round like a volcano in miniature. The water has a soapy feel and
produces a strong lather when any greasy substance is washed in it.
It contains alkali and iodine, in such quantities as to destroy all
vegetation for some distance around. Close by the village is one of
the finest springs I have ever seen, contained in several rocky basins
communicating by narrow channels. These have been neatly walled where
required and partly levelled, and form fine natural baths. The water
is well tasted and clear as crystal, and the basins are surrounded by
a grove of lofty many-stemmed banyan-trees, which keep them always cool
and shady, and add greatly to the picturesque beauty of the scene.
The village consists of curious little houses very different from any I
have seen elsewhere. They are of an oval figure, and the walls are made
of sticks about four feet high placed close together. From this rises a
high conical roof thatched with grass. The only opening is a door about
three feet high. The people are like the Timorese with frizzly or wavy
hair and of a coppery brown colour. The better class appear to have a
mixture of some superior race which has much improved their features.
I saw in Coupang some chiefs from the island of Savu further west,
who presented characters very distinct from either the Malay or Papuan
races. They most resembled Hindus, having fine well-formed features and
straight thin noses with clear brown complexions. As the Brahminical
religion once spread over all Java, and even now exists in Bali and
Lombock, it is not at all improbable that some natives of India should
have reached this island, either by accident or to escape persecution,
and formed a permanent settlement there.
I stayed at Oeassa four days, when, not finding any insects and very few
new birds, I returned to Coupang to await the next mail steamer. On the
way I had a narrow escape of being swamped. The deep coffin-like boat
was filled up with my baggage, and with vegetables, cocoa-nut and other
fruit for Coupang market, and when we had got some way across into a
rather rough sea, we found that a quantity of water was coming in which
we had no means of baling out. This caused us to sink deeper in the
water, and then we shipped seas over our sides, and the rowers, who had
before declared it was nothing, now became alarmed and turned the boat
round to get back to the coast of Semao, which was not far off. By
clearing away some of the baggage a little of the water could be baled
out, but hardly so fast as it came in, and when we neared the coast
we found nothing but vertical walls of rock against which the sea was
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