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December 15, 1855.] THE LiEADER, 1205
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MADAME PFEIFPER'S SECOND JOURNEY. A Lady...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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. . The Decorative Arts. Handbook Of The...
class of artists was exalted by the praise of poets , favoured by protective laws , encouraged by accumulations of wealth . After describing the armoury , the ecclesiastical and domestic furniture of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance , M . Labarte devotes a chapter to Oriental decorative art . It is surprising to find , among the Chinese , so much delicacy of taste in carvings , mouldings , and painting . Were it not for the perpetual introduction of whimsical figures , their works in pottery and in the precious metals would raak with some in the best period of Italian art . The vase of pink agalmatolite , exquisitely wrought in imitation of a tulip branch , the cups of chased silver , the lacquered cabinets , and vessels in bronze , represented in M . Labarte ' s illustrations , are proofs of a fine taste and rare artistic manipulation . M . Labarte ' s work is of a standard character * and is , m all respects , a valuable addition to the library of art . Such a book was needed in England , the English language containing none on the subject . It completes the history of Mediaeval and Renaissance Art .
December 15, 1855.] The Lieader, 1205
December 15 , 1855 . ] THE LiEADER , 1205
Madame Pfeifper's Second Journey. A Lady...
MADAME PFEIFPER'S SECOND JOURNEY . A Lady ' s Second Journey Round the World . By Ida Pfeiffer . 2 vols . Longman and Co . Few things would have more astonished the encyclopaedia mind of Aristotle , than the fact that a woman " unfriended , alone , "' had made the tour of the globe . That the world was a globe , would have not been readily admitted by him ; but his scientific mind could be brought to that conclusion long before it could be disposed to receive with any patience the wild fiction of a woman having actually travelled round it . To achieve this feat a second time was of course little . The first step was the difficulty . However , Madame Pfeiffer has taken the first and the second . Twice has she traversed
the perils and adventures of such a prodigious route ; and she returns to us uneaten ? Nay so little have " the anthropophagi and men , whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders , " been disposed to eat her , " adding the cool malignity of mustard / ' Charles Lamb says , —they have treated her with exemplary kindness . " It is terrible to be weighed out at five pence the pound "—when purchasers are epicures without trowsers , and pay no churchrates . It is terrible also to be thrown among " uncivilised persons" who have little regard to " proprieties . " Nevertheless Madame Pfeiffer ' s experience does not speak so favourably for the influence of Christianity and civilisation in these matters : — I found the ship in a great bustlefor her freight consisted of a transport of
, troops ;—120 soldiers , 46 women , and about a dozen of children . Among the soldiers were thirty Europeans , but the remainder , as well as the women , were all natives of Java , and I- am sorry to have to add , that there was much more to object to in the behaviour of the Europeans than in that of their more uncivilised brethren , I thanked God that I had no daughter or young girl with me , for I should Lave had to keep her locked up in her cabin . Among the half-naked Dyak savages I never saw anything that need have offended a really innocent and modest woman ; but sorrowfully I must declare , that as far as I have seen the Christians of these countries ; whether they call themselves Catholic or Protestant , they are far more immoral in their conduct than the Mahommedaus and heathens .
Risks must be run , of course ; but danger meets us at every corner ( especially the comer ) of our streets . In Europe there is the risk of being run over—and the certainty of taxes . Both are unknown to the undressed heathen , poor wretch ! . Danger , or no danger , Madame Pfeiffer has once more run all risks , once more scampered round the globe , and here in two volumes tells us the story . She came first to London , from thence passed to the Cape , to Borneo , Java , Sumatra , Ceram , the Moluccas , California , Panama , Peru , and the United States . Enough here for twenty v olumes , if the expansive tendency of travellers were allowed full scope , But Madame Pfeiffer does not seem to care much about that mystery of book-making Her narrative is plain , straightforward , not very interesting , not very remarkable in any way , not likely to be remembered after " the season . " Those who devour books of travel will devour this—and never recur to it . She has a clear eye , sees what is before her , is not addicted to exaggeration , abhors fine wr iting , and never attempts wit or picturesque descriptions . We have a sort of test of her powers when
she describes London . We , who never were in Borneo and bumatra , but know our London , can judge , from her account of what we know , the sort of veracity which maybe found in descriptions of what we do not know . According to this standard she is accurate , though superficial . No foreigner s blunders , no foreigner ' s prejudices , distort her descriptions of London . Jwen when she criticises , we can ' t say she is wrong . Thus : — This Bame English comfort , indeed , of which we hear so much , must bo understood , it eeeniB to me , with considerable qualifications , or must depend much on previous habits of life . I , for instance , do not find it comfortable to be almost always shivering when I am at home ; and no where else have I Buffered this inconvenience ao frequently as in England . These open fires do , indeed , warm the fortunate person who aitB immediately next to them , and who has nothing else to do than to warm himself ; but not the unlucky wight who may happen to be engaged writing or sewing on the other side of tho room , and pen or needlo will soon fall from his or her shivering fingers .
