
 in mimic fight, the imbecile look of lads as make- 
 believe maidens, the marching round and round of 
 regal processions, together with the piercing pipes, 
 squeaking fiddles (of three strings), and clinking 
 bells, and booming gongs, which did duty as 
 music I can see or hear again at any moment, 
 night or day. Chinese music has often been 
 likened to that of Scottish bagpipes, minus the 
 droning bass. Thence we proceeded to the temple,
 
 168 BETEL-tiUT ISLAND. 
 
 and heard the chanting of the shaven priests in 
 their masses for the dead, accompanied by beat- 
 ings on a hollow wooden block, and looked on 
 the long tables groaning beneath mountains of 
 rice, slaughtered outstretched swine, and multi- 
 tudinous sweetmeats. Large quantities of silver 
 paper (to represent money), and others of many 
 diverse colours (to represent clothes), were burnt 
 for the benefit of the dead. Besides these, in 
 various parts of the Chinese quarter were large 
 huts of mat, ornamented with lanterns within 
 and without, in which were placed images of the 
 Chinese Pluto and his grim assistants. Large 
 pictures, too, were exhibited, depicting the joys 
 of paradise, but particularly the terrible punish- 
 ments of hell, which were forcibly recalled to me 
 as I looked on the well-known block representa- 
 tions of the tortures of purgatory at Antwerp. 
 
 But numerous though the lanterns were on these 
 occasions, it was at the beginning of the Chinese 
 year that they reached their culminating glories. 
 There were then lighted lanterns here, there, and 
 everywhere. Lanterns of paper, arid silk, and 
 horn, and mica, and glass. Lanterns square, 
 round, oblong, lozenge-shaped, octagonal. Lan- 
 terns in the form of birds, horses, tigers, fishes, 
 snakes, and crocodiles. Lanterns white, blue,
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 169 
 
 green, red, and yellow. Lanterns in the fashion 
 of jewels of gold and vessels of silver. Huge 
 solitary lanterns, and strings of tiny and many- 
 coloured lanterns. Lanterns stationary, and lan- 
 terns peripatetic. Lanterns of wheels circling 
 within wheels, and lanterns of men galloping on 
 
 A CHINESE LANTERN-BEARER. 
 
 horses, and lanterns of men fighting with spears 
 and swords. The musical clamour was at this 
 season accompanied by the firing of blunder- 
 busses. 
 
 But still more fascinating was a like celebration 
 at another season of the year in a festival designed, 
 I believe, to pay honour to the arts of husbandry,
 
 170 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 but how, I cannot conceive, except by the appear- 
 ance of the buffaloes. (I believe in China proper 
 the festival is called ' meeting the spring.') Look ! 
 here it comes a huge cart, dragged by buffaloes, 
 bearing erect within it a lofty tree. From its 
 branches hang lanterns, and here and there 
 among the clustering leaves, as if borne on ' the 
 circumambient air ' itself, are little maidens, 
 draped in green and gold, with necklaces and 
 girdles of flowers, standing in shoes of spotless 
 white, with mimic jewels sparkling in their plaited 
 hair, their figures motionless, and faces placid, so 
 as to be without sign of fear, and scarcely of life. 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the captivating effect 
 of the sight a scene, it seemed, not belonging to 
 earth, but a sudden unveiling of a part of a new 
 and spirit world. Then would come musicians 
 with gongs, bells, lutes, and pipes, and after an 
 interval of glittering lanterns, another umbrageous 
 tree, thus peopled, as it were, by pure and beau- 
 tiful creations, with nothing of vulgar earth or 
 ignoble flesh about them. How I can yet dream 
 all these bright scenes over and over again ! 
 
 I must not conclude without recording that if we 
 Christians were interested in the native festivals of 
 the East, we were not without the sympathy of
 
 FASTS AND FESTIVALS. 171 
 
 natives in the observance of our own. My recol- 
 lections of Christmastide in those regions is still 
 vivid. The first signs of its approach are not now 
 as common as they were then. Perhaps we thought 
 the Gospel narratives to be committed to memory 
 rather long, the collects monotonous, the hymns 
 didactic ; but then the subject was exhilarating ! 
 And there was, moreover, the stimulus of expected 
 recompense. I remember well a library of little 
 books bound in red calf and inscribed ' Eewards,' 
 fresh imported from our never-failing benefactors, 
 the Keligious Tract Society, containing a collection 
 of all the juvenile stories which that Society in 
 those days seemed to stand alone in providing, and 
 how these were divided among us eager children 
 after the recitations of Christmas morning ! Then 
 there was the public singing of our practised 
 carols, and of the immortal Adeste Fideles. After 
 this, the Malay service in the Mission Chapel, 
 where gathered the teachers and pupils from all 
 the district day-schools, clad in their best apparel, 
 to hear the story of the Incarnation, and be ex- 
 amined on its details and lessons', and to sing in 
 their own musical tongue our ' Hark, the herald 
 angels sing.' And after this the Christmas dinner ! 
 There was not always the orthodox roast beef (for 
 it could be only occasionally obtained, and then
 
 1^2 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 not of the primest order) ; but never was the plum 
 pudding omitted, nor the mince pies ! In the 
 evening came a children's party, beginning uni- 
 formly with blind man's buff, and ending with 
 snap-dragon hi the darkest room. All took part, 
 from the oldest patriarch to the youngest baby. 
 And so it went on, night after night, in various 
 homes, till the finis came on New Year's evening 
 in the feast of Bruder cake, at the hospitable house 
 of our oldest and dearest friends, who hailed from 
 Holland. Nor were our Malay and Hindu ser- 
 vants unconcerned. As soon as there was light to 
 see, we found on Christmas morning our gateway 
 gaily decorated. A plantain tree, with its spread- 
 ing leaves, was fixed to each of the two pillars, 
 and stretching from tree to tree was an arch of 
 reeds profusely covered with the brightest flowers. 
 No sooner was breakfast over, than servant after 
 servant appeared, and made his humble salaam, 
 and laid on the table his present of flowers, or 
 fruits, or sweetmeats, and bade us each in his 
 own way ' A Merry Christmas and a Happy New 
 Year ! '
 
 173 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 Courts of Justice in 25ritisf? Jnbia. 
 
 I, METHODS OF PROCEDURE. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty-four millions ! l This 
 represents the population of India under 
 British control according to the census of 1881. 
 Deducting the ' Native States,' there are two 
 hundred millions who are in all respects our fellow- 
 subjects, and the increase alone in them since the 
 census of 1871 is fourteen millions that is, up- 
 wards of one- third of the population of Great 
 Britain and Ireland. 
 
 How little do we who live in England really know 
 of those who are subjects with us of Britain's Queen 
 as Empress of India ! Can it be right that it should 
 be so, and that even this little knowledge should 
 be confined to so small a circle, and that people 
 generally should scarcely ever think or care about 
 
 1 The official volume of statistics gives the exact figures as 
 253,891,821, of which nearly 188 millions lire Hindus, 60 millions 
 Mohammedans, GJ millions Nature worshippers, 3 Buddhists, 
 nearly 2 millions Christians, nearly 2 millions Sikhs, and 1| 
 millions Jains.
 
 174 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 India until roused by some disastrous catastrophe 
 or terrible peril ? Happily there are signs that 
 such apathy is passing away, and that more know- 
 ledge of India is what is chiefly needed to make 
 interest in India more common and of greater 
 influence. One reason for this, doubtless, is found 
 in the number of eminent men who have skilfully 
 presented to the public in an attractive style the 
 results of inquiry and thought arising out of 
 lengthened residence in the country. Chief among 
 them are Dr. W. W. Hunter and Sir Eichard 
 Temple, the first of whom, in his Brief History, 
 declares the continent of India to be 'a great 
 museum of races, in which we can study man from 
 his lowest to his highest stages of culture.' Those 
 who know the country best evidently believe that 
 nowhere in the world is there more that should be 
 deeply interesting to all students of human history, 
 whether India be viewed in its natural aspects and 
 products, in its ancient and diverse races, its 
 numerous languages and massive literature, or its 
 subtle philosophies and extraordinary develop- 
 ments of the religious instinct. It is with this 
 feeling that the following details are submitted to 
 the reader, derived partly from personal remini- 
 scences, but principally from the experiences of 
 observant officials of some standing. The parti-
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 175 
 
 culars to be given belong to the province of 
 Bengal, but largely represent what is common to 
 British India. 
 
