WORLD CRUISE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22515, 4 September 1936, Page 9

WORLD CRUISE

IDLE HOUR S VOYAGE ISLAND OF LAUGHTER RAJAH ACTS AS HOST AMONG THE DRAGON-LIZARDS In the fallowing article an Auckland member of the 3'2ft American ketch Idle Hour describes portion of ' Uie craft s passage through the Dutch East Indies in continuation of a world cruise.

BY IVAN PALMER KOMODO ISLAND, August 4 At Scba, on the island of Sawoe, we obtained our first raal glimpse of the East. The day we spent stshore there / was a glorious experience, for Sawoe must be one of the most unspoiled places in the whole of the Indies. The Malays we saw there are a fine people —clean and resourceful, i Captain Cook described the island as being noted for the beauty of itsi women; all those we saw were certainly uncommonly attractive, with finelymodelled features. They have a bewitching shyness. Men and women are forever laughing. In fact', it is a long time since I have known so much laughter -crowded into a single day. In the market place and in the village we traded necklaces, rings and ear-rings for fresh food and a fewcurios, Our trading activities were hampered by the fjict that none of the natives spoke English, but that all added to the fun. Our best bargains included a chicken for a sixpenny necklace and 24 bread rolls for the equiva- ."■* lent of Is 6d. Two Rajahs Encountered • // Some of the deahi were very involved: in a Jew cases the natives wanted money, but our shillings and sixpences were of no use to them. So we arranged the transaction through an inter- *.<;* mediary who paid us Dutch money for jewellery. In the afternoon we met the rajah of the island and the doctor, a ~ half-caste German-Javanese with a beautiful Javanese wife. The rajah was wearing a pyjaina suit, a peaked felt hat, two-tone shoes and horn-rimmed smoked spectacles. Our next stop was at the village of Melolo on the large neighbouring island of Soemba. The natives were disappointing after the fine type we had seen at ■ Sawoe. Most of the stores which line either side of the rather squalid main street are operated by Chinese, who . have their wives and children with them. When we disnlayed our trade 5 goods we were literally besieged by natives anxious to barter.

We were on our way back to Idle ■ Hour laden with chickens, eggs and fruit when we weire invited to meet the Rajah of Rengi, who happened to be visiting the village. He is a thin, extremely dignified man with a long moustache. He -spoke no English, but . we were able to converse spasmodically through a native who knew a few essential English words. Invitation to Palace ' - The rajah presented Dwight Long with a beautiful tapestry of distinctive, hand-woven Malay cloth. He invited us to spend the night at his palace, about ' four miles distant, but as Idle Hour was anchored in an open roadstead with an on-shore wind, Dwight was not pre- ? pared to leave the cralit alone overnight. It was a keen disappointment to j up all not to be able to accept the • rajah's invitation: ;; We were struck by the dignity of the rajah. No one addressed him directly. One would always address the whose house the rajah was and he v would repeat the message. When either v Dwight or I spoke wer addressed the interpreter, who in turn translated the message to the host. ..... ■ The rajah was highly delighted* when Dwight, with appropria.te ceremony, jfjj presented him with a pajr, of red glass! ,$j ear-rings for his wife. We had first to make discreet inquiries from our interpreter as to whether there were more than one wife, for the rajah we y met on th 4 island of Sawoe had three. ;-h Embarrassing Incident

There-was one somewhat ing incident while we were takitig wine & with the- rajah. Along with our other M goods we had placed four chickens on the floor of the room. Their legs had ;%j been tied but one of the .fowls man- || aged to free itself and therfe was l| rather undignified scurrying before-' it |f .was recaptured.; . , v - J; Swinging northward, from Soemba, we could see the high peaks of Flores - over 30 miles away. "Then the jagged mountains of Komodo Island, • habitat of the dinosaur-like dragon-lizard, loomed up. Having stemmed the strong adverse current running through . the: strait between Flores and Komodo with. the aid of a fresh south-easterly-wind, ''' we dropped anchor at dusk off the tiny village of Komodo, on the east coast > of the island of the same name. _ The village iu in a completely landlocked harbour. The other part of. the harbour is almost circular, backed; on one side by magnificent mountains ris- « '»ng sheer and jagged, with here and there along the ridge a solitary 'S •'sugar" palm erect against the sky- 35 line. ■> Journey to See Llaards •»

We were anxious to know where'.we could see the carnivorous dragonlizard which exists only there in all the world. We attempted to make inquiries of a young Japanese trader who knew V no English and .finally succeeded H?ith* a crude sketch of the animal. It so v happened that iihe young Japanese him- £ self was addicwd to sketching had many drawings of the dragonlizard. .. . . f With three native guides we set off for the .valley. We followed the coast- - line for about 'two miles until we came to the bed of a, dried-up stream. There in the sand we saw the unmistakeabie tracks of the dragon-lizard, with an almost continuous line formed by its tail. We followed the bed of the stream for a short distance and then crossed a plain covered with scorched grass and stunted vegetation. Suddenly a wild boar dashed across our path. Then we rejoined the river bed; the sandy strip about 6ft. wide was a maze of dragon-lizard tracks Crossing and recrossing one another. About a mile further on we came to a fork of the river bed, but although we waited in silence for an hour and a-half our <•; patience was unrewarded. Unexpected Meatlng Having decided to return to the village for the carcase of a goat for ; bait, we unexpectedly came upon one | of the dragon-lizards -as we were ■ crossing the plain. We got a good view > of it before i t disappeared in some : undergrowth, so we did not bother t( return with bait. Except that it is con ,4 siderably 'smaller, the Komodo dragon lizard is tlie modern counterpart of-tin giant dinosaur of old. It grows up t< 6ft. in length and is con 7; suming an entire boar, goat or. deer. Komodo is bo barren ..that it is re- ; .markable that it has any inhabitants.*"? The handful of natives at the eon Iv vil-): lago seem to be solely engaged in dry- | ing fish and veliison for export to Japan. Fish ol; all shapes and sizes are dried in the nun and abraded to > s y Japanese on the island. Dear are