United States or Palau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Suppose that you come with me for a stroll down the Jalan Tiga in Sandakan and see the gaming houses and the opium dens for yourself. There may be wickeder streets somewhere in the East than the Jalan Tiga, but I do not recall having seen them.
"Tiga stengah," he cried after each splash and pause, gathering the line busily for another cast. "Tiga stengah," which means three fathom and a half. For a mile or so from seaward there was a uniform depth of water right up to the bar. "Half-three. Half-three.
Passing Cape Wilberforce, called Udjung Turu, or Bearaway Point, they continue their course down the Gulf to the Wellesley Islands, named by them Pulo Tiga, or The Three Islands; this is the usual southern limit of their voyage. The Macassar proas that visit Port Essington, amounting in one season to fourteen, usually brought for barter tea, sugar, cloths, salt-fish, rice, etc.
"It lookee like countly of mias lombi. Cappen Ledwad, if dat wild debbel lib in dem wood below, bettel we go all lound. We tly closs it, may be we get eat up. Singapo tiga not so dang'lous as mias he not common kind, but gleat mias lombi what Poltugee people callee `led golilla." "The red gorilla!" ejaculated Captain Redwood. "Is it the ourang-outang you mean?" "Same ting, Sahib cappen.
Now, wait a bit, till they come to the chorus, and I'll try and translate it. There, he's starting:" "Miti Ioka, malie toa, toa malohi Kapeni Iota, arii vaka! Tule Ioka, fana tonu! Mate puaka uri, kai tino. Maumau lava, nofo noa! Maumau lava, nofo noa t Halo! Tama, Halo Foe!!! "E aue l le tiga ina Ma kalâga, ma kalâga O fafine lalolagi E kau iloay i nofa noa Kapeni Ioka Halo! Tama, Halo Foe!!!"
And here a most ludicrous scene occurred during the night. Having placed our sentries and look-out men, and given "Tiga" as the watchword, we were, shortly after midnight, suddenly aroused from sound sleep by a Dyak war-yell, which was immediately responded to by the whole force.
Running parallel to the Jalan Tiga is another street I do not recall its name in which are the opium farms. Far from being veiled in secrecy, they are operated as openly as American soda fountains. A typical opium farm consists of a two-story wooden house, one of a long row of similar buildings, containing a number of small, ill-lighted rooms which reek with the sickly sweet fumes of the drug.
In 1919 the gambling rights for the entire protectorate were sold for approximately $144,000. Crossing the Jalan Tiga at right angles and running from the heart of the town down to the edge of the harbor is the street of the prostitutes. It is easy to recognize the houses of ill-fame by their scarlet blinds and by the scarlet numbers over their doors.
I had already thrust the muzzle of my pistol close to the heads of several natives, whom, in the confusion, I had mistaken for Sakarrans; and as each in his turn called out "Tiga," I withdrew my weapon to apply it to somebody else; until, at last, we found that we were all "Tigas."
Word Of The Day