 In certain respects, a great deal is to be learnt of 
 the people by means of the Courts of Justice among 
 them. Our knowledge of their history seems to 
 be fairly correct, and our impressions of their re- 
 ligions comparatively vivid. Much, too, is being 
 written of their ancient literature and parent lan- 
 guage. We seem to know a good deal about the 
 Government, for it is frequently brought before the 
 public by changes in the personnel, the passing of 
 special laws, and the creation or transmutation of 
 various Government and railway stocks. Too often 
 we hear of the operations of our army of 65,000 
 European and 125,000 native soldiers, 1 and the 
 political complications interwoven with these 
 operations. Nor are we altogether in the dark 
 about the general laws by which the country is 
 ruled. Who has not heard of the famous Codes, 
 Civil and Criminal, beginning with the handiwork 
 of Macaulay and his Commission in 1888, and still 
 being enlarged and improved ? They have supplied 
 bases for similar systems among various races who 
 have come under civilising influences, and when 
 completed will become, as Sir Richard Temple ex- 
 
 1 Cunningham's Brititk India and its Rulcri, 1881, p. 33.
 
 176 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 presses it, ' a standard of national ethics.' But of 
 the ordinary and normal working of these codes as 
 it affects the people little is known ; and yet there 
 is, perhaps, nothing by means of which the 
 governors and the governed are more closely and 
 continuously brought into contact than by the ar- 
 rangements of our judicial system and the prin- 
 ciples which underlie them. 
 
 Before passing from the Codes it is important to 
 remark that while the general administration is 
 thus regulated, there are certain departments in 
 which their rules are ignored, or perhaps it would 
 be more correct to say, are not allowed to be su- 
 preme. They are not suffered to interfere with the 
 authority of Hindu 1 and Mohammedan codes of 
 law in matters belonging to marriage and divorce, 
 adoption, inheritance, partition of property, and 
 disposition by will. It is not sufficiently under- 
 stood, for instance, that while Mohammed, during 
 the eight years of his prophetic career at Mecca 
 prior to the Hegira, or Mohammedan era, ( 622 A.D.), 
 was simply a religious teacher, when installed at 
 Medina, he became the ruler of a city and its sur- 
 
 1 In reference to Hindus the deviations derive their authority 
 from immemorial custom originating probably with the laws of 
 M;u i u, which, however, are now declared to be no older than A.D. 500. 
 Max Muller's India : What can it teach us ? pp. 91, 92.
 
 COliRTS OF JUSTICE. 177 
 
 rounding territory, and thus found occasion to add 
 to the previous rhetorical and poetic chapters of 
 the Kuran, many long and prosaic ' revelations ' as 
 to political government and social life. These, but 
 more especially the inferences and comments arising 
 out of them, made by the first four recognised 
 Caliphs of Islam, regulate the civil and ceremonial 
 laws, and establish the recognised customs, in all 
 their innumerable particulars, of the entire Moham- 
 medan world. The most remarkable, perhaps, of 
 Mohammed's own enactments have reference to the 
 limitation of testamentary power. No Moham- 
 medan testator can deal with more than one-third 
 of his estate, and the other two-thirds devolve upon 
 certain fixed heirs, or in the absence of them belong 
 to the State. The peculiarities also of the law of 
 adoption which prevails in India are remarkable, 
 and have been frequently brought into prominence, 
 by our relations with the native princes of the 
 country. 1 
 The unit of the judicial system lies in the police- 
 
 1 For instances of our legislative interference with native law as 
 it respects more especially 'the crime of apostasy,' remarriage of 
 Hindu widows, divorce for converts to Christianity when abandoned 
 by husband or wife, civil marriage, the suppression of Suttee, etc. , 
 see Cunningham's Brtiith India and its JKulcrs, 1881, p. 201. Mr. 
 Cunningham is a Judge of the High Court of Calcutta, and son-in- 
 law of the late Lord Lawrence.
 
 178 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 court, and its final development (in Bengal) in the 
 High Court of Calcutta, with its Chief Justice 
 and twelve puisne judges. But the most important 
 part of it as it concerns the people is found in the 
 district and sessions court, and it is with this that 
 the present particulars have chiefly to do. There 
 is no important town without its police-court (cut- 
 cherry). Around it i.e., itsMofussil are stations 
 sometimes in the very jungle, at which, at fixed 
 intervals, like sittings are held by the itinerating 
 officials. The magistrates presiding in them are of 
 various grades, but are the immediate representa- 
 tives of an official for the district, who is known as 
 ' the collector and magistrate.' l His functions, as 
 the designation indicates, have largely to do with 
 the collection of the land and other revenues, the 
 registration of title-deeds, and also with the dis- 
 posal by himself or his subordinates of the cases 
 which belong to the ordinary business of police- 
 courts, and with the frequent questions which arise 
 in relation to revenue. From the decisions in these 
 courts on civil questions appeals may be made to 
 the ' district and sessions judge ' of the district, 
 and by him when sitting as ' sessions judge ' are 
 
 1 For interesting details the reader is referred to Life of Lord 
 Lawrence, by Bosworth Smith, vol. i., p. 53, as to duties of the 
 Collector and Magistrate, and p. 55 as to Cutcherry on Horseback.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 179 
 
 tried the prisoners committed by the magistrates 
 for trial at the assizes. Besides the police-courts 
 there are in every district 'Moonsiff's courts,' whose 
 jurisdiction is similar to that of the county courts 
 of our own country, and in like manner from them 
 appeals are made to the district judge. These 
 courts are specially interesting because they are 
 generally presided over by native judges selected 
 from pleaders who have practised for three years 
 in the various courts of India, received certificates 
 from judges as to their character and ability, and 
 have taken the degree of Bachelor of Laws in one 
 of the universities of India. In the particular 
 district now before the writer's view, there are 
 eleven such courts, and ten of the judges are natives, 
 and there are about the same number of police- 
 courts. Just what the ' collector and magistrate ' 
 of the district is in his department, so at the head 
 of the judicial administration, both original and 
 appellate, of the district is the official already men- 
 tioned as designated ' district and sessions judge.' 
 
 The reader can now easily realise the position 
 and duties of this important official. In the in- 
 stance before us the district contains a population 
 of over three millions, a population, that is to say, 
 approaching that of ' London proper.' His resi- 
 dence is usually in the chief town of the district,
 
 180 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 but, like other Indian officials, he is frequently on 
 circuit. Besides visits for various assizes, the 
 eleven Moonsiff's courts are under his supervision, 
 carrying with it power of even suspending judges 
 found inefficient or guilty of malpractices. Let us 
 suppose him at home and holding the criminal 
 sessions at the head station. (In civil cases he is 
 assisted by a subordinate judge in a court adjoining 
 his own, from whose decision an appeal may be 
 made to him.) 
 
 The first thing that will strike us as we enter 
 the court will be the absence of all wigs and gowns. 
 The judge occupies a chair on a raised platform, 
 with as little of ' dress ' about him as is compatible 
 with propriety, and over him a punkah swings and 
 is kept in constant motion. Immediately below 
 him are seated two native gentlemen, evidently 
 discharging for the time being some important 
 functions, which shall be presently described. Be- 
 low them and on the floor of the court, still facing 
 us as we enter, are seated the usual clerks, and 
 standing near to them the various servants of the 
 court in different liveries, to whom also reference 
 will be hereafter more particularly made. Facing 
 the judge are the pleaders European and native 
 attended by men who act as solicitors for their 
 several clients and instruct the pleader?. Behind
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. l8l 
 
 them are motley groups attending in crowds, if the 
 case before the court be one of general interest. 
 The order and silence are perfect. The clerks and 
 pleaders are, like the judge, without gown or wig, 
 and those that are native are almost all, in part at 
 least, in European attire. The prisoner, of course, 
 is there in the dock, heavily fettered, and attended 
 by one or more of the jail warders. But there is 
 no jury-box. 
 
 Not that native juries are altogether unknown. 
 In a few districts, where men of intelligence and in- 
 fluence are found in sufficient number, juries are 
 empanelled, each jury consisting of seven members, 
 who settle the questions before the court by the 
 vote of the majority ; and they, as with us, are 
 duly charged by the judge, and determine the fate 
 of prisoners by their verdicts. But, as a rule, 
 another and a very remarkable arrangement takes 
 the place of the jury system. Observe the two 
 native gentlemen seated near and immediately 
 below the judge. They are known as the native 
 assessors. In all criminal cases, the judge is as- 
 sisted by their individual opinions. Once a year 
 officers from the court and others from the office of 
 the collector meet to prepare a list of the assessors. 
 They are selected from the native gentlemen of the 
 locality, and consist chiefly of zemindars (land-
 
 1 82 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 owners), pleaders, schoolmasters, merchants, and 
 chief tradesmen, of which classes it is said that for 
 usefulness the schoolmaster stands in the highest, 
 and the pleader in the lowest place. For the as- 
 sizes the assessors are summoned in such numbers 
 as to supply two for each case. Judges for the 
 most part regard the assistance thus afforded by 
 the general intelligence, quick perception, and 
 familiarity with the people found in the assessors 
 as of great importance. They ask questions during 
 the trial as they please, and often thus read cir- 
 cumstances and transactions as no European can, 
 and bring out facts which only intimate knowledge 
 of native character and customs could elicit. This 
 intimacy, also, no doubt, as causing them to be 
 regarded as possessing an insight into native habits 
 of thought and action, impossible to an English 
 official, causes their presence to be a power against 
 the prevarications and concealments and falsehoods 
 so prevalent in Indian and other courts of law. It 
 is, however, a singular circumstance that frequently, 
 though right in the decisions they reach, the 
 reasons given by them are not the best supplied by 
 the facts. 
 