Now , in a country that has to contend with cold eight months out of the twelve , I do not consider this a particularly comfortable arrangement ; but the English are so immoderately fond of tho sight of a firo , that rather than not soo it they will ofton patiently endure tho not feeling it . Again , na every family , even in tho most narrow circumHtancos , will generally insbton bavins a house to itHolf , tho housc » are of very narrow frontage , and the occupants of thorn have to pass a considerable part of thoir lives in going up and down staira . Again r- — . It Ib probably on account of these difficulties and expenses that you fiud in English houses ho little of that pleasant eauy nocialityto whioh wo more southern Deoole are so accustomed . There are dinners and evening parties in abundance ,
but people do not come together in an unconstrained , agreeable manner . A no life of tho women of tho middle rank Boemod to mo particular y monotonous . They aro mostly nlono all day , and when thoir husbandfi return in the evening from thoir bueine » 8 , they aro generally too tirod for convocation , and do not
much like to be disturbed by visitors ; but ait down in an arm-chair by the fire , take a newspaper , and now and then , I believe , fall asleep . The Sunday , which in other countries , though regarded as much as here as a day of prayer and religious worship , is also considered as a suitable one for innocent recreation , ia in England so very often made dull and wearisome that the liveliest Southlander sinks under its weight . In many of- the regular old-fashioned English families the very children are not allowed to amuse themselves with thoir balls and playthings ; a cold dinner is taken that the cook may have time to go to church morning and afternoon ; several hours each time are spout in the long English service ; and no book but one on an expressly religious subject must be looked into during the whole day . She is struck by our snobbishness—our servile interest in the Court and its doings—and by our aristocratic spirit in Church . But who denies these charges ? Let us borrow an extract or two from her volumes , without staying to comment . Here is a glimpse of
POLITE SOCIETY IN BORNEO . On the same day I paid a visit to another tribe further on , and found little difference from what I had observed among the first , except that I had the pleasure here of seeing a pair of handsome war trophies in two freshly cutoff human heads . . , These trophie > had not indeed been wanting among the other tribe , but they had been dried , and made into mere skulls . These , on the contrary , had only been taken a few days before , and had a horrible appearance . They were blackened bv smoke , the fiesh only half dried , the skin unconsuraed , lips and ears wide to display the teeth in
shrivelled together , the former standing apart , so as all their hideousness . The heads were still covered with hair ; and one Lad eveu the eyes open , though drawn far back iuto their sockets . The Dyaks took these heads out of the baskets in which , they wero hanging , in order to exhibit them to me with great complacency . It was a sight tliat I sball not easily forget ! As they took these heads iu their bands to show them to me , they Bpa . t in--the dead faces ; and the boys struck them and spat on the ground , while their usually quiet and peaceful physiognomies assumed au extremely savage expression . I shuddered , but could not help asking myself whether , after all , we Europeans are not really just as bad or worse than these despised savages ? Is not every page of our history filled with horrid deeds of treachery and
murder ? ^ „ ? ?*•*** ** In some books of travels I have read that the Dyaka are in the habit of laying human heads at the feet of the objects of their affections , by way of love token ; but the Dutch traveller , Temmink , contradicts this , and I believe he is right , for human heads are not always so easy to get . A young gentleman who might wish to pay his lady-love so pretty a compliment , -would often be greatly perplexed how to come by one , as a head i * what an enemy cannot in general be very readily induced to part with . # . . I rather think this unpleasant custom of head-hunting originates m some kind of superstition ; for when , for instance , a rajah falls sick , or goes on a journey , it is common for him to vow a head to his tribe in case of recovery or ot sate return . Should he die , one or tsvo heads are usually offered by the tribe as a kind of sacrifice ; and in the sams manner , when a treaty of peace is concluded between two tribes , a man ia sometimes given up on each side to bo bo : ieaaea , though it is rather more custom iry io mike a pig answer the purpose .
