ns is decked out with a _fine helmet_ (probably _borrowed_ from
our early voyagers), ornamented with bird-of-paradise feathers. Two
gold belts, crossed, like our soldiers', over the breast, are bound
at the waist with a fantastical garment reaching half way down the
thigh, and composed of various-colored silk and woolen threads one
above another. The sword, or 'kempilan,' is decorated at the handle
with a yard or two of red cloth, and the long upright shield is
covered with small rings, which clash as the performer goes through
his evolutions. The dance itself consists of a variety of violent
warlike gestures, stamping, striking, advancing, retreating, turning,
falling, yelling, with here and there bold stops, and excellent as to
_aplomb_, which might have elicited the applause of the opera-house;
but, generally speaking, the performance was outrageously fierce,
and so far natural as approaching to an actual combat; and in half
an hour the dancer, a fine young man, was so exhausted that he fell,
fainting, into the arms of his comrades. Several others succeeded,
but not equal to the first; and we had hardly a fair opportunity of
judging of the Maluku dance from its short continuance; but it is of
a more gentle nature, advancing with the spear stealthily, easting it,
then retreating with the sword and shield. The Maluku shield, it should
be observed, is remarkably narrow, and is brandished somewhat in the
same way as the single stick-player uses his stick, or the Irishman
his shillelah, that is to say, it is held nearly in the center, and
whirled every way round. I procured some of the instruments, and found
that the sword of the Malukus of Gillolo is similar to that of the
Moskokas of Boni Bay, in Celebes. All these pirates are addicted to
the _excessive_ use of opium; but the effects of it are by no means so
deleterious or so strongly marked as has been represented; and it must
likewise be remembered that they are in other respects dissolute and
debauched. Among the Chinese it would be difficult--nay, impossible--to
detect the smokers of the drug. Here and there you may see an emaciated
man; but, out of a body of five hundred, some are usually emaciated
and unhealthy. I do not mean to deny the bad effects of opium; but the
stories of its pernicious results are greatly exaggerated where the
habit exists in moderation. The Chinese themselves, when I spoke to
them of the bad consequences, always argued that, taken moderately