 The course of the trial closely follows the order 
 familiar to us. The case against the prisoner is 
 conducted by the Government pleader or public
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 183 
 
 prosecutor, and he is defended either by a pleader 
 engaged by himself, or by one called upon by the 
 judge to undertake the defence without assurance 
 of any fee. In the absence of a pleader, the judge 
 is bound to accept the responsibility of acting both 
 as judge and prisoner's counsel, and himself cross- 
 examines the witnesses for the Crown a respon- 
 sibility generally felt to be painfully serious. On 
 the conclusion of the evidence pro and contra, the 
 judge turns to one of the assessors and says, ' Pra- 
 sanna, Babu, you have heard the evidence in the 
 case before the court ; announce your opinion and 
 the reasons for it.' The gentleman appealed to 
 then gives his decision and its basis. In like 
 manner the other assessor is addressed, ' Keshub, 
 Babu, favour the court with your opinion,' and he 
 complies accordingly. The judge then states that 
 ' the court will give judgment ' on a particular day. 
 When the day arrives, the prisoner is again at the 
 bar, and the judgment, fully written out and re- 
 ferring to the opinions of the assessors, whether 
 in unison with each other and with that of the 
 judge or not, is read and recorded, and the prisoner 
 sentenced or acquitted. 
 
 The punishments inflicted by the court include 
 fines, imprisonment, ' rigorous imprisonment '- 
 i.e., with hard labour, banishment, and death.
 
 1 84 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Whenever sentence of death is pronounced the 
 judgment has to be confirmed by the High 
 Court, two of whose judges are in their turns 
 elected by the Chief Justice to revise the judgments 
 of the districts courts. 
 
 In every criminal case an appeal is allowed to 
 the High Court, and is accomplished without any 
 expense to the prisoner, for it is done simply by 
 the transmission by the district judge of his notes 
 of the evidence, and of his judgment (with the 
 opinions of the assessors), and the whole matter 
 is considered without the intervention of either 
 pleaders or solicitors. Appeals in criminal cases 
 are therefore almost universal. 
 
 It is otherwise in reference to civil actions, for 
 the expenses in such questions are frequently 
 enormous. Even in the district courts the fees of 
 pleaders engaged, whose usual practice is in the 
 High Court, sometimes amount to fifty and even 
 a hundred pounds per diem. Considering, too, how 
 small is the number with means for going to law, 
 the people must, I think, be pronounced litigious. 
 Verily the land is a Goshen for gentlemen of the 
 long robe. And certainly there are parts of the 
 method of procedure described which look as if 
 they would, if adopted among us, be for the public 
 benefit. The compact and exhaustive codes of law,
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 185 
 
 the careful selection of assessors who shall give to 
 the world reasons as well as opinions, the easy and 
 costless means of appeal by the condemned for 
 revision of their doom, the confirmation in each 
 case of the sentence of death, not by a Government 
 official, but by the highest legal authority, seem to 
 be arrangements which may with advantage be 
 in some manner adapted for the very people from 
 whom, as the governors of India, they have 
 emanated. 
 
 II. LAWS OF EVIDENCE. 
 
 MANY of the most vivid of my recollections of my 
 boyhood relate to the trials of prisoners. I have 
 already stated that it was my father's practice to 
 be present when the assizes opened, and that I was 
 usually with him to hear the charge to the grand 
 jury. Nothing more deeply interested me than the 
 proceedings which followed. The court-house was 
 close to the ' free-school ' in which I was a scholar, 
 having as companions and competitors boys belong- 
 ing to almost every race and religion in the East. 
 A proud day it was when the then Governor-General 
 of India visited the school, and gave me and others 
 
 N
 
 1 86 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 our prizes. I could fill pages with descriptions of 
 criminals and crimes, and I am sorry to add that 
 more than once I managed, without the knowledge 
 of the home authorities, to be present at awful 
 scenes of- public execution. I remember being as- 
 tonished by the strict observance of the very tech- 
 nicalities of the laws of evidence. The entire crew 
 of a boat had been seized and committed to prison 
 for trial as pirates. They belonged to a district 
 notorious for piracy ; in the boat and on their 
 persons were found the arms used by pirates; 
 everybody knew them to be such ; and yet because 
 no one could swear to any act of piracy, and they 
 told a good story in explanation of the circumstances 
 in which they were discovered, they were set free ! 
 I have never forgotten the lesson thus taught me, 
 to deal honestly and impartially with every question 
 to be considered, whatever the results might be. 
 
 I remember I used to watch with rapt interest 
 the administering of oaths. Some of the methods 
 were very remarkable, and I was always eager to 
 see the various witnesses sworn. The Christian, 
 whether Protestant, Eoman Catholic or Armenian, 
 would of course kiss the Testament. But there 
 was the Mohammedan, sworn by the usual invoca- 
 tion of Bismillah, er Eahman, er Eahmeen ('In 
 the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merci-
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 187 
 
 ful!'), with the sacred Kuran, wrapped in cloth, 
 placed by the attending moollah (mosque official) in 
 his extended palms, or raised to his forehead ; the 
 Hindu, by fixing his eyes on some water in a small 
 brass vessel placed in like manner by his guru 
 (family priest), containing water which did duty as 
 Ganga-pani (water of the Ganges), inasmuch as 
 some muntras (prayers) had been pronounced over 
 it by a Brahmin ; and the Chinaman, who was 
 sworn by burning at a taper a narrow strip of paper 
 on which were written ' characters ' containing, as 
 I understood, an appeal to his deceased ancestors. 
 Sometimes an oath of more solemn obligation 
 may be secured (of course, outside the court) by his 
 cutting off a cock's head, by which he declares that 
 similar decapitation is due to him should he tell a 
 lie. This is the usual mode of swearing on admis- 
 sion to the ' secret societies,' which abound among 
 the Chinese. I have the impression that the Parsee, 
 when dealing with Parsees, also swears by fire ; but 
 in a British court he is put upon his oath by kiss- 
 ing the Zend-Avesta, his sacred book. 
 
 I am not sure, but I believe I am right in saying 
 that I also occasionally saw a man put on his oath, 
 as is done among the hill tribes of India, by crush- 
 ing in his hand a leaf from a tree sacred as the 
 dwelling-place, among its branches, of sylvan deities,
 
 1 88 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 who are thus invited to crush him and those be- 
 longing to him should he speak anything but the 
 truth. 
 
 These reminiscences belong to the Straits of 
 Malacca ; but there is now throughout India proper 
 one established form of legal oath. This arrange- 
 ment is based on the assumed fact that in all its 
 religions there is a recognition of a supreme deity. 
 With the more intelligent Hindus it is well known 
 that the multitudinous divinities acknowledged are 
 really but various forms of the one and only God 
 Isvara or Deva. The oath differs, however, in the 
 form of its commencing attestation. All persons pro- 
 fessing Christianity, whether natives or foreigners, 
 ' swear ' while others ' solemnly affirm.' The 
 following is the oath : ' I swear [solemnly affirm] , 
 in the presence of Almighty God, that the evidence 
 I shall give in this case shall be true, that I will 
 conceal nothing, and that no part of my evidence 
 shall be false.' This is regarded as more explicit 
 and complete than the ordinary form in our English 
 courts, and as specially meeting the particular 
 directions hi which Eastern witnesses escape from 
 the obligation to be truthful; but I believe the 
 general impression among English officials is that 
 the oath as such has only in the case of a small 
 minority any power in ensuring true evidence.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 1 89 
 
 A great deal is said about the commonness of 
 perjury in India. Hence the jocose story which 
 passes as current coin, that a judge in India used 
 to say, ' I know that in civil cases at least all the 
 witnesses are telling lies, and therefore I believe 
 nothing ; but, counting the flies on the ceiling over 
 my head, if I find the number even, I give judgment 
 for the plaintiff, and if odd, I give it for the de- 
 fendant.' No doubt there are hangers-on of police- 
 courts in India ready to swear to anything on 
 receipt of money ; so that ' getting up a case ' is 
 generally understood as meaning purchasing the 
 evidence of a certain number of witnesses. 1 This 
 
