"Lourikeets were in great plenty, and many varieties of pigeons
and doves, beside other birds. Near Lengan Lengang we encountered a
community of dusky baboons, many of them very large and powerful:
after a hard scramble I got within shot of them; on my firing the
first barrel, the young ones and females made off, but the leaders
of the band disdained to retreat, and, with threatening gestures and
grimaces, covered the retreat of their party. The consequence was,
I sacrificed one of these heroes, of a large size: he fell from
the branch on which he was seated into a deep valley, and his fall
completed the rout of the rest. Spence, in the mean time, having
arrived, I dispatched him to secure the prize; but at the bottom
of the valley the baboons again showed themselves, and manifested
every inclination to fall on him; another barrel put them to flight,
and between us we dragged the fallen hero to the horses.
"The village of Lengan Lengang consists of about a dozen houses, is
situated in a nook of the hills, and surrounded by cocoanut-trees. We
were accommodated in the principal house, and treated with every
hospitality. The people of the hills are poor, though their land is
fertile, and produces abundance of rice and Indian corn. Theft is
said to be common, especially of horses, and the care of the horses
belonging to travelers devolves on the villagers; for, in case a
horse is stolen, a fine is imposed on the population in general. To
prevent this misfortune, our hosts kept playing, as long as we could
bear it, on an instrument like a clarinet; but at twelve o'clock,
after trying in vain to sleep, we were obliged to stop the noise and
risk the horses.
"This instrument is about three feet long, with five or six holes,
and a flat mouthpiece on the cane-tube; the sound is musical when
gently breathed into, but in their usual mode of playing, it emits
frightful shrieks. During the night the thermometer sunk to 69 deg.,
and we were glad of our blankets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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