, or adjusted on the new lines
required by varieties of environment.

THE MINAHASA.

Steaming slowly through the phosphorescent seas of the starlit night,
we anchor at dawn in the forest-lined bay of Amoerang, the principal
harbour of the Minahasa. The picturesque Northern Cape of Celebes
contains a population differing in origin and character from all other
races of the vast island, and conveys the idea of a distinctive
country. The mountain panorama of shelving ridges and fretted
promontories, breaking the outlines of the rocky coast with infinite
variety, culminates in the chiselled contours of volcanic peaks,
cutting sharply into the silvery blue of a stainless sky. Amoerang,
half-buried in sago-palms, on the green rim of the secluded haven,
shows slight resemblance to the _campongs_ generally encountered on the
western coast. Wooden cottages, though built on piles of wood or stone,
and thatched with _atap_ (plaited palm leaves) possess many features in
common with the screened and balconied dwellings of Japan. The people,
in aspect and feature, also convey suggestions of the Japanese origin
ascribed to them, for ancient traditions assert that the Minahasa was
colonised by an Asiatic tribe, driven out of Formosa by native savages,
in one of those wild raids upon the peaceful maritime population which
drove them to face the perils of an unknown sea, rather than fall into
the ruthless hands of the bloodthirsty aborigines who inhabited the
forests and mountains of the interior. Many of the hapless exiles
perished through hunger, thirst, storm, and shipwreck of their
slightly-built craft, during the long wanderings which ended as though
by chance for the survivors, in the distant Minahasa. The Malay element
in those Japanese refugees, displayed the usual characteristics of
skill in boat-building and navigation, together with that accurate
observation of natural phenomena which alone could compensate for the
lack of scientific knowledge. The women, with oblique eyes and oval
faces, wear the gay _sarong_ and white _kabaja_ customary in Eastern
Java. The men, in shapeless gowns and wide trousers, with broad hats of
battered straw on their close-cropped hair, afford a sorry spectacle of
unbecoming and disorderly attire, conveying grotesque hints of Japanese
ideas beneath the squalid ugliness overlaying them. The fishermen,
conveniently unclad for the necessities of their calling, wear only a
yellow or scarlet wais