 1 The perjury is often caused by the habit of exaggeration so 
 characteristic of the East, and hence parties to a suit are made to 
 declare just what their pleaders choose to put into their affidavits, 
 and charged to stick to every item as for life itself. The following 
 is an amusing instance, given iu Taylor's Thirty-eight Years in India. : 
 ' A man had prosecuted another for assault, and the petition which 
 he presented had entered into all the hyperbolical details I have 
 described. Among other horrors was introduced the statement 
 (never omitted in such documents) that the ; defendant had " seized 
 him by the hair of his head " before proceeding to other acts of 
 violence. As he was giving his depositions on oath in confirmation 
 of this piteous narrative, I observed that he was entirely bald, 
 without a scrap of hair in any corner of his cranium. I therefore 
 put to him the question in a serious voice, " Are all the statements 
 in your petition true?" On his answering confidently in the affirm- 
 ative, I then said, " Are you sure that the defendant did seize the 
 hair of your head?" The fellow said, "Yes, my lord," without 
 hesitation. " Do you say that on your oath ? " There was some-
 
 190 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 is bad enough ; but can we in England boast of the 
 credibility of our witnesses ? Is not what is called 
 hard swearing common on both sides of a contention ? 
 Is it not a fact that everywhere men who habitually 
 lie, will lie, notwithstanding the solemn obligations 
 belonging to an oath ? Does not the chief value of 
 an oath lie in giving distinct speciality to the as- 
 sertions of the witness, and in supplying reasons 
 for severe punishment for demonstrated falsehood, 
 uttered in circumstances in which the truth is 
 demanded by the law in all its solemn majesty ? 
 The candid testimony of the late Lord Lawrence is 
 important : ' People are fond of remarking that the 
 natives are great rogues, and no doubt many are ; 
 but who makes them so in great measure ? Who 
 places such temptations in their way that they 
 must be more than men if they resist ? I really 
 believe that the majority of Europeans, under 
 
 thing in my tone, or in the looks of some of those standing near 
 him, which suddenly attracted his attention, for, just as he opened 
 his mouth to answer, he stopped, raised his hand, and passed it 
 slowly over his head with an air of bewilderment, which was not 
 diminished when he perceived a broad grin on all the faces around 
 him. I told him to walk down, with difficulty restraining my 
 laughter, adding that as he had told and caused to be written a 
 deliberate lie, I dismissed his case, and recommended him to let 
 his hair grow before he presented another petition of personal 
 grievance.'
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 19 [ 
 
 similar temptations, would not be a whit more 
 honest.' * 
 
 It is certainly in India a question whether the 
 form of oath now universally enforced is regarded 
 by the people as of equal obligation with the special 
 oaths of former times. Hence it is that the Legis- 
 lature allows of witnesses being put on their oath 
 in association with forms more likely to elicit the 
 truth, provided there is no flagrant impropriety in 
 them. In the case of a Chinaman being sworn, 
 the form in force is usually the breaking of a saucer, 
 so that the first question put to a Chinese witness 
 when he appears in the witness-box not in a 
 Chinese court, for oaths are not allowed in 
 Chinese courts, the substitute being torture! 
 is, ' Have you brought your saucer ? ' The idea 
 with him seems to be that perjury will be visited 
 with punishment in the other world as dire as is 
 represented by the destruction of the saucer. Again, 
 no people on the earth, notwithstanding their fami- 
 liarity with hideous forms of violence and cruelty 
 in the images and histories of their gods, and the 
 
 1 Life by Bosworth Smith, vol. i., p. 179. See also article by 
 Prof. F. Max Miiller in Contemporary Review, November, 1882, on 
 'The Truthful Character of the Hindus,' and a remarkable chapter 
 on ' Veracity ' in India, in Sleeman's Rambles and Recollections, 
 vol. ii., to which work the professor refers. See also Max Miiller's 
 India, what can it teach u? Sect. II.
 
 IgS BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 prevalence in some districts of female infanticide, 
 are more remarkably affectionate towards their 
 adolescent offspring than are Hindu fathers and 
 mothers. Hence, undoubtedly a Hindu mother is 
 most effectually sworn by being required to speak 
 with her hand on the head of one of her children, 
 the act symbolising the inevitable transfer to the 
 child of all the penalties due to the mother for 
 giving false evidence. In like manner a Hindu 
 father may be fully relied upon when giving evi- 
 dence with his hand on the head of an only son. 
 The life of the son, it is believed, would be im- 
 perilled by the father's perjury, and the father 
 thus would incur the unutterably terrible risk of 
 not having his funeral rites performed by his son, 
 and his soul being thereby delivered from torment. 1 
 Recently, a judge in Eastern Bengal, observing 
 in his court some men about to be sworn as wit- 
 nesses, belonging to an aboriginal tribe who regard 
 the tiger with a dread amounting to religious awe, 
 called for a tiger- skin, and administered the legal 
 oath to each of them with his hand on the skin. 
 The signs of terror with which the oath was thus 
 taken gave him assurance of getting at the truth. 
 The conviction with each evidently was that to 
 utter what was false was to insure an awful death 
 
 1 An instance is given in the Life of Lord Lawrence, vol. i., p. 120.
 
 COUNTS Of JUSTICE. 193 
 
 from the sudden onslaught of a tiger. There was 
 some surprise and even amusement in the court 
 when this was done, and probably the occurrence 
 would not have met with the approval of the 
 judges of the High Court ; but the judge was satis- 
 fied that the object of the oath was only thus to be 
 secured. 
 
 The most remarkable deviation in the law of 
 evidence, as laid down in India, from the ordinary 
 rules in our courts is that in India a witness must 
 answer questions put to him, even though the reply 
 may criminate himself. The arrangement is found 
 to be of very great value in a country in which 
 there is general readiness, for obvious advantages, 
 to become 'approver,' or 'Empress's evidence.' 
 But there is this proviso for protection of the wit- 
 ness the reply he may make is not admissible as 
 a ground for his impeachment. Magistrates new 
 at the work are sometimes thus led into acts of 
 illegality. One in particular is recalled to my mind, 
 who, on finding a witness on cross-examination ac- 
 knowledging offences of graver criminality than the 
 one for which the prisoner was being tried, became 
 so indignant as at once to commit the witness him- 
 self for trial. Of course he was soon released, but 
 not without a severe reprimand (' wigging ' is the 
 conventional word, even though judges in India do
 
 194 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 not wear wigs !) to the magistrate from the district 
 judge. 
 
 I am reminded by this allusion, of a story nar- 
 rated by the same magistrate, which contains 
 illustrations not only bearing on the subject of this 
 chapter, but on several features of native character. 
 I will give it as far as I can in the words of the 
 narrator. ' I was sitting in my cutcherry (police- 
 court), and dealing with the ordinary business, when 
 the noise of a crowd was heard, and a man brought 
 in upon a stretcher, with blood about his head and 
 chest. He was accompanied by several witnesses 
 ready to confirm all he managed to articulate with 
 apparent difficulty. It was declared that he was 
 lying in his hut for his afternoon sleep, when two 
 men broke open the door, and rushing upon him 
 stabbed him in several places, and left him for 
 dead. Constables were immediately sent to "at- 
 tach " the alleged assailants. They soon appeared, 
 attended by a group of their witnesses, swearing 
 as positively that the two men were nowhere near 
 the hut of the accuser at the time named by him. 
 On which I left my seat and carefully examined the 
 man on the stretcher, and then proceeded to his 
 house and with equal care inspected it. As the 
 result I felt persuaded that the wounds on the 
 accuser were superficial, and that the door of the
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 195 
 
 hut had been broken open from the inside. Pur- 
 suing my inquiries, I learnt that there was a blood- 
 feud between the two families, and I came to the 
 conclusion that the accusation of attempted murder 
 had been concocted for purposes of satisfying the 
 claims and desires of the one family for revenge on 
 the other. I therefore acquitted the accused, and 
 committed the accuser to prison for trial at the 
 next sessions. And now,' added the magistrate, 
 ' observe how the conflicting evidence nearly caused 
 a miscarriage of justice. The district judge, on 
 reading the depositions, wrote to me a letter ex- 
 pressing his surprise at my decision, and declared 
 that in his judgment the wrong party had been 
 committed. But, luckily for me, before the case 
 came into court, the judge was promoted to another 
 position, and another judge tried the case, found 
 the prisoner guilty, and sentenced him to "rigorous" 
 imprisonment.' Such illustrations of the spirit 
 and custom known in Italy as the vendetta are, 
 it appears, common among the people of India.
 
 196 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 Ill SAMPLES OF CRIMINAL CASES. 
 
