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On the Beach.
The million-footed crowd of travelling humanity has trodden Tandjong Priok out of all beauty and pleasantness. It is nothing now but a heap of dust rendered compact by a coating of basalt and bricks, and bearing on its flat surface some half-dozen square squat sheds, the whitewashed walls of which glare intolerably in the sunlight that beats upon that barren place all day long. But, a little further down the shore, eastwards from the harbour, the natural beauty of the country re-asserts itself. There are wide, shallow bays, where the water sleeps in the shadow
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of overhanging trees: sandy points, one projecting beyond the other across shimmering intervals of sea: and, alternating with open spaces where a few bamboo huts are clustered together amidst a plantation of young banana trees, great tracts of woodland come down to the very margin of the water. In one place where the narrow beach broadens out a little, some half-dozen shanties, one of which might, by courtesy, be styled a bathing-lodge, have found standing-room between the wood and the water. Some homesick exile from France has christened the handful of bamboo posts and atap leaves: Petite Trouville. In the dry season, when Batavia is parched with heat and choked with dust, people come hither for a plunge into the clear cool waves, and for some hours of blissful idleness in the shadow of the broad-branched nyamploeng trees, which mirror their dark leafage and clusters of white wax-like blossoms in the unruffled tide.
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The day some friends took me to see the place, was one of the last in April, when the rains were not quite over yet. We had left Batavia at half-past-five, when the Koningsplein was still white with rolling mists and the stars had but just begun to fade in the greyish sky. The train had borne us along some distance on our way to Tandjong Priok, ere the sun rose. Rather, ere it appeared. There had been no heralding change of colour in the eastern sky; only the uncertain light that lay over the landscape had gradually strengthened; and, all at once, at some height above the horizon a triangular splendour burst forth, a great heart of Hame which was the sun. The pools and tracts of marshy ground flooded by the recent rains were ridged with long straight parallel lines of red. The dark tufts of palm trees here and there shone like burnished bronze. And where they grew denser, in groups and little groves, the blue mist hanging between
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the stems was pierced by lances of reddish light.
At Tandjong Priok station, we alighted amidst a crowd of natives, dock-labourers and coal-heavers, on their way to the ships. They took the road in true native style, one marching behind the other, laughing and talking as they went. And we followed them, in our jolting sadoos, along a sunny avenue, planted with slim young trees, as far as to the bend of the road: then we left it and entered the wood on the right, which we had for some time been skirting.
A rough track led through it. Our sadoos jolted worse than ever in the ruts left by the broad-wheeled carts of the peasantry. We alighted and made our way as best we could through the grass-grown clearings of the jungle. The sun was but just beginning to warm the air. White shreds of mist still hung among the tree-sterns, and swathed the brushwood. The grass
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underfoot was white with dew, glistening with myriads of brilliant little points where the yellow sunlight touched it. The broadly curved banana leaves, and the feathery tufts of the palm trees overhead began to grow transparent, standing out in light green against the shining whiteness of the sky. There was an inexpressible vitality and exhilaration in all things, in the fine pure air, cool as well water, in the sparkle of the dew-lit grass, in the bushes with large round drops trembling on every leaf, in the pungent scent of the lantana that on every side displayed its clusters of pink mauve and orange red blossoms. It was good to feel wet through on the tramp through the drenched tangle, to feel the blood tingling in the finger tips, the lungs full of quickening air, and the sunshine right in your eyes. It was good to be alive.
After a while, we came to a little campong, some five or six bamboo huts, grouped together in an open space
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of the wood. Some naked children were playing around a fire of sticks and dry leaves. Under a shed, a woman stood pounding rice in a hollowed-out wooden block, whilst another carrying a child in her slendang, talked to her. There were no men about, save one old fellow, white-haired and decrepit, who sat in his doorway, mending nets. In that sunny forest clearing, that was the one thing suggestive of the neighbouring sea.
Past the village there are several tanks of brackish water, where fish is bred for Chinese consumption. Tangles of green weed floated on the surface, which, in places, seemed to be filmed over with oily colours. A man walked along the shore, dredging. Beyond, the wood recommences. But it is less dense here; great patches of sunlight lie on the ground, and the sky shows everywhere through the sterns. As we issued out of the dappled shade, we beheld the sea.