When a head has once been vowed , it has to bo procured at any saciuttce , and theDy . aks thengoaud lie in wait for an opportunity to get ono . They hide themselves in the jungle grass , which is from three to nix feet high , or among trees or leafy branches that have been cut off , nucl lie watching for their victim ; and then the first human creature that approaches man , wuman , or chUd , is sacrificed . They first shoot a poisoned arrow from their ambush , and then spring like tigers upon their prey . With a single blow they separate the he .. d from tho body cutting it off quite close and smooth , with a dexterity that suowa considerable practice ; they then carefully conceal the body , and pub the tend iuto a basket kept expressly for this purpose , and decorated with human hair A murdei of this kind always occasions a war ; for the tribe , a member of which has 1 been thus killed , immediately takes the field , and does not rest until it ha » obtained one or two heads as damages ; and these are then brought home in triumph , with dances and songs , and solemnly placed among other treasures of the same kind . The rejoicings and feasting ? that follow last a wh > le month io 6
, Jl 118 FBIO 1 U 1 UKB oil" » ow « " " >»¦ " > v— - " ' " , .. ] ___ + 1 , _ ,, The Dyaks are so very fond of heads that when , as sometimes happens , they undertakea feud or a piratical expedition , in company witli tho Malays , they only stipulate for these fancy articles as their share of tho booty , and willingly resign all the rest to their more covetoua allies . Very pleasant people to live with 1 . The writer on " Woman , " in the last Westminster Review , will he glad to hear what Madame Pfeiffer reports of the laws in Sumatra : —• One remarkable peculiarity of the Agamer difltrict is , that the women Vomom man y of what wo aro accustomed to consider tho rights of tho stronger sex , indeed , that the men often have to play the subordinate part , which would seen , odd in any country in the world , but is more especially bo in a Mahomedan one , whore they will not allow us poor feminine creatures so much «» ft » ° '; Wh « n for eiamvle . a irirl has reached a marriageable age , her mother begin * ioun
to look out for a suitable bridegroom for her , and , wheu she Dm a one , goes and opens the negotiation with the gentleman ' s mother . The papas hayo no voice whatever ia the matter , but tho two ladies settle it entirely between thamaelvea . When tho day come ,, for the wedding , the mother of the bride Rooa and fetohe « the bridegroom , who then takes up his abode in the home of his wife a parent " and becomes a member of her family . This does not , Indeed form any ^ taole to his marrying another wife , only it must » ot be in tho Bame cump . u . and a man who in tho happy possessor , of several wives has no settled horn * at an , duj , lives now in ono campim , now in another . . . „!<„„„„ A man never refused to take tho brido offered to him ; but ho can ^« W leave her tho next day , and this ia a right tho bride . loos iiot ^ P »» J ° » ^ « £ >™" only make her objections before marriage , am 1 , even m * h - « , l t * ' « J ^**^ has been completed , she inuat purchase her release with a pare oi
goods , cattle , poultry , ho ««* old utensilB , or Jjionoy . ^ ^^ A man can also divorce his wife at any «""" equ *» J d * , „ , ) roof of iu cause than his good pleasure , but a woman ] ha . 1 u « bmd uly ^ 1 ^ treatment . Should the married ) l ^ J ^^ rnony , within the space of forty * I'liCHO Ihwh concerning ia » rriMKt »» " »» tho Mulftyfl .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 15, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15121855/page/17/
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