 THE prevailing crimes seem to be forms of robbery 
 often robbery by a gang of sworn confederates, 
 who break into houses and effect their purpose 
 by violence or intimidation. This, of course, is 
 burglary, but it has in India a well-understood 
 description in the word ' dacoitie ' (which includes 
 highway robbery), and is severely punished because 
 of its element of confederation. There is need for 
 vigorous dealing with it, for it is, in fact, a remnant 
 of the awful system of robbery with murder known 
 as ' Thuggee.' This appalling form of systematised 
 crime is now absolutely stamped out. But it pre- 
 sents a chapter in the history of human sin that 
 must never be forgotten, and not unfrequently 
 it is forced into recollection by the terrible facts 
 which still blacken the annals of the courts of 
 India. 
 
 I knew well Captain James Paton a name 
 which ought to be for ever preserved in the history 
 of the British Government of India, as associated 
 with the earliest practical measures for the educa- 
 tion, under Government auspices, of the youth of 
 India. He was Assistant-Kesident at Lucknow, 
 and ' the Officer for the Suppression of Thuggism,'
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 197 
 
 in the then independent kingdom of Oudh, and 
 is placed by Colonel Sleeman (vol. i., p. 119) with 
 another officer in the ' foremost rank in this great 
 work.' After his death I was favoured with a sight 
 of his private journals, and of his copious records 
 of the evidence taken in his court from Thugs who 
 became approvers. It is certain that for centuries 
 there existed in most parts of India, and especially 
 in its northern States, hordes of men, in gangs 
 from ten to two or three hundred, of all the races, 
 castes, sects, and religions of the country, who 
 were bound together by awful oaths and secrets to 
 commit robbery on the highway, and always by 
 means of murder. They infested the roads and 
 lurked in the cities under every form of deception, 
 and particularly as itinerant barbers, as giving 
 them the most favourable opportunities, and many 
 of them were actually in situations of trust under 
 the British Government. Each gang was a com- 
 plete piece of machinery, comprising a leader, 
 a priest, an instructor, inveiglers, stranglers, 
 stranglers' assistants, gravediggers, and novices, 
 appointed to their particular duties because of 
 their special qualifications. In Hutchinson's Pen 
 and Pencil Sketches, recently published, will be 
 found on one page the portrait of an ' inveigler ' 
 stamped with the characteristics of a smug,
 
 1 98 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 plausible, and loquacious hypocrite, and on another 
 that of a stern and remorseless ' strangler.' There 
 is no doubt that it was common in those days 
 for the police of a district to tolerate, and even co- 
 operate, with these criminals, on the condition that 
 they carried on their diabolical trade in other 
 districts, and did not compromise the officials in 
 their own. Careful examination of the records 
 alluded to shows that while they despised petty 
 theft and robbery through violence, they actually 
 gloried in plunder when secured by strangulation 
 with the ' sacred handkerchief,' performed in the 
 name of the goddess Kali ! Often had my friend 
 sat in his cutcherry, with the room and the 
 passages filled with men, traced and captured by 
 his secret emissaries, every one of whom had been 
 at many scenes of murder, and some of whom 
 boasted of having themselves strangled one hundred 
 victims ! 
 
 I repeat that this chapter in the history of 
 human sin must not be forgotten, and I therefore 
 will place before the reader a few extracts from 
 these confessions, which throw light on the founda- 
 tion facts of this monstrous iniquity. One man 
 among others exclaimed, ' Thieving ! Never, never ! 
 A thief is a contemptible being! If a banker's 
 treasure were before me, and entrusted to my care,
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 199 
 
 though in hunger and dying, I would spurn to 
 steal ; but let a banker be going on a journey, I 
 would certainly murder him ! I despise a robber ! ' 
 Another : ' We never steal ! What God gives us 
 He gives us in Thuggee. God is the giver ; we 
 never steal ! ' It will be seen that robbery in itself 
 was acknowledged to be criminal, but that when 
 accompanied by murder, as an act of worship and 
 obedience to Kali, the criminality was removed. 
 And this devotion to Kali was assumed for the 
 very purpose of condoning the robbery. Hence 
 said one, ' Now that I have left off Thuggee, I 
 would fling her image [Kali's] down a well ! But 
 were I going on Thuggee, I would, of course, pay 
 my devotions to her. Does she not take all the 
 blame upon herself, and we go free?' To a 
 Mohammedan the question was put, ' You are a 
 Mussulman. Are not Mussulmans ashamed to 
 worship idols ? ' And he answered, ' It is all on 
 account of Thuggee, for without Bhowanee [another 
 of Kali's names] how should we escape punishment 
 from Thuggee ? she takes all the blame.' Yet 
 more complete is the statement made by another ! 
 ' It is God who kills, but Bhowanee has the name 
 of it. If Bhowanee had her will, she would kill 
 every human being upon the earth in one day: 
 She thirsts for blood! God has appointed blood
 
 2OO BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 for her food, saying, " Feed thou upon blood ! " In 
 my opinion this is very bad ; but what can she do, 
 being ordered to subsist on blood? Bhowanee 
 must be fed, and since the British Government has 
 been suppressing our trade of murder, Bhowanee 
 has begun with her own hands to devastate the 
 country with disease and death. Men are every- 
 where propitiating her ; people in the villages are 
 dying by twenties and forties. Within these last 
 five years of the suppression of Thugs there 
 certainly has been more disease.' 
 
 The reference to ' blood ' reminds me that it was 
 believed by these men that it was not enough to 
 strangle their victims, but that Kali must have 
 literally ' blood ' itself offered to her, and that 
 accordingly not only was there ' the sacred hand- 
 kerchief,' but ' the sacred knife,' presented to the 
 goddess in worship prior to every expedition ; and 
 after strangulation the victim was pierced by 
 the knife, and blood thus shed to satisfy the 
 cravings of the goddess ! And yet, though these 
 murderers could thus deliberately trample their 
 humanity under foot, and even recite their deeds 
 with evident relish and vaunting, they gave tokens 
 of the presence within them of the gentle and 
 tender instincts of our nature. There is among 
 the records a ' Note. An aged Thug in irons
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2OI 
 
 having become king's evidence as the condition 
 of his life being spared, and bound to have no 
 concealment, and to aid the Government in the 
 arrest and conviction of all his accomplices was 
 
 THE INVEIGLER. 
 
 called into court to confront a party of Thugs in 
 chains, and to point out those he knew. He 
 looked earnestly, as he placed himself successively 
 in front of each, at one, and then at another, and, 
 fixing his eyes upon a handsome youth in chains,
 
 202 BETEL-NUT ISLAND, 
 
 before whom he stood, the old man wept it was 
 his own son, Binda, whom he thus recognised at 
 the bar of justice. The son, a professional 
 murderer, could no longer restrain his feelings. 
 Seeing his aged father weep, he also burst into 
 tears.' 
 
 After reference to this incident, the question 
 was put to some Thugs under examination, 'Do 
 not these feelings of kindness sometimes make you 
 relent from your purpose of putting your fellow- 
 travellers to death?' And one, replying for the 
 rest, answered, 'Yes; we sometimes feel com- 
 passion. On one occasion, some seven or eight 
 years ago, we were a gang of forty Thugs, and 
 some eleven miles from Lucknow, on the Cawnpore 
 road, we met a very handsome youth, a native 
 officer of rank, on horseback, in the King of Oudh's 
 service, who had a camel with him and six sepoys 
 and some servants, and some one or two thousand 
 rupees. We inveigled him, and accompanied him 
 to the " bail " [spot selected for the murder] . 
 Every Thug was ready for the destruction of the 
 youth and his whole party, stranglers being all 
 ready for their work two men for each traveller. 
 The light of the fire fell upon the countenance of 
 the fair and handsome young man doomed to 
 death, who was the head of the party, and as he
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2O3 
 
 sat upon his horse he looked so very beautiful that 
 we all felt compassion. I was appointed to seize 
 the reins of his horse, another to strangle, and 
 our leader, who had inveigled the youth, was 
 appointed to drag him from his horse; but so 
 
 THE STRANGLER. 
 
 beautiful was he, as the light of the fire fell upon 
 his face, that we could not find it in our hearts 
 to kill him, so we let him and his whole company 
 pass on their way, though it was a rich prize 
 a camel and many rupees and much property.
 