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Calm and clear, the sea lay under the calm clear sky, a silvery splendour suffused in places with the faintest blue. Not a ripple disturbed the lustrous smoothness. Only, out in the open, the water heaved with a scarcely perceptible swell, its rise and subsidence revealed by a rhythmic pulsation of colour - streaks of pale turquoise breaking out upon the pearly monochrome, kindling into azure and gradually growing faint and fading again. To the westward the mole of Tandjong Priok and the two bar-iron light-towers, standing seemingly close together, had dwindled to a narrow dark line with, at its extreme point, two little black filigree figures delicately defined against the shimmering white of sea and sky. Near the shore, a fishing-prahu, its slight huil almost disappearing under the immense white wing-like sail, lay still above its motionless reflection. In the eastern distance, a group of islands, ethereal as cloudlets, hung
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where the stars of the sky and the shimmer of the sky flowed together into, one tremulous splendour, dazzling and colourless. The beach with a nipah-thatched hut on the right and a group of spreading njamploeng trees on the left, framed the radiant vista with sober browns and greens. The morning was still, without a breath of air; and, all around, the foliage hung motionless. Yet, as we walked over the fine grey sand, which already felt hot under foot, there came drifting down to us now and again, whiffs of a sweet subtle fragrance, as of March violets; and transparant blossoms, fluttering down, whitened the shell-strewn beach. The njamploengs were in flower.
Looking at that dark-leaved grove on the margin of the water, I thought I had seldom seen nobler trees. Not very tall; but round and broad, great hemispheres of foliage squarely supported on column-like trunks. In their general air and hearing, in the character of the
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oblong leaves and in their elegant poise upon the branch, they somewhat resemble the walnuts of northern countries. The colour is even richer, a vigorous bluish green, swarthy at a distance; and, when seen near at hand, as full of tender beryl-tints as a field of young oats, with watery gleams and glories playing through the depths of the foliage. For a crowning grace, the njamploeng has its blossoms, fragrant, white, and of a wax-like transparency - cups of milky light. Standing under an ancient tree, that overhangs the water with trailing branches and with a tangle of wave-washed roots, I could see the luminous clusters shining in that dome of dusky leafage, as stars do in the evening sky. And the water in the shadow gleamed with pale reflections.
The sea that morning passed through a succession of chromatic changes. The silvery smoothness of an hour ago, had been broken by a ripple that came and went in dashes of ruffled ultra-marine.
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Then, here and there, purplish patches appeared, which presently began to spread until they touched, and flowed together, and the sea, all along the shore, seemed turned to muddy wine whilst, out in the open, it sparkled in a rich blue-green, rippling and flickering. And noon, the purplish brown had disappeared, and the emerald-like tints had faded and changed to an uncertain olive-green. The sky as yet retained its morning aspect, cloudless and shimmering with a white brilliancy as if the stars of the Milky Way had been dissolved in it. Under that enduring paleness, the fitful colouring and flushing of the sea seemed all the stranger.
As the day advanced, the heat had steadily increased, and, at last, it was intolerable,. About ten, when we swam out into the sea, the water, even where it grew deeper, felt tepid: a little after noon, it was warm. The windless air quivered. And the sand was so hot as to scorch our bare feet when we
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attempted to step out of the circular shadow of the njamploengs, where a little coolness as yet remained.
A dead quiet lay on sea and land. There was neither wind nor wave; not the thinnest shadow of a sailing cloud, to temper for an instant, the unbearable glare. The foliage overhead was the one spot of colour in a white-hot universe. There must be cicadas among the leaves. I had heard them trilling, earlier in the day: but the heat had reduced them to silence. And the black ants, crawling among the roots, and in the fissures of the rough rind of the trees seemed to move but listlessly. From where I sat, I could see, framed by the circular sweep of the hanging foliage, a stretch of beach, with some huts amidst a banana plantation, and, further down, a native boat lying keel upwards upon the sand. A lean dog crouched in the shadow, panting with tongue hanging out. And no other living creature was to be seen.
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The afternoon was far gone before there came a change, imperceptible at first, a gradual sobering of colour, and a growing definiteness in the contours of trees and, bushes. Then, the air began to cool down. The horizon grew distinct, a curve of rich green against sunlit blue. A short ripple roughened the water and, suddenly, the breeze sprang up, driving before it a wave that hurried and rose, and broke in foam upon the beach. The tide was coming in.
