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It is said that once, when the inhabitants of Cayeli in Buru an East Indian island were threatened with destruction by a swarm of crocodiles, they ascribed the misfortune to a passion which the prince of the crocodiles had conceived for a certain girl. Accordingly, they compelled the damsel's father to dress her in bridal array and deliver her over to the clutches of her crocodile lover.
One day at the assembly when they had begun to tell Marang Buru of their troubles he fixed a day and told them to come to him on it, dressed all in their cleanest clothes and he would teach them witchcraft. So the men all went home and told their wives to wash their clothes well against the fixed day, as they were going to Thakur to learn witchcraft.
The principal ports are Kuran and Sibuku; they produce a large quantity of very fine white birds'-nests, a quantity of black ditto, much dammer, sago, tripan, wax, rattans, camphor, honey, Buru mats, gold, &c. The people of Tapeandurian are represented as very ferocious, and the sea-coast hereabout requires surveying.
He gives us the first detailed account of the Timor-laut Islands, with very interesting and valuable ethnological notes. The work is divided into six parts, devoted to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas, Timor-laut, Buru, and Timor. Many illustrations are interspersed throughout the text, and the whole work is exceedingly vigorous, graphic, and abounding in interest.
Forbes's travels in Java, Sumatra, and the Keeling Islands are far more satisfactory than in those less familiar, like Timor and Buru. In the light of the terrible events of 1883, everything connected with the islands lying on either side of the Straits of Sunda is of the highest interest.
The whole of this province, it is said, will produce above one hundred piculs of the finest birds'-nests, much black ditto, some camphor, tripan, honey, wax, dammer, Buru mats, fine spars; sago and pepper were formerly largely cultivated here. The pearl-banks of Tawi Tawi have been mentioned. Tirun.
No doubt the cereal offering is regarded as a tribute paid to a god, but that god is no other than the seed itself; and it is only a god in so far as it is beneficial to the human body." At the close of the rice harvest in the East Indian island of Buru, each clan meets at a common sacramental meal, to which every member of the clan is bound to contribute a little of the new rice.
They arranged that each woman should brew some rice beer and offer it to her husband as he was starting to meet Marang Buru and beg him to drink some lest his return should be delayed.
So among the Alfoors of the island of Buru it is taboo to mention the names of parents and parents-in-law, or even to speak of common objects by words which resemble these names in sound. In the same island it is also taboo to mention the name of an elder brother in his presence. Transgressions of these rules are punished with fines.
So said, so done; the women duly made their husbands drunk and then put on pagris and dhoties and stuck goats' beards on their faces and went off to Marang Buru to learn witchcraft. Marang Buru did not detect the imposition and according to his promise taught them all the incantations of witchcraft.
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