 204 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 It often happens that we thus let men off from 
 
 pity.' 1 
 
 I place before the reader a story told me by the 
 same authority, which will show the methods 
 adopted by these murderers, and illustrate the 
 marvellous cunning which is still at work in the 
 perpetration of crime in India. A native gentleman, 
 who had come to Lucknow for a sum of money, 
 was returning to his residence at some distance in 
 the country. He was a Mussulman of powerful 
 build, and well armed, and started upon a strong 
 and fleet horse. As he journeyed he reached a 
 plantation, and, after safely passing through, was 
 leaving it, when, lo ! two men, in rags and dust, 
 stretched out their arms, and cried, 'For Allah's 
 sake, give us alms ! we are dying for want of food ! ' 
 But, brandishing his whip around him, he galloped 
 past. In the evening he arrived at a khan (inn), 
 in which he purposed resting for the night. There 
 he found among the occupants three Mussulman 
 gentlemen, who, entering casually into conversation 
 with him, stated that they were travelling together 
 for the sake of safety, and had a considerable 
 amount of coin with them, some of which they, as 
 by accident, let him see. As it turned out that 
 
 1 These extracts are from a short sketch of Captain Paton's life, 
 printed in 1848 for local circulation.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2O5 
 
 their journey, at least for some distance, was on 
 the same road, they begged to be allowed to accom- 
 pany him, and be further protected by his arms ; 
 but he, remarking that their horses were not so 
 fleet as his, and his business was urgent, politely 
 declined their society. He therefore in the morning 
 started without them. Towards sunset he was 
 approaching his destination, but had to pass over 
 a track of treeless and sandy country, and here his 
 eye was arrested by an open grave with a body at 
 its side wrapped in grave-clothes, with its head 
 towards Mecca, and two men standing by. As 
 they caught sight of him they ran towards him 
 bewailing the fate of their friend, and crying, ' For 
 Allah's sake, have compassion! Our brother is 
 dead, and we know not the words of the futwah 
 [opening chapter of the Kuran], and dare not bury 
 him without uttering them. You must know 
 them; if you desire salvation you will come and 
 repeat them. Have pity for Allah's sake ! ' Here 
 was a sore test of the piety and loyalty demanded 
 by his faith. As soon as a man is laid in his grave 
 so reads the legend the two angels of judgment 
 will address him, one to take cognisance of his good 
 deeds, and the other of his evil deeds ; and the first 
 question will be, Was the futwah recited when he 
 was buried ? To suffer a man to be buried without
 
 206 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 it, was to bring upon himself the curse of Allah and 
 his prophet ('Blessings on his head!'), and for 
 this he will have himself, when buried, to suffer 
 through the angels of judgment. How can he 
 refuse ? He gets off his horse, and approaches the 
 grave. But he must not recite the words on so 
 solemn an occasion with arms upon him. These 
 are taken off and laid on the ground. The two 
 men stand one on each side of him, and, kneeling, 
 he begins the recitation. But scarcely have the 
 opening words been uttered before the two men 
 drag him to the earth, and the body in the grave- 
 clothes springs to his neck, and in a few seconds 
 he is strangled, stabbed, robbed of his gold, and 
 buried in the grave. All the men who had accosted 
 him in his journey were Thugs, and one of them, 
 in proof of the murder, led the way to the 
 grave, where the bones of their hunted victim were 
 found. 1 
 
 It has been already stated that happily the 
 systematised atrocities belonging to Thuggee have 
 passed away; but this reference has been made to 
 
 1 I was not aware till after this narrative had been written that 
 the story had ever appeared in print. I find it is given by Sleeman, 
 in his Rambles and Recollections, published 1844, vol. i. p. 106, but 
 with some additions and variations. I give the story as originally 
 told nie by the high official already named, to whose province 
 belonged the victim and the criminals.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2O? 
 
 them because they represent the materials and 
 influences which yet exist. No doubt the love and 
 habit of plunder was at the root of the system. 
 The representations of the divinity worshipped 
 accord with the characteristics uniformly ascribed to 
 the present day to this national goddess. There is 
 assuredly sufficient explanation in them for any 
 degree of atrocious cruelty that may be found in 
 those who really adore and serve such an ideal of 
 the Divine. But probably the special conceptions 
 indicated were largely fabricated for the purpose of 
 deceiving these criminals into the belief that they 
 might pursue their trade of plunder with impunity. 
 The same human nature ready for unscrupulous 
 methods of obtaining gain is everywhere in India, 
 and the same intense and busy cunning, and the 
 same terrible divinity is regnant throughout the 
 country. It is the power of Britain that destroyed 
 this ancient and horrible system of diabolical crime, 
 and but for that power, probably, it or something 
 like it would reassert itself. And indeed long after 
 its suppression in our old provinces it was discovered 
 and put down in the Punjaub. 1 At any rate, much of 
 the same close confederacy and astute entrapments 
 are found in the dacoitie of the present day, taxing 
 to the utmost the keenest intelligence and the pro- 
 
 1 Life of Lord Lawrence, vol. i. pp. 298, 299.
 
 208 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 foundest sagacity of our courts in discovering the 
 ways and means of such crime. Let the reader 
 observe how much of the spirit and even the 
 method of murder belonging to Thuggee are to be 
 found in the following case. It was narrated to 
 me by a judge, as being the last sentence of death 
 pronounced by him before leaving for a recent 
 visit to England. 
 
 In a cluster of villages at some distance from the 
 head station there had been a succession of incen- 
 diary fires attended by robbery. It was evident 
 that there was a gang of marauders at work, and 
 very adroitly did they do their business, managing 
 in the midst of the confusion and alarm caused by 
 the fires in the night to get hold of money, jewels, 
 and other property, and run off with them. Sus- 
 picion at last rested on one man in particular as 
 the leader of the gang, and eyes and ears were 
 everywhere on the alert to discover him if possible 
 in the act. One night an attempt to break through 
 the house of a villager was arrested by the timely 
 waking up of the occupants, and the suspected man 
 was caught on the spot. His accomplices escaped, 
 but one remained at a short distance in hiding, 
 and watched the subsequent proceedings, and, 
 turning approver, gave important testimony at the 
 trial which took place. It came out in the evidence
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2OQ 
 
 that as soon as their prisoner was in their power, 
 his captors resolved on personally inflicting some 
 dire punishment. But nothing was to be done 
 hastily. They bound the poor wretch tightly, and 
 sent for the headman of the village. On his arrival 
 he exclaimed, ' This is the villain that has been 
 burning our houses. We will take care he never 
 does such a thing again.' Under his direction 
 some stout bamboos were obtained, the man 
 stretched on his back, the bamboos laid across his 
 neck and chest and abdomen, and the man de- 
 liberately trodden to death, the bamboo across the 
 neck strangling him and forcing the eyes out of 
 their sockets ! The headman of the village, as the 
 responsible instigator of this awful case of Lynch 
 law, was sentenced to death, and the men who did his 
 bidding to ' rigorous imprisonment.' Whether the 
 sentences as pronounced were confirmed by the 
 High Court, or modified, was not known when the 
 particulars were narrated. 
 
 The first sentence of death passed by the same 
 judge illustrates some other phases of native cha- 
 racter and life. It is well-known that the people 
 of India cling with determined tenacity to their 
 ancestral homes and lands. A very large propor- 
 tion of both civil and criminal cases in the courts 
 have to do with efforts to retain or recover the
 
 210 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 presumed rights in such matters. Often the disputes 
 relate to questions of rent and privilege between 
 zemindars (landowners) and their tenants, and 
 become so violent as to lead to riot and fighting. 
 Sometimes the quarrel is between one village with 
 its punchayet (council of five, a system of communal 
 rulership which the British Government is seeking 
 to restore to its ancient importance and universality) 
 and the nearest village. 1 In the present instance 
 there had long been a dispute as to the proprietor- 
 ship of a strip of land lying between the recognised 
 boundaries of territory severally belonging to two 
 neighbouring villages. Some circumstances had 
 recently occurred to embitter the controversy, and 
 party feeling on the question had become vehement. 
 Alas ! a little boy belonging to one of the villagers 
 was seen by an old man and a young man of the 
 other village on the plot of ground leading about 
 
 1 Prof. Max Mviller, in the article already referred to, remarks (p. 
 692), ' Take a man out of his village community, and you remove 
 him from all the restraints of society. . . . Even between village and 
 village the usual restraints of public morality are not always recog- 
 nised. What would be called theft or robbery at home is called a 
 successful raid or conquest if directed against a distant village, and 
 what would be falsehood or trickery in private life is honoured by 
 the name of policy and diplomacy if successful against strangers.' 
 See story in Lord Lawrence's Life, vol. i., p. 114, 'The Disputed 
 Boundary.' Another story belonging to the subject of this chapter 
 will be found on page 81, ' The Widow and her Money-bags.'
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 211 
 
 a goat, which was quietly nibbling the scant herbage 
 to be found. The evidence as to the action of the 
 young man was conflicting, and the judge, though 
 believing the probabilities were against him, gave 
 him the benefit of the doubt, but it was proved that 
 the old man fetched a chopper for cutting wood, 
 rushed upon the lad, and hacked his body to pieces ! 
 And here let me observe that I am given to under- 
 stand that, in our courts in India, technical 
 objections and accidental flaws are not allowed 
 to cause delay or miscarriage of justice, but that 
 judges are expected to pronounce judgments 
 according to the convictions reached by them 
 after patient and unbiassed consideration of the 
 facts before them as they appear in the light 
 of common sense. 
 