It was as if the inspiriting hour, that changed the face of land and sea, made itself felt also in the little brown huts under the trees, stirring up the folk into briskness and activity. Merry voices and the cries of children mingled with the sound of hammer strokes, reverberating along the wooded beach. Among the trees, I could discern the figure of a man bending over his boat, hammer in hand; and a woman coming out of her door with a bundle of clothes under one arm, Where the lengthening sha- | |
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dow of the njamploeng trees fell on the sunny water, two young girls were bathing: somewhat further down, a swarm of naked urchins waded through the shallows, in search of mother-of-pearl. The yellow sunlight shone on their little brown bodies, and made the ripples sparkle around them as they splashed hither and thither, feeling about with their feet for the flat sharp shards which the tide leaves buried in the sands, and standing still for an instant. When they had found one, they balanced on one foot, whilst, between the clenched toes of the other foot with a supple, monkey-like movement, they picked up the shiny fragment. And, presently, along came an old man, in a straw topee and a faded reddish sarong, who entered the sea, and waded towards the spot, where, that morning, - when it was as yet dry land - he had erected his ‘tero’ the pliable bamboo palisade, which, arranged in the shape of a V, with the opening towards the
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shore, serves as a trap for fish. The hurdle was all but overflowed now, only the points of the bamboo stakes emerging above the rising tide, like the rigging of some wrecked and sunken ship. The old man gave it a shake, to assure himself of having driven it deep enough into the sand, to withstand the impact of the waves: and, satisfied upon this point, limped away again, with the air of a man who had finished his day's work. He might lie down on his baleh-baleh now, and peacefully smoke his cigarette. Whilst he was taking his ease, the sea would provide for his daily fish. In a few minutes, the tide would have submerged his ‘tero,’ and the heedless fish would swim across it: and, as the water ebbed away again, they would be driven against the converging sides of the lattice-work, and, presently, be left gasping upon the bars. Then, the women of the village would come with their baskets, and gather the living harvest, as they might a windfall of ripe
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fruit; and his grandson, out at sea now, with the other young and strong men, throwing out the nets, and drawing them up again, heavy with fish, would come and hang two fall baskets to his bending yoke, and with the fire-car go to Batavia, there to sell the fish for much money, a handful of copper doits. Even, if he had caught ‘kakab’ which the orang blandah likes, and ‘gabus,’ of which the rich Chinese are fond, the boy might bring him home some silver coins. And his grand-daughter would salt and dry in the sun the smaller fry, and make ‘ikan kring’ for him and all the household.
Happy the man who has dutiful children! In his old age, and when he is able no longer to earn his sustenance, yet he will not want; he need not beg, nor borrow from the kampong folk; and he will not be tempted to invoke Kjaï Belorong, the wicked goddess of wealth, who, in exchange for riches, demands mens' souls. Do not all in this
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kampong know of Pah-Sidin, and what became of him after he had prayed to the evil sprite? He was a poor man, Pah-Sidin, unlucky in whatever he undertook, and so utterly ignorant as not to know a single ‘ilmu’ with which to conjure good fortune. So that, though his wife worked from morning till night, weaving and batikking sarongs, and tending the garden and the field, and selling fruit and flowers, things went from bad to worse with him. One day, there was not a grain of rice left in the house, and the green crop in the field was the property of an usurer. His wife, weeping, said: ‘O Pah-Sidin! how now shall we feed and clothe our little ones, Sidin, and all the others?’ But he, vexed with new importunities, and weary of fasting and going about in faded clothes, without a penny to buy sirih or go to cock-fights, said: ‘Be silent! for I know where to find great wealth.’ Then he went away, and walked along the shore for many
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days, until he came to a place where there were great rocks, and waves in which the water made a sound as of thunder. Here lives the dread goddess, Njai Loro Kidul, the Virgin Queen of the Southern Seas, whom the gatherers of edible birds' nests invoke, honouring her with splendid sacrifices before they set out on their perilous quest. And here, too, lives her servant, wicked Kjaï Belorong, the money-goddess.
Pah-Sidin, standing in the entrance of a black and thunderous cave, strewed kanangan flowers, and melatih, and yellow champaka, and burnt costly frankincense, and, as the cloud of fragrant smoke ascended, he fell on his face, and cried: ‘Kjaï Belorong! I invoke thee! I am poor and utterly wretched! Do thou give me money, and I will give thee my soul, O Kjaï Belorong!’ Then, a voice, which caused the blood to run cold in his veins, answered: ‘I hear thee, Pah-Sidin.’ He arose, trembling, and, as he turned his head, saw that the
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cave was a house, large and splendid, and full of golden treasure. But, as he looked closer, behold! it was built of human bodies; floor, walls, and roof all made of living men, who wept and groaned, crying: ‘Alas, alas! who can endure these unendurable pains!’ And the horrible voice, speaking for the second time, asked: ‘Pah-Sidin, bast thou courage?’
