is now in the most intimate manner connected with
it: and yet the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians,
and Greeks acknowledged traditions concerning its
first discovery in their respective countries.
But in fact if we can once suppose a man, or society
of men, unacquainted with the being and uses of this
element, I see no difficulty in conceiving the possibility
of their supporting life without it; I mean in the
tropical climates; and of centuries passing before
they should arrive at the important discovery.
It is true that lightning and its effects, volcanoes,
the firing of dry substances by fortuitous attrition,
or of moist, by fermentation, might give them an idea
of its violent and destructive properties; but far
from being thence induced to appropriate and apply
it they would, on the contrary, dread and avoid it,
even in its less formidable appearances. They
might be led to worship it as their deity, but not
to cherish it as their domestic. There is some
reason to conclude that the man who first reduced
it to subjection and rendered it subservient to the
purposes of life procured it from the collision of
two flints; but the sparks thus produced, whether
by accident or design, might be observed innumerable
times without its suggesting a beneficial application.
In countries where those did not present themselves
the discovery had, most probably, its origin in the
rubbing together of dry sticks, and in this operation,
the agent and subject coexisting, flame, with its
properties and uses, became more immediately apparent.
Still, as no previous idea was conceived of this latent
principle, and consequently no search made, no endeavours
exerted, to bring it to light, I see not the impossibility
a priori of its remaining almost as long concealed
from mankind as the properties of the loadstone or
the qualities of gunpowder.)
Water is conveyed from the spring in bamboos, which
for this purpose are cut, either to the length of
five or six feet and carried over the shoulder, or
into a number of single joints that are put together
in a basket. It is drunk out of the fruit called
labu here, resembling the calabash of the West Indies,
a hole being made in the side of the neck and another
at top for vent. In drinking they generally hold
the vessel at a distance above their mouths and catch
the stream as it falls; the liquid descending to the
stomach without the action of swallowing. Baskets
(bronong, bakul) are a considerable part of the furniture
of a man’s house, and the number of these seen
hanging up are tokens of the owner’s substance;
for in them his harvests of rice or pepper are gathered
and brought home; no carts being employed in the interior
parts of the island which I am now describing.
They are made of slips of bamboo connected by means
of split rattans; and are carried chiefly by the women,
on the back, supported by a string or band across the
forehead.
FOOD.