 How awful was the sight at Penang, when, some 
 forty years ago, seven convicts were together hung 
 for mutiny and murder on the Malayan seas ! At 
 that time the Straits Settlements were the penal 
 stations for India (as are now the Andaman Islands) , 
 and an opium ship, destined for China, sailed from 
 Bombay with a considerable number of convicts 
 on board, to be landed at Penang. Some twelve of 
 them were lodged in the long boat, which was 
 covered in for the voyage. They were chained to 
 each other and to the boat. These men plotted to
 
 212 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 destroy all the Europeans on board, sail to Sumatra, 
 and sell the valuable cargo at Acheen. They 
 managed to file through the chain which bound 
 them to the boat. Suddenly, at night, they fell 
 upon the captain and mates and murdered them. 
 A half-caste apprentice boy was compelled to take 
 the ship under management, and find the way to 
 Sumatra. After beating about and reaching a 
 wrong place, they eventually arrived at Acheen. 
 Some of the twelve, disguised in the clothes of the 
 murdered Europeans, landed, and professing to be 
 owners of the vessel and its cargo, offered to sell 
 the opium to the Eajah. But, suspecting foul 
 play, he detained the pretended merchants, on 
 the pretext of completing the sale, and sent, 
 unawares to them, a band of armed officials on 
 board, with orders to watch for the return of 
 the criminals to the ship, and to seize them as 
 they reached the deck, bind them, and throw 
 them overboard. Seven of the mutineers who 
 were on board were secured and conveyed in the 
 ship to Penang. There they were tried in the 
 High Court, found guilty, and sentenced to be 
 hung at the yardarms of the ship. The owners, 
 however, represented that if this were done no 
 crew would ever again enlist for such an ill- 
 fated vessel, and accordingly the seven men
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 213 
 
 were together executed at the usual place; and 
 that terrible scene continued for many years 
 to be a frequent topic of conversation, and a 
 'terror to evil doers.' The Eajah of Acheen, of 
 course, was rewarded by obtaining such share 
 of the salvage as he was entitled to receive ac- 
 cording to law. 
 
 The reader will, I think, thank me for con- 
 cluding this chapter of horrors with a story belong- 
 ing to my boyhood, which, while having some 
 relation to the subject, and not without its lessons 
 for the young, has certainly something serio-comic 
 about it. I have spoken of my early familiarity 
 with the scenes and proceedings of courts of justice. 
 This familiarity became the means of terror to me 
 for many memorable weeks. I have alluded to the 
 ' Free School,' and my companions of all races and 
 religions. The master was a strict disciplinarian, 
 and whatever we had to do we must do well, and 
 be smartly caned on the hands or other orthodox 
 region till we had satisfied him. Any talker or 
 idler detected by him was summoned by the cane 
 being thrown at him, and, to add to the mortifica- 
 tion, he had to pick it up and carry to the master 
 the instrument of his own punishment. One of 
 the subjects of his instruction was the art of 
 making goose quills into quill pens. Those were
 
 214 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 days when the manufacture of steel pens was in 
 its infancy, and they were very imperfect and 
 somewhat costly. Unfortunately, I was a miserable 
 hand at this accomplishment, and it happened one 
 afternoon that I had spoilt several quills and re- 
 ceived many strokes, first on one hand and then 
 on the other, for my clumsiness, or carelessness, 
 or indolence I do not know to which of the many 
 bad qualities in me the master ascribed it till at 
 last I rushed to my seat in a furious passion, 
 wildly tossing about my tingling hands, with a 
 quill in one hand and an open penknife in the other. 
 As I did this a Chinese boy moved from his class 
 in my direction, and, alas ! received into his cheek 
 a thrust from the penknife. He shrieked like a 
 madman, and ran into the middle of the school, 
 with the blood flowing down from the scar to the 
 floor ; and all eyes were turned on me as I stood 
 aghast at what I had done. My name was put 
 down in the punishment book. I said nothing 
 about it at home. Punishments were settled, in 
 imitation of the procedure of the neighbouring 
 court, by a jury of the senior boys of the school. 
 When Saturday arrived six names were called out 
 by the master, and the jury retired to a corner, 
 and drew up an indictment, and sentenced the 
 culprit. I was charged with passionately and
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 21$ 
 
 cruelly wounding an unoffending schoolfellow, and 
 sentenced to carry during school hours for a week 
 an upright log of wood chained to the right or 
 left ankle, with a ring at the top by which it was 
 moved. The sentence was confirmed by the master, 
 and I thus spent a week in shame and misery. 
 But this was not all. The boy's father determined, 
 Chinaman like, to get money out of his son's 
 misfortune. He followed me to my home, and 
 discovering me at play, threatened me with all 
 the terrors of the court-house, too vividly known 
 by me ; and finding my father willing to buy my 
 indemnity, continued to dog my steps and perse- 
 cute me with his threats for weeks, driving me into 
 hiding-places in our house and grounds, but cleverly 
 managing to secure a harvest of coin from my 
 kind-hearted and apologetic parent.
 
 2l6 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 IV. NOTICES OF SOME NATIVE OFFICIALS. 
 
 ME. CUNNINGHAM, Judge of the High Court of 
 Calcutta, in his recently published volume, com- 
 putes the total of the police force maintained in 
 India as 158,000, whose numbers vary with a ratio 
 of 1 in 2,315 in Bengal to 1 in 950 in Madras. 
 The ratio in the police district of London is about 
 1 in 400. 
 
 In accordance with these figures is the following 
 testimony from the same authority : ' Crime is far 
 less rife than in England, and women and children 
 can, and habitually do, travel by night for hundreds 
 of miles, by lonely roads, with no better protection 
 than the general peaceableness of the community 
 and the efficiency of the police ' (p. 284). Professor 
 Max Miiller also states that ' according to statistics, 
 the number of capital sentences was one in every 
 10,000 in England, but only one in every million 
 in Bengal.' 
 
 I presume Mr. Cunningham refers in his figures 
 to the class consisting of constables who have to do 
 with the prevention of crime and the arrest of 
 criminals. Besides these there will be seen in court 
 peons, who are employed in civil processes, and 
 answer to our bailiffs, and chupprassies, who are
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 217 
 
 attendants and messengers of the court. Two of 
 the last are always on duty at the residence of the 
 judge. Sometimes they are armed, as, for instance, 
 when accompanying a judge or magistrate on special 
 duty in the Mofussil or country district surrounding 
 the head station. I know a magistrate who had 
 occasion once to regret making such an excursion 
 with unarmed chupprassies. He was commissioned 
 to inspect some unassessed land, added, by the 
 silting of a river, to land on which revenue was 
 charged. On approaching the spot he observed signs 
 of hostility among the spectators. Arriving at the 
 river bank with his attendants, he perceived a group 
 of the landlord's tenants with canes in their hands; 
 and when he alighted from his horse and accosted the 
 ferryman and inquired for his boat, the man an- 
 swered in a surly tone that the boat was not that 
 day in use. It was necessary to take decided 
 action. The magistrate had his horsewhip in his 
 hand, and on receiving this reply at once ordered 
 the chnpprassies to hold the culprit, and personally 
 administered a severe flogging. The boat was soon 
 there, and the knot of threatening men dispersed, 
 and the additional strip of ground deliberately 
 measured. Had the attendants been in any way 
 armed the look of hostility would never have been 
 assumed. 
 
 p
 
 218 BETEL- NUT ISLAND. 
 
 This reference to the subordinate officials in a 
 court reminds me of a form of literal ' picking and 
 stealing' with which it is believed that some of 
 them have to do. The people of India have been 
 celebrated for the patient painstaking which charac- 
 terises their handiwork in metal and textile fabrics. 
 Time is of little value with men and women who 
 can live on twopence or threepence a day, and they 
 can afford to spend days in place of the hours that 
 would be given to a task in our country. The same 
 ingenuity and persistency are found in the pecula- 
 tion to which I am alluding. It consists in removing 
 the marks of erasure from stamps which have been 
 used. Numerous payments demanded for revenue, 
 and especially the business of the Law Courts, are 
 required to be made in stamps. These stamps, 
 already used, are got hold of, manipulated by long- 
 continued mechanical appliances, and so touched 
 up as to be made to do duty again. The clever and 
 patient operator will spend hours for the chance 
 of thus turning a dishonest penny. There is, ac- 
 cordingly, a constant struggle going on be- 
 tween the Government and the people, the one 
 in making stamps incapable of restoration, and 
 the other in varying and perfecting the methods 
 of getting defaced stamps to pass as of virgin 
 purity.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 2 19 
 