Pah-Sidin, at first, would like to have fainted with horror. But soon, reflecting how he was young and strong, and the hour of his death far off as yet, and hoping, also, that, in the end, he might be able to deceive Kjaï Belorong and save his soul, and considering that, in the meanwhile, he would enjoy great honour and riches, he answered; ‘Kjaï Belorong, I have courage!’ And the voice spoke for the third time: ‘It is well! Now go back to thy own house; for, soon, I will come to thee.’
So, Pah-Sidin returned to his house, and waited for Kjaï Belorong, saying
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nothing of the matter to hit wife. And in the night, she came, and sat upon the baleh-baleh, and said: ‘Embrace me, Pah-Sidin, for now I am thy love,’ Pah-Sidin would willingly have kissed her, for she seemed as fair as the bride of the love-god. But, looking down, he saw that, instead of legs and feet, she had a long scaly tail; then he was afraid, and would have fled. But Kjaï Belorong, seizing him in her arms, said: ‘If thou but triest to escape, I will kill thee,’ and she pressed him to her bosom so violently that the breath forsook his body, and he lay as one dead. Then she loosed her grasp, and disappeared, rattling her tail. When Pah-Sidin returned to consciousness, he saw, in the faint light of the dawn, the baleh-baleh all strewn with yellow scales, and each scale was a piece of the finest gold.
Pah-Sidin now was as rich as the richest Rajah: he hod a splendid house, with granaries and stables, fine horses, great plantations of palms and jambus and
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all other kinds of fruit, and rich sawahs that stretched as far as a man on horseback could see. He repudiated his wife, who was no longer young, and was worn with much care and labour, and married the daughter of a wealthy Rajah, and three other maidens, os fair as bidadaris. And, whenever he wished for more money. Kjaï Belorong came to him in the night, and embraced him, and gave him more than he had asked for. And thus the years went by in great glory and happiness, until the hair of his head began to grow white, and his eyes lost their brilliancy, and his black and shining teeth fell out. Then, one night, Kjaï Belorong came to his couch, unsummoned, looked at him, and said: ‘Pah-Sidin! the hour is come. Follow ine, and I will make thee the threshold of my palace.’ But Pah-Sidin made answer, and said: ‘Alas! Kjaï Belorong! look at me, how lean I am! my ribs almost pierce through the skin of my side. Assuredly, thou
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wilt hurt thy tail in passing over me, if thou makest me the threshold of thy house. Rather take with thee my plough-boy, who is young, and plump, and smooth!’
Then Kjaï Belorong took the plough-boy. And Pah-.Sidin married a new wife, and lived merrier than before. Thus ten years went by in great glory and happiness. But, on the last night of the tenth year, Kjaï Belorong again came to his couch, unsummoned, and looked at him, and said: ‘Pah-Sidin! the hour is come. Follow me, and I will make thee the pillar of my palace.’ But Pah-Sidin made answer and said: ‘Alas! Kjaï Belorong! look at me, how weak I am! my shoulders are so narrow, I can scarcely keep the badju (jacket) from gliding down. Assuredly, thy roof will fall in and crush thee, if thou makest me the pillar of thy house. Rather take with thee my youngest brother, who is strong, and tall, and broad of shoulders!’
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Then Kjaï Belorong took the brother. But Pah-Sidin married yet another new wife, and lived even merrier than hitherto. Thus ten more years went by in great glory and happiness. But, on the last night of the tenth year, Kjaï Belorong for the third time came to his couch, unsummoned, looked at him and spoke: ‘Pah-Sidin! the hour is come. Follow me, and I will make thee the hearth-stone of my palace?’ And Pah-Sidin made answer, and said: ‘Alas! Kjaï Belorong! look at me, how cold I am and covered all over with a clammy sweat! Assuredly thy fire will smoulder and go out if thou makest me tho hearth-stone of thy house. Rather take with thee my eldest son, Sidin, who is healthy, aud warm, and dry!’ But the wicked Kjaï Belorong, in a voice which made Pah-Sidin's heart stand still, screamed: ‘I will take none but thee, old man! and, since thou art so cold and wet, I will bid my imperishable fire warm and dry
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thee!’ And with these words the demon seized Pah-Sidin by the throat, and carried him off to her horrible abode, there to be the stone upon which her hearth-fire everlastingly burns. Such is the fate of those who let themselves be conquered by greed and the wiles of Kjaï Belorong.
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