 Another phase of the same kind of industrious 
 ingenuity is referred to in the Edinburgh Review 
 of July, 1883 (p. 224). My readers are no doubt 
 aware that there is continuously great loss of 
 human life in India occasioned by the attacks of 
 wild animals. The figures published show upwards 
 of 20,000 deaths per annum ; but it is well known 
 that a large number of such deaths are not reported 
 to the local authorities, and it is estimated that 
 these figures really represent no more than the 
 number caused by the bites of snakes alone. The 
 Government accordingly offers money rewards for 
 all noxious snakes that are killed and brought to 
 the proper officials. Will it be believed that to 
 obtain the paltry sums that are promised there are 
 men who make it their business to gather all the 
 snake eggs they can find, hatch them in earthen 
 pots by artificial heat, and feed the young ones till 
 old enough to pass muster and earn the petty prizes ? 
 Such it seems is the fact. Europeans, however, can 
 do like things. A Dutch gentleman ( ! ), residing in 
 the Dutch East Indies, so frequently claimed the 
 reward of two dollars for every crocodile killed, that 
 an investigation was made, and 'it was discovered 
 that he had established a most successful breeding 
 ground by staking a small reach of river at some 
 distance from civilisation, and that his stock of
 
 220 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 saurians was nearly as profitable as an American 
 cattle ranche appears to be in a prospectus.' 1 
 
 Of a much higher order than the officials already 
 specified are the clerks of the court. Perhaps the 
 most important of them is the interpreter. Most 
 of the proceedings are conducted in English the 
 speeches of the pleaders, for instance, and the 
 judgments pronounced by the court. No doubt 
 it is now in India as it was in England in the 
 years immediately following the Norman conquest. 
 Justice was administered in the language of the 
 rulers. But the evidence of witnesses is necessarily 
 largely submitted in the vernacular, and thus 
 interpreters are required. Observe the interpreter 
 in the particular court we are supposed to be visit- 
 ing. He is a native gentleman, who has received 
 all the culture of the highest forms of education in 
 India, and is a graduate of the University of Calcutta. 
 It is generally supposed that such an education 
 must destroy any strong adherence to Hindu faith 
 and devotion. Commonly, it is said, the science thus 
 learnt, and the habits of thought formed, destroy 
 all honest hold of the absurdities and superstitions 
 which belong to Hinduism, and frequently result in 
 the production of deism, and even atheism. But 
 mark this man ! As he stands between the witness 
 
 1 Cruise of the Mnrchesa, vol. ii. p. 163.
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 221 
 
 and the court we see nothing to distinguish him 
 from the other native gentlemen. We observe that 
 he is of quick intelligence and ready speech, and 
 also self-possessed and apparently scrupulous in 
 his carefulness. But follow him to his home. 
 Look at him in the early morning. Day by day as 
 he rises from his couch he gathers flowers, traces 
 on his forehead the signs of the religious sect to 
 which he belongs, bathes the family idol, presents 
 the floral offering and clarified butter to it, and 
 solemnly recites the appointed invocations and 
 prayers. The worship ended, he washes away 
 the insignia of his idolatry, assumes the Hindu- 
 European dress he usually wears, and takes his 
 place in the court. Every one knows of his faithful 
 devotion to the god of his fathers, and marvels at it 
 because it is so unlike the usual effects of the educa- 
 tion he has received, but all regard him with respect. 
 I have referred to the idolatrous signs figured on 
 the forehead. It is, I think, a matter of sufficient 
 interest to add that familiarity with the natives of 
 India will soon enable an observer to know, by a 
 glance at these signs, to what sect and caste any 
 man belongs. The worshippers of Vishnu have on 
 their foreheads three perpendicular lines ; those of 
 Siva three horizontal lines. These are the two 
 chief sects of Hinduism. Another is indicated by 
 
 p 2
 
 222 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 circular spots of the size of a threepenny-piece. 
 The Brahmin, as such, is distinguished by his poita, 
 or sacred cord, made up of loose threads, which 
 hangs on his shoulder from one side of his neck 
 down to the other side of his waist, and is the sign 
 of his being a ' twice-born ' man. There is a very 
 singular distinction between Hindus and Moham- 
 medans. As a rule, the Hindu buttons his jacket 
 or coat on the right side, and the Mussulman 
 on the left. 
 
 The private clerk of the judge is necessarily on 
 terms of considerable intimacy with him. He, too, 
 is generally, as may be expected, a Brahmin gentle- 
 man of intelligence and culture. I will give you, 
 as far as I can remember in his own words, the 
 narrator's account of a conversation with this 
 much-respected official of his court. 
 
 'I was out,' he said, 'in Mofussil work, which 
 occupied many weeks of my time. I and my clerk 
 frequently rode together on the same elephant. It 
 was a noble creature, worth from 800 to 1,000, 
 intelligent and docile, and yet trained to walk with- 
 out a hesitating step to face a growling tiger. 
 Often I dispensed with its keeper and guided the 
 gentle creature myself. On one of these occasions 
 I ventured to talk with my clerk on religion. I 
 began by asking what he thought of Christianity
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 22$ 
 
 did he know its doctrine, and had he considered its 
 claims ? The ordinary reply was given, "It is a 
 good religion for Europeans, just as Hinduism is a 
 good religion" for myself." I asked, " Have you ever 
 heard a padre preach ? " " Oh, yes ; but I was only 
 once impressed by what I heard. Generally the 
 padres who come here do not sufficiently know the 
 language, and speak to us through an interpreter. 
 How little do they imagine what the man says ! 
 Often he just issues short orders, as if repeating 
 messages from a master to his servants, such as, 
 ' The padre says you must pray every morning and 
 every evening,' ' The padre says you must not tell 
 lies.' But, sahib, one day there came a very differ- 
 ent padre. He was pale, and had a broad black hat 
 and a beard, and wore a long coat which came down 
 to his knees, and he stood in our bazaar and spoke 
 to us in our own language. I shall never forget 
 what he preached. He began, ' I was yesterday at 
 R . How very different the people there are from 
 you ! The temples I found in good order, and there 
 were many doing pujah (worship), and everyone had 
 his religious marks on his forehead, and seemed to 
 think of his god and lead a religious life. But here! 
 Look at the temples they are out of repair, and 
 the floors dirty, and the shrines neglected. There 
 are no worshippers, and you seem to live as if there
 
 224 BETEL-NUT ISLAND. 
 
 were no God and no life but the present one. Can 
 this be right ? I come to remind you that there is 
 a God, and that He requires from you worship, and I 
 bring you from Him books, that you may know what 
 you are to do to be good and happy, and have happi- 
 ness in the life to come.' We all wondered as he 
 spoke to us. He said nothing against Vishnu, or 
 Siva, or Luchmee, or any of the gods, and nothing 
 against the Brahmins, but only that we must wor- 
 ship God, and be good and holy men and women 
 And he went on, ' Now you who do pray, how do you 
 pray? I expect you just kneel down and say, "Earn ! 
 Earn ! Earn ! " and go on saying this and nothing 
 more. Is that praying ? Suppose you had a poor 
 crop, or had a wedding, and spent all you had saved, 
 and wanted the zemindar (landlord) to take off some 
 of the rent, would you go to him and just say, "Babu ! 
 Babu ! Babu ! " and nothing else ? No ! You would 
 say, " Babu! the crop has failed," or "Babu! I have 
 just married my daughter, and spent all my money," 
 or " Babu ! I am so heavily in debt with the money, 
 lender that I cannot just now pay my rent. You are 
 rich and generous and noble, have pity on me and 
 forgive me my rent this time, and I will bless you." 
 So when you kneel to God, say not just, " Earn ! 
 Earn ! Earn ! Earn ! " but tell God of your sins, 
 and say, " Oh, forgive me ! " or tell Him of your
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE. 22$ 
 
 wants, and say, " Oh grant me what I need ! " or 
 tell Him of your troubles, and say, " Oh, help and 
 comfort me!" And then, looking seriously and tear- 
 fully the Brahmin added, " Yes, sahib, I shall never 
 forget that padre. I do not know his name, or 
 where he came from, or where he went, but should 
 you ever find him tell him I thank him, and that I 
 now never pray as I used to do, just uttering, with- 
 out any thought, the name of my God, but I tell 
 God of my sins, and my needs, and my sorrows, 
 and I ask for His pardon, and His help, and His 
 blessing." 
 
 Was not this Brahmin clerk among those who 
 are ' not far from the kingdom of heaven,' and 
 is there not much of suggestion in his story for 
 teachers and preachers among the heathen ? And 
 is there no rebuke in it for those amongst us to 
 whom religious exercises, by their formal iteration, 
 have become mere sounds and ceremonies, little 
 better than the ' praying wheels ' of Mongolia ? 
 
 LOXDON : KNIUHT, PRINTKR, MIDDLK STREET, AI.DKRSOATK, K.C.
 
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